I am not made of this stuff

I got out of a pretty degrading, underpaying teaching career and somehow got a job at a government body. Provincial government institution, not a ministry. On paper, it all sounds good--I kind of wanted this for my future--but I am dying. I am DYING there. I know we all have to eat shit at an entry-level position but processing invoices for 8 hours a day is killing me. Having meetings every single morning about invoices is killing me. Sitting at a desk doing redundant, mindless processing is killing me. I'm also university-educated and a writer / musician--I know it sounds snotty to say so, but I am working on the same level as older women who owned nail salons and worked at Costco. I never envisioned this as a career, and I don't have a family so there is no real stubborn urge to just hunker down and do invoices. I can't believe that I am doing this, and that I may end up chained to a desk for the next 30 years doing this because there is fuck-all else to do with one's life if they haven't written a best-selling novel.

19 Comments

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You are the Author...

Mar 21, 2017 at 3:31pm

I know, easier said then done right? I left my comfortable well paid Government job to follow my creative pursuits for the same reasons... I did this at 40. Definitely not an easy decision but I owned it... I made my escape plan and executed it within one year. Here's another cliche for ya. Life is too fucking short... don't compromise at the expense of your happiness!

27 7Rating: +20

Have you ever

Mar 21, 2017 at 3:59pm

owned a salon, or any small business?

No idea what to do about the boredom with your current job, but running a successful small business takes smarts, Degree or no degree.. It makes a job like you have nice, because there is much less thinking and stress involved. Sometimes you don't know what you don't know..

30 4Rating: +26

management

Mar 21, 2017 at 4:49pm

You might think about moving up the ladder, my observation is that entry level jobs have more supervisors of a petty, meagre quality which tends to make the work harder to do. Snag one of those jobs and while it is still a daily grind, you'll get to make more decisions and it makes the day go faster.

Keep writing though. A page a day. That's the process.

19 6Rating: +13

therobotmonster

Mar 21, 2017 at 5:21pm

This is why I never wanted to work in an office, because I knew it would kill me. There are many different ways to earn a living.

No Sympathy

Mar 21, 2017 at 5:22pm

I want to take my steel toed shoes off and chuck them at your head. First off, if you managed to get a teaching job in Canada, then you pretty much won the fucking lottery because being a public school teacher is one of the best jobs in the country. A powerful teachers union gives you people perks and incredible benefits that other people, who sacrifice and work just as hard, don't get.
But that wasn't enough? You won the lottery again by getting a cushy government job, and you're still complaining? Its boring? Repetitive? And you have a university degree you say? ........Wow.
I have a university degree as well, but I, along with countless young grads across the country, are stuck doing low paying menial labor jobs. We are desperately trying to find entry-level jobs like yours only to be told we don't have "previous experience."
I am on my feet all day doing manual labor. I have back problems, foot problems, and copious amounts of dirt under my fingernails. And I can't make enough money to live independently. You work in a quiet office, in nice clothes and a comfortable desk, but that's no good because its not exciting enough. Its repetitive. My work is repetitive. Making overpriced coffee, flipping burgers, scanning groceries, listening to bitchy customers is also repetitive. But the rest of us have to do our work without the benefits of a government job. Processing invoices sounds like a dream from where I'm standing.
And by the way, I have many colleagues who are immigrants with professional degrees. They had great careers back in their native countries, and now they have to start all over. They're more qualified and deserving of your government job, but I doubt they're as bitter about it as you are about working alongside people from nail salons or Costco.

So..

Mar 21, 2017 at 5:41pm

Write your book in your free time, get it published, maybe do it yourself on Amazon, then when the proceeds for that start coming in, quit your job, and write and play music full time.

9 11Rating: -2

?

Mar 21, 2017 at 7:52pm

If you try to excel at your job, you will challenge yourself and not be bored. You may even earn a job more in line with what you believe you merit on the basis of your artistic talent and education.

19 3Rating: +16

You are a snob

Mar 21, 2017 at 9:09pm

You judge your co-workers and you think you are too good to be working with them!
I'm glad you don't work with me because I would hate to have to deal with your snotty attitude.
If you don't like your job, fine ...go ahead and get another one but don't look down on your co-workers because you are just a mere mortal like the rest of us!

22 7Rating: +15

This is how....

Mar 21, 2017 at 9:40pm

... The Office was born!

Anonymous

Mar 21, 2017 at 9:46pm

is there any way that you can contribute to automating the process of your work or finding more efficient ways to do it?

i know "automating" and finding efficiency in processes sets off an alarm for some people (taking away jobs!!) but seriously, do we want our taxpayer dollars funding some bullshit process? that's even more nihilistic than my brand of nihilism. basic income now.

7 9Rating: -2

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