Chapter 2: The pursuit of happyness.
"When Jefferson spoke of pursuing happiness, he had nothing vague or private in mind. He meant a public happiness which is measurable; which is, indeed, the test and justification of any government."
--Garry Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence
This post may be a tad different from what I'd originally intended for this series, but it's a thought that's been on my mind all weekend.
Do human beings genuinely have an unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness?
This thought occurred to me after I came home from work late on Friday night, and the next thought to follow was The Pursuit of Happyness, the Will Smith movie with his (then) young son, Jaden. It chronicles the hardships of a single parent trying to survive in a rough business, and trying to keep life decent for himself and his son.
Smith's character saw an obligation through to the end and did everything he could for his son. I admire that.
But, I don't think I have that strength. Nor do I think that I need to have it, considering my present situation in life.
The real inspiration behind this post is my job. I'm qutting it in a little over a week. I think the day that I leave will be almost exactly one year since I started there. Not a good run, but my longest thus far. It's...chaos over there right now. I've hated the job for months now because of the customers, because of the low pay and poor tips, because of the terrible management...but I can't stand it anymore.
The people who do the same job as I are the majority of the employees in the company. They get the lowest pay; they deal with the worst of the customers. But lately, it seems as if everyone is as dissatisfied as I. There have been many occasions as of late when my co-workers have been calling in and not finding someone to cover their shift (usually because they can't), people not calling in or showing up, people refusing to come in to cover someone else's shift. No one wants to work anymore than the hours they've been given, and sometimes they don't even want to work that.
The management is...awful. The best manager is the youngest one--a kid I went to high school with. The other three just don't seem to give a fuck anymore. They wouldn't be there if they could find something else with a better paycheck, I'm fairly certain. Two of them always seem unhappy, they bitch the entire time that they're there, they'll occasionally disappear out to their cars to either A.) sit there and pop pimples in the mirror, maybe take a li'l nap, or B.) cry on the phone to the boyfriend and maybe smoke a blunt with him if he feels like stopping by. Those are also the two who will needlessly yell at everyone. Managers are supposed to encourage workers, not stress them out. One of those two managers is also probably one of the most two-faced people I know. She always acts like she loves me soooooooo much, and she told someone else today that I deserve to be fired, because I had an emergency and wasn't there...She's two-faced to everyone in such a way.
My GM...wow. Cool guy, really chill. Pretty clever when it comes to little things around the store, but he doesn't give a fuck either. Half the time that he's at the store, he's sitting out in his car, listening to people yell about conspiracy theories on the radio and smoking. He disappears sometimes, and I've heard people say that he goes to buy beer, but God knows if that's true. It wouldn't surprise me, because it's well-known that he'a an alcoholic. It's also a pretty common rumor that he once had a relationship with a worker who was underage at the time, but that doesn't really bother me. She's his little clone, they're a good match.
Coming back to my main point, I'm unhappy there. Incredibly so. And do I have the right to the pursuit of happiness?? If I'm miserable there, is it wrong of me to leave them in a time of chaos? My boyfriend tells me that they're a business, and it's their job to treat their employees properly as a part of their formula to create profits, and that my store in particular ought to be shut down. While I think that's a tad dramatic, he is right that it's a health hazard for them to force sick workers to come in anyway because the number of employees is presently down so low (one of my friends has been throwing up among other symptoms, and they're going to make her work at least part of her 9 hour shit tomorrow because they're so short-handed).
I don't know if I have the right to the pursuit of happiness, but I think that when I come close to snapping at least once per shift these days, it's probably a sign that I need to move on. So, happiness is the path that I shall attempt to follow.