Discuss.
I'll be back later with my own diary-like entry. Middle-aged crisis time, anybody?
Updated at 8:35pm:
The fundamental problem is that penguins aren't very fond of monkeys. No offense, but monkeys are, well, monkeys. Thus penguins are only well suited for jobs that don't require a lot of interaction with monkeys.
That presents a problem, because I've been doing what I've been doing for around twelve years now, and folks want me to be a "project manager" nowdays rather than a solitary penguin doing his thing. Besides, twelve years is longer than I've done anything else in my whole life, and reality is that it's starting to get boring. I'm giving it three more years then I'll have to pretty much change gears or else blow my brains out from boredom.
My ideal job would be "hermit". No worries about interacting with monkeys then. Hermits are expected to be cranky around monkeys (and everything else). Problem is, I lack a few of the prerequisites for that job, like the disability check (necessary because the job of "hermit" otherwise has no pay), the willingness to be dirty and smelly all the time, and the willingness to have long bedraggled hair and beard.
The closest thing, I suppose, would be "writer". Funny thing there. I read tons of science fiction, and few thrillers and mysteries. But I can't write science fiction if my life depended on it. Everything turns into a mystery. Maybe because I'm interested in exploring the mysteries of life in my fiction, and that fits better into the mystery/thriller template.
Problem there is that I've become accustomed to my comforts. I'd be lucky to haul in $20K/year, which is okay money for a hermit but ... uhm... see above for my problems with that "hermit" thing.
Sigh, growing up is such a PITA... ]
-- Badtux the Grown-up(???) Penguin
I'd like to not deal with the weasels at work. The two jobs that I had that afforded that escape were in very small operations...it seems that once you get over a certain number of bodies the Dilbert Principle kicks in.
ReplyDeleteAs to an idealized job, I'd like to be a weather observer again -- but that job is done by machines now, so for a specific job I don't have an answer.
So far, the company I work for has avoided the Dilbert Principle. Thank goodness. All the same, I'm going through a similar sort of frustration, one which hit me all of a sudden: last week was Annual Insurance Policy Update week, and it just chapped my ass. All the paperwork has been sitting on my kitchen table for five days, untouched.
ReplyDeleteI need the insurance. I have debts to pay off, too, but even after those are done away with, I'll still need the insurance. So I'm kind of tied in with this place, where I've worked for a little over eight years -- a personal record.
I know how to get out of the debt trap. My problem there is that I've been too lazy and irresponsible with my money for too many years -- I've gotten out of debt before only to slide back into it. But if I ever find a way out of this insurance trap, that's it, baby, I'm gone...
I get closer to being a hermit all the time.
ReplyDeleteGood post and hits me right in the gonads this evening. This Spring Semester starts tomorrow morning and I'm dreading it.
ReplyDeleteMy current employment is the longest for me, too,...twelve years. And I'm bored out of my mind. I've become quite acclimated to my salary and, as Jim notes, the insurance trap has got me snared. I doubt I could get the equivalent in the private sector.
I'm learning VR photography for doing a massive project on campus, which if I don't hate it when the project is complete, will be complete OJT (hell, over 125 classrooms and other rooms). And I've discovered a niche market for my services.
I carry no consumer debt at all and attempt to do everything as a cash transaction. If I can't afford it-I don't buy it until the money is there.
But the boredom. The dull people. The tedium. The bloody monkeys.