Welcome to Part 3 of The Potentiality’s award-worthy series on the History of Work. We’ve explored Pirates and Message Runners and University Professors and Fact-Checkers at Fox News. It’s been as hilarious as it’s been informative and interesting. With many of you in the Private Sector back at work, we hope that this mental exercise burns off some of that holiday goodness as you make great use of your downtime and read this blog!
Best. Job. Ever. Number 3!
From the Somalian poet/troubadour to the Japanese Geisha to Tom Petty, the Singer has been integral to the cultural fabric of communities. Your melodic words make people happy (even if it’s angry death metal it still makes people happy). Furthermore, according to a recent Happiness Index, singers are the happiest “workers” out there. Whether you’re a pop star, a Neil Diamond impersonator, a member of a church choir, or in the Little Guitar Army, you have fun with it. The job is simple, yet complex. You write poetry and then music to sing it to (or you get someone who can’t sing to do it for you). Everyone tries this job – especially in the shower and in Japan – but few can actually pull it off in harmony.
Summary of Academically Sound Findings and Analysis:
SINGER |
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LOW |
MEDIUM |
HIGH |
TOTAL: |
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| Level of Hardship | You have arguably the highest level of job satisfaction in the history of the world. Because singing just makes you feel really, really, really good. This being said, the career of a singer involves sleazy producers, fickle fans, and the drugs. Your parents might also try to dress you up in horribly provocative and inappropriate outfits, too. | 4/5 | ||
| Opportunity for Advancement | Ever since Cleopatra invited Phil the Performer into her court, singers have been overlooked for gigs. For every American Idol winner, there are 24 million singers who lose big. While you might be able to garner a humble YouTube/MySpace following, a career as a Singer – is not successful in terms of the money pay off. But people who love what they do don’t care about that, right? |
3/5 | ||
| Meaningful Nature of Work | Sometimes, you have to sing horrible, horrible pop songs that, while designed by focus groups of money-driven producers to be incredibly (and lucratively) catchy, make you die inside just a little. | Not only are you doing what you love, you’re also doing what many, many people wish they could do and what even more people will never be able to do.Singing is – especially at the highest level – is something that can only be done by those who can do it and can never be taught. |
5/5 | |
Worst. Job. Ever. Number 3!
In the middle ages, Searchers of The Dead, often destitute older women, who nevertheless had some medical knowledge, were dispatched by authorities to seek out quarantine houses containing victims of the plague or Black Death. Once they were identified, the house would be boarded up and the rest of the family quarantined. Searchers of the dead were mostly older women, destitute but with enough medical knowledge to spot plague victims. The pay was pretty crappy – about four pence per body – but prices plummeted during the Black Death (in the 1300s about 30-60% of Europe’s population died, which was around 370 million people), because local authorities couldn’t keep up with the hundreds of people dying everyday. Biggest job-related hazard? Dying of the Plague.
Summary of Academically Sound Findings and Analysis:
SEARCHER OF THE DEAD
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LOW |
MEDIUM |
HIGH |
TOTAL: |
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| Level of Hardship | Dude. Your job is to pick up plague-riddled dead bodies, put them in a wheelbarrow and then dump them in a giant pit. You may or may not have to then light them on fire and/or spread a corrosive substance – like lime – on the bodies. Everything about this job is terrible. | 0/5 | ||
| Opportunity for Advancement | Well, there is a good chance that your supervisor will die of the Plague and, with a little luck, you can take his job.There is also a strong chance that you will die of the Plague.So, it’s pretty much a wash. |
2.5/5 | ||
| Meaningful Nature of Work | You are the thin line between pandemic and extinction of the human race. Your job might be terrible, but it ensures that Plague survivors live to have non-Searcher-of-the-Dead jobs in the future! Also, your appearances in Monty Python movies are as amazing as they are hilarious! |
4/5 | ||
Reflections on these Jobs
GODFREY: This job redeems itself somewhat in that, superficially, it represents a meaningful public benefit. But looked at more closely, it hardly elevated anyone to martyrdom. In the 1300’s when sacrifice and faith through good works were applauded, rooting out diseased corpses for a few pennies hardly counts. Nope, this job really, really sucked. Good thing it’s been relegated to history… Or has it?….John? Thoughts? Maybe I could be a singer whose voice cures pandemics…I’ll keep reaching for those rainbows.
JOHN: If I could do it all again, I’d be a Searcher of the Dead. Wait…that’s not right at all. But, yes, human beings will succumb to a plague soon. It’ll probably have something to do with technology taking over. Like, it’ll sap our energy and distract us from more important thi- wait, I think this idea is more than 140 characters…
This evaluation made me wish I could sing. I mean, I really, really like doing it, and, hey, being in a band is all about teamwork and communicating creative ideas to a variety of people in a meaningful ways…It’s also about sex and drugs!