From the Bottom: An Open Letter to the Kings of Capitalism

Dear Kings of Capitalism, 

I only have two rules when it comes to my existence as a working class stooge. 
The first rule is that  I like to do a quality job. It doesn't matter if I'm scraping dinner plates, pushing morphine or molding the minds of tomorrow, if I'm getting paid to perform a task I'm going to do it well. Nobody has to tell me.  I enjoy the internal reward that comes along with a job well done. If I do something poorly I am miserable. 

The second rule?  I don't want to spend more than forty hours a week (arguably already too much) doing it.  I don't mess around while I'm at work, but ask me to work extra hours and I'll morph into disgruntlement before you can say "pink slip".

Over the last few decades I've worked primarily as a waitress, and educator and a nurse. I don't care how fulfilling or important, I never describe my work as a "career", since to me a job is a job: it's what I do to survive. I only became a nurse and an educator in order to make a living doing something that was personally fulfilling, but I did not become these things to become these things. They are not part of my identity. If I won a million dollars I'd quit working as soon as the check hit my palm. 

Clearly, however, the dominant structure of education and healthcare in this country will not allow me to satisfy both of my rules. The demands of the system require that I choose. I can do a quality job and work extra hours or I can do a crappy job and work the prescribed number. This is why I personally experience a large amount of stress working in these professions: cognitive dissonance. If I try to stick to rule number one I found myself violating rule number two and vice versa. I cannot get out. It is a cognitive dissonance trap. 

The broader implication is that this trap affects a lot of people. People like me routinely disappear from these essential professions since they are unable to cope. This tends to leave three types of people behind: the newbie, the slacker, and the workaholic. The first, of course, hasn't yet realized the struggles that she is about to face. She will work for a while and then leave, unless she falls into one of the remaining categories:  the person who does the bare minimum and is perfectly satisfied or the person that doesn't mind being exploited since this is all she does. 

My advice if you would like to hold on to more quality employees? Stop filtering us out. Stop making unreasonable demands on our time. Stop giving us too many classes and too many patients and impossible tasks that require us to put in unpaid hours in order for us to feel like we've done well. If your turn-over rate is high and you look around and all you see are newbies, slackers and workaholics you may want to reconsider your assignments. 

I beg you, let us do a good job and go home.  It's the least you could do considering the daily sacrifice of flesh and blood we make s for your measly wages. Label  it a "unprofessional" if you will, but you do not own our precious leisure time. 

Love, 
Working Class Stooge