2005.01.03
There ain't nothin' in this world that's worth being a snot over.
Rude Awakening of the Moment
So I'm finally almost done with this book Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs At The Turn of the Millennium. Put out by the now sadly defunct site Word.com, it's a terrific read; all these people in different careers talking about what they do, and how. (And I have been working on this book for a long while; I think it was my "occasional" reading all the way back at my dotcom Event Zero...) Today I read the essay "Nurse", and it shattered some illusions I had about the work. Ever since my dad got his RN degree thinking he might have a job change I've had this thought "gee, if all else fails, maybe I can go to school and do that". But according to this essay, the "nursing shortage" is a bit of a myth...heh, it osunds like it's not a lack of qualified workers but a lack of HMOs and other groups wanting to shell out for enough staff. And I knew it was grueling work, but man, it sounds like in this day and age of managed costs it has gotten really, really bad. Sigh. Always a little disconcerting when your Plan...well, not Plan B, more like G or H, falls though, even if you hope you'd never need it.
Second Rude Awakening of the Moment
As far as I can tell, this isn't particularly worrisome for my current position, but the "75% of time" project I was on was canned in lieu of a different, more limited approach. Which in many ways I'm fine with; the project looked like it was biting off more than it could chew anyway, and there seems to be a lot of work here and I've acquired a lot of specific knowledge. But one thing I've learned is when other people on a project seem really lackadaisical about getting things done, watch out: either they're slackers, or they know something you don't.