Sea of Humanity

What Is It About Work?

How do we find ourselves boring into the 9-5 routine? How did this culture emerge? How did we decide that a desk and a computer was a lofty life fulfilling goal? It is not a healthy lifestyle. Have you looked at the jobs posted on Monster? Account Executive. Process Engineer. Accountant. Corporate Safety Leader, (Careful! The coffee is hot!). Delivery Planning Associate. In Store Banker. The all encompassing shit capcitator of an Administrative Assistant.

All of these positions sound as enticing as chewing up turd covered cardboard but the competition is fierce. These companies are receiving hundreds of qualified candidates and thousands of less qualified ones. Are people applying for these jobs to survive or are they just choosing a slower death?

My job title is database coordinator, recently upgraded from administrative assistant. Every morning I enter a windowless beige office with the required will-breaking fluorescent lighting. I sit at my desk and stare at my computer screen. Within an hour, everything is a yellow tinge and I begin to imagine odd smelling fumes strangle gripping me to my untimely demise. Everyone that approaches my desk looks sick and tired. I slouch. I read the same websites over and over again, looking for that little nugget of gold that might help my escape or ease the pain for if but a minute second. I assess my situation. I assess my colleagues. We are absurd. I should be laughing my ass off. There is comedy at every turn, from the snot sucking loogey eating boss to the mouth flapping secretary well versed in insignificant stories and complaints. I want to laugh, but I am part of the show - and by choice! Is this what nature intended?

Maybe I should be hunting and gathering in the great outdoors living in a earthen hut under the canopy of a wild blue sky. Maybe I should be spear fishing off the banks of a mighty river. Somewhere along the line we got lost. We built up walls and created false environments filled with false sense of security. The only thing I have to fear is a nasty paper cut. Is this a luxury? Wouldn't it be more exciting and life affirming to tackle nature hand to hand and climb a tree until reaching the thinnest of branches. Imagine the view.