He would have been my co-worker, but he is not, because he quit

Last night I ran into someone that used to have my job. The difference between he and I is that he was smart enough to quit, at least this is how he would see it.

He thought that the job wasn't very good and exciting. Sure, basically being a bus boy is not the most exciting or mentally challenging job in the world, but it seems to pay the bills. This last element he didn't seem to get, that some people have to work to make money, in particular many students have to work to pay for their education.

What I found the most striking about all of this is why a past employee would go back to his old place of work to tell new employees that he used to work there and that their job sucked. He has really moved on nicely. Maybe by the time he is 50 he will have written a book about the experience so we know how little the job meant to him.