Taking the "Career" out of Work

Tugged by Anita Kunz

One of the things I'm still getting used to in this simpler version of life is not having a career. I made the decision to step off the corporate ladder when we moved away from the city several years ago. And for the most part, I don't regret that decision. I appreciate life more and have gained a kind of balance that just wasn't possible with my former line of work.

However, I still haven't quite gotten the hang of simply working. I have a decent job but still often treat it as I would a career: orienting my tasks towards personal growth and constantly searching for new ways to add value. I even find myself thinking about my work sometimes when I get home.

I know, conceptually, that all this extra work isn’t necessary. All that is expected of me, and all that I get paid for, is to fill the needs of my job description and go home. Doing more than that won’t get me promoted because there isn’t a job above me. Pay raises, if given, aren’t given here for performance. Why waste precious time and energy on doing things that won’t benefit me?

What I really wish I could do is just treat my job the way my grandparents used to treat theirs. They would go to work every day (they both worked for the city—Grandpa in maintenance and Grandma in the accounting department), put in their 8 hours, and go home. That’s it. Their jobs weren’t exciting but they were comfortable with what they did and who they worked with. And they filled their time outside of work with more important things, like family and friends. This view of work is what I want to fully grasp for myself.

Somewhere along the line, our society became so obsessed with having careers and constantly growing in those careers that we’ve forgotten what it was to just work. We’ve lost the ability (or no longer respect the ability?) to get good at something and do it well and consistently for 30 years or more. I’ve found that constantly striving for the new, better, and improved is exhausting and stressful. And if it takes up your life energy outside the workplace, what good is it? That kind of life has definitely lost its appeal for me.

So I will continue my struggle to unlearn the ways of the corporate world and put aside my desire to better myself in the workplace. One step I've taken is to use my free time at work for something that makes me happy: hence, this blog.

What are your thoughts about jobs and careers? What do you wish for yourself and why?