On My Job

I got a job recently.

My first two days of the job were orientation. The vast majority of orientation involved watching Computer-Based Learning modules, or CBLs. CBLs could last anywhere from fifteen minutes to two hours, and you basically sit there listening to someone narrating instructions on some aspect of your job. At the end, you take a quiz to check if you learned everything. There were tutorials on spill cleanup, hazardous waste disposal, spill cleanup, another one on spill cleanup, and many other things. I completed around twelve hours of CBLs in total, over two days.

Now, loathe as I am to disparage them, these CBLs were not what I would describe as "fun" or "interesting". In fact, I may be inclined to describe them the opposite way. Example: Halfway during the CBLs, I noticed that if I pulled my earbuds' audio jack out of the computer very slightly, the voice of the narration became distorted -- like Darth Vader talking over a staticky radio. I listened to the rest of my CBLs this way, and it was the most fun I had during the experience.

As I sat there, I recalled my relatives back in China who were getting paid less than a dollar an hour to inspect some screws. Think about this. My time is worth nearly ten times as much as theirs is. The work I do in one month is equal in value to the work they do in the better part of a year. Someone who makes $100/hr looks down on my job with equal disdain, and they can't even see my relatives from where they're standing.

These facts are a little disturbing to me. It's scary to think that our employers dictate the value of the very time we have. Time is a communal part of the human experience, yet our hours and minutes are worth wildly different amounts.

-Me