Sunday, September 21, 2008

Vocational Questions and Quandries

After another day of moderately hard labor moving armchairs, tables, more tables, more armchairs, some chests, fourteen pictures in frames, two with no frames, and two frames with no pictures, mom and I collapsed onto separate green-printed couches and she asked me, out of the blue, "Do you like your job?"

I was kinda surprised so I said, "I don't know."

I don't really talk about what I do.  I don't really feel the need to.  It's not particularly exciting in most instances and due to confidentiality the funnier stories can't really be  posted on the world wide web.  

I work in Human Resources for a large non-profit Mental Health Center.  I can't make my applicants rich with gratuitous salaries nor do I have the same lining the interior of my pockets.  I enjoy meeting new people, I enjoy talking to them on the phone but the constant threat of doing something wrong or saying something wrong or inappropriate tends to stifle me on more than one occasion.  I'm learning, slowly, to find the balance between being myself and being a representative for the company but I fear that I may never be able to play the corporate straight man.  It's just not me. 

But I do like my co-workers and I do like the human aspects of being in human resources, but I'm still not sure if it's what I'm destined to do.  

How old were you all when you figured out what you wanted to do with your life?  Was it an epiphany at 16?  Or a thought that stuck when getting on the bus at age six?  Was it something that you had no choice due to parental over-control?  Do you yet know what you are meant to do?   And do you worry, too, that some of us were not destined to figure it out in this life, that maybe we were put here on earth as human fillers for the world in order to make those of concrete mind and determinate ways to flourish?

As for now, I am still liking my job.  I'm not in love with it, but I think I could be.   Like an arranged marriage in a far off land, I hope to grow to love it... or to at least never loathe it in the way I did when I was a receptionist at the "Law Firm that shall not be Named."

:)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm 37 and still clueless.  Meh.

~Amy

Anonymous said...

When I was a teenager I did an evening paper round and I distinctly remember thinking, one evening, as I posted pieces of paper through letter boxes: I'd like to be a postman when I leave school, that's a job that would appeal.
I forgot all about that thought until eight years later when I got the opportunity to join Royal Mail. I've been with them thirty years now and, for the first twenty years I loved my job. There are still certain aspects of it that I ejoy but, by and large, the money makers have screwed the job into the ground and taken all the goodness out of it. I can't wait to retire now.

Sorry, that's a bit long winded, but you did ask. ;O)

B. x

Anonymous said...

I love my job, for many reasons here are a few: Im in charge, ive got jobs to do but at my pace, no one s screaming at me, my boss is cool, he says i work hard to keep the shop running so were both happy.The customers, ive been there 5 years, ive seen kids grow up, customers have become friends and the continous banter we have is hilaroius, everyone gets and on theres no bitchyness, , were all equal.The bad things are the shoplifters, the teenage know all kids, drunks, druggies on a downer and plain rudeness from some customers.This was supposed to be a temporary job just to pay off my debts but its become like my extended family, im soo lucky.beckie x

Anonymous said...

Well, where do I start? I only know retail, from the 'visual' point of view. I've worked for all the top retailers in the UK and worked in NY, DC, Chicago and Philadelphia, and then went corporate. I now work for the biggest retailer in the world. Work that one out! Not the most inspiring, I have to say, but I drove for 3 hours yesterday, then worked till 10.30pm last night. Back to my hotel and then up at 5am and into work for 5.50. Do I like my job? Well, yes, I supose I do.......Gaz x

Anonymous said...

I look  skinny in  that pic gilly took!