The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud

Author:Ella Berthoud
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-06-29T04:00:00+00:00

JET LAG

See: Dizziness • Exhaustion • Headache • Insomnia • Nausea

JOB, HATING YOUR

See: Bullied, being • Career, being in the wrong • Job, losing your • Monday morning feeling • Stuck in a rut

JOB, LOSING YOUR

Bartleby the Scrivener

HERMAN MELVILLE

• • •

Lucky Jim

KINGSLEY AMIS

Losing your job can be a hideous blow, both to your pocket and to your ego. The best way to deal with it is to try to see it as an opportunity—a chance to take a break from the daily toil, reconsider your options, and perhaps expand into new territories. Rather than conclude that you were a bad fit for the job, decide that the job was a bad fit for you (see also: Career, being in the wrong). If you’re not convinced, consider all the occasions on which, in your job, you did not want to do the things you were asked to do. Like Bartleby.

Herman Melville’s Bartleby is a scrivener, and when he first arrives for duty at the narrator’s law office, “pallidly neat” and “pitiably respectable,” his employer thinks his sedate nature will have a calming influence on his other employees. And at first Bartleby does seem to be the model worker, industriously copying out letters in quadruplicate. But then he begins to rebel. When his employer asks him to check over his writing, Bartleby gives the response: “I would prefer not to.” It soon becomes apparent that he will do nothing beyond the most basic elements of his job. If asked to do anything more, “I would prefer not to” comes the inflexible reply. A dire impasse develops in which his employer can’t bring himself to fire the scrivener because he’s so meek and seems to have no life whatsoever beyond his desk. And Bartleby will do only what he wants.

Be inspired by Bartleby’s act of resistance. To what degree did your job entail compromising over what you really wanted to do? Bartleby’s rebellion saw him refusing to leave his desk at all. You, however, now have a chance to move on and find pastures new.

Perhaps you can even begin to celebrate the demise of your job. When Jim Dixon is appointed lecturer in medieval English history at a nondescript university in Lucky Jim, he has no intention of messing things up. He duly accepts his boss Neddy Welch’s invitation to attend an “arts weekend” in the country, realizing that he needs to keep “in” with Welch. But once there, he can’t seem to avoid getting himself into trouble. Farcical scenes ensue, including burning bedsheets, drunken madrigal singing, and various sexual entanglements. It’s when he gives his lecture about “Merrie England,” however, that he blows things most spectacularly, delivering the final moments “punctuated by his own snorts of derision.”

Have a much needed laugh, then start looking for a job that is even more suited to you. Because there is an unexpected denouement to Jim’s very public disgrace. Seeing someone make a pig’s dinner of his job—and still coming out on top—will boost your morale immeasurably.

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