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True Detective's Vince Vaughn And The Reality Of A Middle Of The Road Career

Season two of True Detective premieres tonight. The pressure for it to live up to its critically-feted first season is high and much of that pressure rests on the shoulders of those who will be filling the roundly praised shoes of past stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. That would be Colin Farrell, Taylor Kitsch, Rachel McAdams and Vince Vaughn. Yes, the guy from Swingers and The Wedding Crashers and a laundry list of mediocre B-list comedy bombs has been handed this plum assignment.

 Why, I asked myself when I heard the news, are we still trying to make Vince Vaughn happen? How many chances is he going to get?

 Vaughn is a particular flavor of cinematic everyman, but one without the neurosis of a Ben Stiller or the geniality of a Kevin James. His characters frequently seem rumpled, cynically exasperated, in need of a good night’s sleep or on the verge of developing an ulcer. To say he exudes star power would be a stretch – indeed, he seems more cut out for the life represented in the series of spoof  corporate stock images he posed for a few months ago. His ability to open a movie has been in decline for years, with March’s Unfinished Business as the latest flop to add to the heap.
 
 And yet, Vince Vaughn gets work. A lot of work.  He has worked steadily since Swingers in 1996, often having years where he appeared in four or five films. When British GQ asked him about starring in so many bad comedies, he didn’t even bother trying to spin his resume, telling the magazine:

“I’m not blaming anyone else but myself here. The machine can make you idle. You read a script and then you agree to a role, then soon enough you’re on set looking at a scene that has had all the juice and the life sucked right out of it. You become a hired gun doing a very inoffensive PG-13 movie and, well, you kind of just go along with it.” 

Vaughn is dependable, like a middling MLB second baseman who’ll never win a Gold Glove or be voted into the All-Star game, but whose batting average doesn’t drag the team down, who stays healthy and fields decently enough.

 The truth is that most of us are Vince Vaughn. The American economy runs on Vince Vaughns — they provide the crucial bridge between slackers and the special snowflakes we’re encouraged to find aspirational. If you’re a Vince Vaughn type, you’re competent, but not too competent. You’re reliable, but not irreplaceable.  Your work product isn’t innovative or groundbreaking, but it’s submitted on time and meets a certain standard. You’re liked by coworkers. You can be trusted to show up on time and do what is asked of you, even if the task is tedious or lacking in glory. You aren’t caught up in your job as a source of identity like some method actor middle manager.  You clock in and out and sleep easily. You do well enough financially. You don’t rock the boat (much) and based on the aggregation of all of these qualities, you’re pretty much always employed or employable. In its own way, this is more aspirational (and attainable) than forever striving to be lauded as the corporate equivalent of People’s Sexiest Man Alive. And, sometimes, big opportunities  even come to you because you’re there, you’ve been there and no one can think of a compelling reason not to give you a shot. The question isn’t “Why Vince Vaughn?” but “Why not Vince Vaughn?”  Don’t underestimate the value of stolidity in a world where people can’t even send typo-free emails and executives celebrate laying off staff members with insensitive selfies.
 
  Maybe Vince Vaughn will wow us tonight. Maybe he’s got another gear to his acting we haven’t seen yet, or maybe we’ll just get another solid, predictable Vince Vaughn performance. Considering how well it’s served him so far, I wouldn’t be surprised. And that’s worth something.

 

 

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How Many Work Hours Is Too Many?

 

Late nights and early mornings at the office may help your career prospects, but they can hurt you in another way. New research has found a link between overworking and the reduced well-being of workers.

 

Employees who worked more than 50 hours in a week suffered from decreased mental and physical health, the research found.

 

"We looked at the association between workaholism and physical and mental well-being," said researcher Sarah Asebedo, a doctoral student at Kansas State University. "We found workaholics – defined by those working more than 50 hours per week – were more likely to have reduced physical well-being, measured by skipped meals. Also, we found that workaholism was associated with reduced mental well-being as measured by a self-reported depression score."

 

 

The problem becomes complicated, however, when looking at why workers choose to put in extra hours. Asebedo and her research team of fellow doctoral students Sonya Britt and Jamie Blue attempted to describe why workers might overwork by looking at Gary Becker's Theory of Time Allocation.

 

"This theory suggests that the more money you make, the more likely you are to work more,"Asebedo said. "It looks at the cost of time as if it were a market good. If you are not engaged in work-related activities, then there is a cost to the alternative way in which time is spent. Even if you understand the negative consequences to workaholism, you may still be likely to continue working because the cost of not doing so becomes greater."

 

Once workers begin to think that way they are at risk of falling victim to the negative health effects of working overtime, the researchers found. To help mitigate those feelings, workers should be sure to understand limitations at work. Additionally, workers can understand the role that work plays in their personal lives.

 

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The Interview's Three Big Questions

When you interview for a job, it's natural to wonder about the impression you make on the interviewer. You want to dress right, show respect and prove you're qualified for the position. You can't prepare a canned answer for every potential interview question - there are just too many possibilities! The interviewers I know, however, admit that there are really only three big buckets into which most questions fall. Here's how to prepare for the interviewer's three big question marks?

1. Can this person do the job? Your job application or resume has to show you have the basic skills do the job in order to get an interview, so if you're face to face with an interviewer you've already jumped the first hurdle. Now you have to prove your claims with solid evidence. Tell stories about how you've used your skills in past work, and remember that these skills might be applied to many situations (such as how to manage a tight schedule) or very specific (such as how to operate a forklift indoors safely). Offer to demonstrate your skills, and offer testimony from people who have supervised you in the past. The interviewer shouldn't have to "take your word for it" - anyone can claim to do a job well but the candidate who proves their claim gets the job.

2. Do I like this person?It's natural for any interviewer to enjoy talking with someone likable, enthusiastic, and easygoing. Good interviewers, however, mean something different when they ask, do I like him? They mean, "will this person fit the culture of the workplace, will s/he be reliable, will s/he be self-disciplined or become a 'high maintenance' employee?"

It's great to have friends at work but this question is more about sharing work values. Are you going to represent the company accurately in your behavior? This can differ from job to job. For example, a home-service technician might represent efficiency and a receptionist might represent friendliness and welcoming. Both might be part of a company's culture, and in different ways, this is what an interview means when s/he says "I like this person for this job. They're a good fit."

3. Can I get this person to work here?Assuming the answer to the first two questions is "yes," this is the last important question. The interviewer doesn't know exactly what it will take to get you to join the team.

Part of the question is money: Your potential employer has a salary or hourly rate for the position already. It might be set by the home office or by a union contract. It might just be what others in the position are making today. (Whether you can negotiate higher pay is the subject of another column.)

Beyond pay, the interviewer knows that you have choices, and might feel some urgency to hire a good person as soon as possible. In a small business, the boss might be stuck doing the job until she finds a replacement, so there's some urgency there! Also, a good employer wants to get someone who will stick around for a while, because training and re-training new staff costs time and money.

So a good interviewer asks, "What do I have besides money to attract this person? Will they like our culture, our location, or our clients? What can I offer in terms of flexibility or a fun workplace that my competition won't offer? Even if there isn't much flexibility in money, there might be some in other aspects such as which shift you work, or whether you can take some work home and complete it there.

Before you step into that interview, remind yourself that the interviewer's job is really to answer those three questions. See if you can rehearse by answering those questions aloud to a friend in the days before the interview. You'll be ready!

 

 

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