A friend of mine hates his job. Nothing so special about that. The people he works for are, in his words, “oppressive.” Like that 4th grade teacher who hovered over your shoulder while you tried to complete an exam, his management is stifling. Their presence hangs over the workplace like a dark storm cloud – actually, more like a lingering fog that won’t burn off. It sounds like a tough existence. I see it rob him of initiative. I don’t much think drudgery is a good work motivator, but I could be wrong.
Depression – not the clinical kind, but the emotional kind – is common in his life. Makes him really fun to be around. A real laugh riot. Flip a coin on his mood and more often than not it lands on “funk.” That’s how he describes his depression about his life and situation.
He’s thankful to have a paycheck though. The recession has oddly enough made matters worse for him at work because now he feels more trapped than ever. Which is really weird because he’s never looked at leaving his job. I guess just knowing there might be the possibility of leaving the morons he blames for his work situation gave him hope. Hope that he might one day be able to move beyond their craziness. Now, with people losing jobs and our president moving us faster and faster toward a socialist society he feels more trapped than ever.
We’ve spent lots of time talking about action, taking control of your own life and refusing to be victimized. Nothing seems to work. Exasperated I recently told him his life was just one big suck-session. It sucked because he was perfectly okay with letting it be that way. He was, I argued, a victim of his own design. At some level he saw it and understood it, but ultimately he concluded what so many conclude, “What else can I do?”
I only had two words for him, “Suck less.”
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