Career News 24/7: The Cynical Girl: Help Me Find Complacency In My Career

Friday, April 27, 2012

The Cynical Girl: Help Me Find Complacency In My Career

Posted: 26 Apr 2012 03:45 AM PDT

Lawyers advise bloggers not to publish email messages verbatim or advise readers directly because of the perceived liability. If my advice sucks, or if any harm befalls a reader, I don’t want to be held liable. SO THIS ENTIRE BLOG IS FICTION.

There you go.

But this letter is such a gem that I had to publish it in its entirety.

You know those people that can find complacency in their career? The ones that can stay at a job for decades. Even through years of neglect and oppression, they still find a way to survive or meet the status quo? I used to think that those people were mindless drones, dead inside and robotic.

I never thought I would ever seek the answer to this question, but how do they do it? I desperately need to find complacency in my job. I don’t care about the idea of a “career” anymore, I just want to stop caring about the work I do and just keep my mouth shut and do it, but I fail at this every day.

I don’t know why I’m coming to you with this, when I’m pretty sure I know what your answer’s going to be. I need knowledge. Can you recommend anything on complacency? How to become an introvert? Maybe a surgeon who’ll remove my tongue (and my middle fingers)?

It saddens me to want to break my spirit, but I have to learn how to shut the fuck up and deposit the paycheck. Are there any self-help books out there like that? If not, can you write one…and hurry please.

Dammit, I know this reader. He has a vibrant life outside of his job. He’s a good guy. (Or girl. Whatever. Anonymity.) And he has an awesome family that brings him (or her) a tremendous amount of joy.

Although I’ve written a million times that it’s okay to be average at work — and that sometimes a job is just a job — that’s not enough for this poor sucker.

What advice do you have? How do you make work matter less so that it doesn’t eat away at your soul? Or is that the wrong answer?

Go. Please. Help this friend of mine out. Obviously I’m a a loss for words.