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Is your job wholesome?
footiam
Veteran
In Buddhism, it is said that there is wholesome and unwholesome way of earning a living. Earning a living by killing animals for example is not wholesome and not encouraged. What types of jobs do you suppose is wholesome or unwholesome? Is your job wholesome?
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Comments
It brings others pleasure.
Frankly if I'm honest, "Beggars can't be choosers". I don't really know how 'green' or morally conscientious my company is; I'm not a big wheel there so there's absolutely nothing I could do to change any 'unwholesome' practices, even if I knew what they were. But I have to live, pay bills and eat. In this economic climate, you do whatever you can to be well, and keep plodding on.
I wouldn't work under any circumstances, within the trades that the Buddha cited as unwholesome. But Life nowadays means that we don't always get too choose how wonderful our employers are.
You could be an abusive, neglectful nurse.
It depends how you do your job not just what job you do.
I met the most negative person I've ever seen here lol (except for he-who-should-not-be-named on this site :P ) Further up the highway, the road collapsed causing them to close that portion down for safety reasons. I told him that they're building another road next to it connecting it to the other side so people don't have to take the long detour. He thought they should just get it fixed because it's a 'federal highway'. No matter what I told him, no matter how much it could risk people's lives if they rushed and opened an unsafe highway, he didn't care. Also our National Monument has a Volcano you could hike up that we closed about 30 years ago because the trails were degrading and people can be seriously hurt or killed if they were to fall off the side, not to mention the Volcano has some deep spiritual meanings to the Hopi, Navajo, and other Native Americans who live in the area. But he didn't care either and decided that everyone in this town just gives-up on things.
Wasn't long that I learned he was from North Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. I used to work down there. I now understand WHY he's like that.
Aren't the concepts of "wholesome" and "unwholesome" subject to context though? For example, although being a butcher is considered "unwholesome" in the Buddha's time, what if that's the only job one could get to provide for a sick family member/struggling family?
It's interesting though, as a commercial fisherman, I am generally treated with respect by people. We seem to be considered salt of the earth types by most folks. You know, braving the elements to bring home our catch. Providing food and jobs and all that. I think most people consider fish to be another resource like trees or minerals.
Fishing has been good to me overall. The kids got raised successfully.
And I have had experiences that are all but indescribable to anyone who hasn't been there.
I'm pretty content with life right now. So I have no complaints with my career choice.
Still, I look forward to retirement and no more fishing. Hopefully I live for a couple of decades as a harmless human.
Post pictures of your success please!
And yes, do commissions for people - they can't buy those from a machine shop.
@Jeffrey You'd be surprised. People LOVE wood toys and stuff. They are always a huge, huge hit at our local craft fairs. You might, once you get started, consider doing a booth at a craft show or 2, or a farmers market even or a flea market or something. I would totally buy wood carved things of all sorts. I do a little whittling, but I don't have the visual ability to see something in a piece of wood and turn it into something. Unfortunately I wasn't blessed with the artisitic abilities of some of the others in my family.
In a situation of supply and demand where animals will be killed, is it not better that those doing the killing do so with compassion?
The entire time I'm getting paid peanuts and gypped out of any possible benefits I could receive by working there, which is not a lot. But now I don't even get those.
Eh, don't listen to my whining.
I reckon that balances things out.
The great liability of the engineer compared to men of other professions is that his works are out in the open where all can see them. His acts, step by step, are in hard substance. He cannot bury his mistakes in the graves like the doctors. He cannot argue them into thin air or flame the judge like the lawyers. He cannot, like the architects cover his failures with trees and vines. He cannot like the politicians, screen his shortcomings by blaming his opponents and hope that the people will forget. The engineer simply cannot deny that he did it. If his works do not work, he is damned. That is the phantasmagoria that haunts his nights and dogs his days. He comes from the job at the end of the day resolved to calculate it again. He wakes in the night in a cold sweat and puts something on paper that looks silly in the morning. All day he shivers at the thought of the bugs that will inevitably appear to jolt its smooth consummation.
On the other hand, unlike the doctor his is not a life among the weak. Unlike the soldier, destruction is not his purpose. Unlike the lawyer, quarrels are not his daily bread. To the engineer falls the job of clothing the bare bones of science with life, comfort and hope. No doubt as years go by people forget which engineer did it, even if they ever knew. Or some politician puts his name on it. Or they credit it to some promoter who used other people’s money with which to finance it. But the engineer looks back at the unending stream of goodness which flows from his success with satisfaction that few professions may know. And the verdict of his fellow professionals is all the accolade he wants.’
Herbert Hoover (31st president of the USA 1929-1933)
Without perception what is not not wholesome?
Without fixed positions
without 'good' or 'bad'
Without without
just be
I'd call that wholesome.
It really comes down to whether I am wholesome or not.
But in at least one way Hoover was dead wrong. Life for a doctor is among some of the strongest people you will ever meet, and they are a privilege to know.
Either way, I work at the parts counter so I just give people what they need and help them find stuff around the store. I'd say that's good on my part. Recently picked up a job delivering Chinese food. I like the money more, I get free food when I'm working and get to deliver their food which makes everyone happy. I'd say that's as wholesome as that job can be.
http://paidtoexist.com/the-zero-hour-workweek/
Any good? Send bill for reading to usual address . . .
All the best,
Todd
I worked in the ER (in registration) for quite a few years and was shocked by what I saw too. Its a crazy, stressful job, and I'm afraid a lot of ER staff simply end up taking it out on the patient.
Sure, every ER has its so-called "frequent flyers" but why can't we just say "forgive then for they know not what they are doing"?
I remember one night some years ago there was a young woman who came to the ER and said she had been raped. I don't know what happened between her and the nursing staff, but she ended up in the back hallway and she wanted to leave-- she was visibly upset. The nurses were all ganging up on her, and maybe even with good intentions, they were trying to get her to stay-- but they were talking down at her, scolding her. Their words may have said "stay" but their actions were clearly saying "don't bother us."
And then the most beautiful thing happened: the rad tech opened up the other hallway door, stood there, didn't say a word, just opened up her arms to her and the patient just walked over to her. No shouting was necessary. It was this beautiful, wordless compassion-- it didn't last more than a few seconds. The rad tech slowly took the patient back to her room.
The ER nurses wrote up the rad tech afterwards, they were so angry at her!
Then there are also jobs that I *thought* were great and "wholesome." Jobs that I went into bright eyed and bushy tailed, hoping that I would be able to help out the world out in my own little way. However, many of *the people/big wigs* working the job (rather the job itself) ended up turning professions that could be seen as "wholesome" into something extremely political and self-serving.
For example, I used to do hospice volunteer work, worked with children with autism, worked with adults with mental/physical disabilities, taught grade school, and did casework. All examples of professions that are supposed to be helpful and seen as "wholesome", right? Let me tell you that in every single one of those instances, it was extremely hard to do what *really* needed to be done for the clients. The politics, scams, hidden agendas, and pure selfishness I encountered was... utterly depressing, to say the least. I used to joke that I kept being put into those positions to right the wrongs going on, because the amount of abuse and incompetence that I would witness was staggering. Maybe it was just my karma to get these ironic jobs, but it really caused me to lose my faith in humanity a bit. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I dunno. Perhaps it's just the area of the world I live? (SIDE NOTE: Actually, my therapist said yesterday that I really don't fit into the east coast of the United States. In her own words (which were words I've said myself before many times), she stated that the east coast people tend to be known more for being "selfish" and "cut throat" in the working world. I tend to agree-- no offense to the east coasters here. Not saying everyone is like that, but in the major cities? It's kinda true, really. And I've lived here all of my life, so I've been observing for quite some time now. But there is a definite difference here compared to, let's say, the west coast. But I digress... different topic for a different day.)
But anyway, the point I was trying to make was, all of the work that I thought that was so wholesome and wonderful, actually was quite corrupt due to the people who were running the show. It's almost like, if you work in a social service-related field in certain parts of the United States nowadays, you are no longer serving the client, but instead fulfilling an agenda. People come last. Money and productivity comes first. Everything is busy busy busy, rush rush rush, get the work done and push the client to the side because they don't matter and you have schedule to keep. Lie, steal, sabotage, enable-- do whatever you have to do to make sure it looks like you did your job and do anything to keep the client quiet and keep the institution from getting sued. The wholesome appeal of the job is a facade and leaves most individuals who try to make a difference feeling defeated and disillusioned. Those who stay for the long run usually end up bitter and give in to the "culture" of money and denial. They convince themselves "that's just how it is." And thus the cycle of ignorance and "it's not my problem" attitude continues.
Anyway, that's my mini-"is your job wholesome" rant. I've yet to find a truly fulfilling "wholesome" job or non-aggressive, manipulative, miserable co-workers. (Okay, some were great, I shouldn't say all... but you get the idea.) As a matter of fact, yesterday my therapist recommended that I join the Peace Corps, but even with that I'm worried I'll find the same "illusion" of help and lots of people who are standing around doing nothing while nothing gets done. It's just so depressing. What's the point of doing a job if you really aren't doing the job you were hired to do, but instead just doing the bare bones basics in order to pass someone off to the next agency, and thus the never-ending cycle of "no one is really helping you" continues? It's just so sad.
P.S. I never claimed to be an optimist. Actually, I used to be very optimistic, like most of us are, when I was younger just starting out in the working world. Now I've become a realist/borderline-pessimist. But I'm trying to get back into that optimistic state. So take this rant with a grain of salt. It really is just my *current* personal perception of how certain things are going on in the world today and nothing else.
I liked both jobs, as both allow me to help others enjoy something that I enjoy as well.
Both have stressful times and stressful encounters..
But.. just starting on my journey with Buddhism myself, I'm finding that it's helping ease the stress.
Up on "the floors", not ER, can be a whole different ballgame and one I would expect where care and time taken are done much better than in the ER. The ER deals with a lot of substance/alcohol abuse, the police and violent behavior. This makes many a nurse there jaded. I don't want to leave the impression that my ER is filled with sadistic nurses and that I am some shining example of goodness, but my stances against fighting and restraining individuals has had me speaking with my director. This practice is quite common and expected. It's something I disdain.
Parents are always the worst to deal with. If it wasn't for nutty parents, I would have stayed working with children. Nothing worse than dealing with a parent who doesn't care about their child, or worse, an overbearing/overprotective parent that (*cough*) "cares" too much and destroys the child's chance at becoming a responsible and productive member of society.
Is my job wholesome? I don’t know even after 30 years but most the time it’s fun. My work is in mental health a lot of it is in the ER doing involuntary mental health evaluations. The mental health system, the insurance system, the pharmaceuticals and not infrequently the staff….SUCKS and mostly unwholesome. Wholesome what is that? A lot of what I do, how I interact with people is certainly questionable (to some…I have been called all kinds of derogatory names and descriptions by other health care professionals). Over the years I developed some moral or ethical compass points which might be construed as wholesome, those being integrity, compassion and gracefulness. Integrity being, am I willing to sign my name, perhaps get sued, does it have professional merit…is it something I am willing to be known for. Compassion being, if I were the other person, is this how I would want to be treated (if I were in my right mind). And gracefulness, having the mindfulness and the patience to allow the situation to unfold without my ego trying to control or constrain the situation. There are many times where I am restraining a person, encouraging high-powered drugs to will change how a person thinks and feel and are taking away their civil liberties. However my reasoning is that the person is unable to do this for themselves. And sometimes it’s just a matter to give that person another day to live and hopefully something else will happen other than death. I have had several people die soon after an evaluation. I do realize that people have the choice to kill themselves and that I am not Superman nor could be with them 24/7 to prevent this.
In this work, I try to be a humble and have been amazed at the things I’ve learned from “crazy people.” Often these situations seem to be an exercise of meditation, to be a reflection/mirror of myself or I’m sitting with a master who is burning off karma to which it is a privilege to serve.
Why would working for an insurance company be unwholesome, I wonder...