Here’s Why Working a Miserable Job Isn’t So Bad After All
Here’s what you can learn about yourself
At some point, we’ve all been there.
Working a miserable job, we hate. Feeling even worse. In fact, I worked miserable jobs like packing books into cartons, stocking up shelves at Primark (the worst), and optimizing abstract business processes in an IT system.
But after having my fair share, I realized working a miserable job wasn’t so bad.
Here’s why.
You have a reliable source of excuses
Why would you strive for more when you can just do nothing?
Right. Working a miserable job is great for coming up with excuses.
Start with “Life’s unfair” (yes, it is.) Keep going with “I can’t stand my colleagues” (yes, you probably do.) And finish with “I hate my boss” (of course you do when you work on fulfilling his dream instead of chasing your own.)
Realize something?
I’m not better than you. I was there, too.
Only a few years back, I worked as a SAP consultant, optimizing some abstract processes in an even more abstract computer system. I hated my guts.
I was convinced I was a victim of life, surrounded by people I couldn’t connect with, and working for a company producing cables. Yeah, right, what the fuck?
Besides my regular income, I had a regular source of excuses not to improve my life. Why would I when it’s so easy to blame others?
And if you don’t already know, that’s a huge problem.
Because the more excuses we have, the more comfortable we get.
You get (hush) money
Let’s use an excuse as an intro: “Somehow I have to pay my bills.”
Yeah, you’re right. But what if your lifestyle is so inflated you only need the money to visit all the fancy restaurants and buy all the stuff you don’t need?
Let me tell you a story: A friend of my nutritionist friend is an engineer. A couple of years ago, he got this well-paying job at a huge international company in Stuttgart, Germany.
His job is optimizing machine parts, which will probably never be released. Why? Because this company is employing more people than needed. He’s working for hush money but without a purpose.
He can afford his Benzo while paying off his house.
Many people are like him. I was like him, too (well, without the good salary).
I know another ex-colleague.
When we met up a month ago, she said she loved working out and the idea of becoming a fitness trainer. Next sentence?
“But yeah, I mean, my job is paying me well, and it’s difficult to leave that behind.”
She’s right.
Because most of us get hush money to stop dreaming and start working. And because we become dependent on buying new stuff, we need this hush money.
Otherwise, we’d drown.
More money equals a higher chance of sacrificing our dreams.
After all, working a miserable job isn’t so good because we get excuses and hush money. It’s good because, at some point, our circuits will burn through, and we’ll realize that it was never really about that.
Look at people like Jenny Lustig, who stopped believing in the corporate dream after working there for 23 years and getting fired 3 times.
They have enough.
They want something else.
Something that fits their dreams and not their bosses.
Thanks for reading.
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