The compensations of the job

Commentary by Joe McWilliams

Why do so many people study so hard and so long, only to end up in jobs that pay less than your average oilpatch roughneck? This is a question many people in Alberta must be asking themselves these days. I ask it of myself once in a while, or a version of it, minus the long and hard studying part. Occasionally, I’m torn between doing the job I love (most of the time) and jumping on the oilfield bandwagon, which would probably see me making three times as much, assuming anybody would have me. But money isn’t everything, as they say, and being poor has its advantages. The secret to peace of mind, I find, is not to care what the Joneses are getting up to. Not wanting what you don’t have and can’t have is another way of putting it. Besides, there is real value in doing something you enjoy, whether it pays the big bucks or not. Take news reporting, for example. You get to indulge your curiosity a lot. Why, I remember this one time…..(insert harp music, or whatever it is, here). Okay, I was just interrupted by a call from Kia Pyrcz (pronounce that ‘perch’) from Calgary, who wanted to talk to me about Andrew Brash, the Calgary mountaineer who is heading for Nepal in a week or so to climb Mount Everest. Now that would be an interesting job, if a little on the risky side. Now where was I…. I used to cover provincial court in Slave Lake every Wednesday. Did it every Wednesday for about 14 years. Some people dislike the court beat, regarding it as tedious, but for me it had its compensations. For one thing, I went from total ignorance of how the system works to one of pretty close familiarity with it, and the people who work in it. It had its funny moments too. One guy was up on a charge of impaired driving, following some wildly reckless driving on Hwy. 2. “I wasn’t so much drunk, yer honour,” he says, trying to mitigate the circumstances, but failing miserably. “I was asleep.” Then there was the repentant young fellow, up for some sort of assault. He worked as an exotic entertainer in the city, he told the judge, oozing sincerity, and was eager to put his troubles behind him. “I just want to get back on all fours, your honour,” he said. Speaking of indulging your curiosity…back when I was the Spotlight reporter I got the bright idea to do a feature on every golf course in the region. So naturally I had to play all of them, on company time. That was a tough assignment, but somebody had to do it. The toughest part, as I recall, was playing the par 5 hole at McLennan – the one that bends around the town’s sewage lagoon. One of my more memorable experiences as a reporter involved taking a float plane from Wabasca to another lake to visit a pelican nesting colony on an island. That really was a once-in-a-lifetime treat, knee-deep loon sh*t notwithstanding. There are a lot more stories. The point, I guess, is that an interesting job is a good thing to have. Short of that, there is at least satisfaction to be gained from doing a job well, even if it isn’t very interesting, and providing good service to people who deserve it. Add the aspect of improving the community you live in, and there’s plenty to be happy about. So here’s to all the decent, hard-working people out there.

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