I remember a time not that long ago, maybe 3-5 years ago, when I liked my job and looked forward to going in. Now I feel like it is death by a thousand paper cuts. In the last 3 years my responsibilities have tripled, my pay has been flat, and I've lost vacation time. My benefits of been reduced. When I do take a vacation, I'm still on-call. When I wake in the morning I can feel my psychosomatic gland whipping up a flu, sore throat, stomach ache, head ache, etc in an effort to convince me to call in sick. I used to tell myself "be thankful, you still have a job". Now I'm starting to think that my job is killing me. We shouldn't live to work. We should work to live. My job is not enhancing my life in any way. It is interfering with my life and my health. The worst bit though is that I feel trapped, helpless and powerless. I can not just look in the paper and get another job. They don't exist. So on I go a little closer to giving up everyday. Damned Protestant Work Ethic. Mazlow would use me as an example. At 1 day shy of 36 I'm clinging tenaciously to the first stage of Mazlow's Hierarchy and I'm pretty sure that my job is trying to take that from me too.