Asking Questions
My wife and I were cleaning out the back yard last Sunday. I was working in the garage (the never ending project) and she was cleaning off the back porch.
As we took turns taking stuff to the dumpster in the alley and asking where various things went or what they were it became apparent that my wife was in a bit of a funk. We all get this way. My theory is, we are all bi-polar to some degree, some of us need medication for it and the rest of us just deal with it until we start to rebound.
So I asked my wife what was on her mind and why she was so 'down'. She didn't want to talk about it. This is an ongoing problem with the Mrs. She bottles things up and doesn't 'work' things through. So I did what "Mr Sympathy" should do and I started 'tickling her' and making fun of her to try and get her loosened up.
She finally confessed that she was in a rut because she had been thinking. Why does she work so hard at her job while most of her co-workers have no interest in doing a good job or striving to make things better?
I almost fell over on the pavement when she said this.....and then I started laughing. I confessed to my wife that I was very proud of her.
My wife has finally 'caught up' to the rest of us and realized that giving 110% only means that your employer is going to to give you 120% of the work. I believe that my wife was sort of struggling through an epiphany of some sort regarding the order of human society and just how many of us are slackers and nair-do-wells that take up space and collect a paycheck.
I knew I married the right person when I said the 'I Do' thing. She just keeps re-affirming that I made the right decision more and more each day.
Well, even if your jobs suck you have each other and that is worth much more than anything else.
ReplyDeleteI welcome her to the wonderful world of the Overworked- underpaid- Under- appreciated people of the Southwestern region, who walk amongst the aimlessly drifting hordes with stiff muscles and bloodshot eyes, whose dreams of slapping the shit out of their ignorant overseers (who give new meaning to the term "oversight" every day) may never be fulfilled- but at least they know one thing- they are NOT of the hoarde! Their minds are free, their tempers high, the challenges to their dignity met with swift and biting sarcasm. Gleaming dreams of retirement reflected in their ever- rolling eyes, they strive to meet one idiotic obligation after another in the endless pursuit of Getting Work Done, so they can go home and forget all about it. Never alone are they, no matter how thick the tides of ignorant hall- wanderers, for they have VISION! ...Even if that vision is of sneaking out, locking them all in, and setting off the fire alarm and sprinklers.
ReplyDeleteThere is a saying,
ReplyDelete"Do you know what the reward for hard work is?
More hard work!"
This allows me to triage my efforts, this saying. After all we as a people are precious resources and should treat ourselves accordingly.
take care
Mrs. Hall
Penny: Absolutely!
ReplyDeleteLorraine: One of the more eloquent comments I have ever read.
Holly: Amen Sister. we are a precious resource and we are not here for 'others' to use.
"My theory is, we are all bi-polar to some degree, some of us need medication for it and the rest of us just deal with it until we start to rebound."
ReplyDeleteI was wondering this the other day - isn't bipolar just sort of an extreme version of "normal"?
"She finally confessed that she was in a rut because she had been thinking."
Well that's what you GET for thinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She should know better!!!!!!!!!!!! KIDDING!!!!! But only sort of...
Actually, I had a really similar epiphany a couple weeks ago. I've often thought I was lucky I have to go get my kids right after work each day. Otherwise I'd probably be the type to stay for and hours hours after my contract time and I already go in early most days.
But for some reason I realized that there are certain people you know are very serious about their job and work really hard at doing the best they can and more or less where it gets them resented by the ones that do less, not ahead in any perceivable way.
The crazy thing is, it doesn't even help you on the job security thing. I have a really distinct memory of being told a temp job I had when I was 20 or 21 was ending. My boss told me that he wished he could keep me instead of others that didn't work as hard but that he had no choice but to go by seniority.
I think maybe it doesn't even matter. It seems like some people will always be more serious about their work than others whether it just gets them 120% of the work or not.
That is, if I get hired and paid to do something, I do it as well as I can. I mean, maybe it's depressing to know that there are people being hired for the same job who wouldn't do it the best that they could or who just "take up space and collect a paycheck", but it knowing it doesn't change the fact that I'm not that type of person, much as it seems appealing some days...
A match made in Heaven. My husband recently went through a similar thing, but he realized it before it really happened, but it was extremely frustrating to him.
ReplyDelete