WHO HAS WHO?

"Bullfeathers"

That's the paraphrased response from a women in the audience when the subject of releasing our perverted death grip on company benefits was discussed.

"I've worked too hard to let go of my benefits," she continued with great passion. She had a point, but I worry for many folks. People I knew in business who use to talk about the projects they were working on or the brain-dead boss they were working for now start off their conversations with: "I only have 4 years, 3 months, 2 weeks and 5 days until retirement."

It's important to remember: everything you do has a price. What price is being paid for your benefits, and who is paying that price? If you're aware of the price and are willing to pay it, that's fine. If you put up with a job that drains your passion and diminishes your spirit so that you can get your teeth cleaned free twice a year, so be it.

When I left the company I was with for 17 years, I marched out proudly (albeit naively) with no medical, no dental and a vested pension. (When I took the pension at 65 it just about covered the cost of Metamucil.) When I started by own company I had a pension plan, and health insurance. How did I get it? I did it the old fashioned way, I paid through the nose for it. But, I did a job I loved and lived in the part of the country I love.

Lesson: Company benefits are something you have; they shouldn't have you.

QUINTESSENTIAL WORK

Be prepared to argue with me.

I don't believe anybody's work is more important than anybody else's work.

"What? Are you saying the work of Mother Teresa was no more important than the work of Mrs. Murphy who makes cat toys?"

I'm sure the casual observer sees a difference, but it doesn't have to be different to the two women.

If you feel a zeal, devotion, and intensity for what you do; what you do is not harmful to the community; and you do it to the best of your ability, there is no difference in the importance of the work itself.

All work, paid or unpaid, is inherently important. Work is important for the benefit it provides the community. (Without benefit the work won't last.) Also work is important for the sense of accomplishment it provides the worker. (Without accomplishment the worker won't last.)

Sure, the outcome of some work, by its very nature affects more people than others, but does that make the essence of that work more important?

Is the actual "work" of a pilot more important when he's flying alone or when he has a few hundred people aboard? The "work" of a doctor when she is treating one ghetto child or researching a cure for cancer?

Doctoring and piloting are important by themselves regardless of how many people they affect.

So is making cat toys.

Yesterday when I laughed at my cat chasing around a catnip filled replica of a rodent, the experience made more of a positive difference in my life that day, that moment, than Mother Teresa's work has done.

I just hope Mrs. Murphy knows that.

Lesson: All work is important; experience it that way.