Thursday 24 February 2022
A life spent sitting down
Idle speculation this one, because I’m sitting in a warm room with the daily jobs all finished. The morning walk into town was unexpectedly cold, but we are done with that now. New curtains paid for and biscuits bought from the Co-op.
It's not an original thought, but the day has caused me to wonder how much influence physical comfort has on career choices. Sitting in a warm office all day with maybe the occasional car journey to another warm office or meeting room. No real physical effort apart from talking, phoning and tapping a keyboard.
So - sitting here at home I wondered how much influence does physical comfort have on the work we choose to do? For example, is this why so many people go to university? Are they chasing after a working life spent sitting down?
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5 comments:
That's a very modern approach to the 'purpose' of university. In my days, decades ago, you went because you were lucky enough to one of the few who could and very often had no clear idea of what a post-university life would be. Apart from the PPE swots.
Perhaps a technical college education, a teacher training college education invited more focused expectations. Goodness knows what the expectations of an Art College education was.
And now all are Universities and Tony Blair persuaded the youth to stay off the unemployment register and borrow the money to do so (master stroke) who can guess what peoples' expectations will be.
People become accustomed to a level of comfort, but it cuts both ways. If we have to, we get used to levels of physical discomfort and an outdoor life. I knew a bloke in my last job who was a landscape gardener and was teaching it to youngsters. He never was happy in the office or even in the classroom teaching theory. He wanted to be outside in all weathers, shovelling soil and putting up fences.
My guess is that comfort gets more important as we get older. When we start out on a career, we are more likely to be influenced by how interesting it appears, how much money it will make, and whether we will meet interesting people - including the opposite sex. If anyone had told me that I could have those things in exchange for sometimes being cold and wet, I would have jumped at the chance.
DJ - maybe that was an advantage of a college education over the situation today - clearer and possibly more realistic expectations.
Sam - we are accustomed to a level of comfort, but like to get out every day. It must be common enough to find as we do, that a good walk in the open air leads us to want another one. Even a trudge round town in bad weather is better than staying in. Possibly one reason why working life can be so tedious, although of course there are other reasons.
I sit down in an office all day and couldn't work in the cold warehouse, but in my last job I stood behind a bar all day, which was the career I would have preferred
Have you noticed when feminist campaigners say there are not enough women in X field, it's always warm offices they talk about and never cold and dirty jobs?
Bucko - good point, it is warm offices they talk about and never jobs such as working at the local sewage works.
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