Working the Grind

It's Saturday and I am at work and I'm trying to make money. Sometimes those two statements do not correlate. I work in The Wall Street area of NYC and have worked there for eight years. Many equate working on Wall Street with money. For many of the peons that work there (I am a master peon, thank you very much) that reputation of Wall Street as money-making does not translate for those who work in the The Wall Street area to money earning.

For those who work at the firm that employs me, money has been tight as they have not received a raise in 3 years. I have not received a raise in three years. There were many promises of one throughout the three years, but ultimately none came about. And we are all concerned as rumor has it that there will be a raise of 4% this September. That calculates into 1% for every year of service for the last 4 years. This current course of events causes all to retrace how and why they ended at a job that would so overlook its employees fiscally. Also, in making the decision to keep a job that refutes the importance of its worker by offering 4% raise after 3 years, does one stay long after the disrespect has risen, plateaued, and risen again?

My work duties consists of mind-numbing repetitious work. It is not work that allows creativity. I tell myself that I choose to be at my job because it fits my children-saturated schedule. The job, and for that matter any job, never defines you. I believe you define the job and what it means to you. You are to make it what you want it to be. My job provides a paycheck that helps my family to subsist. It is a job that provides me with a schedule that allows my days to be free and my nights of working the job to be over at 11:30 PM. Because of my free days I am able to be a parent that can go to teachers conferences, take children to doctors appointments, etc. These are all the things that my job are to me.

The money is not the best, but the schedule suits me. It is not the most creative, but allows me free time in which I can create. As such, the job is ideal for me in that I define the job and do not allow the job to define me.

I take the positives and make them the reasons for keeping the job. Acknowledging and defining the positives in a somewhat difficult position makes the job acceptable.