Almost Friday

As I smiled at the lady and returned the item I had borrowed from her workplace, an office in the community, I asked her how she was doing. She looked at me with a kind of musty, disgusted grin and replied with a blended mix of optimism and pain, "I have almost made it to Friday." I smiled and said, "Yes, one more day."

Walking away and thinking on her response, I have to wonder about the sadness of our lives that depends on making it to Friday. Have we reached the point in society where the sole value, the ultimate happiness, the central goal is to make it to the end of the work week? Is this goal in order to have free time away from work? To accomplish some other thing? Or to do nothing at all? Or is it the idea of working that diminishes the joy of life? Is the formula for joy simply not to work? Or is misery likened primarily to a work situation?

She may have expressed the desire to "make it to Friday" as a way to share in her desire for a weekend, or she may have been making this type of conversation for many years and finding that everyone who heard the phrase agreed with her. It is always fun to say something and get everyone around you to nod in agreement. It could be enculturated in her to trudge in solemn despair to work every Monday morning and bounce in utter elation as Friday comes to a close. Of course, I have to wonder where the emotion lies on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Are we nearing happiness on Thursday? Are we still miserable on Wednesday? Maybe the peak of misery and pain occurs at 12 noon on Wednesday followed by a progressive, albeit quite slow, move toward happiness as the minutes wind themselves toward Friday at 5:00.

Making the assumption that a worker who is miserable is generally less productive than a happy worker, I would have to assume that our friend is unproductive. Of course it is possible that she has found a way to be a contributing, productive worker in spite of her pervading pain of having to work. But I suspect that her desire not to work is ironically her purpose for working. In other words, without the work, she has no joy in not working. The work is the impetus for the relishing of no work.

Curious as to her no work behavior, I think it would be beneficial to provide an environment for this lady that would cause her to enjoy her work. Unless she has a mental disorder or some physical anomaly that determines her attitude, I would guess that she would be more productive and certainly happier if she were doing something she enjoyed. It may not be possible, but it might be worth a try.

Because having a purpose is a motivation for success, I would take this scenario another step and say that I suspect she finds no purpose in her work and feels as though she does not make any kind of positive difference for anybody or anything, hence her misery in the workplace. Perhaps she had a purpose at one time, perhaps she entered the position believing she could make a difference only to have the challenges overcome the desire for success. Whatever the cause, I might recommend a change in venue or some kind of change in goals.

I further want to remind myself to avoid the trappings of working for the purpose of not working. Working is a joy and an opportunity. We are blessed to work and motivated by purpose, by a desire to make a difference in lives or in an institution or community. Let it not be said that he worked so as not to work. I wish instead to work in joy, to play in joy, and to live as a productive, contributing and joyful person making a difference in the world in some small way.