I have some friends who are working some shitty corporate jobs. And by corporate jobs, I mean McJobs. I have never worked such a job; I've been a camp counsellor, a theatrical carpenter, a small theatre Box Office employee/manager, and an elementary school play director. Half of these jobs only barely paid above minimum wage. The other two were lump sum deals where if I hadn't really liked the work, the simple arithmatic for what I was earning an hour would've killed my soul. I won't work a McJob if there is absolutely any alternative. I don't need the money that badly.
As I told Friend Stimpy (who is suffering as a Borders barista- literally, she's on the way to a nervous breakdown), no one should stay in a job they hate. NO ONE. If work makes you cry, you should not work there.
I listen to Baby Boomers (aka The Boy's mother) go on and on about how you take a job and you work at it, no matter what it's like. Work is work, not a good time, and that's how it is. These young people think they just come in and do what they like yadda yadda yadda...
First of all, as the children of the BB's, my generation has watched our parents work meaningless jobs (Office Space) for pretty much nothing. I can recall in Kindergarden or first grade asking my mother what her job was. She hesitated and my father cut in with "bean counter". I had no idea what this meant, but I was pretty certain you couldn't do that in an office building. Years later, I did learn that she worked in insurance somehow. I still don't have any idea what she did at that job, and she's never been able to explain it in English. I think now she was never really sure herself.
I remember she was always, always, gone before my brother and I were up, and for a long time, she put in mandatory overtime until nine o clock at night (she was supposed to be off at five). Partly for this reason, my father didn't work, and the two of us were never in daycare or that crap. I am thankful for this every single day of my life. My brother, though, was in preschool and had a habit of leaving our mother out of his family portraits.
The company fired her in 1995. I was in fifth grade. She fought it because, as far as she could see, the only reason she was fired was because she was coming up to a point where she'd been at the company so long, they'd have to pay her more.
My mother had a business college degree but had a very hard time finding another job in our city. Never mind that 90% of the companies in town were exactly the same as hers (just smaller). She was just past 40, and couldn't get a job like hers back. She ended up getting a receptionist job with much better hours and vacation, but with significantly less pay. My brother and I got reduced school lunches from then on. Things probably would've been worse if my folks hadn't paid the house and car off by then. Oh yeah, we had one car until (ironically) I graduated high school. Had I any inclination to drive, this would've been a nightmare situation.
Still, I have no desire to follow this career path. I haven't seen any benefits come out of working a job that doesn't appear to do anything. I've seen someone give a great deal of their life to a company for nothing. Why should I do that?
I think many of my generation of middle class kids probably feel the same way. This is why we have pretty much all gone to college and come out Psychology majors. It's seen to have more potential for a job that pays, except that by the time they get out there, the market will be saturated, as it is right now. This is why a lot of us have spent these years doing things. We realise that sixty is not the time to take our world cruise, if we even have a retirement plan then. (Something I don't think anyone my age is counting on.)
The strange thing is that this generation of Baby Boomers created the mindless corporations. The BB's are behind the walking disasters we call Coke, McDonalds and Wal-Mart. Is this to ensure that their children want to kill themselves for working McJobs for no money?
The irony in all of this is that as these BB's are retiring, many of them are finding that their retirement plans are not the shiny treasure troves they thought. So, after their forty five years of dedicated service to one company, they find they actually have no skills or experience and are forced to work McJobs. And have you heard old people complain about the indignity of working as a Wal-Mart greeter?
There are days that I love karma.