Work? Pleasure? Or both?

Theme song: Money Changes Everything

Have you ever sat in a sunless room and pasted the phrase rel=“nofollow” into HTML code for even two hours at a time? I mean, I can’t say that was the only thing I was doing. I also had to type command f in order to find where in the code I needed to paste in that phrase.

Copying and pasting kinda sounds like kindergarten. So I hope you are asking yourself: Why was Anna doing that? Why would anyone do such a thing?

A Privileged Life

When I went back to work, following my separation, I was, I’ll admit, shocked to find that I could be paid twice the national average income (plus full benefits) to copy and paste phrases like rel=“nofollow”.

That wasn’t all I did, no. However. In contemporary work life, I think you’ll agree, no matter how much you get paid, and even if you are highly educated, you must do repetitious “grunt” work. Or, as one colleague called it, “mind numbing.”

Well at least I have a mind to numb. Right?

And actually there’s very little grunting involved -- just wrist, arm, shoulder and neck pain that can be born silently as needed. Or with codeine and cortisone shots if necessary.

Why Was I Shocked?

While you were busy working and I was pregnant, giving birth, raising kids, volunteering and teaching yoga a lot happened.

My shock resulted from two factors:

• Being out of the paid workforce for 10+ years and
• How much work changed in those same 10+ years

I may have already mentioned that when I interviewed for the position and was asked about my tech skills I was so far out of touch with what a contemporary office was like, it didn’t even occur to me to lie.

My thinking was: Hey, I can figure it out.

True. I can figure it out. So can you. If you’re like I was then, you may not know what rel=“nofollow” means. That’s cool, baby.

Google it (which, I have come to understand, is a polite way of saying “F*** you”) and find out why anyone cares.

Meaningful Work

Before I was typing rel=“nofollow,” I was changing diapers and doing laundry. You know. Among other things.

I will tell you right now: changing diapers is meaningful work. Ask the baby if you don’t believe me.

Seriously. It’s a matter of life and death. Because, you see, if you don’t change a baby’s diaper, the baby will eventually develop an infection and die.

Am I exaggerating? What would happen if every unpaid person in charge of changing diapers refused to do so until they were paid the same amount, with benefits, they could get for pasting rel=“nofollow” all day?

What, I am asking you, would happen if no one in this country changed diapers? Smell it.

And what would happen if everyone in this country refused to paste the phrase rel=“nofollow” once, twice, three times. . .ten. . .twenty. . .5,000?

This scenario I can’t exaggerate because I don’t know how many people’s live depend on rel="nofollow" (if you know, please respond in the comments, below).

An Interesting Irony

And, truly, if you are not the child’s mother, you can be paid $20 or more an hour to do it (No, silly. Not the rel thing, the diaper thing!).

I know. I had a nanny. When I wasn’t working, yes, I had a nanny.

Now I work and don’t have a nanny. I hired an ex-husband instead.

Motherhood Is The Most Important Work There Is

Not everyone believes me, but it’s true.

Mothers give birth to, and raise, everyone: Leaders, preachers, criminals, lawyers, artists, dancers, trash collectors and homeless people.

Let’s take away the motherhood job and see what we’re left with.

That’s right. Cockroaches. And even cockroaches have mothers. Get where I’m going?

Money Changes Everything

So. Talking to a Dad at a brunch I went to recently.

(Incidentally: I love brunch and I love families that find a way, through thick and thin, to be together in a loving and supportive way. Love it. Love it with cream cheese on top!)

I asked Papacito what he likes about working. You know what he said?

“There’s nothing I like about it. It has to be done so I do it.”

Yep. I practically fell over. I asked, "What would you rather be doing?"

”I’d rather,” he said, “Be with my wife and my children.”

Yet there he is, at the office, 40, 50, 60, maybe 70, hours a week. In a sunless room, pasting the equivalent of rel=“nofollow”. Makin’ bank.

I’ve heard other words and phrases describing work from the professionals I know. Here is a selection:

• Prison
• Indentured servitude
• “Work ain’t fun but it pays the bills” -- Erykah Badhu
• Wage slave and
• Slow death

Fortunately, and thank God, as a single mom startupper, I’m developing a work life I often (like now!) enjoy that allows me to spend time with my children, pet the cat and get my laundry done. Still.

It seems like something isn’t quite right.

You Tell Me

What the heck is going on around here?