The Wonder Years might be my favorite TV show (Seinfeld is the other contender). The TV show focuses on Fred Savage’s character, Kevin Arnold, growing up in a suburban middle-class family during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The show is, among other things, heartwarming, nostalgic, thoughtful, insightful, reflective, and funny. While the show deals with a wide variety of issues, including issues that were specific to that time period as well as issues that are evergreen, one issue that is tackled repeatedly over the course of the series is the career of Kevin’s father, Jack Arnold, played by Dan Lauria.
During the third episode of the series, called My Father’s Office, Kevin spends a day at work with his dad. While Kevin still maintains a high opinion of his dad and his abilities, the lack of fulfillment, unrealized dreams, and exhausting and dehumanizing grind of Jack’s job is evident throughout the episode, just as it is throughout much of the series. Jack works at a fictitious company called NORCOM in a job he never really wanted in the first place. When Kevin asks Jack, “When did you decide you wanted to become a manager of distribution and product support services,” Jack is initially caught off guard, before responding, “I mean it’s a good job, but it’s not what I thought I’d be doing with my life.” After young Kevin realizes that his dad has unfulfilled dreams and goals with his career, adult Kevin, voiced by Daniel Stern, reflecting back, comments, “Sure it was good job, and we were all lucky he had it and all, but my Dad had something finer in him than S-14’s and distribution reports.” Jack then proceeds to be chewed out by his boss in an ugly and dehumanizing fashion in front of one of his direct reports, largely because of an error made by the direct report and not by Jack himself. Kevin and Jack then return home in disgust, with Kevin having a greater understanding of the struggles and sacrifices Jack regularly endures in order to provide for his family and with a greater appreciation for why he acts in such a grumpy and angry manner at home much of the time (which is shown throughout the episode).
In the season three episode Faith, when Kevin asks his dad about his life, and by extension his career, his dad’s response is, “I get up at five in the morning. I fight traffic. I bust my hump all day. I fight traffic again. Then I come home. Then I pay my taxes. The End.” This theme of career dissatisfaction for Jack ultimately culminates in the season six episode The Test, as when Jack receives a bad annual evaluation from NORCOM, Kevin’s dad remarks to Kevin’s mom, “Twenty years at NORCOM, Norma. What have I been doin’ with my life?” The bad annual evaluation ultimately leads to Jack resigning from NORCOM and buying a furniture manufacturing business. In this episode, Jack finally realizes that “it’s time to take a chance” because “NORCOM was killing [him].” When Kevin asks him what NORCOM said, Jack’s remark is, “They said ‘goodbye.’” Ultimately, Jack enjoys greater career fulfillment, albeit alongside some additional challenges, during the remainder of the sixth and final season of The Wonder Years, as he comes to enjoy owning a furniture manufacturing business much more than he did being a mid-level executive at NORCOM.
Surveys indicate that two-thirds of American workers don’t like their jobs, while some studies say that up to 45% of American employees hate their jobs so much that they wouldn’t wish them on their worst enemies. While so many people end up feeling stuck and trapped in jobs they don’t like and that they never truly wanted, that doesn’t have to happen in your life. If you feel beaten down, unfulfilled, and stuck in your job, then you too can change careers into something more enjoyable, just as Jack did in The Test episode of The Wonder Years. If you or someone you know are wondering, “What have I been doing with my life,” just as Jack wondered aloud, then I can help. Schedule a free coaching call with me, so I can help you with your career change and with figuring out what to do instead with your life moving forward. Schedule your free coaching call here: https://adamcamac.com/chat/. I look forward to speaking with you soon!
Schedule a call by going to https://adamcamac.com/chat/ in order to discuss your goals and to find out more about how I can help you. I look forward to meeting you and speaking with you soon!
