Stress

During the week I’m forever carting home young office jockeys who work till whenever, for no extra money, just to get the job done. In fact these white collar workers are the new exploited class, often only getting a cab fare home for the gruelling hours they do.

Often I’ve pretended they look upon the night cleaners with envy for their simple tasks and set hours, jobs with no worries to take home. But in no way did I consider it true. Until last night when a young systems analyst in IT related how an office colleague had recently quit to become a taxi driver, for this very reason of fixed hours and less stress. ‘He couldn’t be happier’, my passenger insisted, ‘with none of the previous high stress'.

Returning to the city I stopped at a cab garage to gas up and came across the president of the Taxi Drivers Association being interviewed for a forthcoming documentary on cab driving. He was lamenting how drivers are poorly trained, especially in relation to safety and avoiding confrontations and assault, major stress factors.

After ten years I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid assault, yet the possibility is always there lurking in the back of the mind. The new cabbie from the IT world will be dealing with a different kind of stress; menacing, sudden or deadly. In time he’ll work it out.

Comments

[Dogbait]

That's me too. Chucked in a high prssure job to be an electricity meter reader. Love it!

[midnite lily]

a different kind of stress, not mentally.

Often I’ve pretended they look upon the night cleaners with envy for their simple tasks and set hours, jobs with no worries to take home.
it is true. we always envy others who seem more carefree than those who suffer mental stress. physical stresses are easier to ease off, i think.

[Fella]

You're not wrong in that speculation. I'm often around when the cleaners come through the office and have had the same thoughts myself - that the cleaners might be better off than me. They appear happier. However I've never been clear how much they actually earn. I figure I might get 10-15 K more than the cleaner (I get 60) but I could be wrong. Maybe they get more than me? With kids that extra 10 K counts a lot so I have to work 20% longer hours to get 20% more pay. The credentials seem to no value other than to allow me to work longer hours.

[Gerry]

I gave up a high paying, high stress job because it occurred to me one day that there had to be more to life than earning that extra dollar. I was lucky that the job allowed me to build up a good nest egg to have choices, but when I found myself still on the threadmill just to earn that bit more, I decided the stress wasn't worth it. I now live a simpler life, no more fancy meals (which is good for my health) and no more unnecessary power suits.