desperate for change

I have been reading LifeReboot for quite a while now. If there is a decent blog devoted to being on an Odyssey, this would be one.

The latest post on the working dead struck a chord with many readers including myself. I am sure that there are some people that are satisfied with getting paid to do nothing. The fact of the matter is, if you are at any task or job where you have no feeling, passion or purpose, you are effectively a zombie. When managers give busywork to better manage the “doing nothing,” it actually makes things even worse.

Have I been a zombie? At various times and positions in my career yes. While the first couple of hours of sweet freedom is fine, there is really only so much web surfing and solitaire that you can do before you have to come face-to-face with the issue at hand. Wouldn’t it be more responsible to go to your manager or boss to let him know that you got some free time to deal with stuff? Oh yeah, there are actually stuff that you don’t want to do, or heaven forbid, the dreaded busywork. This is actually assuming that your manager is available to talk with you.

I think that the working dead who have internet access have a real opportunity to really make a difference at work or for themselves. I have embarked on secret skunkwork projects. I have bettered myself by learning new programming languages and tools. But unless you like doing research for a living, this is actually a tough way to pass the time.

Being a working dead zombie is very stressful for me. Part of me is screaming for freedom from the desk, to go to the beach or the library. Another part of me is trying to sooth emyself, reminding myself that keeping a low profile will get me yet another day closer to payday. Having contradictions in my head causes me stress.

Eventually, the thing to do would be to deal with the situation. This could mean: getting into a different position at the same company; finding a new job at a different company; going back to school; going on vacation; or going on a sabbatical. I have done all of these. The fact of the matter is, going on a sabbatical (mine was unofficial and unpaid) is the only one that did anything for me. At least I am honest with myself about wanting to do nothing for a while, instead of having the internal turmoil of getting paid to do nothing. More precisely, being on a sabbatical lets you really go after the things that you really want to do, rather than just being a zombie. Naturally, I am assuming that you are not a zombie in your spare time.

Tags: lifereboot, sabbatical, skunkworks, zombie

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 2:27 am and is filed under Odyssey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.