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Depends on what level you say "insignificant" about. To about 10 people I am significant, more in previous roles. I would say a "replaceable" cog for nearly every role. People can be significant in the short term, but totally replaceable. I was mid 20s when I realized this. My boss' boss said, "everyone is replaceable." I didn't realize that until he said it and then i thought about it...but it is true.
And if you don't think that, don't worry you'll find out. Or if you want to post something in opposition to this then that doesn't change the fact that this describes a good 99 percent or so of the human race.
I guess I was 26 when I had this dawning realization. I was at a newspaper job and had spent my whole life wanting to be a reporter. Then one day I was just fired. Unjustly so. I know this because I sought legal advice and was told I had a case. Of course I never went through with it because again, "insignificant cog."
The good thing about being unjustly fired is that other employers are less likely to hold it against you. So I went back to a former employer and am still there as well as working for another similar company with hours totaling about 70 per week. Neither are in journalism, which I don't think I'll ever get completely over, but I get by. I also have no real passion to ever try to get back into journalism or a desire to move to the middle of nowhere and make $20,000 a year without benefits just to try to "live the dream."
I guess I still have some hope, but I feel kind of like Winston in 1984 after he gets found out by Big Brother. By working so I much I may some day sock away enough money where I can retire at a fairly young age, but know there are so many obstacles in place this may be less likely to happen than will.
Anyway, not sure if this is venting, some kind of joke or just honestly looking for others who believe this is a genuine reality. Perhaps it is a cathartic post made for purely that experience and to know others may see it rather than just to have it exist in my mind. I'm definitely not looking for sympathy though (at least not intentionally) as I've certainly been worse off and said nothing and also know plenty of you lot have it much worse off than me.
You said it yourself "no real passion.....or a desire......just to try to 'live the dream'". No chance that you will, just keep making excuses, unjust this and that, just a cog, blah, blah, blah.
Folks that think like that cut down the competition for those that Do....have passion, desire and the will to overcome or carry on in spite of injustice - "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" or not, it is Always your choice.
Happened to me pretty early on in my career. I was the senior editor in the publications department of a major American university. My boss loved my work. He said I was the best editor he'd ever hired. Then one day, a new VP comes in and decides to do some restructuring and cost-cutting. He cans my boss, who was about two years away from retirement and relied on his insurance coverage for a host of serious health problems, and then he decides the department can get along fine without any editors. I got three months' severance and was left completely disillusioned.
Today I work by choice as a contractor. I have a 10-year relationship with the company I contract for -- five as an in-house employee, and the past five as my own boss. People talk about my value to the company, but I've heard it all before, and I'm sure I'd be one of the first to go in the event of budget cutbacks, since I make a fairly decent wage doing what I do. Why pay me what they do when they could pay two kids fresh out of college to do my job part-time for less money? I feel like it's just a matter of time, especially since the company lost a huge contract a year ago and has been flailing around ever since for a direction.
I'm just barely old enough to remember the days of company loyalty. You could go to work for the mill downtown, earn enough to feed your family and buy a nice house and a car, and retire with the gold watch. Now our manufacturing base has been gutted and moved overseas, and employers seem to be on a race to the bottom on wages and benefits with the jobs that remain.
The most toxic idea to ever take hold in the business world is that the only purpose of a business is to make money. That reduces human beings to a cost to be minimized. Corporate ethics used to dictate that all stakeholders in a business mattered, from shareholders to employees, customers, suppliers, and the local community. Now it's all about maximizing profits for the few at the top and focusing on short-term results to appease shareholders. It's sick what we've become.
Companies are here to make a profit, and we are a tool that is used to help get to that goal. Nothing more, nothing less.
See, that's the problem. We've been conditioned to think that's the case, but it's not. Companies have a social obligation to do more than just generate profits for their managers and shareholders. They have a responsibility to all the stakeholders that make their businesses functional and successful.
The fact that we've lost sight of this is a sign of how far off track things have gone. And it's why we now have the B-Corp movement, for companies that explicitly make social responsibility a part of their corporate charters.
That reduces human beings to a cost to be minimized. Corporate ethics used to dictate that all stakeholders in a business mattered, from shareholders to employees, customers, suppliers, and the local community.
at least you haven't been placed with trained monkeys...
I work with people that plan to be there for life... I'm talking private sector too. But it's healthcare field and well, unless someone gets married/relocates, there isn't a whole lot of reason to leave a good hospital since they pay well and are fairly stable. Sure the for-profit ones are a pain to work for, but there's plenty of non-profit ones too.
Yeah, holy cow, OP, this is no personal reflection on you... New York Magazine fired John Simon and Kurt Andersen. Entertainment Weekly fired Owen Gleiberman and Gillian Flynn. So far, Flynn and Andersen at least, have probably made more money as novelists than they ever made as journalists/critics. I'm sorry it happened to you but you made the smart decision, I think, surely you don't need anyone to tell you the sad state of affairs of print journalism.
I was packing paper towels 40 hours a week at our local paper mill, now gone, most buildings demolished. I was also attending college as I was paying my own tuition and living expenses. We studied Thoreau and I immediately got "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation". Most jobs in the plant were boring but the pay and benefits were excellent. This was in the late '60s when most families had a male breadwinner and the wives stayed home. I only knew I wanted out as I couldn't see doing that job the rest of my life. Also, women and men had different jobs, the men's paying more.
I realized it when I went away to university, before joining the workforce. But I changed my mind when I became an RN and started working in a country hospital where my skills were needed and appreciated. I have very directly helped save several people's lives and indirectly many others'. This includes several newborns, and I feel good about it.
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