your job/my job (prepare for a mom manifesto)
Yeah, my job and your job are pretty much the same
Except when your boss asks you for something, he uses words. And if you can't make that something happen immediately, your boss doesn't typically shriek, fall on the ground, slap his own face, and need ten minutes of your soothing to calm him down again.
Your job is just like my job.
Except at your job if you start something and then your boss asks you for something else, you can probably say, "Okay, I just started this new project and I'll be done with it in ten minutes. After that, I'll start your thing." When my boss wants something he doesn't give a good God damn what I just started.
Your job is just like my job.
Except you probably aren't covered in human excrement, urine, snot, and drool at the end of your workday.
Your job is just like my job.
Except if you talk shit about your boss you're "blowing off steam," and it probably feels great to say what you really think about a person who has made your workday so miserable. If I talk shit about my boss I feel guilty for failing to empathize with a boss who has made my workday so miserable.
Your job is just like my job.
Except that if you're bad at your job, well, it means you aren't a very good... whatever you are - banker, lawyer, fry cook, whatever. If I'm bad at my job, it means that I'm a bad person. I've probably wounded the psyche or body of someone who could not defend himself, and I can be convicted of a crime, forced into therapy, and be removed from my family.
If you get fired, you go home, get a drink, and start looking for another gig. If I get fired I'm probably in jail or rehab.
Your job is just like my job.
Except that I don't ever, ever, ever get to call in sick. Ever.
And you get to clock in and clock out. I have no clock. My workday starts at 12:00 am and ends at 11:59 pm.
Your job is just like my job.
Except the stakes at my job are another human life. And not just the live-or-die black-and-white part, but all the infinite shades of who-are-you-going-to-be and how-am-I-teaching-you-about-the-world-and-kindness-and-safety-and-self-reliance-and-self-respect, which are, in many ways, so much harder and so much more vague.
I didn't mean for this to be a rant or a poor-me party.
I don't mean any offense to people who work hard outside of the home, and I don't mean to say that my job is harder than yours, or my job is better or worse than yours. There are professional teachers, caregivers, doctors, nurses, personal assistants, social workers, and prison guards who can probably identify with most of what I've just described.
I just had a hard day at work with a sick Chicken, and I needed to say that my job, sometimes, is not just wearing pajamas all day and watching cartoons.
Sometimes my job is spending all day feeling sick and helpless while someone I love is sick and helpless. It's feeling angry at myself for losing my patience with someone who really just feels like shit and lacks the vocabulary to say so like a grown-up.
Sometimes, in addition to being the best job I've ever had, it feels like the worst job anybody ever had
Except when your boss asks you for something, he uses words. And if you can't make that something happen immediately, your boss doesn't typically shriek, fall on the ground, slap his own face, and need ten minutes of your soothing to calm him down again.
Your job is just like my job.
Except at your job if you start something and then your boss asks you for something else, you can probably say, "Okay, I just started this new project and I'll be done with it in ten minutes. After that, I'll start your thing." When my boss wants something he doesn't give a good God damn what I just started.
Your job is just like my job.
Except you probably aren't covered in human excrement, urine, snot, and drool at the end of your workday.
Your job is just like my job.
Except if you talk shit about your boss you're "blowing off steam," and it probably feels great to say what you really think about a person who has made your workday so miserable. If I talk shit about my boss I feel guilty for failing to empathize with a boss who has made my workday so miserable.
Your job is just like my job.
Except that if you're bad at your job, well, it means you aren't a very good... whatever you are - banker, lawyer, fry cook, whatever. If I'm bad at my job, it means that I'm a bad person. I've probably wounded the psyche or body of someone who could not defend himself, and I can be convicted of a crime, forced into therapy, and be removed from my family.
If you get fired, you go home, get a drink, and start looking for another gig. If I get fired I'm probably in jail or rehab.
Your job is just like my job.
Except that I don't ever, ever, ever get to call in sick. Ever.
And you get to clock in and clock out. I have no clock. My workday starts at 12:00 am and ends at 11:59 pm.
Your job is just like my job.
Except the stakes at my job are another human life. And not just the live-or-die black-and-white part, but all the infinite shades of who-are-you-going-to-be and how-am-I-teaching-you-about-the-world-and-kindness-and-safety-and-self-reliance-and-self-respect, which are, in many ways, so much harder and so much more vague.
___
I didn't mean for this to be a rant or a poor-me party.
I don't mean any offense to people who work hard outside of the home, and I don't mean to say that my job is harder than yours, or my job is better or worse than yours. There are professional teachers, caregivers, doctors, nurses, personal assistants, social workers, and prison guards who can probably identify with most of what I've just described.
I just had a hard day at work with a sick Chicken, and I needed to say that my job, sometimes, is not just wearing pajamas all day and watching cartoons.
Sometimes my job is spending all day feeling sick and helpless while someone I love is sick and helpless. It's feeling angry at myself for losing my patience with someone who really just feels like shit and lacks the vocabulary to say so like a grown-up.
Sometimes, in addition to being the best job I've ever had, it feels like the worst job anybody ever had