Job Satisfaction and Other Myths

This has been one busy month spent working hard and playing hard. I got all choked up today telling the bosslady how much I like my (primary) job, so I thought I would share a bit about that.

Working at an environmental justice group is a feel-good job. There are people depending on my organization who have a real chance at doing something really important for their communities and who are willing to walk 240 miles on foot to succeed (and much more). I like the people aspect of this NGO because it gives a new dimension to the environmental part of the work; the toxin concentrations in the air, the cancer and disease epidemics, the leaching landfills all have a real face. The human dimension is much more compelling than the abstract idea of a couple bird species getting wiped out. I can imagine packed town meetings in my head, I can feel the fear and grief of parents whose children have developed serious and rare illnesses overnight, and I can hear people pleading with governors who just can't provide a good answer to why it's too expensive to act on behalf of the health of the citizens. People power is hopeful and uplifting - even when an effort doesn't succeed. To simply know someone else is there is to be strengthened.

I'm also becoming quickly biased against jobs in the private and government sector, since part of what I'm paid to do is to examine their gross and often appalling failings. I don't want to be paid with dirty money, nomatter how badly chemical companies might need someone to be the seed of change from within the organization. Why should my college education be a sentence to a life of guilt?

Despite all the positive points, it has been hard to cope with intern and cashier wages, especially with the Christmas social blitz (fun!). Recent calculations yielded 40 hours time work+travel for my internship plus 14 hours for my cashier job at Roots - that's turning out to be a lot of work. More than I thought 2 jobs would be. It's frustrating to not have time to write even though the urge is usually there once every week or two. Forgive me for being so lax recently - let's hope this is just an adjustment period.