Reactionary

These odd things sometimes come up at work and I never really say anything about it at the time, but they stick in my head for a while.

We were in between cases and the woman I was working with belongs to a hospital wide committee that does something about staff retention. She was trying to get people to sign up for projects so they could advance up the stupid staff ladder. But of course I’m not eligible since I’m new. The anesthesiologist asked me how long I was planning to stay and I said, “For now.” It didn’t feel right to say, “As soon as I learn this shit, I’m dropping this place and its pathetic paychecks like I would a Britney Spears CD.”

And then they started in on how young people rarely stay with jobs for more than 3 to 5 years, unlike the old crew who seemed to think where they first worked, they had to stay barring an Act of God. And then the Experienced Nurse I was working with said it was because young people like instant gratification and if their job doesn’t give them what they want out of it, they leave instead of staying and trying to make it better. I see her point etc, but as one of the Young People they were discussing, why didn’t they just ask me? True, I could have contributed but it still seems odd that she said that, a sweeping blanket statement, while I was standing right there.

So what do I think about the trend for people to rotate jobs so much? For me, its simple, “What’s My Motivation?” With businesses and especially hospitals treating you quickly like an indentured servant rather than employee, why would I want to stay put? Loyalty? Why should I be loyal when they’re more than ready to screw you left, right, and forwards at the drop of the proverbial hat? There’s no reward for it. And the longer I live, the more I see that you have to take care of yourself because no one else will do it for you. Not a husband, a wife, a sibling etc. No one. The more you give, the more people ask. And I see this in the older generation. Constantly being asked for things, they’ve forgotten how to say no and it makes them bitter and mean… or gleeful martyrs. Experience is so overrated. Is it worth everything, your own self-respect, to be a slave to someone else’s priorities? There’s a weird air of co-dependence about that.

With the plummeting rosiness of the future, what’s the reason to stay? A pension? Everyone knows they aren’t what they used to be and high profile cases like the Enron scandal haven’t done much to color up Young People’s trust in the Man. The Man could be using your pension money to buy himself a Jaguar for every day of the week. And why should you trust them? What have they done for you? True, they pay you a check every other week, but that’s more like some fair (and often unfairly low) reward for your work, your time, your face, and your talents. They don’t do you any favors, baby, and if you believe that they do, you may as well kill yourself because you aren’t ready for Life. May as well make them suffer a little by always having to orient new people.

And the pale face of Management doesn’t help either. Why do the most wretched, power-obsessed whores always work their way into Leadership? The last thing they do is lead, they just like to tell you to do things. They’re no Caesar who was a fiercely demanding general, but the soldiers knew he asked the most from himself. These Leadership people take hour long lunches while we get half an hour. They come into your room and try to find something you did wrong rather than getting their hands dirty helping you. But they have constant bright ideas for how things are done which keeps the real working staff chasing around how to stick to their banal checkoff lists in less and less time. More work, less time. How can they know what’s “better” if they haven’t actually worked since the Great Flood?

These are just a few reasons why, Experienced Nurse. It’s a growing cynicism and I’m not sure it’s a bad thing. We’ve all seen how blind faith and loyalty gets rewarded with being taken advantage of. Maybe that’s why we change jobs so often. We go to a place, get what we can out of it in experience etc and then know we can walk at any time. There is no good reason for staying.

I do agree on some level that there a lot of people who are spoiled and want things handed to them on silver platters and to become the next American Idol while sitting on their ass talking on the phone. But I’m not sure that mentality falls out along age lines. I think it’s a societal issue.

And one more thing. Unlike a lot of the really old timers at my place of employment, my job isn’t the epicenter of my fucking life. It’s a job. With my paychecks I pay my rent. That’s it. So don’t try to bribe me or guilt-trip me or decorate my humble position in that company as something it’s not, because I lost my rosy shades a long time ago.

P.S. I know I preach sedition. People who have been fired for their blogs are further evidence of the Man’s selfish thought patterns.

Posted on February 23rd, 2005 under General, Rant •  Print •  Email • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed