What gets traded in for higher pay?

Intro to a wandering rant: I really don't know what drove me to write about this, It all started as a topic I was gonna post in the blog catalog discussions. In the end it was too long for even this blog I think. I was gonna just throw it away in the recycling bin but I figured I might as well post it even if no one reads it but me in some future time where I reflect on how little sense I made in the past.

I have the second lowest salary at my job but I'm the happiest person at work, That has always surprised me. You have all these people walking in that make $40,000-$60,000 a year but a majority of them all have these faces of dead men and women. Meanwhile I barely break into the middle class at the end of the year and I'm skipping in with no sense of doom lurking around me. There is a feeling of pity I have for them, As they do for me when they ask me when I'm gonna become one of them. Why would I want to be like them? The first problem with their jobs is that they have demanding bosses. Theres things to do and there is no time for slacking off. Meanwhile my job is to just be around and do what is expected of me. There are no orders. No demands of working overtime or working weekends.

Aside from only having to work three days out of the week that's my favorite part of my job. I'm pretty much a slacker. There are their drawbacks though. You'd think having the ability to sit around on the internets, listening to music, reading books, watching TV and so on would be awesome but these things do get old real quick. They sort of become something you do to kill time. Like pointless paperwork that make you look like you're working so you don't get yelled at for sleeping on the job.

If I clearly have a stress-free job why does it seem like those people think my job is lesser than theirs? It's not like my job consists of cleaning toilets and floors for $7 an hour. I see it like this, These are the people who pay $500 a week towards things they have no time to really enjoy just to take their stress away because their $50,000 job is killing them. I just cut out the middle man for myself and save myself the trouble of having to buy that $40,000 Lexus and pay $2,500 a month for a condo to make me feel better like so many do. It's not like I'm driving a 1974 Dodge Dart and living in a trailer. I'm content living in a lakefront townhouse and driving a Toyota until the day it breaks down.

More money really isn't worth it to me if you have to kill your mind and body in the process. I think the first glance I got at this in action was when I was getting my foot in the "rastlin" business. There you had these people making thousands of dollars a week while us rookies at the bottom were lucky if we even got booked to do a show for free. What I noticed is that alot of these big time guys, One legend from the WWF being the best example lose themselves to these high paying, high stress jobs. The man is a has been today but is still making thousands a week to go out, Do some sloppy pretend fighting and pull his snake out in public. In the hallways of the back though you see a different side though. You see a person who walks around like a zombie, A person who grabs onto a stranger and jumps into a rambling mess of words, A person who breaks down crying while standing tall on the way to his changing room.

Now not every guy at the top is that bad, This is a clear case of drug abuse and demons in that mans head. I'm just pointing out that these who have more expected of them in turn are effected by it in their own way. Meanwhile, The guys on the bottom always seem to be more relaxed and normal. Yeah we had to work crappy part times on the side but we weren't so on edge. I never expected to ever be much than a guy at the bottom but once again during my walk down this road I found again people pushing me to give up time and comfort to get more money plus status.

Not all of those who pushed did it in a nice way though. I remember the first biggest insult I took was from a visitor we had while training, A former student who found himself on the way to the big time. After watching us train and giving us some advice he directed his attention to me. His exact words were "You gotta train hard, In this business you have people like him (That would be me) and then you have people like Chris Benoit who does nothing but train to be the best that he...". After that blow to my ego I kind of tuned out alot of things he was saying as all that was being said is how hard the people in the big time work to improve their craft. I found myself thinking "What the hell man, Who the hell does he think he is coming in and making me the weakest link in the room". At that time I had only been training for two weeks so I really didn't have much to show as far as talent but why crush me like an ant to get a point across?

There really didn't seem much to say to it. What was I gonna say? I was pretty silent except for a little line I gave him as we were finishing up for the night. It went something like, "Man, I'm not just green, I'm glow in the dark". Yes I know, SUPER LAME and to which I got a pretty good laugh from him even though he didn't crack a smile the whole night as he was trying to be the tough guy he was.

That night has passed, I'm no longer into wrestling and the guy who insulted me is in the WWE right now to which I hope him luck because the fall down is quicker than the time it takes to climb that ladder of success. The thing that hit me though was the fact that Chris Benoit died. I had alot of respect for this mans talent in the ring as many others did but the shocking events of him murdering his family before taking his own life hit me a different way than it did for others. The same man that when compared to me was perfection had suddenly done something that no one expected him to do. He had the money, The family, The fame, The experience but all of the sudden he ceased to exist. Not only did he take his high status away in one moment but he took his family too.

All that was left was a tainted past. Suddenly where I was at the time didn't really matter for me. No longer did I have envy for those who were seen as above me. I just didn't care anymore. I didn't need to follow a route that everyone else did just to get to a piece of cheese at the end of the maze. Don't get me wrong, I'm still in the maze with the other blind mice but I just found myself a nice little place in said maze where I'm content on being at for the moment. There are no men in lab coats poking me to go forward or backward, Nor are there even any notes being taken about my progress. I'm just there.

Another dirty side of selling out for money I experienced was in the production business. Well not so much the business as much as the producers. I hear people complaining how those who make our entertainment get paid too much but these people really do put themselves thru sleepless days of stress, mistakes, idiots, people showing up late, things missing, deadlines and so on. They do make good money and enjoy their life but at the same time there is an ugly side to them. They pretty much get burnt out on a lifestyle that consists of working hard and partying harder to make up for time missed. These people make me nervous. They are ticking time bombs ready to explode.

Now let me make clear that I know not ever person goes thru the same thing with said jobs, I'm just poking at the worst examples. Isn't that what every person does when they write about something. No one ever aims for the middle when they have a point to make, Or even when there is no point to be made.

On the other side you have Production Assistants. These people who as one called himself are pretty much "Coffee Bitches". They serve no purpose other than to fetch things and set up basic stuff like food tables for the bigger people. Sounds kind of crappy right? Well these people were making $200-300 a day just to be the boy or girl who gets a redbull that is only 30 yards away from the person requesting said drink. Aside from the extras (who may I add mostly consist of snobs and wannabe actors), They are the happiest lowest paid people most of the time.

I'll wrap it up by saying thank you to those of you who are stuck in those high stress jobs waiting for a promotion that rewards your efforts with a bit more money and much more work. You guys are really what helps this country keep moving and keeps jobs that require less effort for sometimes a little less pay alive.