Published on 12, July, 2020
I have recently retired from work. It was long awaited and I have not missed the job at all ( the people I worked with were nice, but the job itself had become a mixture of stressful and tedious)
I have never particularly enjoyed working. I have got some sense of satisfaction from doing a job well during certain periods of my working life, but in most jobs I had there were people - mostly managers - who I really did not enjoy spending my days with. I get bored quickly and so jobs became mundane in a short period of time, and if I put myself forward to do higher level tasks (that I was capable of) I was either refused the role or ended up doing the higher level stuff without getting the extra pay for it. And I've suffered burn out from time to time due to the stress of work making me exhausted.
I know that a lot of autistic people are unable to work but would like to, and that many people get a sense of self worth from working and a better lifestyle (due to having wages) But I feel that society may over value work in some ways, and that maybe it programmes us to think that not working is lazy or unproductive? However there are some wealthy people who do little to no work and nobody calls them lazy. I heard a saying somewhere that I like: "we're human beings, not human doings". Perhaps that's a good answer next time someone asks - "so, what do you do?"
I just wondered what everyone's views were about working?
If you currently work, would you give up working if you became financially independent?
If you do not work but would like to, or want a career change, what would your dream job be?
If you do not work and have no wish to, or are retired or cannot work due to health reasons, how do you structure your days?
I finally found a job that suits me and I could even say is therapeutic for me. It’s in logistics, I have only little contact to strangers, mostly I work alone or little with my colleagues, my day is structured, tasks predictable, pallets, boxes and delivery notes don’t talk to me and I don’t have to look them in the eyes, and I focus on my tasks so much that my repetitive thoughts get turned off. That’s lovely. The only problem is forgetting meals until I get weak. Even alarm does not work, although I mostly can take a break whenever I want. So I wanna stay there till my retirement and I want nothing to change (inevitable I know). My previous jobs gave me a lot of stress and anxiety with somatic symptoms like stomach pains and heart palpitations. Mostly customer service. I enjoy working with objects and data and analytic tasks. My colleagues and manager are happy with my work and it gives me some sense of self worth but it’s not so relevant for me. There are many people in the society, who don’t work for various reasons and lack of job, does not belittle their value. I think our western society (who’s living in western countries would maybe agree) - orders too much, has too higher expectations and fails to just enjoy life and forget a bit about never ending loop of wanting and having. Sometimes I hear (sometimes too often) that with my skills and knowledge I should have had a better job, better pay and higher position in the society. But I don’t want it and I don’t need it, I just like and appreciate what I have. I heard once a sentence “poor are those who want too much, not those who have little” but unfortunately I don’t remember who was the author of it.
Maybe a paraphrase of (subject to who completed the translation - originally published in German from 1883-1885, and appeared in English translation in Mother Earth in February, 1913);
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche:
(Thus spake Zarathustra
FIRST PART. ZARATHUSTRA'S PROLOGUE. ZARATHUSTRA'S DISCOURSES.
11. XI. THE NEW IDOL)
"Open still remaineth a free life for great souls. Verily, he who possesseth little is so much the less possessed: blessed be moderate poverty!
There, where the state ceaseth--there only commenceth the man who is not superfluous: there commenceth the song of the necessary ones, the single and irreplaceable melody.
There, where the state CEASETH--pray look thither, my brethren! Do ye not see it, the rainbow and the bridges of the Superman?--
Thus spake Zarathustra".
www.gutenberg.org/.../1998-h.htm