Second Act Living

Steve Pavlina has a blog called personal development for smart people. I love the way he writes. One of his posts called “10 Reasons You Should Never Get A Job” really gave me quite a chuckle and I really must comment on his number 3 reason:

3. Lifelong domestication.

Getting a job is like enrolling in a human domestication program. You learn how to be a good pet……

How’s your obedience training coming along? Does your master reward your good behavior? Do you get disciplined if you fail to obey your master’s commands?

Is there any spark of free will left inside you? ……… You poor thing…

I have a job and I have a boss. I have to agree with Steve when he says having a job is like enrolling in a human domestication program. Reading his post reminded me of a conversation I had with “my Boss Bob”.

This was a conversation which I knew was coming.

We were in our weekly meeting when it happened.

“By the way”, here it comes I thought… “I noticed that you are leaving exactly at 5 o’clock these days.” Boss Bob says.

“Yeah, my shift is 8 to 5 with an hour lunch”, I said. This was different for me. I was labeled “Old Faithful” because I would stay until the job was done and now I was pretty much leaving when my 8 hours were up.

Then here it came - Boss Bob’s favorite story. Where we work, all of us call it the “Farmer and the Hell” story. To sum it up, he basically says, “The farmer stays until the job is done. If he doesn’t, there is no food on the table that night.”

I told him I totally agreed with him. “The farmer needs to do whatever it takes to get the job done”, I said.

“Good, I’m glad you understand” he said and that was the end of the conversation.

The next day when I was leaving at 5 o’clock he stopped me and said,”I thought you understood?”

“I do understand,” I said.

“Then why aren’t you staying, there are reports to get out?”

“Well, I’m not the farmer, you are. I’m the cow,” I stated.

“What?”