by Aileen Journey

Work is miserable for many people, even those at the top. There is a concept that things have to be done a certain way and limits and criticism and often fear are the way to get people to do that, otherwise they would be working only for their own interests, not the company’s. Sometimes this makes for many miserable people in one company. There people may be doing only what their bosses want, not daring to step foot outside the rules or expectations, but they’re not offering anything extra, they’re not involved or satisfied with their jobs or the company and they often provide as little of themselves to the organization as possible in order not to get stepped on.

Many decisions I hear about are based on “fairness”. So and so doesn’t get to work from home so you can’t, forget that the jobs may be completely different and/or so and so doesn’t want to work from home OR there’s actually no reason that so and so can’t work from home. There’s some element of “work has to be difficult” or else why pay for it.

When I was a foster parent we were supposed to be doing it for the “joy it brought to our lives.” But the agency also wanted to dictate exactly what we did, blame us for anything that went wrong, and dismiss any opinions we had on the best interest of the children in our care. We weren’t supposed to want money for this. I did enjoy many of the children in my care. I adopted two of then and adore them with all my heart, but just because I enjoy a job doesn’t mean I shouldn’t get paid to do it well and attentively.

No matter how fantastic a job is, there are always elements that are not appreciated. I loved having babies, but I didn’t love diapers. Companies need to change their attitude about the people they hire from one of “we’re exchanging undesirable labor for money” to “we’re providing a situation for a person to add value to our organization while we add value to their lives.” that value is in both money and satisfaction.

The concept that work is horrible and is done solely for the money it provides needs to be eliminated. Human beings work on far more levels than that.  Plus, there’s not necessarily a need for all jobs to be miserable.  Honestly there probably are some, but even the armed services, which may seem like a job where you are worked hard then have a chance of being killed is one that the people involved often experience  a great deal of satisfaction.