Jobs

Everyone who has ever had a job knows what its like to lie in bed in the morning, still under the weary spell of sleep, and be awakened rudely by the alarm clock. 


"Oh", you think, "I've got to go to bloody work today" Then yawn, ".......ahh go on then, just one more minute and I'll get up........", and then that minute comes to an end and you think, "Okay, on the count of three then......... one............ two........... well, maybe just one more minute..........and eventually drag yourself out of bed five minutes later". 
And at this point at least once every couple of months (maybe weeks?) that little voice at the back of your head suddenly pops up from nowhere and says "Of course....... you could....... call in sick today?" 
And then you start to convince yourself that you are sick, and think "Well actually, I suppose have got a bit of a back-ache anyway, I mean if I go in then it'll get worse, and it'll be better in the long run, and I'll be late now and oh, oh yeah it really does hurt actually and christ!, I'm not going to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair for them!!" Five minutes later you're on the phone to work telling them you won't be in today and not to expect you until at least March.


Or maybe that just reflects my perhaps less-than-perfect work ethic.


The thing is, I'm starting to miss the above scenario - which may seem a little warped. I mean, I'm fed up with not having a job and bored with all my spare time, but the main thing I miss about working is skiving off? I do miss working, and for many reasons - most notably the income, but also the social side of it - and the fact that it can help fill your day and give you a vague sense of purpose.


But.


Most jobs are actually really crap. They are monotonous, uninspiring, poxy, horrible. And the horrible starts right from the beginning, the interview. 
You dress smartly in rarely worn and probably ill-fitting clothes and spurt out rubbish like about how you are 'capable of working alone as well as part of a team', and smile a lot and answer stupid questions. Its like all these crap admin jobs I keep applying for at the moment, and they ask you in all seriousness, "So Mr Sadler, what is it that first interested you in working in an administrative role?", and you think, "Well nothing obviously! I'm just totally skint and I need the money!". But you have to play their game and say all the right things anyway.


And then when you're settled into the job you're faced with the next challenge; boredom. Most jobs involve you doing exactly the same thing everyday, every week of the year, and involve monotonous, barely challenging menial tasks. The worst thing you can do at this stage is check the clock frequently. It will usually barely move and make you very depressed, especially if you misjudge it particularly badly. Checking it thinking it must be nearly lunchtime and it turns out to be only twenty past nine can crush your spirit like nothing else. You space the time out with frequent toilet trips and long walks around the office carrying a pile of paper and pretending to be busy. 


Despite this I am starting to miss it. Not for the time you spend at work, and the obvious financial gain, but because it makes the time you spend away from it all the better and more valued. Nothing can contend with the feeling on a Friday evening when you finish work and have whole entire expanse of the weekend waiting there ahead of you. The sense of freedom is immense. And that first pint after work, the one you've actually earned from a hard day's work. 


It even makes the time you wake up and decide to pull a sickie as valuable and precious as anything you ever gave to yourself, because you're in a great place you shouldn't be, instead of a bad place you should be.