John Linton It isn't easy doing many things in life, assuming that you actually work at something on a continuing basis that requires you to make some decisions by yourself and take responsibility for their outcome. It's even harder if you rely, in some ways, on working with other people to bring about all or some portions of the results you are attempting to achieve. Almost every mother has known how hard this is since there was sentient life on the planet and a relatively high proportion of working human males eventually come to the same conclusions. Malcolm Fraser added his, derivative and truncated, phrase that summed up his observations of life generally although he should have ascribed it to its real author. As another year rapidly reaches its close I am wondering whether I have the courage for life to be delightful.....or whether GBS had it completely wrong?
As a 'semi responsible male' I don't have the luxury of feeling sorry for myself or to allow any similar emotion to intrude into my life but there are some times when such indulgences seem to be highly desirable. Fortunately, I had an upbringing based mainly on the strictures of poverty leavened with a rigorous education in times much tougher than the overwhelming majority of Australians born after 1945 can begin to contemplate. Those facets of life at impressionable ages provide a semi sound background to deal with most of the stupidities you encounter in adulthood - assming, as a male, you ever reach that stage of life. However every now and again, like right now, I do get totally p***ed off at the sheer pettiness and uncaring attitudes of people I come in contact with in 'business' and it does result in making me wonder whether "it's all worth it". So before extending this rant I will simply say that 1) no it isn't and 2) there is no other choice so get on with it.
I think the last three years has been tougher than any other period of my business life and I am sure that would be the case for many other people who actually do any real work in the telecommunications industry in smaller companies. The definition "real work" isn't easy to put into context as I seem to run into a lot more people who impute that phrase to themselves whereas I seem to observe that they have never done any 'real work' for as long as I have known them. Perhaps I fail to be able to define 'real work' correctly and that would be entirely my problem. Perhaps as Australia has moved to a 'services based economy' and fewer and fewer people either make things, grow things or dig things out of the ground 'real work' has become harder and harder to define.
'Real Work' is like 'real money'. The issuing of credit cards to 18 year olds, often before they have a job, and EFT replacing a wage 'packet (in which there were bank notes and, gasp!, coins) has somehow made "money" something different today to what it was previously....an absolute necessity to say alive until the next Friday. I recently attended a 'careers afternoon' at a local North Sydney school (invited as a 'local businessman and employer') and was fascinated/horrified at what some of the boys said which described their understanding of what 'working life' might comprise and what their income expectations were. In general terms they seemed to expect to go to university and then be paid around $80,000 in their first year while they 'learned the ropes' and then rapidly progress to senior executive level earning their first million a year well before they were 30 - most said 25. The people from 'industry' plus the school teachers present said nothing to even gently contradict these pretty generally held expectations - I merely nodded when asked for a contribution. (anecdotal 'evidence' suggests that more than a few of those year twelve boys will join their predecessors 'doing drugs' and living with their parents with no income of $1millon a year but whatever the dole, sorry - income support - is these days).
I have obviously lost touch with the 'realities' that now exist and I doubt that I can play any further part in today's business market places. I wonder how long that has been the case and I just didn't notice?
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