The Malcontent

Well, the title comes from a comment once made by my father. He observed that it wasn’t that I was cynical, or merely skeptical, but that I was by nature “a malcontent.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Admittedly, I am not shy about expressing my general suspicion that we could be doing better–at nearly anything worth doing. A few people suggested that I should have a blog–primarily, I suspect, so that they wouldn’t have to listen to me rant and rave about the latest piece of stupidity foisted on an unsuspecting public by the various spin doctors, pundit, knuckleheads, and snake oil salesmen. As a result, I’ve had this blog for a while, but I haven’t really done much with it.

And then I realized,”Why I could be one of those spin doctors, pundits, knuckleheads or snake oil salesmen and foist my cracked view on an unsuspecting public!” And so I hope to give it a try.

It is mainly politics (both parties, thanks) that drives me crazy, though there are ample targets for my ire. I’ll try not to bore you, but email me and let me know how I’m doing.

Reborn! Again!

Umm…but not “born again.” Definitely not. That’s entirely different.

OK, after having this blog since October of 2002, and posting to it approximately annually, I am trying, once again, to actually do some blogging. Bear with me–I’m technically incompetent, and highly amotivated by nature. I am, occasionally, funny. I doubt that is enough, but who knows?

It is worth noting, that this entire blogging process is fraught with deception and trickery (or at least my entire blogging process is, and will be for the foreseeable future, ’cause I’m crooked like Fox News. You’ve been warned.).

Example? The apparent first entry of this blog was written a couple of years ago, when I first tried The Malcontent out. I then screwed with the date in the editing process today. Everything got reordered, with new times, new dates, and the like. It’s pretty crafty. It conceals the fact that I have been doing nothing on this site for a couple of years (’cause I’m not merely crooked, I’m also lazy). I changed the date back a few months, just so I don’t forget I’m slack.

Well, I know I’ll be sleeping more soundly tonight! One kooky hate-filled former wunderkind and the world’s most powerful interior decorator are facing the slam. United, of course, they formed the Axis of Pretty, Pretty Chess.

The evildoers can no longer force us to live in fear. Finally, we are all free to wear white shoes after labor day, abandon the use of place cards at dinner, and use the Saint George’s Defense with abandon!

To have a forum, then to have nothing to say. It’s pathetic.

I, who am usually chock-a-block with opinions (some of which are actually informed), am struck dumb. While I believe that it may just be a lingering malaise related to near-complete work dissatisfaction, it has really robbed me of my ability to write. I am two weeks over deadline on a freelance piece, my day-to-day work dribbles out in an unsatifying stream. And this blog? Wheezing towards lift-off.

I am afraid to become just another yammering political gasbag (”Too late!” cries the Peanut Gallery. “F#@k you!” replies our intrepid blogger.) and equally afraid of becoming an introspective self-referential mope-jockey whining about what to write.  

Waiting for the block to break.

Waiting.

Just Googled “blogger’s block” and was glad to see I’m not alone. Cold comfort.

OK, I just figured out how to enable comments on this thing.

Now if I just had something to say……..

OK, so I’ll go with what I know.

Lately, it has occurred to me that nearly everyone I know hates their current job. A couple dozen people talk with me regularly about what they do for a living, and usually they ain’t so happy. My impression of wide-spread dissatisfaction was so strong that I did some unscientific polling and the vast majority of those I asked expressed a strong visceral dislike for their current employment situation.

Now, I use a totally crap phrase like “current employment situation” (worthy of your average Human Resources double-speak bastard) because of variation in the reported sources of animus towards the job. Some liked what they do, but hated where they worked. Some liked where they work–actually, usually with whom they work–but hated what they actually do. And some, particularly the lawyers (who were oversampled in this survey), hated what they did, where they did it and with whom.

Let me hasten to point out that almost every one with whom I spoke holds a comfortable white-collar job, with decent benefits, adequate pay and reasonable hours. (Again, the lawyers are excepted–very long hours, with obscenely high pay and usually good benefits). Many are working in their chosen field, or at least in their chosen sector (education, nonprofit, corporate). They are not, as a whole, very negative folks.  But they all express a strong desire to do something else for a living.

Why is this?

Management seems to play a large role in a lot of cases. Most of the folks who kvetch to me are in their late 20s-early 30s and report working for managers in the 50s who engage in rampant cronyism when it comes to hiring, promotion, bonuses, work assignments, and perks. In several cases, management hires personal friends or former colleagues as high-priced consultants to come in and do things that the staff is perfectly qualified to do (in some cases, exceptionally qualified).

I don’t really understand why you would hire bright, motivated, gifted employees and then do nothing with them–no career development, no mentoring, no promotions from within the organization. It is counterintuitive, short-sighted, and leads to bad morale.

And, if my experience as a senior staffer is any indicator, management and senior staff constantly complain about how the junior staff is always turning over, with little reflection about why that might be. My personal feeling is that many, if not most, of the managers in organizations are people with little or no desire to actually lead. They take the rewards of leadership, but little of the responsibilities. This is not a new idea, but we never seem to learn from it.

If you really like your job, comment or email me here.

If you really hate your job, feel free to do the same.

So, not 10 minutes after I made my last post, I got an email from one of the folks I talk to regularly about their job. Just to give you a flavor of the feelings that the average person I talk to is expressing, I have quoted from his email (with permission). He is an lawyer specializing in intellectual property issues, at a moderate size boutique firm.

I really, really need a new job doing something else.  I almost quit about 20 minutes ago and the more I think about it the more I want to, except that the “rational” side of me is arguing not to throw a good paying job away with nothing else lined up.  I don’t think I can take this job anymore.  Have no interest or sense of urgency whatsoever. Problem is I can’t think of what else to do that has even the remotest interest to me and make a living and maintain health insurance.  I thought the job would be better by now but it is just sucking the life out of me.  Feel completely trapped.  And a vacation isn’t the answer as I just dread having to come back to this hell hole.  I know that resigning will make me feel better for a couple of days but that is all, then the frantic pace of trying to find something new to do will drive me over the edge.

His email is pretty typical of what I’m hearing.

Todd Purdum’s analysis in the New York Times online edition provides a very interesting bit of perspective on the likely impact of the 9/11 commission report, but the general thrust of the article kills me. 

The headline encapsulates my complaint.  (Heads are usually not the responsibility of the reporter, but of the copy editor) 

“Swift Action on Advice From the 9/11 Commission Is Unlikely” is like reporting “Ocean swimmers likely to get wet.” I mean, come on, what a crazy idea. A slow-moving federal government? Next you’ll be telling me that multinational corporations have an undue influence on national policy, or that money buys you access to power, or that the media is fair and unbiased.

New motto? “All the news that’s fit to print not news.“