Because I am perennially seeking paid work (to supplement my unpaid creative and critical work), I frequently receive emails with job listings. Most of these jobs are corporate, which I tend to ignore except for research purposes. That is, these announcements provide information about workplace trends, not only with respect to the jobs themselves but about how they are “marketed.”
There is a site that most job seekers are familiar with called Glass Door. While this site (like so many others) also tends to be corporate, it provides a valuable service by aggregating employee-provided inside information about companies. Glass Door provides much needed transparency about pay scales and diversity, but also more intangible things like corporate culture and opportunity, which are often effectively hidden from job seekers. Today, Glass Door sent an email alleging they had a list of “dream jobs.” These were not mere work-for-a-living jobs, but purportedly jobs that you could look forward to doing “with passion” every day. I followed the link to the list, and the jobs described were basically underwhelming. But the job described below got my attention:
Pet Caretaker, Thompsons Station, TN. Turn your love of animals into a full-time job. Mars—the maker of candy bars and pet food including Pedigree, Whiskas and Iams— is looking for a caretaker to provide daily care for the pets within the MARS Petcare Feeding Facility including cleaning of the facilities and implementation of the environmental enrichment programs. Opened in 2014, The Pet Feeding Center houses 180 dogs, living in pairs in circular kennels and spend time playing together in the outdoor access areas. Up to 120 cats also live together inside the area, which features conservatory viewing areas and play areas. And yes, there are plenty of free Twix, Snickers and Skittles on site.
One of my pre-credential, young adult “survival” jobs was as an animal caretaker at a medical research laboratory. Job duties consisted of feeding the animals and cleaning their cages; i.e., you were a pooper scooper in a lab coat. I only lasted there two days. This was not so much because I was unwilling to handle shit, but when a group of rabbits (or, what was left of them) came back from an experiment, I could not handle that. The Doctor in charge of the lab was surprisingly sympathetic, stating “Not many people last here very long.”
I am generally not shocked at how language is used to deceive. It is the essence of all marketing messages. In the United States, some $6.7 billion a year is spent on marketing research. The goal of this research is to change behavior—that is, to get people to spend money on something they might not otherwise want or need—rather than improving products, processes and institutions to make our lives better. However, I WAS surprised that Glass Door—a paragon of transparency (as the name implies)—would describe pooper scooping as a “dream job.” Admittedly, the animals in the advertisement are used in pet food and not medical research, so the jobholder is not likely to encounter butchered bunnies. But a “dream job”??? Was it because of the all-you-care-to-eat junk food? Work this job for too long and you will end up looking like the Good Year blimp and smelling like a barnyard. But…if you clap your hands loud and long enough and TRULY BELIEVE, it can be your dream job!
Psychologists (and now neuroscientists) have long recognized a process they term “rationalization.” Rationalization happens when we are (in some way) forced to do something that conflicts with our core beliefs or inner values. Psychologists say we do this in order to avoid cognitive dissonance, or the mental conflict that occurs when our decisions or behavior is inconsistent with who we are and what we truly believe.
Rationalization is understandable at the level of the individual job-holder. Imagine that you have work skills and experience, as well as academic or professional credentials. If you (like many people) have difficulty finding appropriate work and money is running out, you take a job that neither pays for nor uses your highest skill level. Even if the job is doing little more than providing some social contact and keeping a roof over your head, you feel like you “should” be grateful for it. You also do not want to feel like a loser, because in today’s society, even being perceived as a loser is a certain career-killer. So…you rationalize how “good” the job is, maybe even exaggerating its benefits and complexities…even if only to yourself. At some point (according to psycho-science), you actually begin to believe your own rationalizations.
While this rationalization process—as perverted as it is—is understandable at the individual level, it becomes even more problematical at the societal level. Over the course of time, all of us begin to forget what a good job even looks like and what work should really be about. How we describe who we are and what we do becomes more about hype, spin, and the creation of image rather than substance. Taken to extremes, we collectively disconnect from reality. In the words of George Orwell, “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
As a perennial job-seeker, I am familiar with data supporting the improbability of being selected through mass advertised job openings and applicant tracking algorithms. In a world where there are many more job seekers than jobs (including those who already have jobs they are not happy about), the “system” is set up to operate as a screening and a sorting device to eliminate candidates. Indeed, some job-search gurus advise serious job seekers to avoid applying through these systems altogether. So, when you see some jobs being over-hyped and touted as “dream jobs,” your first reaction should be one of suspicion. If you (like me) are proficient in the art of critical thinking, most of the time you will be able to read between the lines to find the truth. If not, then simply remember the old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
