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One of life's most profoundly depressing events is the first time that you have to get a job. At least, I maintain, this holds true for those of us raised in relative comfort and luxury and for whom summer growing up meant a time of playing.
Yes, playing. I miss playing. StarCraft, RuneScape, dodgeball, games made up with neighbors, basketball, soccer, Smash Brothers, action figures...
But, alas, for me like I am sure for many of you, one summer mom and pop let me on to the fact that I was going to have to get a job.
My initial surge of emotion, at age 16, was a collected (though certainly unreasonable) form of excitement. Growing up at last. Best of all, I'll have some cash flowing in - think of the possibilities. I could buy CDs, more computer games, more console games, a new watch, some food from Applebee's.
Then I started the job, busing tables. Not too bad, but at the time I thought that four hours of that slave labor was all that a man (and certainly not a woman) could bear. To compensate for the unbearable nature of my work (putting forks on tables in between eating from an unlimited supply of free, delicious, and fresh rolls), I fantasized about ways in which my work was secretly noble. In fact, I constantly fantasized about some movie producers wanting to do a movie about me, the legendary busboy. One night, I remember well, the only other busboy for a busy Friday night called in sick. So, I was left alone to do a near impossible task. In my head I spun tales of how great my feat was as I bussed all the tables in the medium-sized (but not full) restaurant. I imagined others passing on the tale of the busboy with legendary skill. I even took great pleasure setting the table at night for my family, marveling at my fork and knife placement.
High school classes resumed and I quit my job to focus hard on my mediocre high school career. I pulled all of a 3.2 in high school, but was convinced that busing tables 10 hours a week would interfere too much.
Later I went on to college and had jobs waiting tables, until I transferred out and went to a pretty challenging philosophy program (Calvin College). I managed a 3.8, having a job tutoring students in 4 subjects and graduating a semester early.
Then I moved here. To Manhattan. Kansas. Population 50k.
I needed money pretty immediately upon moving here so I decided to get a job where I knew I'd get hired instantly - Wendy's. I worked for about 30 hours and then quit on my fourth day, for what I thought was a much better position.
After an hour-long interview, I was hired at the regional hospital for the position of Nutrition Assistant. The details were quite vague, but I was under the impression (guided by my interviewer) that I was basically going to be doing room service. Not the greatest job, but one in which I could feel some sense of dignity and meaning - it would be like waiting tables, except your customers are critically ill and there aren't any tips to make you dishonest.
After an 8-hour orientation listening to the HR people tell us new employees how to hide it if we accidentally kill someone from fiendish lawyers, I was given my "other" job description: "Dishwasher".
So, I washed dishes. Full time. With a supervisor who barely spoke English and a kitchen full of cafeteria workers who barely spoke any English (except for the K-State students who work there part time - but they were the room service people).
While on the job, I developed new ways of fantasizing to escape from having to bear the thoughts "scrape. push. scrape. wipe. place. remove. wash. scrape. walk. hola. scrape." for 8 hours a day. I would read dense philosophy like Husserl right before work (7 am - and I had to ride my bike to get there since I totaled my car the day I started washing dishes. Correct, that was the worst day of my life), so I could wrestle with the content in my head as I worked. Thoughts looked more like "i don't get husserl. scrape. scrape. something about. scrape. logic. push. or thought. scrape. this job is making me retarded. remove."
After a month and a half of washing dishes, I'm out. Miraculously, I now work full time for a small local law firm. I no longer fantasize while I'm at my job because my work is actually decent.
People have told me what a great blessing this job is. They're correct. They also say, however, that Providence (some call it God) has given me this job for being willing to do the nitty-gritty hard work to make it through.
They're wrong.
What about James, the 43-year-old Taiwanese man who can't get another job because his English is too poor, in spite of the fact that he is clearly a brilliant man who has to support his daughter (his wife and son are still in Taiwan)? What providential break does he get? None, and we like to sweep him (and everyone else still in that cafeteria, with no decent prospects for a better future) under the table and imagine that we've earned our decent livings, at the expense of other people without the same set of "marketable skills". /end communist propaganda. No, I'm not a communist.
Moral of the story:
Isn't it sad how the second highest paying careers are those which are supposed to be about benefiting others : i.e lawyers (social justice...?) and doctors (compassion and healing...?), while the highest paying are those that play games for a living?
No, that's not a good moral. You're right. There's nothing good, meaningful, or true to glean from washing dishes.
Though more appropriately, the moral of the story is: If any of you move to Manhattan, KS and get offered the position of Nutrition Assistant, do not take it.
 
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Nice story but progamers don't honestly get paid that much. I remember my first job, I was a sign holder for a pizza place. Embarassing... I had multiple BB gun shootings at me. Thank god the sign I was holding was big enough to use it as a shield. I had slushies thrown at me, eggs, you name it.
Moral of my first job: Don't ever be a sign holder on the side of a street for 6$CAD/hour....
EDIT: I've also been a dishwasher as well. It sucked nuts. Other than the pizza place, this was the shittiest job I have ever had. Oonly 2nd shittiest because we got free beverages :D
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progamers may not get paid that much but professional athletes sure do. their job is to play games and get honored as 1)heroes 2)the hottest guys on earth 3)celebrity superstars 4)philanthropist saviors etc all at once
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Osaka27105 Posts
Very nice read. As a former dishwasher myself, it is nice to see a fellow scraper freed from bondage in pursuit of a better vocation.
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Sigh... at least you guys didn't have to clean the washrooms at a supermarket
My first job was at superstore
oh well that was only for the 1 hour that the lazy managers stayed at the supermarket, then i slacked off for the next 5 hours
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On February 27 2009 10:46 Kaotu wrote:
progamers may not get paid that much but professional athletes sure do. their job is to play games and get honored as 1)heroes 2)the hottest guys on earth 3)celebrity superstars 4)philanthropist saviors etc all at once
maybe by "the ones who play games" he meant businessmen / investors / etc
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On February 27 2009 10:46 Kaotu wrote:
progamers may not get paid that much but professional athletes sure do. their job is to play games and get honored as 1)heroes 2)the hottest guys on earth 3)celebrity superstars 4)philanthropist saviors etc all at once
although doctors save lives, i really wonder who 'benefits' the most people. an athlete makes money and jobs for a lot of people. without athletes there wouldn't be any hierarchical positions like managers, agents, vice presidents, secretaries, etc. who work to run the teams. Then you have cameramen to shoot each game and the people in the studio to manage each broadcast, photographers, cheerleaders, food vendors, merchandise and ticket sellers, etc. All these people have jobs because there are athletes.
like it or not, I think athletes reach far more people economically and can be mutually beneficial. Doctors keep one person healthy at a time.
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my first job was also dishwasher. Eventually i climbed my way up the kitchen ladder to head the line. Then i realized how id rather be doing dishes, its easy, i can spend more time hitting on waitresses and still get paid the same. Whenever i dishwasher called in sick i hopped right in the pit to be allowed to stand around, instead of yelling, sweating and getting stressed out.
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Doesn't he mean sports? Those motherfuckers get paid for playing a sport that doesn't help anybody.I have nothing against sports since I like basketball but still, the amount of money some of them earn is outrageous.
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Maybe he didn't mean professional computerplayers, but professional sports players (basketball, football, soccer, icehockey)...
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8748 Posts
On February 27 2009 11:12 ilistis wrote:
Doesn't he mean sports? Those motherfuckers get paid for playing a sport that doesn't help anybody.I have nothing against sports since I like basketball but still, the amount of money some of them earn is outrageous.
entertainment is very helpful. it keeps people healthy. it keeps people happy. it makes them more productive workers.
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So far I've never had to waiter tables or wash dishes or flip hamburgers or anything like that, I've pretty much been in school all my life. Hopefully, the education I'll have on paper after all this time will allow me to skip the whole "paying my dues" work.
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On February 27 2009 11:11 TryThis wrote:
my first job was also dishwasher. Eventually i climbed my way up the kitchen ladder to head the line. Then i realized how id rather be doing dishes, its easy, i can spend more time hitting on waitresses and still get paid the same. Whenever i dishwasher called in sick i hopped right in the pit to be allowed to stand around, instead of yelling, sweating and getting stressed out.
Yeah, I dishwashed for awhile and my Boss asked if I wanted to start training to be a cook.. I observed the cooks as they worked and I quite honestly said "Not really.."
I actually didn't mind it where I was either. I was the best fucking dishwasher there was. Between trays I would clean the place thoroughly, which made my bosses love me. I didn't mind cleaning because I rather things be clean than Dirty. I can make games out of cleaning. After a few weeks I started cleaning the entire kitchen while my boss/cook was on break. I got payed the same I would have as a cook, I had more time to chill and relax and spend time with cute waitresses, my bosses loved me and the waitresses actually started demanding that they work during my shifts.
The moral of my story is that,
Even though I worked at a relatively nice establishment, and that there are worse dishwashing jobs that this comparison would not ring true for, I was able to turn a usually unpleasant task into a job that I was highly appreciated for, and I could make games out of how fast and efficiently I cleaned.
Do I want to be dishwashing next year? No. It's still kinda gross and not too fun. But I still really don't mind it that much.
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On February 27 2009 11:18 Liquid`NonY wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2009 11:12 ilistis wrote:
Doesn't he mean sports? Those motherfuckers get paid for playing a sport that doesn't help anybody.I have nothing against sports since I like basketball but still, the amount of money some of them earn is outrageous. entertainment is very helpful. it keeps people healthy. it keeps people happy. it makes them more productive workers.
And for that A Rod deserves 250 million dollars over 5 years
I did dishes at costco in the food court for 3 hours every night, 5 days a week. IT wasn't too bad though, because there were 4-5 other kids my age working there and we'd joke around etc as we did the work.
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United States24495 Posts
Having a job all the way at the bottom of the economic totem poll can be a very good experience if you are going to get a prestigious job down the road.
For an example, I've worked at the local park where one of the less enjoyable tasks was dumping the garbage cans filled with rotting fish (beach and park lol) into the back of the garbage truck (and having to smell it while you rode on the back of the truck until the driver finally agreed to let you hop it up [scoop garbage into main compartment of truck].
Now when I work in another job such as teaching, and a kid says I "don't know what it's like," I can honestly feel like I've been there.
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On February 27 2009 11:22 Osmoses wrote:
So far I've never had to waiter tables or wash dishes or flip hamburgers or anything like that, I've pretty much been in school all my life. Hopefully, the education I'll have on paper after all this time will allow me to skip the whole "paying my dues" work.
The whole "paying your dues" work is education in itself.
I've had some shitty work experiences, tyrannical employers, unfair conditions, angry clients - but the sheer amount of life experience and character building that I've drawn from it all makes me very glad I did it.
Of course if I had been given the opportunity to skip it, not having foresight of what I would gain from it, I would have. I had to be forced through it. But in the end, I feel bad for people who have an easy way out.
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entertainment is one of the most valuable commodities human beings can provide.
Anything that deviates ones thoughts from the dreary reality that is life, is priceless.
we pay millions ( collectively) to see Cristiano Ronaldo, or Kobe Briant perform, because they inspire dreams, they ease your mind by sucking you into that one moment where nothing else matters.
the gritty reality of a hospital is not as blissful, and neither is the disappointment found in the worlds flawed justice systems.
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On February 27 2009 11:32 NoobsOfWrath wrote:
And for that A Rod deserves 250 million dollars over 5 years
How much he "deserves" is irrelevant compared to how much he's worth. The Yankees think paying him 50 mil/year will earn the organization more money or else they wouldn't be paying him that much. When you think of his job in terms of being paid to hit a ball with a stick, it seems incredible, but entertainment is big bucks.
As for lawyers, lol @ social justice.
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On February 27 2009 11:49 ShadowDrgn wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2009 11:32 NoobsOfWrath wrote:
And for that A Rod deserves 250 million dollars over 5 years How much he "deserves" is irrelevant compared to how much he's worth. The Yankees think paying him 50 mil/year will earn the organization more money or else they wouldn't be paying him that much. When you think of his job in terms of being paid to hit a ball with a stick, it seems incredible, but entertainment is big bucks. As for lawyers, lol @ social justice.
Well, obviously it's an economic choice. That hardly prevents us from saying it's stupid as hell.
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I had a job washing dishes at a sandwich shop. I used soap and would actually wash the dishes thoroughly, but my manager was always pissed that I did it so much slower than my coworkers. I had no idea how they were able to do it so much faster than me. One day, one of my coworkers came to the back and showed me the "right" way to do dishes: spray them with water to get the food off, then put away to dry. The next day, the manager commended me for getting so much faster at washing dishes.
At the same place, I was hired, fired within 3 months, then hired again 2 days later when the manager realized he needed people to work.
Moral of the story: minimum wage jobs blow.
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