Tip Of The Day: Get A Job!
Please enjoy the thoughts and musings of our friend, supporter, and long-time contributor Art van Bodegraven Jr., who passed away on June 18, 2017. Art was a prolific writer and had amassed a collection of unpublished blog posts he had planned to run well into the future. To honor his memory, we will continue to post these remaining blogs as he had intended. If you’ve been a fan of The Art of Art blog, check out our tribute.
The Washington Post periodically opines on social issues, as well as on politics, economics, and general interest topics. Early in the New Year, an article promoted making sure of a a"fit" before leaping off the cliff with the other lemmings. One hesitates before speculating how many people who "didn't like" their jobs are now living in the basement and/or are ill-disposed and over-qualified baristas or burger assemblers.
The Post recommends figuring out what you're good at, and what you like. Understanding your core values, and motivation. Motivation, btw, is internal - developed when you are in an environment that fosters active creativity. Deciding whether you're about autonomy or committed to growth and development. Finally, getting comfortable with a fit with the existing culture.
So, an individual needs to process his or her preference for risk versus change, for competition versus collaboration, and for degrees of diversity. When all those stars align, it's OK, fine, even healthy, to make a job change.
When they don't, grief clouds the future.
Don't get me wrong. Human responsibility says that a job - any job - is preferable to living on the dole, whether public or private. Paying the rent might force the issue of getting a less-than-hoped-for job. But, do stop the whining if that degree in 18th-century French literature doesn't fetch much of a reward in the employment marketplace.
And, yes, I'd like fries with that. You can work on the poetry when your shift is over.