working a job you don't hate

[spaghetamine]

I graduated university in 2017 and since then have been working full time, currently in my second shit office job full of cunts and my god has it negatively impacted my mental health. Like many I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life (just in general, let alone professionally) and the sheer amount of my existence that is devoted to pretending i care about something for a meager wage just seems absurd on a profoundly bleak existential level. Of course, they say if you work a job you love then you never have to work a day in your life, which frankly sounds like balls but I'm open to the possibility.

So, anyone lucky enough to actually enjoy the work you do? How did you get there? How does one escape the vicious cycle of wage slavery? Answers on a postcard please

[bgmnts]

I literally cant hold down  shit office job for more than six months. I dont know how these folk do it.

[Emma Raducanu]

I love my job 75% of the time and hate 25% of the time. I hate having to commute but it's worth it for the next 10 hours, where I'm basically left to my own creative devices. Sometimes I have to suffer unwanted company but it's okay. I have on a number of occassions been excited to go to work the next day. I know that makes me lucky.

I was Christmas shopping earlier and saw a man showing someone how to 'face up' shelves in a toy shop. He sounded bored, the woman looked bored and I just felt incredibly sad for them, that they're obviously just doing a totally shit job for not much money. What was worse, I went to the checkout and was served by a middle aged woman wearing an elf hat, singing to a christmas song on the radio. Total fucking desolation.

If I'm ever made redundant, I'll probably end up in a job such as that and I'd just have to slit my wrists. In front of the children.

[Buelligan]

I do a totally shit job (a couple of jobs) for no money and I'm pretty sanguine about it.  It wears me out to the fucking bone usually.  But, for some reason, I don't mind too much.  I used to have a proper job, with a career path and great benefits and it made me want to kill myself, I'm so glad I had the courage to sack it all off and go and live in a hole.  I'm proud of myself here, I feel strong and I don't have to lie to anyone.

[ProvanFan]

I'm in an office job that's a bit less shit than others I've had because it's music related and I'm often able to go and witness the results of my mind numbing admin tasks, with people applauding and cheering, so I can stand there and soak it all up, thinking "my spreadsheet helped make this happen".

Not great money but actual job satisfaction sometimes and not much corporate bollocks to endure.

Still would fucking love not having to do it.

[Pink Gregory]

Like my job and feel quite personally invested at times, absolute seething hatred for the people I work for.

[Man With No Sheds]

I love my job as a house-keeper (cleaning toilets and worse) and looking after vulnerable customers, but I cannot stand my colleagues with a few exceptions. My outfit signed up to this national living wage thing so we were happy - for about five minutes. We are very lucky to do the job we are doing, and it is not going to last much longer if the rumours from the maintenance guys are true and the big bosses down in Captial City (or Brighton) are going to dismantle the business. Job I love gone, but thankfully so will all the moaners.

In light of the election, the views of my fellow house-keepers may be very diappointing to those who expect natural Labour sympathies.   

[shiftwork2]

I was massively affected in this regard by an ex, a clinical psychologist who worked with children.  She claimed that she would always work no matter what as she couldn't get the combination of satisfaction and stimulation in any other aspect of her life.  I'd never really heard anyone talk that way before.

I only ever wanted to do something interesting and useful and I suppose I've got most of the way towards that holy Golgotha.  There's a clear point and it makes it fairly easy to get out of bed.  It's fun, requires quick thinking and is very rewarding.  It's also demanding, stressful and occasionally overwhelming to the point I feel like I want to quit.  When I think of the shite I've done in my time (telesales, temping, Royal Mail) though, none of that seems to matter.

As to how it happened, a six lecture short course in my final year of Physics followed by a visit to the Christie Hospital up the road.  It was just for me, and I'm still here 22 years on.

[idunnosomename]

Why not simply not have a job and go freelance and watch your finances slowly fwindle as you head to grave

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

My job can be dull and tedious, especially now we are extremely busy, but it allows me to deny buy to let landlords compensation and at times do so in the most shit eatingly joyful way possible, which as you can imagine is totally awful in every way.

Outside of that it's just basically about arguing, so I suppose I accidentally found my level.

If I was saving up any of the money I earn my life would suck balls right now, but I am not so it doesn't. Manifesto 62 me.

[thenoise]

I'm absolutely desperate to find a job that I can tolerate after I graduate my masters next year. I've spent ten years in tedious admin being bullied by dreadful uneducated middle aged cunts absolutely ecstatic that they had an upstart young graduate to put in his place. But ive no idea how to get a proper job. I'm terrible at interviews and I have no money to go on their overpriced recruitment days and, now, I've a dismal CV and well into my 30s with no proper job experience. Combined with a suspicion that I'd hate having an actual career anyway. I wish I could drop out of my own free will like Buelligan rather than being forced that way through endless rejection.

[Dex Sawash]

Same job since June of 1987. It's ok.

[Twit 2]

People who say they can't imagine not doing their job, or say they'd be bored without it, terrify me. I have a colleague who I respect enormously and is awe-inspiringly brilliant at her job, with a level of dedication and commitment that would make me go FUCK OFF, if she weren't so lovely - and to her eternal credit she once said to me: "Yeah, but it's just a job isn't it? There's way more important stuff in life than this."

Conversely, I had a boss who I would unhesitatingly call a psychopath (I know this label is thrown about rather readily since Jon Ronson and true crime turned us all into amateur psychiatrists, but there comes a point where it goes beyond traits which we all potentially exhibit on a spectrum, into something more chilling) and she was intensely career focused, to the point I genuinely think she had no life or identity whatsoever away from work.

I do think it takes tremendous courage to fuck your career and walk away. Most people piss their lives away out of cowardice. Even if you end up somewhere equally shit, at least you've experienced two kinds of shit not one.

[Cuellar]

Bored to tears at work, always, all work. 'Dream job' is a capitalist myth.

We get lots of interns from universities in our team, all these 19/20 year old kids, working in a year out, working in their summer holidays. They have plans, I keep hearing them talking about their futures, what they're going to do, how many years they'll spend doing x, then move into y.

How does this happen? Do people actually plan their lives? Don't things just happen then you react to those things?

[Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle]

I love my job 75% of the time and hate 25% of the time. I hate having to commute but it's worth it for the next 10 hours, where I'm basically left to my own creative devices. Sometimes I have to suffer unwanted company but it's okay. I have on a number of occassions been excited to go to work the next day. I know that makes me lucky.

I was Christmas shopping earlier and saw a man showing someone how to 'face up' shelves in a toy shop. He sounded bored, the woman looked bored and I just felt incredibly sad for them, that they're obviously just doing a totally shit job for not much money. What was worse, I went to the checkout and was served by a middle aged woman wearing an elf hat, singing to a christmas song on the radio. Total fucking desolation.

If I'm ever made redundant, I'll probably end up in a job such as that and I'd just have to slit my wrists. In front of the children.

Cool.  What do you do for a living?

[Jerzy Bondov]

How does this happen? Do people actually plan their lives? Don't things just happen then you react to those things?

I work at a university and last week I had a student come to see me about going on an exchange to the USA. He told me that by the time he's 35 he plans to be a homicide detective in New York or Boston. Best of luck to him.

[Cuellar]

Well that I can respect. The kids in my office are all economists.

[phantom_power]

I pretty much enjoy my job most of the time. I hadn't done for about 10 years and didn't realise until I took redundancy and found something else. The slow slide into hating my job and the Sunday night fear was imperceptible. Then I got a job I actually liked and it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Sometimes the stress when we are coming up to a delivery is a bit shit but that is usually made up for by the satisfaction of getting it all done on time. There is a lot of learning and problem solving, and I am fairly autonomous, which all help to make the job more satisfying

[H-O-W-L]

Honestly, I'd rather work a job doing something montonous or otherwise loathsome (albeit not morally so) than something I enjoy. I go to work to make money, and the pursuits I enjoy exist for my leisure time and the like. If I did my art for a living I think I'd fucking kill myself because it would turn it into a monetary doldrum.

[bgmnts]

Honestly, I'd rather work a job doing something montonous or otherwise loathsome (albeit not morally so) than something I enjoy. I go to work to make money, and the pursuits I enjoy exist for my leisure time and the like. If I did my art for a living I think I'd fucking kill myself because it would turn it into a monetary doldrum.

Dont most artists fucking love their jobs though?

[chveik]

'Dream job' is a capitalist myth.

amen

[H-O-W-L]

Dont most artists fucking love their jobs though?

As an artist I couldn't dare monetize it on a regular basis. I've done commissioned works and I've also done proper art/design work and it's miserable compared to when I make it on my own. There's no real juice or drive that births it, for me, when I'm doing it for cash. It's all forced.

[thenoise]

Honestly, I'd rather work a job doing something montonous or otherwise loathsome (albeit not morally so) than something I enjoy. I go to work to make money, and the pursuits I enjoy exist for my leisure time and the like. If I did my art for a living I think I'd fucking kill myself because it would turn it into a monetary doldrum.

Really weird and defeatist attitude. I've had it repeated back to me over and over again, as I'm a musician but always been forced to work tedious jobs to stay alive. It just takes all my time and energy, I know I could be so much better but I have to dedicate the best part of each day to making some rich cunt richer doing loathesome work.

Don't you think your art would be significantly better if you were able to devote more of your life to it?

Unless being bitter and angry is an important part of your art of course. Sleaford Mods are shit since Jason gave up his office temping job¹.

_{1. May or may not be true.}

[thugler]

I graduated university in 2017 and since then have been working full time, currently in my second shit office job full of cunts and my god has it negatively impacted my mental health. Like many I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my life (just in general, let alone professionally) and the sheer amount of my existence that is devoted to pretending i care about something for a meager wage just seems absurd on a profoundly bleak existential level. Of course, they say if you work a job you love then you never have to work a day in your life, which frankly sounds like balls but I'm open to the possibility.

So, anyone lucky enough to actually enjoy the work you do? How did you get there? How does one escape the vicious cycle of wage slavery? Answers on a postcard please

I'm in the same boat, but I've being doing this shit for even longer. It's incredible demoralizing and has not been good for my mental health at all.

I don't seem to get anywhere, and struggle to hide my disdain for the dull repetition and lack of stimulation.

I can get interviews but generally tend to fuck them up due to bad anxiety and the whole process of having to drivel on about how i really want some job i don't give a fuck about and hit all the key words they want me to say. Have thought about studying again but don't have the funds for it and still have no clue of what direction to go in despite being in my early 30's

[canadagoose]

Anyone got any idea what to do with a shite, holey CV? Other than stick it up your backside. Dunno what to do.

[Sherringford Hovis]

So many high-profile retailers going bust recently, just whack a few of those in.

{edit}

Lots of other companies too. It's almost as if the invisible hand of the market is too busy wanking rather than doing its job.

[canadagoose]

So many high-profile retailers going bust recently, just whack a few of those in.

{edit}

Lots of other companies too. It's almost as if the invisible hand of the market is too busy wanking rather than doing its job.

Haha, how fiendish. I'll bear it in mind, thanks.

[checkoutgirl]

I do think it takes tremendous courage to fuck your career and walk away. Most people piss their lives away out of cowardice. Even if you end up somewhere equally shit, at least you've experienced two kinds of shit not one.

Yeah yeah. There seems to be a lot of that sentiment in this thread but living in a barn and picking strawberries for a meagre existence isn't for everyone. Anyone who's seen Lost in America with Albert Brooks and Julie Hagerty knows that.

I work in an office and the lack of support from senior management makes me wonder why my job even exists but the wage isn't terrible and my boss barely asks me 2 questions from one week to the next which I like. I can disappear for an hour and nobody's going to be asking where I was. Shit like that goes a long way.

I'm not one of those my job is my life types but I'm genuinely convinced if I won millions on the lottery I'd quit my job and drink myself to death in about 2 years. I have no healthy hobbies and having to get up for work is a huge part of me curtailing my drinking. Keeps me on the straight and narrow. Some people need those restrictions.

[Sony Walkman Prophecies]

I do a totally shit job (a couple of jobs) for no money and I'm pretty sanguine about it.  It wears me out to the fucking bone usually.  But, for some reason, I don't mind too much.  I used to have a proper job, with a career path and great benefits and it made me want to kill myself, I'm so glad I had the courage to sack it all off and go and live in a hole.  I'm proud of myself here, I feel strong and I don't have to lie to anyone.

Although we've often clashed heads, I have to say this is something worthy of respect - particularly the not having to lie to anyone part. If anything will get you down about the rat race, it's pretending to give a shit about stuff that doesn't matter.

Oh how I miss my old job where I could openly say "this place is a shit hole. Roll on the weekend eh?"

[Icehaven]

Thing is there's so many other factors involved than just the job itself. I've ostensibly been doing the same job for 16 years, just in 4 different branches and they all varied wildly in what we actually do, the colleagues, the culture, the management and so many other things. Where I am now and have been for 5 years I'm fairly happy, I get a reasonable amount of job satisfaction and enjoy the work, however the management and some of the other staff are bloody awful (although thankfully we don't have to deal with them too often as our department is run by the local council so we're employed by them rather than directly by the institution we're in) and I can see very easily how there's such a high turnover of staff that have to cope with being directly employed by them and work with them all the time.

Agree with others who've said you need a good balance between job satisfaction/ feeling you're doing something worthwhile but remembering it's just a job as well. If I got fired or quit tomorrow the money would be the main thing I'd miss. My previous boss here sort of got fired and this work was very much part of his identity, he was a member of a professional association to do with it, got involved in several areas and departments here that he really didn't need to (and in hindsight probably shouldn't), and when he was appealing his sort-of-sacking he kept using the phrase "it's my job", as if no one had done it before him and no one else could. Since I took over, when I've seen him socially since he's occasionally warned me against letting it take over my life too much and getting too territorial etc., which is a completely absurd notion as I just never, ever would, but he did so just assumes anyone else would do the same. It's not that I don't care, of course I do, I just know where the limits are and that life is more important.