“You know, a man takes a job … And that job … that becomes what he is … You get a job, you become the job.” – “Taxi Driver”

“Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny.” – Robert F. Kennedy 

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This article is a collection of responses from people that I interviewed around the UT campus and the Austin area, including students, professors, service industry workers, police officers and more. Their responses relate their details and feelings regarding what they spend most of their time doing and relaxing from – work.

I conducted these interviews anonymously. As a result, I refer only to their job title in this piece. While this may appear dehumanizing, I feel that this choice not only allows for a greater freedom of disclosure on the part of the people who so graciously allowed me to interview them, but also forces the reader to find the humanity in the words that they spoke. 

I was inspired by Studs Terkel to do this interview project. Terkel, an oral historian and radio broadcaster, authored a classic book called “Working” which featured interviews of American workers from every strata of society. Terkel sought to reflect how people felt about their working lives in a moving way; I hope to convey a similar message with this article. 

Americans are hard workers. Compared to other developed countries, the United States had one of the highest average annual hours worked in 2022. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022 full-time American employees spent an average of 8.4 hours a day working, while they spent 4.05 hours per day on leisure and sports activities. 

The picture of American work satisfaction is, on one hand, encouraging. 

According to recent 2023 Pew research, “about half of workers are highly satisfied with their job overall.” They rate their relationship with co-workers and bosses relatively highly, but are less satisfied with their pay and opportunities for promotion. At least 70% of workers say they are treated with respect in the workplace. While younger workers have lower levels of job satisfaction than older workers, most are extremely or somewhat satisfied with their jobs. Income also factors into this consideration, as higher earners are more likely to be satisfied than their lower earning counterparts.

And yet, the phenomenon of “quiet quitting” — or psychologically disengaging from work and putting in the bare minimum — counterbalances this optimism. A Gallup poll recently found that 50% of the U.S. workforce is “quiet quitting” and that work satisfaction for young remote workers in particular is low. According to some researchers, a decent number of workers view modern work as both soulless and pointless. 

When it comes to work, there is suffering, monotony and despair — but there is also satisfaction, meaning and hope. All workers have the right to talk about what they do and why they do it, regardless of whether they are white collar, blue collar, optimistic, or pessimistic.

These are their voices.

1) What do you do and what does your day look like? 

Dishwasher

“I work at a restaurant, although during the semester the only position I do is dishwasher. Whenever there is a break in the semester, I also help serve guests.”

“On days I work, I wake up and generally only work evenings. I work morning shifts pretty rarely, so in the morning I will do errands or homework and then I go to work. Then I get home and just go to bed because school is the next day, so I can’t afford to really do much after work. I only work Sunday evenings.” 

Indoor Soccer Coach

“I work at an indoor soccer field. Some days it’s just teaching classes or teaching young kids how to play soccer, which is a little bit more fun and not as intense. It’s just about getting them to run to the ball. But then it obviously gets more intense with older kids — you kind of teach them skills and how to be elevated players and stand out.”

“I wake up around like 6 to go to work, because I usually get there by 7:30. And then at 7:30, I’m just turning on all the lights, cleaning up, making sure enough balls are out for the kids who are coming for the camps and academies.”

“On the weekends, it’s kind of the same thing except there are birthday parties. It’s just setting up, decorating for the birthday party, and then working with the kids. I make sure that no one gets hurt on the field, the birthday kid is happy, the parents are happy, and nobody’s crying.” 

Apartment Ambassador

“I work in my apartment complex. Work at the front desk is kind of like sales plus receptionist. I had to work from 9 to 12:30 today, and then immediately got off work, didn’t even change, and went to class. And now I’m doing this interview. So yeah, it’s very much I go to work. Go to class. On Tuesdays, I have class from 9:30 to 3:30. And then work from 4 to 6.”

Professor

“I teach at the University of Texas in Austin. I usually come in between 7:45 and 9 depending on the day. If it’s a day where I teach, I prep classes in the morning and I prep classes in between my different classes. If not, I do other work. I have office hours, days actually change a lot from day to day. 

I have a bundle of different tasks accomplished every day. I make progress every day. It’s a mix of writing, academic things, writing classes, grading papers, having reading groups, going to class — this whole mix of stuff. End of the day, I usually go to the gym. I go there for an hour, go home, have dinner and go to sleep. Then do it all again the next day.”

Overhead Door Worker

“We provide services and installs for commercial and overhead doors such as rolling steel high speed doors, dock levelers, all that. 

Our day is just pretty much made up at the shop. Talk about what we’re gonna do today. Find a game plan and throw it out the window as soon as you get to the job. You gotta make up a new one.

Most days we get to do everything. Try to do new things every day, like being on a university campus doing doors. Tomorrow, I’ll be in the freezer. We try to get out for 8 hour days, but there are things like today where we stay until we get the job done down okay.

Longest job I’ve done was a 13 hour day. That was for Discount Tire, we did four doors as 22 foot by 12 —  nice and heavy and just a pain in the butt.” 

Custodian 

“My job is custodial — housekeeping. First thing we have a quick meeting. See what, if anything, new is going on that day. And everybody goes to check restrooms. Then after that, we hit the cafeteria. Clean that up. Come back, take a quick 15 minute break at about 3 o’clock, and then just hit our classrooms. The ones that are available at least until the kids go out. 

We don’t get out of work till like 10 and 11 something. So yeah, we’re the last ones to leave.”

Police Officer

“I’m a patrol sergeant. So I supervise some of the patrol guys, but I’m actually out on the field with the officers. I mean, it’s just daily activities, answering service calls, responding to crashes, disturbance calls and stuff like that.”

“I try to start my day off by going to the gym. It’s usually breakfast and work, and then night, and then all over again, work and then night all over again. So it’s pretty much the same, pretty much the same, the only time I really tend to take off is when I go on vacation. And other than that, I kind of keep it basically the same.”

2) What do you dislike about your job? 

Dishwasher

“It’s kind of boring, I guess, but I don’t know. I don’t have any major complaints to be honest.”

Indoor Soccer Coach

“It’s kind of disorganized. Sometimes I get stuck there by myself all day. And so I can’t even leave to get something to eat for like five minutes. Or I end up being stuck by myself with like 20 kids, which can be really stressful. 

Some of the kids are really young. They whine about everything. And it’s really hard to deal with that when you’re by yourself because it’s not like you can like split them up and say, ‘these group of kids are going to do this while I do this other thing with the other kids.’”

Apartment Ambassador

“I think the hard part is our upper management. 

There’s me. My co-workers. It’s a pretty small sort of thing. And I have two managers who work within the building with me, but then we have upper management — corporate. They make 90% of our decisions for us, so they determine all the prices for apartments, what we can and can’t do, and our budget. So we’re really restricted by them. And then at the same time, they expect us to do crazy things, like achieve miracles, essentially. So that really sucks.”

“When people come in, and they’re looking to tour the apartment — that part of the job is fine. There’s some times where it’s awkward. There’s some times where you get yelled at. It’s fine. I think most customer service jobs are like that. But customers come in with issues and I want to help them but you’re so limited by what you can do. And it’s like, I sympathize with you. If I could, I would fix this for you right now. But you can’t and then upper management’s like, yeah, we’ll deal with it.”

Professor

“Grading papers.”

Custodian

“There’s a lot of little stuff, like kids just disrespect the school right now all over the place, throwing trash where it don’t need to be thrown. Just unnecessary stuff that we have to take care of. We tried to stay on top of it. The principals are real good and the teachers are good too. They stand guard.”

Police Officer

“In all honesty, we’re a small, small pawn in a big chess game. 

A lot of people think that law enforcement and police officers have this crazy amount of authority when really, it’s the judges, the DA’s (District Attorney) office, the courthouse. They’re the ones that have the prosecution and they have the full power. 

I mean, we will chase around the same bad guy for three or four years before something ever happens to him. And, we’re risking our lives each and every time that we’re dealing with this suspect – not only our lives, our freedom. I mean, when we do something wrong, we’re accountable for it. 

So that’s the biggest downfall of law enforcement. As easy as it’s able to control what you do, you just can’t control every situation. Every situation is different. And until you encounter that unknown situation, it’s gonna be hard to control that.”

3) What do you love about your job?

Dishwasher

“I like getting paid $20 an hour to wash dishes. The managers are all really nice and so are my co-workers. It’s a nice environment, but the biggest thing that I like about working at a restaurant is the amount of free food I get which helps me save a lot of money on food and a lot of time on food preparation throughout the week. So that’s the biggest draw for me in working at a restaurant.” 

Apartment Ambassador

“I like helping people in the job, it’s actually really rewarding. If someone comes in and has an issue — and then you can solve it. 

For example, if someone doesn’t want to be bound to their 12 month lease, we offer reassignments where someone can take over the lease. They have to go through a process, but it’s simple enough, but they have to find someone, essentially. So if you can’t find someone, you’re kind of stuck with the lease. And so there have been multiple occasions where I’ve helped someone find a person to take over their lease, and that can be really rewarding. I also like giving tours when people are chatty. You can make friends and learn things about people.”

“Also, the rent discount. I had never done anything sales related before or anything really like this. I mostly worked at food places before, but before I was moving into this apartment, I wanted to see if I could get a rent discount. They have jobs and I applied in the summer and got it immediately. 

That was a year or so ago. And so now I’m just kind of stuck here. And it’s fine. I like my coworkers. Stuck, meaning I don’t want to quit. Because if I quit, I’d have to pay full rent. I can’t afford that.”

Professor

“I like reading books. I like learning things. I like the effect that what I am able to teach has on my students.”

Custodian

“Payday! Just kidding. I like that it’s a good job. It’s dependable, it’s always there, there’s always work. You don’t have to worry about running out of work — with the student ratio, that don’t happen. It’s just a steady job and that’s what you need consistently.”

Police Officer

“I think it’s a very unique, very unique job. And not a lot of people can do it. It takes certain people to be able to not take things personal, be able to go through a traumatic event and be able to shake it off and continue staying in the same field. 

Most people go through a traumatic incident. We go through traumatic situations daily, weekly, monthly. It takes a very unique person to get up every day and go out there and help somebody.”

4) How do you relax?

Dishwasher

“Usually when I’m relaxing, that just involves finding a place where I can sit or lie down. I watch YouTube videos or browse the web on my phone. If I have a lot of free time, I might play video games, but I don’t really have much time to play video games at school or even energy because I’m too tired. So mostly just browsing the web or YouTube.” 

Indoor Soccer Coach

“I don’t get really that stressed out at my job because I love playing soccer. It’s just something that I love to do, so I don’t get that stressed out at my job. But when I do get a bit overwhelmed, I call and talk to my mom and she calms me down.”

Apartment Ambassador

“I take my dog on a walk. So it’s nice to get out, walk around. And sometimes, you just have to sit and stare at a wall for a second to relax and just not be thinking. Because you always really have to be thinking and talking to people and making sure you’re saying the right things. Then you’re at class and talking to people, and then you come back to work and you’re talking to people and answering the phone and answering questions. Sometimes I feel like I’ve lost my voice at the end of the day, because it’s so much talking.”

Professor

“Go out with friends. I go to the gym pretty much every day. I do social things at night. Sometimes I like reading novels.”

Custodian

“Go home and take a nice cold shower. Relax on my recliner with my bulldog and my Weiner dog.”

Overhead Door Worker

“Sit my lazy butt on the couch eating potato chips and watching TV. My wife is making me watch that Halloween Bake Off. Making me feel hungry.”

Design Student and Band Member

“I don’t really know. I’m still trying to figure that out. Because I feel like even in high school, I was so busy that I didn’t have time to relax. So I didn’t learn how to relax. So I’m still figuring that right now. I went to the Co-op to just buy books. I kind of picked some two random ones, as I’m trying to get back into reading. I also do bullet journaling — instead of having a planner or using Google Calendar. It’s very therapeutic for me. Because using Google Calendar, it’s so structured and so time based. This helps me destress while also still being productive.”

5) How optimistic are you about the future?

Apartment Ambassador

“I’d say I’m pretty optimistic. I don’t see it as a long term job. I’m graduating this year, so after that, I’ll probably move out and quit my job. But I think I’m very optimistic about the way it’s affected me. I think it’s made me a better speaker around people, more charismatic to some extent. I went into it being a little bit awkward, but you have to learn how to make small talk when you’re giving tours or it’s just really awkward.”

Professor

“For my future, 6 out of 10. There are lots of good things I’d still like to do in my life that I hope to do. 

For the country, 3 out of 10. I’m not optimistic because of political polarization, the fact that the educational system doesn’t form people to be good human beings, and tech addiction.”

Civil Engineering Student and Orchestra Member

“In general, no, but my future I feel like is at least going to be decent and not awful. I’m just worried about current trends like climate change — existential stuff.” 

Custodian

“I know I will still have a job, but there is a lot of changes that are being made. I have no other way but to try and adjust to the changes. But I know that you can have a job with the district as long as you work smart and don’t hurt yourself.”

Overhead Door Worker

“Yeah – I ain’t gonna let anything bother me, I’m gonna live my life.”

Police Officer

“I’ve been a police officer for nine years. I don’t see myself doing anything else. I mean, every day is different. It’s not like you have to come here standing as a Walmart door greeter and do the same thing every day. You get in a car and patrol the city, go to take calls. And most people are thankful and grateful for what we do. And the ones that we do it for are the ones that can’t protect themselves. 

There’s a lot of people that are anti-police — they all have guns and can protect themselves. But there’s still people out there that are elderly, there’s still people out there that are young, that can’t protect themselves. So that’s the good thing; some people out there still need us, regardless of what a lot of people say on the other side.”

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Final Thoughts

Society is built on work. People have a function to perform, and that becomes their job. Therein lies several key questions: 

Are people just their function? If not, how should society recognize people’s humanity beyond what they do for a living? And lastly, should people live to work or work to live? 

The history of work is one of constant change. Anthropologist Sahlins argued that hunter gatherers labored only three to five hours a day to sustain their society, although this claim is controversial. American factory workers in the early 19th century toiled 10 to 12 hours a day in unsafe conditions. The struggles of labor from that time period earned the 8 hour work day that we take for granted today. 

What will work look like in the future? How will employment change given the rise of disruptive technologies such as AI? Will the jobs of the future fulfill our deepest purposes as human beings? Or will we be left as perpetually empty and soulless worker bees?

Only time will tell. 

In the present, people have to find a way to make ends meet and feel like they are making a difference in the world. Those that I interviewed were incredibly kind and seemed generally satisfied with their jobs and happy to tell a stranger about their work lives. 

In the end, perhaps the saving grace of work – beyond technology and legislation – is simply the saving grace of society itself: 

“Surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.” – Robert F. Kennedy