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August 22, 2017
The Things You Think Will Make You Happy
Every morning, the girl comes and brings us breakfast on a cart. Coffee, creamer, sugars, orange juice, fresh cut fruit....cantaloupe, watermelon, raspberries, blueberries, honeydew melons, muffins, danishes....an unbelievable array of breakfast delicacies.
And, you'd think that you would be happily diving into the food every morning. But, in reality, you get used to it very quickly. So that, right away, people start to complain about the temperature of the coffe, or the perceived lack of varieties.
Like, you should never underestimate the ability of human beings to grow uncomfortable or unhappy with their situation.
Jennifer was surprised, I think, to go away to college and learn that her richest friends weren't ecstatically happy. But that's the nature of the beast. That's how it works. Having money doesn't make you happy. You'd think that it would, but it really doesn't.
The things you think will make you happy really won't. It doesn't work that way. Otherwise, people would be jumping up and down in the shopping malls, high-fiving each other on the perfect temperature inside the malls. But the truth is that no one talks about the temperature inside the mall, ever. Even though it's perfect. If you pointed out that the temperature was perfect, people would laugh at you.
Today, I'm sitting at my desk and the boss comes over and asks me how I'm doing with my data comparison. I think I'm making good progress, but then he tells me that what I'm doing is completely wrong. And that, I need to just do row counts on the tables in two different databases. Like...his request is so stupid that I want to jump out a window. I'm thinking...why am I here? Why do I get paid to do this? I wonder what the temperature is like down in Tierra Del Fuego. Like...if I left today, would I freeze by the time I got down there?
"I need you to work with me on this issue, and then we'll show the project managers that you are the lead on this project..."
I want to stick my hand into a blender. This request is so stupid there aren't words. And, the idea that we need to show the project managers that this is the whipping-boy task I've been assigned makes me want to murder everyone in the room with a ball-peen hammer.
Like, now, I begin to think that they're questioning my value, so he's come up with this little task for me to work on to demonstrate my value to the team. I want to swan dive off of the top of the Fox Theater.
I sit there at my little couch with my feet up on the coffee table and wonder if I can possibly kill 6 months riding one of the bikes down to Tierra Del Fuego.
Posted by Rob Kiser on August 22, 2017 at 6:48 PM
Comments
I believe the saying goes, "If you think that money won't buy happiness, you're just not shopping in the right places." hmmm.........?
Posted by: sl on August 22, 2017 at 9:45 PM