American Idle
Work, by it's very nature, can eat at what's left of one's soul. While it's certainly better to have a job, like many others I'm sure I can complain about being underpaid and poorly challenged--although I've learned my way around a faux tongue better than I could have ever imagined. You see, one of the key parts of publicity is mailing out those press releases I grind out, and I much prefer using the faux tongue to my own when sealing envelopes.
But the daily grind isn't what this entry is about. Nope, it's about the special tortures employers devise to make jobs truly execrable. One of them here is a thing called a Professional Development Day, but is mostly BS Waste O' Time Day. When inspirational speakers don't even make funny segments on Saturday Night Live it should be a hint, but we get one of those to kick off the day every year. Mostly he or she tries to commiserate with all the work we have to do for little return in Student Affairs, only to then say the way to make our jobs better is to give even more. Hmm...who hires these speakers?
But this year it's got even worse, if that's possible, for to spice things up they've turned to TV for inspiration. First, they're doing makeovers at a local spa for a couple of people. I guess it's a good thing we don't have a medical school or they might be able to go all-out Swan on us.
Second, the day will be gleefully capped with Student Affairs Idol. Yep, we get to watch fellow employees act like asses on stage for our enjoyment.
I can't begin to say how much this rankles me. I've never watched American Idol and have no interest ever to watch it, for even the winners sing in a way that makes me feel like the loser. Why belting out covers of songs that never should have been sung once is considered a talent I'll never quite figure out, as if the show could ever overcome giving Paula Abdul another shot at fame.
Now I am required, as part of my work, to see an inferior version of something I already consider worthless.
I am not even going to explore the dread hegemony of television, and how people can't have an ounce of creativity--think outside the box, as it were. This is, alas, someone's vision of a workers' paradise, where one day out of the year we get to be the people we watch the other 364 on TV.
But the daily grind isn't what this entry is about. Nope, it's about the special tortures employers devise to make jobs truly execrable. One of them here is a thing called a Professional Development Day, but is mostly BS Waste O' Time Day. When inspirational speakers don't even make funny segments on Saturday Night Live it should be a hint, but we get one of those to kick off the day every year. Mostly he or she tries to commiserate with all the work we have to do for little return in Student Affairs, only to then say the way to make our jobs better is to give even more. Hmm...who hires these speakers?
But this year it's got even worse, if that's possible, for to spice things up they've turned to TV for inspiration. First, they're doing makeovers at a local spa for a couple of people. I guess it's a good thing we don't have a medical school or they might be able to go all-out Swan on us.
Second, the day will be gleefully capped with Student Affairs Idol. Yep, we get to watch fellow employees act like asses on stage for our enjoyment.
I can't begin to say how much this rankles me. I've never watched American Idol and have no interest ever to watch it, for even the winners sing in a way that makes me feel like the loser. Why belting out covers of songs that never should have been sung once is considered a talent I'll never quite figure out, as if the show could ever overcome giving Paula Abdul another shot at fame.
Now I am required, as part of my work, to see an inferior version of something I already consider worthless.
I am not even going to explore the dread hegemony of television, and how people can't have an ounce of creativity--think outside the box, as it were. This is, alas, someone's vision of a workers' paradise, where one day out of the year we get to be the people we watch the other 364 on TV.
posted by George at 4:57 PM
2 Comments:
Forwarded to CB, et al. and seconded by moi. Write on!
I wish one of my professional development activities would involve watching my fellow employees get up on stage and act like asses. Seeing it up on stage would spice things up tremendously.
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