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I Love My Job

April 7, 2008 10:35 PM

n the drive back from the office today, I saw a man doing what can only be described as power washing dirt. I turned to Mr. Vice and said "So, when you're doing that job, how do you know if you've succeeded?" The man's entire job seemed so futile: even if he succeeded in using the high-powered water to somehow move the dirt around, he could never succeed in eliminating the dirt. And even if he won, what would he really have accomplished? Some piece of pavement that no one's ever noticed and no one ever would might be, in some insignificant way, cleaner. That's all he could hope to accomplish. And as I was thinking about all of this, I turned to Mr. Vice and I said that if I were that guy and I realized the complete futility of everything I was doing, I'd put the power-washer nozzle down and calmly walk away from the job forever.

Then I told Mr. Vice about having just such a moment during a job I had in college. I was working at the campus cafeteria place. My job included such mundane tasks as wiping counters and busing tables. I didn't hate the job. It wasn't very hard. But it was boring as shit. Anyway, one day, I was supposed to be doing some ridiculously mundane task. Maybe I was supposed to be making "guacamole" by mixing sour cream with some green-tinted mystery liquid, I don't remember exactly. But I was suddenly realized how stupid the entire situation was, and I calmly washed my hands, took off the goofy hat I had to wear, walked out, and never went back.

Sometime later, I found myself working at a Domino's Pizza. I had delivered pizza for Pizza Hut but, for some reason that I can't remember, I stopped working there. So I started at Domino's. I hated Domino's instantly. Their system was stupid and inefficient. And they paid less per delivery than Pizza Hut. But what pissed me off the most was the manager. The Domino's was in a strip mall, and the spaces right in front were reserved for delivery drivers. This meant that the total distance from the door of my car to the door of the Domino's was about six feet. On my first day, I was told that I had to "hustle" on the sidewalk. "What the fuck do you mean," I thought, "you want me to run for exactly one stride?" These people were not off to a good start.

Later in the day, as my shift was ending, I was told that I had to do a shitload of dishes. That's fairly standard, and I wasn't surprised--I hated doing dishes, but that's part of working in a restaurant. Anyway, all the dishes were stacked up in the sink, so I started using the sprayer thing and washing them and whatnot. But I was still doing deliveries, too. So I went on a delivery and, when I came back, the entire back room was flooded. It turns out that the sink where all the dishes were stacked was broken and not to be used to wash dishes. Everyone knew this, but no one told me. So the back room flooded somehow. When I pointed this out to my manager, she told me that it was all my fault and that I had to clean everything up by myself because it was my fault and that I had not made a good impression. My coworkers offered nothing by way of apology for not telling me what was up and certainly did not offer to help me with the situation. And there was about an inch of water all over the floor. So I did what any sensible person would do: I walked out the back door, around the strip mall, into my car, and the fuck away from that Domino's.

I guess the point here is that I've always had very little tolerance for doing mundane, stupid jobs. And that's probably why I went to law school: I never thought that being a lawyer would be mundane or stupid. I imagined that being a lawyer would be challenging and that I would feel like I was doing something that mattered to someone. For the most part, all the experiences I've had with legal employment have proven me right. Still, even when I was working at that law firm a few summers ago, I sometimes found it difficult for get my ass out of bed every morning. I'd stay up late watching TV, then it would be hard for me to drag myself out of bed. And, even though I really enjoyed my work, I'd never get lost in it.

But things couldn't be more different now. I'm genuinely excited to go to work every morning. I look forward to it. I mean, I don't look forward to it in the same way that I might look forward to, for example, a night of hanging out with my friends, but as far as work is concerned, I'm excited about it. I'm excited to represent people and be in court and draft motions and do research and, well, pretty much all of it. I mean, I always knew that thought that I'd love being a lawyer, but I didn't think I could enjoy work this much.

In fact, like I said to Mr. Vice this afternoon, I love what we're doing so much that I can only think of one job I'd rather have: Jessica Biel's blow-job practice cock.

2 Comments

TheExpat said:

There's something to be said for actually enjoying what you're doing. I've only recently been in a situation where I felt like what I was doing was fun and worthwhile, changing a 'The Money' answer (a la the Poll) to an 'I love it' answer.

As for the poll, let's get a new one going before this one starts to smell like those sea bass you wanted to hit Bill Richardson with.

April 8, 2008 11:53 AM

estefanita said:

my husband says i like to always argue and i guess i'm proving him right......why is the man's job pointless? Maybe you never noticed a clean sidewalk, but you might notice a dirty one. It's like raking leaves or dusting. It will need to be done over and over but that dosen't make it pointless....
but i understand your point and i couldn't be happier for you. having a feeling of purpose and joy is a great thing! congratulations.

April 8, 2008 1:22 PM