My dream did not materialize, but as I entered the workforce, my early sense of what a dream job actually was only deepened. I wanted to do something I cared about and have my life taken care of in the process, but I always had some understanding that even the most fulfilling, best-paid job in the world would also still be work. After all, no one sees a horse pulling a cart and thinks that they aren’t laboring. Horses aren’t doing laps with fidgety nine-year-olds in their off-hours. No one says to a horse, “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.Θ
Some of this is only becoming more obvious, including to myself, in an era when stable, full-time employment is evaporating, and holding on to any job is its own kind of feat. The Economic Policy Institute calculates that the failed political response to the pandemic has left nearly 16 percent of the workforce—26.8 million people—unemployed or employed but losing hours and pay. And having work isn’t necessarily a guarantee against hardship—even before the current recession, one in nine workers received wages too low to get out of poverty, even if they worked full-time hours. But the idea of a dream job is still catnip. There’s a slew of self-help articles advertising tips on how to Land Your ream Job by the End of the Year or 9 Genuine Steps to Quit Your Job and ulfill Your ream. Indeed.com lists info for 25 dream jobs, three-quarters of which have an average national salary of less than $50,000 per year.
Vaccines using mRNA, or messenger ribonucleic acid, are on the rise in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The technology has yielded encouraging results, but a successful mRNA vaccine has never been created before, which presents new risks. Below are facts about mRNA vaccines, of which several are currently being developed to fight coronavirus.
I am not looking forward to remote work this winter … π»
While I am the first to admit that remote work during the summer months was kind of fun when I could camp and work out of Spectulator or other parts of the state, with winter underway, I am not looking forward to being cooped up, alone in my small, cold apartment.
I decided against getting wired Internet – for now I am using my phone for most of my work – transferring files to the laptop, but I plan to add hot spot service to my phone for things best done on the laptop.. Sure, I do play and work a lot on my phone but it’s not the same as computer internet with the smaller screen and processor. I should spend more time reading, or doing data analysis and soldering, working on Arduino projects, rather then wasting it browsing the web or using social media.
While the long, cold dark winter days are never fun, working downtown tended to break up the days, especially when I was busy in the office. I enjoyed going for walks on the Plaza on sunny and reasonably warm winter days, and having the Concourse to walk at lunch time even on the coldest a snowy days. Work in office always involved days around the office, bullshitting, interacting with people. You loose a lot of the human touch over Zoom and email. It’s easier to understand people in person.
Sometimes I do plan to be in my office. There are just some things that can’t be done remotely from a practical standpoint. Those days, broken up by the bus ride back and forth and the quiet time, will be a nice change, but still it’s a lot of gray, cold, and cramped days at home.
Being fired is awkward. Sometimes you deserve it, and sometimes you don’t. Either way, it can be a difficult thing to explain at a future job interview. In fact it’s hard to think of a less tasteful way of selling yourself for gainful employment than admitting that you were forcibly removed from a previous post.
Organized crime rings have targeted state unemployment systems during the pandemic, seeking to steal money through fraudulent claims. And that's a problem. But arguably a bigger problem is that some of the systems in place to prevent fraud have hurt millions of innocent people, keeping the benefits they deserve in limbo.
The day after Columbus Day marks twelve years at my job doing communication coordination and running political campaigns for democratic candidates, mostly in upstate. I work hard at my job, put in long hours, try to build good relationships and plans for my clients. Over the years for my loyalty and hard work I’ve been promoted, earned more money and given more challenging opportunities. I like the work, creating good quality products and implementing plans often with successful results. I don’t think I would have stayed as long as I have if I didn’t think I was able to make a difference and advance my agency’s mission.
But anybody who reads this blog knows I’m pretty conservative, even if I’m a Democrat and do also believe in many progressive policies that can have a real life impact on people’s lives. I certainly don’t always agree with the political positions of my clients but I’m not there to advance my own opinions – I’m there to look at the polling and the evidence and give them the best possible advice based on concrete evidence. Politics these days often seems to be all encompassing. You can’t believe something with it impacting all parts of your life. But that’s not why I’m a professional – I’m there to advance the mission of the agency – not whatever personal beliefs I may have on a subject. Sometimes it’s tough to be objective, I’ll concede so I’ll rely on the collective wisdom of my colleagues and always go back to what the polling is saying and what other people in similar positions say.
I work for money not for changing the world. I work to advance the mission of my agency and put my clients interest first. Money is more than an appropriation to my bank account every two weeks, it’s a means and a way to live the life I want. It’s a way to pay for my experiences in the wilderness and for a better life in the future. Whether it’s fuel for my truck, food on the table, supplies or money to buy stocks, bonds and certificates of deposit that will eventually pay for land and my off grid property work pays for all of it. Saving takes time but each paycheck I get closer to a better future. And what’s best for my agency is ultimately best for my career advancement.
D'Agostino was making so little because, since 1938, U.S. labor law has carved out a rule for some people with disabilities, saying they can be paid less than minimum wage. The New Deal-era law was intended to encourage employment of more people. But a new report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights says the exemption should be phased out, because it's been trapping workers in "exploitative and discriminatory" job programs.
