I Hate My Job, I Hate My Job, I Hate My Job — The Truth About Work

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/i-hate-my-job-truth-about-work



If you want a vision of the future, imagine a wage slave typing: "I hate my job. I hate my job. I hate my job," on a keyboard, for ever. That's what a Manhattan court typist is accused of doing, having been fired from his post two years ago, after jeopardising upwards of 30 trials, according to the New York Post. Many of the court transcripts were "complete gibberish" as the stenographer was alledgedly suffering the effects of alcohol abuse, but the one that has caught public attention contains the phrase "I hate my job" over and over again. Officials are reportedly struggling to mitigate the damage, and the typist now says he's in recovery, but it's worth considering how long it took the court officials to realise he hadn't been taking proper notes at all.

You can't help but feel a small pang of joy at part of the story, though. Surely everyone, at some point, has longed, but perhaps not dared, to do the same. In a dreary Coventry bedsit in 2007, I read Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, the tale of a new employee who calmly refuses to do anything he is paid to do, to the complete bafflement of his boss, and found myself thinking in wonder: "This is the greatest story I have ever read." No wonder it still resonates. Who hasn't sat in their office, and felt like saying to their bosses: "I would prefer not to," when asked to stuff envelopes or run to the post office?

For some bizarre reason, it's still taboo to admit that most jobs are unspeakably dull. On application forms, it's anathema to write: "Reason for leaving last job: hated it", and "Reason for applying for this post: I like money." The fact that so many people gleefully shared this story shows that many of us, deep down, harbour a suspicion that our jobs aren't necessarily what we want to be doing for the rest of our lives. A lot of us aren't always happy and fulfilled at work, and aren't always completely productive.

Dreaming of turning to our boss and saying: "I would prefer not to," or spending an afternoon typing "I hate my job. I hate my job. I hate my job" into Microsoft Word seems like a worthy way of spending the time. And, as with the court typist, maybe people wouldn't even notice. In one of my workplaces, before a round of redundancies, on my last day my manager piled yet more work on to my desk and said yet again that she was far too busy to do her invoices. With nothing to lose, I pointed out that she had a large plate glass window behind her, so for the entire length of my temp job, I'd been able to see that she spent most of the day playing Spider Solitaire.

[chervilant]

1. But, but...

The Protestant work ethic! Free Market Capitalism!!!

Welfare Queens! You don't want to be a freeloader!!!

Every day, we get messages that compel us to participate in this bizarre, corrupt economic system. Hasn't anyone else had enough?

[IDemo]

2. I walked out on my job last week

The work environment had become toxic and management seemed oblivious to the situation. A meeting with an HR representative accomplished precisely nothing to alleviate things.

Although political differences had nothing to do with this, I am trying to take advantage of the opportunity to locate employment in other less neon red states. Should be interesting, as I'm in the late 50's.

[raccoon]

6. The main function of HR is to keep the employer out of court.

Tim Fields, a Brit who did a lot to bring workplace bullying to the attention of the public, said that.

I believe he's right.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

8. you are correct... HR is NOT on your side

they are there to prevent lawsuits. if you have someone in HR who seems 'great' it is because of the person... not the position they're in and ultimately they are beholden to the company. always remember that.

sP

[Paladin]

3. I basically hated my job for 35 years.

But the money was good, and my primary goal was always that my kids should have it better than I did, and I believe my wife and I attained that goal. I've essentially put the personal regrets and second-guessing behind me.

[marmar]

4. k/r

[tanyev]

5. Darn. I clicked on the link hoping to find how the manager reacted

after being confronted with her Spider Solitaire habits, but no luck.

[WinkyDink]

7. I love both "Bartleby" AND the court-typist! And decades ago, when my psycho principal asked

me to teach two different grade-levels and two different literature texts IN THE SAME CLASS PERIOD, I did indeed reply with a version of "I would prefer not to."

[Tuesday Afternoon]

9. DU Rec

[Manifestor_of_Light]

10. I assume this person was a court reporter.

Since they said "stenographer".

You know, the person that sits in front of the witness stand and bangs on a Stenograph machine. It's a combination of piano playing (hitting multiple keys at once) and typing.

I did it for 20 years and I was under incredible stress. I dealt with nasty lawyers and judges a lot. It was unbelievably stressful and I got to where I hated humanity.

Sometimes I would come home and cry after work from the inherent stress of the job, having to stop people who talk too fast, mumble, get them to spell their names, and after I've picked up a legal pad and a pen and written their name down carefully, they immediately start talking before I get back on the steno machine. I took detailed notes on a legal pad with pen about the witnesses, times of direct exam, cross exam, redirect, recross and so forth and so on.

Sometimes lawyers would call me up and yell at me about transcripts like the world was coming to an end if a transcript wasn't turned in by a certain day. Or if they were really obnoxious, file a grievance with the state board trying to get my license terminated, so I had to hire an attorney and go to the state capital on a Saturday morning.

Then there was the judge who told a judges' meeting that I was incompetent and not to be hired after I worked for her. I have two other degrees besides the 2 year court reporting degree. One of them is a doctorate in law. I earned that in night school while working at the courthouse.

I could not do a thing about her because she had judicial immunity. She hated everyone who worked for her and was legendary for that.

I would explain what was going on and one guy said "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU" and hung up on me.

How do you deal with that kind of stress? I was burned out before I was 35, and I started doing it at age 22.

You get to where you hate people and you hate your job, because some people just have to dump on somebody else, and you're the target even though you did your job perfectly.

I also had unreliable typists who would lie to me about getting my work done. So to do it right, I had to do it myself.

I also had some temp jobs later I could barely stand. I can't tolerate being around idiots so I'm unemployable, pretty much.

I have post traumatic stress from that job. I'm sure millions of people are traumatized every day by their bosses and job circumstances.

John Lennon said we have an insane society run by insane people for insane objectives.
He was right.

[adirondacker]

11. I can SO relate!

You definitely did an excellent job of explaining the "work ethic" in this country.

[Orrex]

12. All work and no play makes Homer something something