What is it with people (and with me, let's not pretend I'm excluding myself from this set) right now? I'm not quite to Waylon's level, as I'm not necessarily 'lonesome,' by any means. But I have to fight with myself to keep the 'on'ry and mean' tamped down. And it seems a majority of people I see during the day - at work, particularly - are in the same boat. Simmering. Unhappy. Frustrated.
There's a wealth of data about perceptions, health, happiness, sustainability, and economic well-being. We have Projects, Indices, and Deliveries.
So, to mis-quote that horrible film... "Where's the happiness?"
According to a recent article in Forbes,
What’s interesting is that the Happiness plateau on which we are currently stuck is not, as you might think, a result of the deep economic recession in which we are now mired. We have been on the Happiness plateau for half a century. Happiness didn’t advance even during those decades when it appeared that incomes of most of the population were rising. Of course, since the economy has stalled, the future looks increasingly grim.
After coming across Denning's article last week, I found a copy of the de Botton work he discusses there: "The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work". Enjoyment at work is something I've been pondering in depth for a year now; I applied a year ago next week for a position I desperately wanted and for which I am well-qualified, only to find out four months later that I didn't even merit an interview. In the intervening year, I've applied for some thirty-seven others, all in sustainability-related fields in academics. Maybe it's just getting all of these rejection letters that has me beaten down (and oh my, it does) but I think for the time being, I've reached the limit on applications I can stand to complete. Where does that leave me?
In the job that's made me so unhappy in the first place. And in pondering and crying and drinking over the ill-used and unhappy feeling that surrounds the place I spend 7.5 hours a day, I kept returning to a quote from de Botton's work:
For most of human history, the only instruments needed to induce employees to complete their duties energetically and adroitly was the whip… Once it became evident that someone who was expected to remove brain tumors, draw up binding legal documents or sell condominiums with convincing energy could not be profitably sullen or resentful, morose or angry, the mental well being of employees commenced to be an object of supreme concern.
Teachers, in their jobs of selling education, have long been painted either as unforgiving and unfulfilled taskmasters... unless, of course, they're martyrs for their students who happily forego their own pursuits for the 'higher calling' and lower wages of the classroom. People rarely talk about the staff who work to get schedules made and checks cut and supplies ordered, who plan course offerings and parse enrollment data and plans. We're not educators, but we're the people who make the machine
go. And for most people on a campus, we're invisible - we're the people who are always remembered as 'rude' by students and 'efficient' by bosses, but we're rarely called integral to the larger college... unless it's
April 24th.
I'd like to think that if those of us in staff positions could just get a little more respect for our contributions - and a little less patronizing about our efficiency - we could be seen as creative contributors to the mission of a college. But... then once the lowly hourly secretary is seen as a creative and vital contributor to institutional success, what does that mean for the layers upon layers of deans who've taken credit for her work?
FWIW, this started as a rant and ended as a quiet sob. I'm rather spectacularly unhappy in my 9-5, and astoundingly burned out after this summer - even for coursework in my graduate work in sustainability - which starts again in a few weeks. All I have is one year. And this semester, I will start work on my thesis, designing and studying the efficacy of modularized professional development for faculty to integrate sustainability into their classrooms. I should be excited, but I'm just so fucking tired. And I really don't know how to get myself back in the swing of things. I'll take your advice, oh friends of Kos - after all, you've been there for me in other dark hours. And in trade, I'll give you two photos - one of my new niece, Henley Elizabeth, who joined our family on 24 May (and is the most beautiful baby in the universe.)
And one that's an edit of a tree on my aunt and uncle's farm in Nerstrand, MN:
Edit:
Thank you, Rescue and Community Spotlight Faeries! I noticed the "Community Spotlight" tag late last night / early this morning, but I've written so infrequently since we went to Kos New.0 that I wasn't sure what it meant. What a wonderful surprise!
I've a habit of purchasing music 'in the old way' - without listening beforehand - and sometimes it comes back to bite me. The recent purchase of Shinyribs' "Well After Awhile" was a really lucky one. I've listened to a few of the tunes, but one has a playcount far higher than all the others. It's written, says frontman Kevin Russell (of The Gourds, yes) as a prayer. I prefer to employ it here as a thanks. For what it's worth, the drums-heavy mix here isn't reflected on the album... it's much more balanced there.
Shinyribs - Fisherman's Friend