dear work, how I love you....
work sometimes seems like all good love affairs- its a moving target. Like all good lovers I spend a lot of time peering into her eyes thinking- what am I giving to this? how is this feeding me? how do I sustain what is good and beautiful between us? She crops up in my thoughts unbidden in the middle of the day. I fantasize about work in the future, I day dream about good work in the past. After all, I grew up in a family where love and work were interchangeable.
Meanwhile, my recent thoughts about work are this... I realize that the people whose work I most hope to emulate are people whose careers are peeking in their mid 40s through late 50s. I don't want to be a young hot shot contractor at 30, I want to be the respected teacher and activist at 50. I'm fine with the slow and steady route. I'm not here to make a buck before I am 35, I am here to be a leader and a guiding force.
meanwhile, things I think I am good at:
- gathering and energizing groups of people. I am good at helping groups of people make good choices, think through issues, and hear multiple sides of the story.
- managing time. I'm better at estimating how long it will take someone else to do something, then I am at estimating how long it will take me to do something.
- thinking through things in a logical order to do something in the most efficient and safe manner.
- planning things out in advance.
- strong, sturdy, and withstand physical stress well- and I want to create a future in which these are not my 3 most employable traits.
I can see a choice in my near future of shaping my career into physical labour verses management, and I know that management is what I want. I want it for a couple of reasons- 1. I have a natural aptitude for it, I like being around well organized caring groups of people. 2. often its better pay 3. its not so shit hard on my body 4. it's year round work instead of seasonal. I also however feel a little guilty about it. Its an uncomfortable truth that construction relies on a steady stream of grunt labour- often coming from young people, desperate people, people too poor to find other work or who never got a chance at an education that could take them elsewhere. I feel like I am giving up on the Little Guy to abandon him for Desk Land. Then I remember how over the years as Little Guy I have appreciated the rare insightful strong leadership I have had from Desk Land. Someone who is good at Desk Land makes grunt labour easier, more fun, safer. Someone who is bad at it, makes the labour that much more frustrating and hard. Everyone loses money and energy.
end conclusion:
I want to be paid to communicate well, to lead groups of people, to facilitate, and to organize labour supplies and paperwork associated with natural building/ green building construction sites.
Meanwhile, my recent thoughts about work are this... I realize that the people whose work I most hope to emulate are people whose careers are peeking in their mid 40s through late 50s. I don't want to be a young hot shot contractor at 30, I want to be the respected teacher and activist at 50. I'm fine with the slow and steady route. I'm not here to make a buck before I am 35, I am here to be a leader and a guiding force.
meanwhile, things I think I am good at:
- gathering and energizing groups of people. I am good at helping groups of people make good choices, think through issues, and hear multiple sides of the story.
- managing time. I'm better at estimating how long it will take someone else to do something, then I am at estimating how long it will take me to do something.
- thinking through things in a logical order to do something in the most efficient and safe manner.
- planning things out in advance.
- strong, sturdy, and withstand physical stress well- and I want to create a future in which these are not my 3 most employable traits.
I can see a choice in my near future of shaping my career into physical labour verses management, and I know that management is what I want. I want it for a couple of reasons- 1. I have a natural aptitude for it, I like being around well organized caring groups of people. 2. often its better pay 3. its not so shit hard on my body 4. it's year round work instead of seasonal. I also however feel a little guilty about it. Its an uncomfortable truth that construction relies on a steady stream of grunt labour- often coming from young people, desperate people, people too poor to find other work or who never got a chance at an education that could take them elsewhere. I feel like I am giving up on the Little Guy to abandon him for Desk Land. Then I remember how over the years as Little Guy I have appreciated the rare insightful strong leadership I have had from Desk Land. Someone who is good at Desk Land makes grunt labour easier, more fun, safer. Someone who is bad at it, makes the labour that much more frustrating and hard. Everyone loses money and energy.
end conclusion:
I want to be paid to communicate well, to lead groups of people, to facilitate, and to organize labour supplies and paperwork associated with natural building/ green building construction sites.