Double Standards

I always joke that I have a seeming double standard when it comes to bad behavior. Of course, mine is always excused.

If someone cuts me off in line at Harris Teeter, or Starbucks they are selfish bastards. When, on the other hand, it is I who is impatiently cutting people off, well that’s just different. I’m in a real hurry, see.
I never think that maybe they are late for an important appointment, or maybe rushing to someone’s aid.

I notice this of myself especially in traffic. I am very prone to cutting people off, tailgating and the like. How many times have other drivers shown me grace, by not honking, not flipping me off, not glaring, when I am the offender? And what is my first response when I am the offended? Let’s just say grace is the farthest thing from my mind.

I have found this is a common phenomenon. For instance, I am the only one who’s snappishness is justified. That is because I know the reason for it. If I knew the reason that the new lady was brusque, and seemed rude was because she was mulling over the fight she had just had with her husband, or because she just found out that she had cancer, I might be a little more understanding.

c. 2010

The Office Space Mentality The overlooked stressor

Joanna: So, where do you work, Peter?
Peter Gibbons: Initech.
Joanna: In... yeah, what do you do there?
Peter Gibbons: I sit in a cubicle and I update bank software for the 2000 switch.
Joanna: What's that?
Peter Gibbons: Well see, they wrote all this bank software, and, uh, to save space, they used two digits for the date instead of four. So, like, 98 instead of 1998? Uh, so I go through these thousands of lines of code and, uh... it doesn't really matter. I uh, I don't like my job, and, uh, I don't think I'm gonna go anymore.

Probably the most overlooked stressor is the stress of being in a rut, of just not wanting to be there. Another humdrum day of going to the same atmosphere, doing the same unfulfilling tasks, working the same people, for the same pay. Silly, you say?

No doubt, this is a stress most in relatively worse situations would gladly take. But it is a stressor nonetheless. Boredom is a ruthless killer, subtle yet deadly.

People spend lifetimes in boring, unfulfilling careers. That’s the nature of work, right? It’s not supposed to be enjoyable. We should be able to handle a little boredom.

All sorts of factors play into this. A Lumbergh-esque boss, tedious bureaucracy, even more tedious tasks, demanding customers, being overqualified, just being in a rut, etc.; when you are bored, you just don’t care.

It affects your performance, no doubt. It may start with mere boredom, but if we allow it to fester, it can turn into indifference, which turns into mediocrity, at best or spiral into something much worse.

Probably the most aggravating thing about it, is there is no one we can blame for our responses to it.

So what do you do about it?

One yoga teacher describes it as a vicious cycle. “Boredom is fear. If you’re bored, you are not experiencing what you’re doing, and you aren’t experiencing what you’re doing because you’re afraid.”

“But why would I want to experience filing TPS reports?” you ask. Maybe it’s not experiencing the actual tasks, but being present whilst you are performing them.

Another way to survive it is to make sure you are balancing work tedium with enjoyable activities. “But I have no time,” you say. Find time. It doesn’t take much time to read an interesting article or have an interesting conversation.

A popular philosophy is, there are no boring jobs, only boring people. And it’s true. It might not be your ideal job, but it’s the job you have at this present moment, and trite as it may sound, it’s best to keep your head up today. John Milton had it right when he said, “The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven.”

Try to keep an upbeat attitude for today…for this hour…for this minute.
Relish the good things that happen at work, even if they are few and far between.

c.2010

photo credit Lucas Berrin flikr.com