Love It Or Leave It

A week ago, Ted, the CEO of IZEA, a man I respect and admire, wrote a post about loving our jobs or leaving them. I encourage you to read his post “Love It or Leave It” before continuing on with what I have to say.

I agree with what he wrote in theory, I don’t believe that we should be at our jobs if we’re miserable; I do believe that we should be working in environments that we love. But I don’t think it works in reality. I don’t think that the majority of people in our society can love their jobs or just pick up and leave their jobs if they don’t love them. Drew, from BenSpark.com left a wonderful response 11 comments down in Ted’s post about how it’s difficult to leave a job that we don’t love for one we do because of responsibilities, families, bills, etc.

For me, it frustrates me when I read/hear people talking about how if we don’t love our jobs we should leave them. It makes me sick because as a person that has a chronic disease, I can’t choose a job solely based on my love for the job, I have to factor in health insurance.

I have a degree, I work in a field, and if we lined up 2 job opportunities, and one I would really love to work at but the health benefits weren’t great, I’d choose a job that I may not enjoy as much because the benefits were better. That is the world that I live in and I know that I’m not the only person that lives in that world.

When I think about loving a job vs taking a job to survive (which is where I am) there are sacrifices. It’s like everything else in life, sacrifices have to be made. Do I want love and passion for my job or health insurance. The decision has been made for me, most jobs where we can completely love it don’t pay out well enough for us to not have health insurance. Health insurance is vital for someone with Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 is expensive without insurance, and sure, we can make sacrifices on our care, and choose cheaper ways out in an attempt to offset the lack of insurance but that has it’s own consequences and stresses that come with it.

That’s reality, while I love “Love It or Leave It” in theory, I’ve found that it doesn’t work in reality. Be it because of my predicament with a disease or otherwise, love it or leave it isn’t an option. Ted’s post struck a cord with me because it’s not the first time that I’ve heard/read it. I had to put my thoughts down. Also, it inspired me to create a piece of art.