America is a great country for two major reasons: our diversity and our freedoms of speech, press and religion. However, American culture is rather unfortunate where people are judged unfairly by so many things that shouldn't matter, one of those things being what you do for work. I was so taken aback by encountering quite a few people who are actually ashamed of themselves for the work that they do.
Perhaps that's why I admire Aloy of Horizon: Zero Dawn so much because she always comes up with a witty remark, whereas whenever anyone says something that shocks me, I just stand there with my mouth open.
I wish I can go back and tell these hard-working people what I was thinking, instead of being so taken aback that I couldn't formulate any thoughts. It's so surprising to me that those who do really hard and crucially important work look down upon themselves, whereas those who should be ashamed of themselves are actually very proud and self-satisfied for making their 7 to 10 figure salaries by profiting over someone's suffering.
Such people as corporate raiders, and those involved in the housing market crash, both professions that led to families losing their homes. Nevertheless, they are proud of their work and their possessions, even though their activities led to massive and needless suffering.
One situation occurred when I was talking to a rather friendly waste collector and he asked me about my profession. He then said that he was very impressed with what I did, as he was a "stupid" sanitation worker, and really disparaged himself in a rather self-loathing way that again, I stood there with a blank stare being shocked.
If I had the wit about me, I would have said that back in the olden days, it was the sanitation workers that have saved lives and led to longevity of life on a massive, widespread scale, whereas doctors actually KILLED more people than helped.
This was due to the bizarre practice of blood-letting which appears to be the only appropriate treatment today for someone with the rare hemochromatosis. But going from 5 pints of blood to 0, no wonder people were dropping like flies back then. In other words, without sanitation, we would all be sick, as witnessed when waste collectors went on strike in NYC.
It's one thing for him to say he hates his job (which almost everyone does), but another that he looks down upon himself. If only I could go back and tell him that he should be proud of himself for consistently waking up at ungodly hours, and do extremely hard work that's improving everyone's life, whereas I could barely muster enough energy to get out of bed. Especially, as it appears that he hates his job, it's even more impressive that he nevertheless has so much discipline to go to work every day on time.
Further, I would have liked to tell him that with today's situation when Millennials can't find work even though they are valedictorians of very prestigious colleges and universities due to U.S.'s unfortunate situation of lack of jobs (whereas in the past, you're practically guaranteed one if you have a college degree), it's already impressive in of itself for him to have work in the first place.
There are other times that this has occurred, but most recently was yesterday in delinquentMuse's Twitch chat room, which compelled me to write this post, where one very nice member was disparaging himself for working at Amazon.com. Fortunately, I had time to collect my thoughts and wrote that the fact that he can go to work every day, where you have to actually ask permission to take bathroom breaks (wtf?!?), and people are known to cry, that it's impressive that he's strong enough to nevertheless work there and get there on time every day.
I would've quit day one. He really needs to be proud of his strength. We then discussed working at Costco instead, where it's on the opposite end of the scale, and is considered the best company to work for in 2017.
At any rate, if you're doing work that's helping others (which is the case with all but a handful of jobs), you should be very proud of yourself for working and making others' lives better. Instead of looking down upon yourself, perhaps reframe your thinking as, more accurately and more realistically, that you hate your job, not yourself, and then find a better work situation?
The How of Happiness Review
Perhaps that's why I admire Aloy of Horizon: Zero Dawn so much because she always comes up with a witty remark, whereas whenever anyone says something that shocks me, I just stand there with my mouth open.
I wish I can go back and tell these hard-working people what I was thinking, instead of being so taken aback that I couldn't formulate any thoughts. It's so surprising to me that those who do really hard and crucially important work look down upon themselves, whereas those who should be ashamed of themselves are actually very proud and self-satisfied for making their 7 to 10 figure salaries by profiting over someone's suffering.
Such people as corporate raiders, and those involved in the housing market crash, both professions that led to families losing their homes. Nevertheless, they are proud of their work and their possessions, even though their activities led to massive and needless suffering.
One situation occurred when I was talking to a rather friendly waste collector and he asked me about my profession. He then said that he was very impressed with what I did, as he was a "stupid" sanitation worker, and really disparaged himself in a rather self-loathing way that again, I stood there with a blank stare being shocked.
If I had the wit about me, I would have said that back in the olden days, it was the sanitation workers that have saved lives and led to longevity of life on a massive, widespread scale, whereas doctors actually KILLED more people than helped.
This was due to the bizarre practice of blood-letting which appears to be the only appropriate treatment today for someone with the rare hemochromatosis. But going from 5 pints of blood to 0, no wonder people were dropping like flies back then. In other words, without sanitation, we would all be sick, as witnessed when waste collectors went on strike in NYC.
It's one thing for him to say he hates his job (which almost everyone does), but another that he looks down upon himself. If only I could go back and tell him that he should be proud of himself for consistently waking up at ungodly hours, and do extremely hard work that's improving everyone's life, whereas I could barely muster enough energy to get out of bed. Especially, as it appears that he hates his job, it's even more impressive that he nevertheless has so much discipline to go to work every day on time.
Further, I would have liked to tell him that with today's situation when Millennials can't find work even though they are valedictorians of very prestigious colleges and universities due to U.S.'s unfortunate situation of lack of jobs (whereas in the past, you're practically guaranteed one if you have a college degree), it's already impressive in of itself for him to have work in the first place.
There are other times that this has occurred, but most recently was yesterday in delinquentMuse's Twitch chat room, which compelled me to write this post, where one very nice member was disparaging himself for working at Amazon.com. Fortunately, I had time to collect my thoughts and wrote that the fact that he can go to work every day, where you have to actually ask permission to take bathroom breaks (wtf?!?), and people are known to cry, that it's impressive that he's strong enough to nevertheless work there and get there on time every day.
I would've quit day one. He really needs to be proud of his strength. We then discussed working at Costco instead, where it's on the opposite end of the scale, and is considered the best company to work for in 2017.
At any rate, if you're doing work that's helping others (which is the case with all but a handful of jobs), you should be very proud of yourself for working and making others' lives better. Instead of looking down upon yourself, perhaps reframe your thinking as, more accurately and more realistically, that you hate your job, not yourself, and then find a better work situation?
The How of Happiness Review
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