New York City is cutting lots of jobs (up to 11,000) to close a budget gap of several hundred million dollars. Bloomberg's blaming Albany, D.C. is blaming Wall Street. Most of those cuts are going to be teachers and firefighters. Thanks to the failed bomb attempt in Times Square last weekend, our police force will not shrink.
So what? Watching all of this go down and talking to Amber as she pursues a teaching career, I've been thinking a lot about work lately. Why do we work? What motivates us to do it? And in the end, what's the point? So you're thinking, "Really, Chris? You're going to get philosophical on us?" I know. I can't help it.
People work for a variety of reasons I guess. But what are they? Satisfaction is a start. Maybe it gives someone satisfaction to pursue a dream. I know Amber has wanted to teach all her life. Or maybe the act of producing something is satisfying. Unfortunately, the production of tangible things in the US is becoming a foreign concept. But we can add value by providing services or by channeling information in a useful way. Money is another one. We work and get paid for it, and this is a necessary exchange, because we live and pay for that. While it's necessary, I can't say it's that much of a motivation for me and for many people I know - but there is the old school that's still trying to get rich (my problem is, most of the time someone else has to get poorer for you to get richer). Greed is powerful, and I am greedy - I'm just not sure I'm greedy for money. The problem with working for money is that its actual value isn't determined by what we do, but what we do is given an arbitrary dollar value. This becomes a problem when global economic uncertainty can make the Dow dip 1,000 points in a single day and looming inflation makes me wonder if a $20 bill will be able to buy a sandwich in 10 years.
Where am I? I have a daily activity. It satisfies some of my desires and many of my physical needs. Still, I see people in the city who do not work. Their daily activity is survival, much like that of the developing world, and they live by the generosity of other people and by the accommodations afforded every American citizen, regardless of motivation or ability to work. And their mental and emotional state is largely unrelated to their vocation. When I look at these people, I see some who are happy - happier than most of New York's workforce. I also see some who are apparently more miserable than anyone I have ever met. In these cases, I find it hard to believe that a steady job and an apartment could do anything for them, anyway. I just went in a circle.
I like my job. I know people who like their jobs. So I'm not talking about going off the reservation here. But I do want to remind myself (and any of you who haven't thought it through), that work is a small element of a much bigger and more complicated picture. Around the time that jobs start disappearing (albeit slower now than last year), it's probably a good time to look at what you do and imagine what your life would be like without your vocation. If you live in New York and you work for the city, I would do it sooner than later.
Thank you for reading my blog.
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About Me
- Christopher Hiatt
- New York, NY, United States
- I recently moved to New York City, and I created this blog to stay in touch with friends and family across the country.
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3 comments:
Well, since we're getting philosophical, I want to tell you why this line stuck out at me: "it's probably a good time to look at what you do and imagine what your life would be like without your vocation." A vocation is a calling (Latin, check it out), and sometimes it also happens to be your job. But I think you can work a job to get money and still follow your vocation, even when they're not the same thing. So sure, imagine what your life would be without your job, but while you're at it, imagine what it would be without your vocation-- and see why it's important to listen when God calls.
Thought provoking. I wonder how many people reading this would say they have a vocation in the sense you've described it.
I have a vocation, that is my calling, that is my career. In the current market I do it often when it doesn't pay. But it stills satifies my soul but not my check book. I live with the promise that God provides. A bad day at a job you hate is double bad, at least a bad day at a job you love is just a bump in the road.
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