![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imaginary jobs are easy
Jan. 7th, 2014 12:52 pmI am currently locked in conversation with someone who is convinced that the world works like this:
- There is a straight line, with "incompetent" at one end and "ubercompetent" at the other. All jobs can be placed on this line – the low-paying ones at the start and the high-paying ones at the end.
- All people have a competence level. They will be able to do any and all jobs below that level.
- When you start work, you will start at the low-paying end of the line. Then, every year, you will gradually move up the line until your competence level matches your job level.
- If this does not happen, you are either incompetent or lazy.
I have several problems with this theory.
1) Competence ain't a straight line. I am competent at language, basic computing, and negotiation. And horribly incompetent at customer service, accounting, and floristry. I am good at project-driven jobs with a clear end point, and dreadful at jobs that require repeated activity to be done over and over without end. There are jobs at the top of the "line" that I'd be good at, and jobs at the bottom of the "line" that I'd fail at. (And vice versa.)
2) Ability to do a job and ability to convince someone to employ you for that job are not the same thing.
3) There are many things (often quite simple things) that I cannot do. This is not because I am lazy, or because I won't "try". There is no try – just "do" and "do not", and in this case, I'm definitely in the "do not" category, because there just ain't no way.
(And not entirely related to the above theory, but certainly related to the argument I'm having...)
4) "Just changing jobs" is not a thing. There should be no "just" in that statement. Unless you are offering to cover all my food and accommodation expenses while I look for new work, do not tell me off for staying at whatever crappy job I'm using to fund my life until I manage to get a better one.
- There is a straight line, with "incompetent" at one end and "ubercompetent" at the other. All jobs can be placed on this line – the low-paying ones at the start and the high-paying ones at the end.
- All people have a competence level. They will be able to do any and all jobs below that level.
- When you start work, you will start at the low-paying end of the line. Then, every year, you will gradually move up the line until your competence level matches your job level.
- If this does not happen, you are either incompetent or lazy.
I have several problems with this theory.
1) Competence ain't a straight line. I am competent at language, basic computing, and negotiation. And horribly incompetent at customer service, accounting, and floristry. I am good at project-driven jobs with a clear end point, and dreadful at jobs that require repeated activity to be done over and over without end. There are jobs at the top of the "line" that I'd be good at, and jobs at the bottom of the "line" that I'd fail at. (And vice versa.)
2) Ability to do a job and ability to convince someone to employ you for that job are not the same thing.
3) There are many things (often quite simple things) that I cannot do. This is not because I am lazy, or because I won't "try". There is no try – just "do" and "do not", and in this case, I'm definitely in the "do not" category, because there just ain't no way.
(And not entirely related to the above theory, but certainly related to the argument I'm having...)
4) "Just changing jobs" is not a thing. There should be no "just" in that statement. Unless you are offering to cover all my food and accommodation expenses while I look for new work, do not tell me off for staying at whatever crappy job I'm using to fund my life until I manage to get a better one.