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After you have tasted the forbidden fruit of a great job, with a nice paycheck, your own office, airconditioning, beautiful workplace and interesting work sourounded by professionals you enjoyed, it is really tough to do anything else. But my brother is facing that very issue right now. He lost his GREAT job in the bad economy and after a year on unemployment he just could not get back into the game.
A friend of his got him into a factory job where he works on an assembly line for about $9.00 an hour. Many of his coworkers are working two full time jobs to make it and basically live a life of toil, noise, boredom and mind numbing tedium. How can they look forward to waking up in the morning facing this type of life every day? My brother is really depressed having to do this type of work but he is at least hopeful of getting a better job soon and does not have to work 80 hours a week like some of his coworkers.
Have you worked in a dirty lousy job after you have tasted the forbidden fruit of a great professional position?
Not in a dirty job, but a lousy one with the same mind-numbing tedium, even though it was in an office. (Data entry in a windowless closet of a room in a rural area with bugs on the floor and walls and the occasional mouse that ran through.) It gave me ongoing motivation to look even harder for a better position.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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Since work takes a huge chunk of my life time-wise, I prefer to stick with something that I am passionate about. If push came to shove, I would accept a lower paying, menial job as I have done in the past but it would be difficult keeping myself motivated unless I had good office camaraderie and a decent paycheck.
I don't think that there are many people that are passionate about their work (just a guess, I could be wrong) and look forward to getting up in the morning to go to work. Some do, maybe many do and good for them! They're the lucky ones. But some people don't mind (or like, or prefer) a job that doesn't require much investment.
I think it all depends on the individual situation. Lost a "job" that gave you good money but wasn't something you looked forward to doing? Than the low wage menial work probably is unappealing mainly for the salary. Lost a "career" that you were passionate about? Well, then the low wage menial work is unappealing not just for the salary but because it suddenly makes work seem like WORK (something you HAVE to do)
My brother loved his old job and really worked for a great company until new owners came and and canned a large number of employees. Doing boring work for little pay with such a low class group of people is very hard after tasting the forbidden fruit of living the good life!
A good job is not "forbidden fruit." If it's any kind of fruit, it's the fruit of your labor, the product of your hard work getting to where you are. Usually. It could also be the product of nepotism, but we'll get to that in a minute.
And not for nothing, but could you sound any more priggish with your comments about him working with a "low class group of people?" Come on, now. There's no need to be a snot.
But anyway, when I was in college, my parents saw to it that I spent the summer between my freshman and sophomore years working in a cosmetics factory, where I engaged in scintillating activities like tightening caps on tubes of mascara. My parents were not happy that I had gotten two Cs, and the point was that if I did not appreciate my education, they were not going to sacrifice for me to have it and I would be welcome to 45 more years just like that summer.
I haven't worked in that kind of job since.
However, I have experienced a bait-and-switch, in which I was promised a peach and given a lemon. I had an office. I was told my input would be highly valued and my skills and experience would be put to good use. The money was so-so, but the people and company would more than make up for that, and because the company was growing, there would be ample opportunity to move up.
And I got micromanaged out the yin-yang by an unstable, unqualified dimwit who was only in her job because she was the CEO's sister. The woman was bat-guano insane. Her own niece couldn't work with her and decided to quit with nothing else lined up because it was affecting her feelings toward her and she didn't want it to encroach on her family relationships.
Lo and behold, there I was, a year later, quitting.
At least when you get a monotonous, low-paying job, you know it's going to suck.
I think it all depends on the individual situation. Lost a "job" that gave you good money but wasn't something you looked forward to doing? Than the low wage menial work probably is unappealing mainly for the salary.
This is exactly my situation. I've pretty much worked manufacturing my whole life as a welder. I didn't love my job but it allowed me a decent living. With overtime opportunities I was making 50,000 over 10 years ago. Now these same types of jobs, if you're able to find them pay maybe 20 to 25,000 and most of them have little if any benefits. When you adjust these wages for inflation it makes matters even worse.
Now before anybody chimes in and say a factory worker shouldn't make that much, I will say that welding is a semi-skilled job and not just any trained monkey can do it.
I knew a guy that was a welder, and he had some troubles finding jobs. He was like, they call me in to do a weld, I'm not going to be spending 8 hours doing nothing but welding, it's more or less piece work. I get paid by the job. Then, the job's over, and I go back on standby until someone else calls me in to do a weld.
I think that humility is a characteristic of a good human being, and I fear that humility is dying or dead.
No one should feel that any job is "below" them. Hard work, any work, is character-building and something to be proud of. As long as you do your best.
Even if the work is tedious, menial, manual, icky, dirty, or involves having to have contact with "low class people."
It makes me want to should "WHO THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE???" and "WHAT MAKES YOU SO SPECIAL????"
I have a Master's and a comfortable job that I love (I'm one of those people who is passionate about my work). I have a comfy office, flexible time, a good salary, good benefits. But if I were laid off, and could not find a job in my field within a couple of months of diligent searching, I would take whatever job I could get. I'm not above any kind of honest work.
And you know what? I'd do it really well and with pride.
And I could guarantee you that if I started working the register at Walmart, within a few months I'd be a department manager. If I were working the fries at McDonald's, I'd be shift manager in about 3 weeks, and store manager in 3 months. If I were scrubbing toilets, I'd be the Assistant Director toilet scrubber in 2 weeks and Toilet Scrubbing Director in a month!
Because I'd work my ***** off, and I'd show dedication, energy, reliability, honesty, detail-orientedness, pride and ownership of my work, problem-solving ability, integrity, and resourcefulness. I'd go to bed every night exhausted but feeling good about a job well done, and grateful for it.
If you have the attitude that you're doing a job that's "beneath you," you'll have a crappy attitude and not do a good job. If that's how most of the people in those positions are, then I'm confident that I'd rise to the top pretty quickly, on my merit and hard work, not on my self-image of being "superior."
So tell the guy to take great pride in the assemby line work, go to work with a smile, be polite to everyone, whistle while he works, and offer to pitch in and do extra work. Show up early and volunteer to stay late. Before long he'll be head of the assembly line, and even move to higher positions above that.
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