askandanswer | (no subject)

(no subject)

Today I read a very long study about career satisfaction, happiness, and the difficulty of attaining either in the contemporary economy.

So. Do you like your job?

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I think it's something of an inherited attitude, and, I don't know, capitalism.

[ He hadn't meant to use past tense, but it's not worth getting flustered over. ]

Truly exciting stuff: market research. But, you know. A job. Do you like yours? If you have one?

[ As she is prone to in everyday conversations, if this... is really that everyday, Gisela thinks of her mother, who would probably talk for seventy-nine years about the failures of late capitalism and labor. Gisela knows all the talking points, but she just grins in solidarity. ]

You probably get some interesting trivia out of that, at least.

I work two jobs: I'm in my second year of being a junior doctor, and because the city is maddeningly expensive, I sometimes pull night shifts cleaning at a hotel in town. I love medicine; I chose it when I was thirteen years old. Occasionally, though, the hotel job is almost a relief.

From the commercial clients, definitely.

[ His tone of voice is sort of "ha ha oh god" about it. The implied dead-eyed drinking motion is almost audible. ]

Almost a relief?

[ It's not that he can't see how it might be, but he's never wanted a career in anything with that sort of certainty. That must change things. ]

It's not so intense. [ Her current hospital has an environment that is wicked and unhealthy, and she is perpetually caught between just saying that and not wanting to look like she can't hack it. So instead she makes a face like it's laughably ridiculous, because it is, and she does often want to laugh at it. ]

If something goes wrong at the hospital, you're on your own. There's more camaraderie at the hotel. It makes perfect sense, medicine is deeply competitive, and should be high-pressure because of our responsibilities. ...but oh, do ever I want to give a few my peers a prescription for some xanax and a nap.

[ The hotel has its problems, but she's never felt like the other cleaners don't have her back. ]

Edited 2014-10-06 04:42 (UTC)

[ His expressions resolves itself from slight confusion to understanding. He does remember now how his girlfriend had similar things to say about her fellow medical students, but he'd thought that might stop by the time people were actually doing rounds. Which was dumb of him, or rather, several-years-ago him, as he hadn't thought about it since then. ]

The competitive and high pressure combination does foster that kind of thing. I don't know why I only expected it from like, business and law and my area. Eventually it just seems crazy, doesn't it. Just fucking absurd. But then you have bills and debt and emergencies and it... gets away from you, or maybe I'm projecting at this point.

No, you're not. Not at all. [ And there is a little bit of struggle there with adapting to her own framework; sure, it's been years, but there are times when Gisela knows she could use witchcraft to get what she wants, or to make things that much easier. ]

Sometimes I do get that 'drop everything and run away' temptation, I'll admit. I never would, but the thought crosses my mind.

[ He manages to only look a little embarrassed, but not referring to his own situation with any specifics is a very simple solution to that. ]

The way it's all structured, the way we're supposed to do things — I think part of the problem is how unrelenting it is. You know this is what you want to do but it'd be a heck of a lot easier if you didn't have to be on it, every day, can't miss a beat. If there were more room overall, then people wouldn't fling everything in the air and go hide in a cave.

[ Whoops, maybe a little on the nose. Oh, well; he doesn't seem to mind too much. ]

You have a point there. I do like a bit of a routine, but part of it is that need to say in the rat race at all times, no matter what profession you're in. The joys of being a millennial...or maybe it was this intense when our parents were young, too, I don't know.

[ But she is skeptical of that. ]

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