Meaningful Life Lessons from Meaningless Jobs: Humans Suck, Animals are Better
Published: July 30, 2020
Oh, those blissful desk jobs. How they shape us! For better or worse, our desk jobs and other meaningless jobs are in our lives. And most of the time for a reason. They expose us to arrogant lawyers, screaming guests, and entitled doctors. And that’s to teach we measly humans meaningful life lessons from seemingly meaningless jobs!
The Job: Receptionist at a Busy Vet Clinic, Grooming Salon, and Training Facility
As a receptionist, a front desk agent, or in any other front-line position, you’re the first person people storm to when there’s a problem. Quite frankly, you’re often bitched at from both sides, too. There are times where this could totally be a toxic environment.
I felt the same way, dude! I took a receptionist position in an animal hospital having been beaten down for 10 straight years in the restaurant industry. I thought I’d play with puppies and cool lizards all day. Turns out, puppies come in and lizards do, too. But you hardly get to play with the lizards, and the puppies are usually from terrible puppy mills where they may have caught deadly diseases they could spread to your own pets if you bring the puppies home! Awesome! I love killing my own pets; that was just what I was looking for.
On top of my worry about bringing literal death home to my dog, the doctors consistently ridiculed the reception team for not having a proper education, despite that most of us had a degree. Not. That. It. Mattered! It was terrible. The doctors were entitled, the guests were entitled, and management was quick to ignore the friction caused by the entitled attitudes so that they could go home early.
Disclaimer: I’m sure not all animal hospitals are like this, but this is my meaningful life lesson so you go write your own if you had a different experience! You can also comment below or repost with a friendly discussion.
The Lesson
This job is what brought me to a realization: Humans suck and animals are better. This meaningless job taught me a meaningful lesson that I was already keen on, as you may be, too. Humans really are the scum of the Earth, and we don’t deserve our animal companions. In only six months of working at a busy animal hospital in Orlando, Florida, I formed a few reasons for my claim. There’s some weird Disney energy in that place, man.
Animals Help Humans More Than They Know
Have you ever had a family member or members who were so attached to their pets that a single occasion of their not having their fur babies with them somewhere made you worry that something bad must have happened to the pet? On occasion, I noticed that certain pets were weirdly in tune with their owners. Even if the owners didn’t know it! Whenever any of these owners would brag about how they saved the animal, I’d be looking into the pet’s soul knowing it was the animal who saved the owner. No matter whether the animal in question is a 30-year-old parrot, it’s probably the most consistent thing in the owner’s life. If the owner is a 70-year-old woman, she has probably seen her loved ones and friends move away or die, and that bird is the only thing that keeps her company and sanity in check.
I’d see this in-tune connection hidden behind children’s eyes, under the breath of alcoholics, and in drug users. Their pets seemed to be the only source of love and light in their lives. It wasn’t the human who was saving the animal, but the other way around.
Not Everyone Should Have Pets, Amirite?
Another life lesson I learned, and this one is hard to accept: Some people shouldn’t have animals. Ever. There was an old couple who would notoriously spend thousands of dollars on new puppy mill puppies (note that I do not take any side on breeder vs adopt, just don’t go to puppy mills!) only to get rid of them for minor behavioral issues. The couple didn’t take the time to properly train the puppies but would just replace each one with another one from the puppy store.
We also saw a puppy several times for exploratory surgery throughout its first years of life. I don’t know what was exploratory about it, though. It was always a sock. Always … so why not take the hamper access away from your dog?! How can the dog eat a FULL SOCK without you noticing?
Again, instead of proper training or supervision, the owners would spend thousands of dollars for surgery to fish out socks from their puppy’s stomach. It was casual, too. They’d drop him off before heading into work and pick him back up later! I felt so bad for that poor puppy having so many surgeries that could have been prevented.
Situations like that taught me the life lesson that some people shouldn’t have animals. I also learned that animals aren’t innately one way or another. They aren’t born aggressive; aggression is a learned behavior. Animals are usually pretty chill; it’s humans who mess them up along the way.
Domestic Animals Aren’t Innately a Certain Way
Many owners expose their dogs to dangerous situations, unknowingly. They lead them into situations they first thought would be fine and dandy but are the opposite. In turn, they blame their dogs for this learned reactivity. They got it alllll wrong, my friends. I’m sorry! It turns out that humans are typically the cause of a dog’s behavior, and this lesson was a hard but meaningful one to learn! Luckily, I had this meaningless job and now I know better.
Between doctors showing their true colors to lower-ranked staff and humans blaming their innocent animals for everything, I had had it with my fellow men and women. I quit after only eight months of employment. That’s all the time I needed from that job, I guess. In some meaningless jobs it takes you years to learn the meaningful life lessons they’re trying to teach you. In other ones, it takes you only eight months, as in my case.
Sew Your Life Lesson Quilt With My Help
Time sometimes doesn’t matter in the land of life lessons. Think of life as a quilt. You take pieces from different places. You learn different lessons and sew them into your life blanket. You learn through situations that shape who you are. It’s all on purpose, too. It’s all sent from the universe, so soak it up. Oh, and you’ll keep being placed in the same situation over and over, so you better put your new glasses on!
Continue reading this blog series, posted every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. PST. I’ll help you identify meaningful life lessons from meaningless jobs.
Incredible!! Good job!! 💝
I work in the service industry and couldn’t agree more on ‘entitled’ everyone. Entitled client, entitled management.
I also agree that some humans should NEVER own pets. I am not a pet lover myself and do not own one but I cant help notice some poor mistreated pets and wonder why the heck their human owners got them.