Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for February 05, 2010

As long as you don’t get confused and accidently toilet brush the baby, then it could get interesting. ;-)

I stopped working last August, and while it has been fun, it certainly isn’t intellectually stimulating. I’m trying to get more adult interaction because I think I’m going a bit batty sometimes.

I doubt if many people find their jobs intellectually stimulating or fun. You work to earn money to live. Period.

I had a job I loved for nearly 18 years–but the store closed and nothing else is quite the same. When I do go back to work it will be something new, and I hope I love it as much.

Lightenup I don’t know what type of job you had but if you ever try to get back later in the job market good luck it won’t happen. Far too many people out of work. Your former position there, where I’m roughly guessing depends on what you did maybe, like in my my area it’s definitely 1,000 applications for 1 position. Or my current pt office position when they tried to get rid of me for medical last year there where a lot of people who applied and the morning lady that they she quite had for pt 80 people applied and they narrowed down to 7 and they where way over qualified for this position. As far as I’m concerned there is no glamour in house work just has to be done. If a spouse either says enough or dies from illness the other spouse who decided to stay home will be in trouble.

For me my spouse is retired and I’m far from it and I cannot compete with speed typers. Sorry for the ranting I know this is suppose to be a funny strip and most times SS is a joy to read and I do laugh to how funny it is. So close to real life. I have already been told even though it’s pt be glad I have it but what can I expect when I was denied full time for the position and they based the place on another facility where there are no pt in my field.

Macushla: “I doubt if many people find their jobs intellectually stimulating or fun. You work to earn money to live. Period.”

At the very least, I disagree with the “Period.” I think many people DO like working, and they’re (we’re) the lucky ones. One of the reasons people work, apart from earning money to live, is simply to have something to do. I’ve twice taken time off from work voluntarily, and lived off of savings that I’d amassed for that purpose. In both instances I was climbing the walls after about a month. Personally, I don’t even like three-day weekends; I never know what to do with myself on that third day.

Many people who win lottery jackpots DON’T opt for early retirement, to the amazement of many observers. Many men who retire, even at the normal age for doing so, find themselves at a loss for meaningful activity. They often even die within a couple of years of retirement, when they had been perfectly healthy before…

Granted, if somebody is working in a cubicle answering phones all day, or working on their feet doing repetitive tasks on an assembly line, “the satisfaction of a job well done” is a hard sell. But satisfying and stimulating (and well-paying) jobs ARE out there, and Joan’s last line might better have been “Well, get good enough at something you enjoy that people will pay you to do it.”

Of course, that wouldn’t have been very funny…

kab2rb – I don’t come back every night to read comments, but today I did, so I feel I must respond (apologies to everyone else). You’re right, I will probably not get my job back anytime soon, but since my group had a layoff in Dec, I’m pretty positive I would have been out of a job anyway. I will also not have this time with my children again either (ages 4 & 6), and I’m doing my best to cherish it esp while they still adore me. My stress level has gone down a lot and I know that I am not as short with my kids as I was previously, which means a lot to all of us. I am very fortunate that my spouse got a new job last summer that compensated for my previous income, so I don’t have to worry about that. But since my father died while I was in college, I do worry about my husband and think about our future. Given the state of the job market and the fact that I need to update my skills, I also knew that I would need to go back to school at some point. With young children and a job, I knew I couldn’t do it right now, so I am taking some time to be with them and will update my skills in the near future. In the meantime, I consider it one of my tasks to take care of my spouse and myself and save money. Other than praying, that’s the most a lot of us can do. I hope that things turn out well for you, and I’m sorry for the stress that you’re going through. I hope reading the comics brings you as much relief as it does me. It’s one of the highlights of my day. Best wishes and take care :-)

I have so many arts and crafts hobbies that I’m never lacking in “things to do”; I just have to decide which ones. On the other hand, I also enjoy the work that I do (especially when the deadlines are not as urgent as they often are) so I look forward to getting work that “pays” (computer drafting and mechanical design) as well as the many scrolls that I hand illuminate and do calligraphy on as a part of “playing the game”.

Fritzoid, what you said is true of some people. There are some people, especially men who seem to be at a loss after they retire not knowing what to do with themselves, how to fill the hours they used to spend working. My father in law was one of them and I agree they may die younger. But not everyone is this way. I know a lot of retirees both men and women who still don’t have enough hours in the day for all they want to do. It isn’t just some crummy job they hate they can’t wait to get away from but hobbies and things they enjoy doing that would fill more hours once they are done working.

Even with a job you absolutely love, there are going to be times you don’t want to go to work.

amen to that, Macushlalondra. i love my job and there are days i don’t want to go. my Dad is one who always claims to love being retired, then complains about never getting a vacation. now that Mom has passed away, i think he finds himself feeling lonely more often than he’d admit to my siblings and i, but he’s in a seniors’ apartment with lots of people from his own background and seems to be taking advantage of some of the activities they offer, so it looks like he’s starting to make the adjustment.