Your job...

[Warped9]

I've long thought that very few people love their job. Perhaps not that many more than few simply like their job. From that I mean people who are doing something they have dreamed of and strived for and reached.

I think we've all done jobs we've disliked or even outright hated. It can be a dispiriting, even soul crushing, experience to go to work already discouraged, grind through the long hours and drag yourself home rarely if ever feeling better about it. It can be hard and even affect your off-work time. It certainly can affect your sense of self-worth.

Presently I've been reflecting on what a difference a little more than a year can make. In 2011 right up to the end of it I was borderline miserable at work. It wasn't all bad, but it could often be tainted by an immediate superior who was, well, I'll just say weak in a number of ways. Maybe he didn't mean to, but he simply managed to get on most people's bad side. He was a lousy communicator often managing to say the wrong thing and just wasn't good with people. Yeah, I could go on about him, but that's beside the point. The simple fact was he poisoned the work place environment. When he was around everyone was on edge. He was counteracted to a point by his immediate superior who was a genuinely good guy to work with. Still, a lot of people (including me) were actively looking for another job.

At the very end of 2011 the weak one left and there was an immediate difference. Work still had certain trials and issues, but the constant air of oppressive negativity was gone. Unfortunately six months later the good manager left as well, right in the middle of when my work place was going through some drastic changes.

Now flash forward to today. All the drastic changes are done with and for the most part it's positive and for the better. We have an almost entirely new management team and (as luck would have it) they are all great. The overall atmosphere is a lot more positive and with little negativity (because nothing is truly perfect).

No, I don't love my job. Yet I can say their are aspects to it I rather like. Overall I don't mind going to work everyday. When I don't feel like working it's usually because I'm feeling ill and not because I find anything about my work onerous. I get along with everyone, I like my immediate coworkers and I feel liked and trusted by my superiors.

For most of us I think we can all think of easily half a dozen things we'd rather be doing than working. But it's nice when your work doesn't feel like a burden.

If you are someone having a trying time at work then I sympathize because I (and I'm sure many others) have been there...more than once.


Are you presently okay with your work? Maybe you really like it? Or are you having a difficult time?

[RoJoHen]

I'm a manager/bartender at a local microbrewery. We are expanding fast and have just started bottling our beer and selling it in stores (should be available nationwide within the next year). I haven't even been there for a full year, but in that time I have made more friends and more connections around town than I ever have previously. I couldn't be happier.

[Naira]

I have two jobs. One is being a researcher (finishing my PhD in a couple of months), the other is a software engineer for a state/government organization.

There have been ups and down with both jobs, especially the researcher one. When you are doing research, sometimes you feel like you are really doing something special and the world feels great. Other times you feel that no one really cares about what you are doing so it is all in vein. Besides that, I've also had many problems throughout the years due to colleagues that were difficult to be around and work with. But, in the end of the day, I enjoy that part of my life.

My software engineer job also has ups and downs. The main reason being that people in charge are not always aware about the process of writing code so they cannot understand what tasks are reasonable and feasible. Fortunately, my immediate supervisors and managers are nice guys who know how such things work.


I will agree with you that colleagues can make all the difference in the world. Even the best of jobs can make a person feel miserable if they are surrounded by the wrong people all the time. And a less-exciting job may feel great if you spend your day with good people.

[Bigjoe]

I work for a seafood wholesaler. Nothing exciting I know but it pays the mortgage.

[Rhubarbodendron]

^ hey, I have a water related job too

Limnologist (that's a freshwater biologist - imagine Jaques Custeau in a creek) reporting in. While I originally wanted a job as a botanist, I had to change plans when my dad had a serious heart attack and I simply picked the job located closest to my family. Being in the water all day is not exactly thrilling if you can't swim and are even scared of water, unless it's in a bathtub (I almost drowned as a kid).
I kinda got stuck with it and after 20 years I rather like it. I have far more freedom than I'd have in many other jobs since my boss trusts me absolutely and leaves most decisions to me.
I'm not scared of water anymore either, but I still can't swim. Somehow I never got around to learn it. But maybe in another 300 years

[MacLeod]

Well is never too late to learn how to swim, but how many of us actually end up doing the job we wanted to do when we were younger?

I never planned really planned to do what I'm doing now, I did Electronic Engineering at college, but I'm not working in that field. I'm in retail I've just applied myself to it and do the best job I can.

[thestrangequark]

I like my job. It's not my dream job, but it's good. I work for a small educational publishing house doing editing, writing, and curriculum consultation, mainly. It's a small company so there's a lot of variety in what I do -- one day I'll be meeting with the president developing a new line of interactive math eBooks, the next I'll be helping move boxes and stuffing envelopes, then doing research, etc. The variety is good, and is a perfect mix of demanding work like curriculum development, research, and writing, and mindless work like data entry and organizing books. It's great to have a day where you can just throw on your headphones and listen to music or podcasts all day while doing a menial task, but it's balanced with the tougher stuff so I don't feel I'm wasting my brain.

I also believe in what we do: we publish high-quality science, math, and history books for kids, and are really leading the way in incorporating edtech. I also like the people I work with for the most part, and enjoy a laid-back environment where I can fool around online a bit (I'm at work now). I find it very low-stress -- but then again, I was a public school teacher for emotionally disturbed special education for several years before this, so nothing in the business world could ever stress me out. The pay is so-so, though I suspect I'll be up for a raise soon. The location is good, in the Flatiron District, and not too bad a commute. I also have enough time and energy to pursue my out of work life and interests.

Like I said, though, it's not my dream job. I'd really like to go back to school for a phd in neuropsychology, and do research. I'm not financially in the best place for that, though, and even more importantly, I have some health issues right now that I really need to resolve before I can risk losing my insurance. For now, this job will do the trick. I'm going to do everything I can to figure out how to get back into school, but I also wouldn't be destroyed if I stayed here. Also, we have one of those old-timey rolling book ladders, which is awesome, and the printers are on my floor near my desk, so when I get board at work, I just pretend we're an old-timey printing press and I imagine all my coworkers with handlebar mustaches and visors and waistcoats and bussels and corsets and things.

[Robert Maxwell]

I like my job. It pays well and it's challenging, and I have a pretty good work environment. It's not what I would absolutely love to be doing, but it's not something I dread going to every day.

I work for a company that primarily makes retail pharmacy systems, but also has its fingers in various other aspects of the pharmacy industry. Currently, I'm transitioning to a new position where I'll be dealing with data warehouses and reporting tools. I'm very fond of database design and query optimization and things like that, so I'll probably enjoy that.

If I could do absolutely anything and get paid for it, I'd want to be working on programs that meld my love of writing with my love of programming--things like SagaSim (linked in my sig.) I haven't had much time for that lately, though.

[Captain Picard.]

I work in a family owned dentistry in HK (I am a dentist). Keep your teeth clean!

[Rhubarbodendron]

^if we did, you'd be unemployed!

[B.J.]

MacLeod wrote:

---

Well is never too late to learn how to swim, but how many of us actually end up doing the job we wanted to do when we were younger?

For the most part, yes, I am working in the field that I wanted to since I was about 12 years old. I'm a structural design engineer in the aerospace industry. Occasionally it does get a bit tedious, but all I have to do is remind myself of the big picture, and I think "COOOOOL!"

[Captain Picard.]

Rhubarbodendron wrote:

---

^if we did, you'd be unemployed!

Oh yeah my mistake eat loads of candy and get rid of your toothbrush mwahahaha

[Warp Coil]

I like my industry. I.... sometimes, kinda, a little... like my company. I most definitely do like my salary and benefits. But the specific job duties that I perform I no longer enjoy. I wish that it was easier to move around within the organization but it can be incredibly difficult to do so. Finding a new job - either inside of or outside of my organization - is on my to-do list for 2013 but I've got a few more immediate things in my life that need to be addressed, first.

[Captain Picard.]

Warp Coil wrote:

---

I like my industry. I.... sometimes, kinda, a little... like my company. I most definitely do like my salary and benefits. But the specific job duties that I perform I no longer enjoy. I wish that it was easier to move around within the organization but it can be incredibly difficult to do so. Finding a new job - either inside of or outside of my organization - is on my to-do list for 2013 but I've got a few more immediate things in my life that need to be addressed, first.

Do you work for Ikea? They treat their workers fairly (I do not work for Ikea just a customers opinion)

[Tom Hendricks]

I'm currently a freelance Video Editor who also does video production, 3D graphics and the such. I started down this road many years ago. I was the Director of IS for a pretty large company in New Jersey but I was kind of disillusioned with the whole IT field at the time. I always wanted a more creative outlet and I had been editing projects in my spare time. I decided that I wanted to be a video editor, so I started to take on projects in my free time from work. I edited a lot of things for free in the begining, to get me out there. A few years into this, I built up a significant clients list and I'm spending almost my entire free time editing. It even starts to bleed into my full time job, with rush and emergency jobs coming in often. In the begining of 2002 I just broken up with my fiancée and I was kind of spinning my wheels at work, so I decided to quit my job and go at being a video editor full time. It was the scariest time for me, I have always had a job with more or less guaranteed paycheck. However I knew if I didn't do it then, I never would. I built up a significant amount in savings and jumped off the cliff. It has had it's ups and downs but I wouldn't change it for anything, working for yourself brings a kind of happiness that's hard to explain, you're in charge of you're own destiny. Now I'm at a crossroads of sorts, I'm moving a from Long Island NY to upstate NY near Syracuse. I'm going to loose all my video production clients, including a very large one that kept me solvent during the last few years when the economy tanked. I also loose some of my video editing clients, who I work with locally. It took me years to get where I am today and not sure I have the same energy and drive to do it over again. When I started out last time, I was all alone and now I have a family with very young kids and I'm just about to turn 45.

So I'm unsure what my future will bring at this time. I'm thinking about going back to school and getting my Masters. Once you work for yourself it's hard to imagine going back to working for someone. So basically I'm moving upstate unemployed.