Are You Proud of Your Job?

In this week's poll I asked if you are proud of your job and the overwhelming majority of you said you were not.

Now, I hope those of you who said you weren't proud of your jobs weren't expecting a namby-pamby pick- me-up, because it isn't going to happen. So you aren't proud of what you do. Big deal. If careers were about feeling good we'd live in a country with 150 million broke teachers, nurses and social workers. You want to be proud? Go be a firefighter or a cop. You want that warm tingly feeling that comes with making a difference? That's fine, I just hope you like clipping coupons and wearing underwear from Goodwill.

Am I proud of my job? I learned the triviality of that question long ago. Being proud of what you do for a living doesn't mean diddlysquat. You think I take pride knowing that I allegedly helped precipitate three major corporate scandals? Hell no. But I tell you what, making a shitload of money has a way of healing wounds.

At the same time, that some of you are proud of your jobs doesn't impress me one bit. Sure, you probably go home happy and sleep well at night knowing that you made a difference in someone's life. But you know what? You'll and I will never eat at the same restaurants. You will never drive a car that costs more than the average house and you will never know what it feels like to wield the power of a thousand hammers. And while you will die with a clear conscience and perhaps even be remembered for the good you did, your death will force your wife to take out a loan to cover the cost of your funeral. Your legacy will be credit card debt, car loans and mortgages. Rent-a-center will repossess your living room and your kids will curse your memory because you made them go to school in second-hand clothes. And for what? So you could be proud of your job?

Pride in one's job is the folly of the naive. You want wealth and power? Then you need to excise what remains of your idealism. Pride is for possessions, not careers.