Shining shoes can be more satisfying than being a banker

Read Lucy Kellaway's caustic piece in FT.

A shoeshine boy in London tells her why his job is better than a banker's:

• “I don’t have to be clever,” he said. “I can be as dumb as I like. I’m not trying to impress anyone".
• The next good thing about the work, he said, was the satisfaction in the job itself. You take a pair of dull shoes and eight minutes later they are sparkling.
• Third, and possibly most important of all, is that shoe shining, in marked contrast to banking, gives its customers pleasure.  
• Fourth, the chat is nice. According to Marc most people in the City are starved of decent conversation, and longing to tell their shoe shine man all sorts of interesting — and sometimes scurrilous — things. 
• Finally, he chooses his own hours. So he shines shoes at lunchtime when trade is brisk, and works as a translator the rest of the time. There is no management, no politics.