When Did We Get Career Apathy?

There’s a quote in Chuck Palahniuk’s brilliant “Fight Club” that’s always stuck with me and suddenly has more relevance than ever before: “You are not your job, you’re not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You are not your f*cking khakis. You are all singing, all dancing crap of the world.”

There’s just one problem: I think we’re starting to take that a little too literally now.

We have voter apathy. We’re social media obsessed but averse to having meaningful conversations with real people. People who work in the service industry don’t care if there’s someone in front of them wanting to place an order. We like to call ourselves foodies but we don’t cook.

We just don’t have a passion for what we spend at least 40 hours doing every week.

The collective absence of curiosity I'm seeing out there isn't impressive. It's disconcerting.

When I recently interviewed candidates for a high-profile art director job, I was alarmed when I couldn’t find one person who could tell me which magazines they admire or read regularly. Not one.

Instead, I often received answers like, “I just don’t have time to read magazines anymore,” or “They take up too much space.” Another told me they don’t read them anymore because they just look at them on their phone.

This was for a role where the person is designing two 100-page publications. You know, physical things that people will pick up, flip through and spend time with.

And yet, the people interviewing for the role couldn’t take the time to look at the very thing they’re being asked to create.

Am I an anomaly for always stopping by the newsstand at an airport or pop into a bookstore to see who or what’s on the cover of magazines each month? Is it weird that I want to take notice of the coverage trends of an industry I love?

Is it strange that I spend hours observing how other brands are creating or missing opportunities to create content that connects with consumers because it's something I specialize in as a brand storyteller?

I’m starting to think so.

I’ve seen this before.

In Los Angeles, while covering the entertainment industry for Variety, I constantly encountered reps from the major talent agencies who bragged that they don’t watch movies. And yet, their clients were A-list filmmakers and actors who command the biggest paydays.

I’m not complaining about the types of people who brag that they don’t watch television because they don’t own a TV. That’s still a little weird to me, but that’s a life choice.

This is different.

This is complete career apathy.

We’re experiencing a time of complete indifference to what we’re supposed to be good at, what makes us stand out from the rest of our peers. We've become passionless souls with phone boredom from thumbing our smartphones. We’re not proud anymore.

Maybe the mundanity of all of the emails we have to send, the countless meetings that distract us, and the time sheets we need to fill out have sucked the joy out of the thing that should make us get up in the morning.

All I know is that it’s alarming when the creative people don’t have the will to be creative anymore.

Marc Graser is Group Creative Director at Pace Communications, and manages the team creating content for Hilton's luxury brands Waldorf Astoria and Conrad hotels and resorts. He was previously a senior editor and writer for Variety, Advertising Age and Marriott International's first Editorial Director, turning Marriott Traveler into the hotel industry's most popular online travel magazine. He recently spent weekends launching a personal passion project, Travel Inspired, to celebrate great travel storytelling.

Other Articles by Marc Graser:

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