Every day, we go to war, not just with our employer, but with ourselves. We wake up each morning a little bit closer to the edge–a little bit closer (we tell ourselves) to quitting. Because we have integrity. That is, until a bill for ConEd and a credit card statement materialize at the same time and we realize we must keep working mildly hard for the money.
But when we manage to save more than two hundred dollars from a paycheck, suddenly, we become arrogant again, believing that our nobility is too strong to be kept down by “the man.” That’s when we start taking longer shits in the bathroom and spending recklessly on our lunch breaks just to pass the time. And then when you’ve somehow spent a hundred dollars at Forever 21, the realization that the endless cycle of masochism can never end. You can’t save money, because you have to spend it to distract yourself. Your “integritousness” is fucked.