How can you tell when you need to quit your job? December 1, 2009
Posted by Mike in : Mike , add a commentA moment in the life of a worker who needs to quit:
Paul Barkin is a typical human. Been working at the same place long enough to know his job by rote. Creativity has left him and he sees his world as a cage he needs to escape. This is one of his typical morning moments:
Paul places the small bronze key in the left inside desk lock, he vomits in his mind, “God, I hate this”. Turning the key; he sees it turn a thousand times before, “One half turn up, insert with the ridges down… was it down…or up.” Leaning forward with elbows on knees, it’s the most comfortable he’ll feel all day.
Repeating the process to the other side, he opens the upper right drawer fishing for his favorite pen. Not sure what he’s going to do with it but wanting to feel its familiar smooth cool metal surface with the curled thumb grip. He extracts the pen from the menagerie of markers, pens, scissors and rubber bands that always seem to end up in the pen section of the plastic divider entangling themselves to the frustration of anyone wishing access.
Looking up at the P.C., “PROCESS 41 IS COMPLETE”. He marks the next state to be processed. “South Dakota”. With experienced hands he flicks the sliding keyboard into position from under the desk and whacks the keyboard a dozen times “D: [TAB] [TAB] \temp [ENTER] [F8]“.
Selecting Dakota, he completes the command initialization and is gone. Vaguely aware of what he’s doing, he sees tall grasslands flowing and ebbing in a symphony of winds. Each wave carrying him through luscious fields, across old wooden fences, neat, well maintained and weather worn to a soft grey.
Images of riders wearing Hudson Blanket styled jackets, swede brown with matching wide -brimmed hats. And hair. A woman. Gold-yellow hair. Moving like the rolling hills, swept back. Her gaze; solid; blue-green; penetrating; turn to meet his.
“BEEP!” He snaps back. “PROCESS 42 COMPLETE”. Feeling his heart beating the way it was meant to beat, he knows he has to get out of here.
The point is: When you find your days are like Paul’s, a mix of daydreams and repetition, its time to get the fuck out.
Why don’t we just get a job and shut up? October 20, 2009
Posted by Mike in : About, Entrepreneurship, Mike, Money, Opportunities , add a commentSince the economy tanked in Michigan, all the talent have taken their pink slips, packed up thier goods, and headed for the coasts. I’m guessing they figure if your going to be broke you might as well have an ocean and a viable city to be it in. Especially in the post Auto-Bust era the suburbs of Detroit have suffered through. Even I, in a panic, took a job at the University of Michigan as a temp. $18/hour. No bennies. No health. Cinder block walls, buzzing computers and four guys in a 12×12 cube they called the Bull Pen.
Definition of “Bull Pen”:
“A temporary holding area for prisoners, as in a courthouse.”
And oh yes…it was. The only sounds were the breathing of the other guys, and occasionally the breath of your “boss” over your shoulder as he is looking at what you’re doing and you jump out of your boots going “Jesus! Announce yourself. You almost gave me a stroke!”. That doesn’t go over well by the way.
The only advantage of a job is if you work for 2 quarters and accumulate enough paid time in total to make 1.5 times your highest month’s pay…which I did by 200 dollars…you can collect unemployment when they fire you. Which they did. Thank you. The lesson there was a “full time” job means you won’t have any time to do anything else. As my dad always said: “When you’re working for someone else, you’re just working for someone else”. All the promises in the world, or the hopes based on someone else’s whims or the strength of the market mean nothing. My sister worked for GM for 25 years, they let her go in 15 minutes with a pocket sized kleenex (which they asked for back if she didn’t need them) and that was it. No pension. No retirement. So tell me there is security in anything, even life. You take life and make life.
Getting a job? No. We have reduced all expenses to bare minimum. Survival living. Time is the gold, not money. Living lean means eating healthier, working out, sleeping when needed versus in your cube having to explain its your lunch hour and wanting to say go fuck off instead. I picked Fuck off.