One of the things that I enjoy reading so much on other people’s blogs are the hilarious (and weird) stories people have about their jobs. Sam Starbuck is particularly good at this. On the other hand, I don’t tend to contribute to this body of literature. So here’s some commentary on the genre
Work is fascinating, and something that we aren’t prone to talk very much about it. In part because it is work, and work, is by definition a drag. In most cases we don’t work because we enjoy it, we work because we have to. Even if our careers are something that is important to our sense of who we are, even if our jobs are fundamentally something that we enjoy, work is alienating, and a drag.
To be fair, a lot of jobs don’t begin as alienating enterprises, but I think in time they become that, becuase there is a fundamental conflict of interest between the worker and the institutions (however small) that employ them. Employers demand/need individuals to contribute intellectual/bodily efforts, and while money helps the compensation, the economic conversion between labor and money is psychically difficult, particularly in light of it’s variability. Ok, enough theory.
And yet, we spend the majority of our lives at work, working. This creates something of a paradoxical situation, but thankfully (in addition being able to eat as a result of work) some people are able to write pretty interesting stories. And their are entire genres of blogs (academic blogs, doctor/nurse blogs, etc) that are dedicated to people’s work lives. Good stuff.
So my work. I’ve mentioned that I’m basically working a 9-5 gig at least through the end of the summer, and I’m looking for something more long term. I have a job interview next week (wish me luck,) for something that would be really great. I don’t want to jinx anything, so I’ll say more when I know it.
As for the mean time, there aren’t a lot of great stories. Most of the really funny things in my day have to do with transcriptions errors from olds transcripts of 20 year old interviews. The number of ways people misheard and miswrote “Kwame Nkrumah” is really amazing. But it doesn’t make for good story telling.