Target Rant = Farming?

I can't say I'm too surprised, but I did think I would be able to hold out a bit longer before getting this frustrated. The wear of corporate structure is really getting to me. I have been working at Target now since the second week of November, so about 10 weeks now.

It is so frustrating leaving the workplace every day thinking, "Ok what did I accomplish today?" and the consistent answer I come back with is, "I helped fuel consumerism." I mean, stores are definitely useful. To be able to have thousands of products available all located within 174,000 square feet (thank you target.com) is remarkable.

But it is such a weird feeling coming away with the ultimate goal of every step I make to "drive productivity." What does that even mean? Why do I even want to help drive productivity? So that the people making the products can leave healthier, happier lives? So that the people driving the products to the store can spend more time at home with their families? So that the 300,000 plus hourly employees that Target employs can finally save enough money to put their sons and daughters through college? OR is so that the someone, some Unknown can add an extra $100,000 to their payroll in 2012?

The system does an outstanding job of committing you to work hard and forget WHY you are working hard. Many jobs - the reason why you are working hard is obvious. Maybe you are in the bread-making business and you want to sell bread so that your family can eat from the profit and so that you can provide your community with delicious, healthy bread. Or as a teacher, ultimately you are working to better student's future lives by providing them with an invaluable education.

I work hard when I am at Target, and so do my coworkers. As one coworker said to me tonight, "What's the point? I come here, work, go home to eat and sleep, and then come back in the next day and do it all over again." What IS the point? Life is way too short to spend going to a job that you hate just to pay the bills so you can have fun for a night before pushing back into the same cycle over again.

Granted, I definitely understand that a lot of people don't have an option one way or the other. With jobs running short, and our way of life dependent upon the life cycle of the traditional working job, many many people are forced to work hourly jobs, standing on their feet all day coming home tired to a family that wants love, food, attention, warmth, and affection.

It's interesting how our society has worked so hard to gain leisure time - away from the farm and the concept of simplicity, growing our own food, and living in community as much as possible. I'll be the first one to admit I love my leisure time - I'm sitting here at 11 p.m. on a weekday typing. When I was working in CA I was in bed every night by 9 p.m. - 9:30 at tops. I valued my sleep time, and every bit of lesiure time was that much more important.

I have a feeling thought, that our society is headed towards an inevitable collapse. At some point, the corporate structure is going to break down and people are going to start working back towards the models that worked for our parents' parents' generations and before. It's already starting to happen. People are demanding to know where products come from, and how the people that were involved in bringing that product to them were treated.

It's a scary process - this reversal. It means temporarily taking people out of the line and assigning them new roles. It means relying on our neighbor - being humble and asking for help when we can't pay the bills. It means helping our brother, our sister, our enemies?! when they are in need. People that once spent their time isolated from their families in factories for 12 hours a day are going to spend their time working alongside their brothers, sister, aunts and uncles planting crops and bringing the harvest in.

Maybe I DO need to start scoping out some land afterall...