Do you ever feel that some people just take their jobs too seriously?
Personally I have nothing wrong with someone who enjoys their job and takes pleasure in doing it but it’s those people that seem to make it the most fundamental important aspect of their very lives that make me question why? There are even those who place it at the same level and indeed at times above their own families.
A few weeks ago I was introduced to a young writer. When I say young they are the same age as me but with less experience. I had a phone call today from my publisher saying that this writer was going to be taking on some freelance work that I was scheduled to do and would be paid more than what I was. So today when I met them they had a look on their face like a cat that had got the cream but could they not see that I did not really care?
It’s not about them having the work as I am actually quite relieved for someone else to be doing this and also happy for them. But for me life is not all about work it’s about achieving what you want from a personal side and work, for me, just helps achieve that.
Each morning I wake up and see the same people each day, those who rush for the trains, Starbucks in one hand, and frantically using the Blackberry on the other. Often covered in sweat from running for the train worried that if they don’t get to work on time or complete that deal then life will suddenly end! The very people that don’t work from 9-5 but more 9-9. I’ve seen them all I actually worked with one woman once who said that she slept with her Blackberry each night in case she had an idea in the middle of the night, I could just imagine how put out her husband feels.
Work to me simply pays the bills. I have worked in many places, seen many people who think they are of the upmost importance come and go and even those who have worked themselves into an early grave simply because it is an obsession of theirs. For the young writer who took the work on I feel he will fall into the category of becoming a “yes man” someone who wants to impress so badly that they will never learn the word no and will soon have so much work piled on their agendas that they will not be able to cope.
For me my work is my writing and the only tools I need for that are my brain, my fingers, something to write on and tranquillity. Those four things cost nothing and for me being in Sweden surrounded by a place and people that I love will be more rewarding than any pay packet one may receive. Work is something we all have to do no matter what industry we are in, yet is it worth taking it too seriously to make our health and happiness suffer.
I’ve been around enough to know what is right and what is wrong and there is no way I will ever become a coffee slurping, Blackberry texting, twelve hour working machine. No not for me.
It’s all about a fine balance between in life in everything we do. That is the key to success. Once you master that then that in itself is the best reward I can ever wish for.
