Young Underpaid Professionals

Posted by Chris S.

Well howdy there, kiddies! Chris S here saying hello to the world. I’ll be chiming in from time to time to share the little gems of knowledge I’ve gleaned throughout my working years, whether vicariously or through expending my own blood, sweat and tears, working my fingers to the bone, and so on and so forth. As Chiyo’s mentioned, work-wise I’ve been to Georgia and California and everywhere I can run – which is not to say I’ve been everywhere, of course, but I’ve had enough experience to know whereof I speak. Just doing my share to help everyone get through the day.

Okay, this first post of mine is a survival tip of sorts. The vast majority of us yuppies are office workers with fixed schedules (and, if we’re particularly unlucky, dress codes that involve ties and long sleeves and shiz like that). Some of us have it better than most of course – the more creative folks are given more leeway with a whole lot of things, for instance – but that doesn’t change the fact that for the vast majority of us office-bound folks, even in these modern times, working in an office can approximate indentured slavery, thanks to the rigid and unyielding restrictions that some employers seem to take a perverse pleasure in imposing upon their staff.

If you’re one of these guys, you know what the daily grind’s like, so I’ve little need to elaborate further. And even leaving the office isn’t any guarantee that the stress will be lifted from your already weary shoulders, of course. Getting home to a family that in some cases is dependent upon your toil and trouble to keep itself fed and clothed and educated and suitably accoutremented up is no joke. Some of us simply snap under the strain and stress and run amok. Or just kick the bucket.

Now a little seriousness. This post isn’t at all about work-life balance, although that’s part of it – it’s about something far more profound and significant.

Whatever you do, make sure you clear out some space in your life for you. Don’t ever let the world swallow you up wholesale. ‘The world’ could refer to your boss, your officemates, your partner, your family, other people in general if you’re a misanthrope – whoever it is that puts pressure on you to perform, to conform, or whatever it is that you have to do and you can’t, or won’t, escape.

It doesn’t matter who you are, or who you think you are; the world owes no one any favors whatsoever. It’ll chew you up and spit you out if given half a chance (and sometimes, it’ll do that to you despite all your efforts to the contrary, but that’s another thing for another time).

So do something you like doing, something that’s good for you, just a couple of little or not-so-little things everyday that don’t encroach upon what you need to do to put food on the table and money in your pocket. Read a book, take a stroll by your lonesome, feed a stray cat, bake a cake if that works for you. Or recharge with other people if that’s your thing.

Which is not to say that you should spoil yourself and go overboard on all the pampering. Overindulgence creates problems of its own, so don’t go that way.

Sometimes the small things can make all the difference between a tolerable day and a day that’s so unrelentingly nasty it’s all you can do not to throw yourself in the path of the nearest bus just to end the torture.

Don’t scoff at those girls’ magazines that say that the small things count, because I assure you most earnestly that they do.

So be good to yourself, okay? And don’t wait for the oncologist to tell you that you’ve only half a year to pick up your baby girl before you do so.

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