The Mayor of Crashout City has seen it all. She’s heard it all. She’s lived it all. No question is too raunchy and no conundrum too trivial. Submit all questions to the Mayor herself here. Read prior entries here.
Dear Mayor, I used to dream of having a career that made a difference in the world; now I have a boring job at an evil company. How long is it acceptable to have no real career aspirations before it gets sad and pathetic? Do I have to give up the free food?
Signed,
No-dreams Nancy
Dear Nance,
Pick yourself up! You are neither sad nor pathetic (as far as I know). You’re asking two different questions here: how do you redeem your soul, and how do you find joy in your job? We should separate the two because searching for a job with a consistent moral core is largely futile. Much like the New York Housing Lottery, your chances of winning are abysmal, but you should always dream of a better place. Your willingness to dream of a better place to exist is, itself, beautiful.
I’d like to push back on the idea that you have no aspirations. It’s nearly impossible to find the drive to become better at something you find fundamentally useless (if not universally detrimental), and therefore, you feel aimless and lazy in your professional life. But your dreams of making a difference still exist. Those are aspirations, too––and they haunt you! Don’t minimize these urges––find them and follow them and nurture them.
How bad is the company you work for? Unless you work for a defense contractor or the NYPD, think twice before doing something rash. Anyone who tells you to quit your job without a second thought doesn’t care about you, but the Mayor of Crashout City does.
It sounds cliché, but you truly must find purpose in things other than your job. Please don’t just join a protest or go to some niche 10-person screening in the back of a coffee shop and consider your job done. There are plenty of organizations out there where you can make an actual difference. My favorite: the New Sanctuary Coalition, where you help immigrants navigate the asylum process, whether that’s through filing paperwork or attending court to make sure they stay physically safe. You don’t have to speak a second language––there’s a role for everyone there. And although it’s run by various religious organizations, I would say most volunteers are not affiliated with any religion, in my experience.
I’ll end that thought with a warning: this is an extremely emotionally taxing volunteer job. You’ll hear horrific stories and sometimes have to tell people there’s nothing you can do to help them. It’s extremely important work that takes a lot of time and emotional strength. It’s not for everyone; but, if it’s for you, your help would be appreciated.
It’s harder to find joy in your job, but I think the key is finding a job with a rhythm that works with your brain. As someone with a decent amount of ADHD, I find that I need things to move extremely quickly and to never juggle long-term projects. One thing about ADHD is that you need a panic switch to flip before your brain forces itself to activate, and if the runway looks too long, that switch will remain off until the last second. You’ll have months of pure dread to fill the rest of your time prior to the deadline.
After working several incredibly slow jobs, I found one where the entire premise is to scramble under the weight of a ticking clock hour by hour. It rules so hard. If your brain happens to work better at slower paces, then perhaps bask in those longer-term projects, tracing and overlaying new details as methodically and carefully as you must. The thought makes me sick, but I support you nonetheless.
Godspeed. Your aspirations are real and your soul is pure, I’m sure of it.
Submit all issues, quandaries, and other disputes to the Mayor for resolution.
Top photo taken by Andrew Karpan.
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