Becoming One of the Sheep

cidtalk · #1 03-08-2005, 08:02 PM

Lately I have been feeling the pressure of becoming one of everybody else. I have a job that requires a high level of conformity, following procedures, and individuals not be accountable for their actions. Yes, a state job.
I think my instinct to be an individual is taking over my sense of responsibility to keep my very mundane job.
The problem is that I actually love my job, what I do, just not the bull****.
The only thing that can relieve my rebellious nature is to sit with a drawing pad and scribble for a while, or write something, or complain about conformity taking over my life

Anyone else ever have these kinds of thoughts?

SanDL · #2 03-08-2005, 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cidtalk

Lately I have been feeling the pressure of becoming one of everybody else. I have a job that requires a high level of conformity, following procedures, and individuals not be accountable for their actions. Yes, a state job.
I think my instinct to be an individual is taking over my sense of responsibility to keep my very mundane job.
The problem is that I actually love my job, what I do, just not the bull****.
The only thing that can relieve my rebellious nature is to sit with a drawing pad and scribble for a while, or write something, or complain about conformity taking over my life

Anyone else ever have these kinds of thoughts?

Not me.

I quit my job when I got to that point. I asked myself, did I want to spend 20 more years feeling this way and the answer was: no. I emptied my state retirement account.
I'm poor but very happy. I paint full time now.

ealtonwynn · #3 03-16-2005, 03:48 AM

I just stopped. Really and then I ask myself if being a Master Carpenter was all that wonderful adn the asnwer was "NO!" It was a great living but when you wake up and get sick to your stomach before going to work then its' time to move on. Now I am a full time Artist and Preacher. Life is grand and glorious and more challenging than I could possible have imagined. No regrets and really no advice. Follow your heart. You knwo the kind of person you are and wht your hope and dreams are and if they are really attainable. So--Peace!!

AFM159 · #4 03-16-2005, 10:15 AM

Since I embarked on my freelance career I have had several clients and others offer me full-time jobs, often for more money and benefits. I tell them all that I know what type of employee I make and that I most definitely work harder for them freelance then I ever would as an employee.

alfreda · #5 03-16-2005, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cidtalk

Lately I have been feeling the pressure of becoming one of everybody else. I think my instinct to be an individual is taking over my sense of responsibility to keep my very mundane job.
The problem is that I actually love my job, what I do, just not the bull****.
The only thing that can relieve my rebellious nature is to sit with a drawing pad and scribble for a while, or write something, or complain about conformity taking over my life

Anyone else ever have these kinds of thoughts?

Well obviously since you love your job and quitting isn't an option, what strategies have you tried to not feel like a sheep?

alfreda

wayfarer · #6 03-16-2005, 01:37 PM

I hear you about conforming. I've worked with the federal and state government. Later when I worked in the private sector, I actually missed those days of conformity, where in the private sector there was blatant favoritism, nepotism, you name it. I found that keeping my work life and my private life separate was a good way for me not to feel like one of the sheep. In private, I live by my terms and it does help with dealing with the workplace.

Chris

RobinZ · #7 03-16-2005, 03:34 PM

What you do to make a dollar isn't who you are...if you're not financially able to ditch it.

Focus on your art journey.

alfreda · #8 03-16-2005, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wayfarer

I found that keeping my work life and my private life separate was a good way for me not to feel like one of the sheep. In private, I live by my terms and it does help with dealing with the workplace.
Chris

I think that is one important way, but don't you think there are quiet ways within the workplace to maintain a sense of individuality? By how you dress, your demeanor, your hairstyle, your desk, what you eat for lunch,and minor changes in how you handle work or not particpate in the bul***. ? what do you think?

hollyaho · #9 03-16-2005, 07:11 PM

I think personally that if feel you are becoming one of the sheep, no small rebellions will change that. You'll feel like a sheep with pitiful rebellions.

I've personally never had this experience but I think it's because I've never walked that life. I've always been different to some degree and it's never occured to me to really care what other's think of my life.

Maybe it's a way of thinking instead of a way of acting. If I had to get that kind of job I would always be thinking that I was there by my choice....oh hell, I don't know...I still go do my own thing...even there.

alfreda · #10 03-16-2005, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hollyaho

Maybe it's a way of thinking instead of a way of acting. If I had to get that kind of job I would always be thinking that I was there by my choice....oh hell, I don't know...I still go do my own thing...even there.

Yes I agree it being a choice and a matter of perception.

WFMartin · #11 03-16-2005, 10:52 PM

I am not familiar with the "sheep" attitude that rather comes as a by-product of many government jobs, because I have never been in that situation.

However, as in the old Bob Dylan song, you "gotta' serve somebody". Two of my sons are self-employed, and when I kidded them about being their "own boss", each always laughed as he told me, "Dad, you have one boss, but I have a thousand bosses." If you have any work ethic, whatsoever, it seems you truly work for somebody.

I am a retired lithographer, who specialized in the color separation end of the business. One reason I began painting was so that I could relieve the stress of my work with color, and to basically begin "turning out color the way I saw fit", rather than being subject to the unreasonable demands of customers. I used to laugh when some client would have me remove a cast shadow on a face or a product, that I would have broken my neck to have placed there in a painting, for the sake of achieving realism.

The secret to not becoming "one of the sheep" is to develop a hobby (such as my oil and watercolor painting are to me), so that you can literally produce it any way you see fit, rather than conforming to the way someone else wants it to be, as it was with my vocation. My art was truly the thing that kept me going to work for the last 20 years or so. It's fine to be one of the sheep at your job, because that's what pays the bills, and keeps you out of the homeless shelters. It's not imperative that you like it. But, you can do anything you want when at home and on your own time.

The knowledge that when I got home I could produce colored images in the manner and quality that I wanted was the saving grace. Music was an outlet at one time, but the time demands of it often conflicted with the time demands my regular job, while my art did not.

Bill

DevineCreative · #12 03-17-2005, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WFMartin

...It's fine to be one of the sheep at your job, because that's what pays the bills, and keeps you out of the homeless shelters. It's not imperative that you like it. But, you can do anything you want when at home and on your own time.

I would add to this that if you don't have a creative outlet, you will feel like one of the sheep. If all you have is the day job, you will not feel fulfilled. When I had a day job I brought my watercolors and set up to painting during lunch. Saved me for a long time.

Another thing is try not to engage in the people's typical clique-ish nonsense and make sure to maintain friendships outside of work.

Good luck!

Pamela

Andrew · #13 03-17-2005, 02:17 PM

Working as an analytical chemist I can, albeit sadly, relate to the sheep-esqe feeling. While I am not yet in a position to bail and run, I try to make the best of it. I take advantage of any physical and creative outlets I can. If I didn't wholly enjoy the company I work for and the people at this particular plant and in my chain of command, it would be absolutely unbearable. But it still gets mind numbing at times.

Andrew

MsLilypond · #14 03-17-2005, 04:53 PM

I think as long as you have art & wet canvas as an outlet you won't become a sheep,
however if you start liking Thomas Kinkade & Anne Geddes, please let us know, so we can run an intervention for you.

I'm a graphic designer right now, but I'm going back to college in the fall to get certified to be a pharmacy technician (I think may be a rather 'sheepish' job) a total 180 I know, maybe we can boost each other up so neither of us starts Baaaahing.

Llyniwres · #15 03-17-2005, 05:15 PM

Hi.
I'm fairly new to WC! and completely new to the Cafe. One of my hobbies is handspinning and I love sheep, so hope it's OK to add a thought or two!

How about inviting your work colleagues to answer the question 'Who are you, really, deep down inside?'

My guess is that they are each as different from the rest of the herd as you are..... which, in a way, makes you all the same essentially!

You might rephrase the question and ask: 'How do you manage to be true to your inner self, as you set it aside (or hide it) in the service of our common goal?'.... or something like that.

Begin to really enjoy your essential unity, your one-ness, while celebrating and respecting your innate diversity.

Love and peace.... so you can paint from a place of loving acceptance and not from some other place...
Thanks.
Llyni.

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