Wednesday, January 25, 2006
(12:08 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Things that could be better
It would be better if I didn't have a cold right now. I had one last week, and I took a day off to deal with it (although in effect, I took a day off to work on the freelance project that I finally finished off Monday). Yesterday, it came back. I went to work anyway, because the Semester of the Damned is starting next week and I need to work as much as possible before it starts so that I can work as little as possible while it's going on.I'm pretty adept at doing data entry work while sniffling and sneezing -- in fact, that's arguably when I'm at my best. I was literally allergic to the office at my last job and would spend much of the day blowing my nose. This was for two and a half years. On particularly bad days, I would work incredibly fast on processing the payments, etc., just to keep my mind off the fact that it was the thirtieth time I'd blown my nose that minute. That kind of zombified state goes well with the zombification of data entry -- that minute attention to details that absolutely do not matter on any other scale. No one can concentrate on that, consciously, for very long. The key is to become so habituated to the (meaningless) patterns in the data that thought doesn't enter in, to become a machine. Establish a process that basically works, then trust the process. Trust the former self who consciously came up with the process, and go through the motions. When you make a mistake, it's not really "you" -- you don't recognize what you've done, you don't remember anything, you can't imagine how it could've happened. Even when it's known which physical body pressed the keys resulting in a particular entry, then, it's not really that person's fault -- someone messed up this page, someone. A person in general.
One of my coworkers today was sympathetic toward me, saying that I shouldn't be there, that no one should have to work when they were sick. I said, "Then maybe we should start a temp worker union so that we can get some sick days." It's a shame that such a thing is unimaginable. One almost longs for the clarity of physical work, where demanding long hours, for instance, can be seen for the abusive treatment it is. I would hate to have a full-time job: an expensive health insurance plan full of holes, the demand to work a theoretically infinite number of hours, and no real job security in the end anyway. That's how it seems at most places, at least -- or rather, it's only the decency of the bosses that makes it any different. In essence, we are all disposable temp workers, even the CEO. I steal time to look at the Internet, the CEO steals the money. The CEO is the one who turns the situation into an opportunity, but there's really only room for so many people to do that.
So things could be better, in short.
