Blogaholics April 26, 2006
Posted by marjetta in blogging.3 comments
I have a number of blogs – too many in fact. I began writing 'my thoughts' to the net about 4 years ago. The it was just an on-line diary (the idea was that I would 'catalogue my thoughts and experiences' as future fodder for my writing and yes, I know, so many of us have had the same idea …..), but I soon found 'blogging' …. and I was hooked. I was logging in to post every day; racking my brains for something different to say in each blog; checking my comments and feeling obliged to respond; commenting on other's blogs so that they would feel obliged to visit mine ….. you know the score.
Today I am still a blogging addict and, nomatter how hard I try, I can't get away from the need to blog. This blog was actually an attempt to find somewhere to post 'things I really wanted to say', rather than post for an audience (and thus edit my thoughts in line with what I presumed to be their aspirations). And I hope I can make this stick.
Coincidentally, today I came across an article posted back in September last year. It's a satire on 'compulsive blogging', but I recognise so much of the character's angst that, although it made me laugh, it also made cringe.
Here it is: FredsWorld_Blogaholics
I reckon quite a few people here will feel the same way as I did when they read this.
Stress Society April 21, 2006
Posted by marjetta in political, rants.1 comment so far
I have worked for most of my adult life. I have had a wide variety of jobs – anything to keep the money coming in – everything from factory worker/shop assistant/cleaner/fairground attendant to department store manager, HE lecturer and professional writer. Most of these jobs were 'legit', but a few were not …
But I always worked.
When my children were tiny babies, I went out cleaning to make enough money to help buy food. When they grew older, I went to college to gain qualifications to begin a 'proper career'. When made redundant (twice), I picked myself up, brushed myself down, and got back on the 'job wagon'.
It seemed like the only thing to do.
But now I'm tired. I really don't want to work anymore. I have quite a few years left to 'be a useful working individual', but I am thoroughly hacked off with the whole job culture!
In today's society, the 'work ethic' is everything. Okay, it has been for many years, but today in the UK the working environment is getting ever more stressful. More people suffer from depression and stress every year and the majority of these illnesses are work-related. Nowadays it is not enough to work hard – you have to give your heart and soul to your employers.
Only a few years ago, people tended to view the working environment as fulfilling – even when they did a 'menial task', they at least had somewhere to socialise. Many even looked forward to going to work: not to the actual working process, but because their friends were there, and even if the work was as dull as dishwater, at least they could have a laugh and a joke while they did it.
Not so today.
Todays' typical employer uses 'proactive' jargon and offers employees a culture more suited to pyramid selling techniques than to job satisfaction. Stupid 'prizes' are offered to employees for 'high performance'; employees are 'encouraged' to be 'positive' about every aspect of their work – cynicism is a no-no, much too negative!
Personnel workers are now called Human Resources Personnel. In other words, employees are just 'resources' of their employers. and we all know what happens to resources when they become obsolete…
The UK has become a service society. Workers 'man' call centres, giving banal answers to questions they have no training and no real inclination to answer truthfuly. Time away from desks is monitored and often penalised.
We are told that unemployment is still lower than it has been for years. But what does most employment consist of? Unfulfilling, low-paid, unrespected slavery, which offers as a prospect stress-based illnesses and further penalisation if the employee tries to claim sickness benefits which are theirs by right (but don't get me started….).
And I have had enough.
I am not lazy. I like working for a living… at least, I used to.
I am just so tired of the whole 'work culture'.
So I'm taking 'time out'. I'm going to be a 'scrounger', claiming benefits to help me survive (if only just…). and no, I do not feel ashamed of this. Just finally enlightened.
