Soul destroying jobs

[Vinnie01]

I noticed something very recently which will have to be discussed with my CPN.

Before anyone says I should be a lifeguard due to my leisure centre stuff, I cannot do this job due to health reasons and the OCD (Not obsessive cleaning type). I may end up falling asleep on the job due to fatigue or may let an asshole drown.

I got laid off from a job from a field that I worked in for 20 years last year due to COVID and I have no intention of returning to that sector again.

The nature of the job was repetitive, unsatisfying, uninspiring lead to mindsets such as "I don't want to be here, but have to for the money", "Its just a job", "Slavery to the system".

You may start the job as enthusiastic but this wears off and becomes a chore, you start to disengage or dissociate. This can also result in job hopping too. There is only 1 job I stayed in for 10 years.

When you have an asshole such as a manager, this will lead to OCD thoughts towards them (Due to type of OCD I deal with).

Has any experience this or a mental health decline as result of doing such jobs?

[bgmnts]

I mean yeah that's most jobs. As someone who suffers with severe depression I've come to realise the faft I've even managed to snag a job is amazing. I really am unfit for work and so feel grateful I'm getting paid to be a bit useless at a job.

In a perfect world there'd be an adequate service for people like me who cannot work to eek out at an existence on a subsistence level, but obviously there isn't becauee humans are rotten.

But I mean yeah it's something you have to do or you will die, I if you're of a certain mindset, there is almost nothing that won't destroy your soul on that premise. You literally have to do it every single day or there is a good chance you'll be freezing cold on the street unable to buy food and relying on the mercy of a species with a shit record.

It's going to destroy you eventually.

[LynnBenfield69]

Work is slavery, it is. Anyone who says they love their job is a cunt.

The only thing that gets me through is the thought that most people are like me - like you - and they're just doing whatever they have to do to clock off at the end of the day. I try and think of myself as a conman, basically because that's exactly what I am. Every job I've blagged my way into and just show up every day saying what I imagine I'm supposed to say and doing what I imagine I'm supposed to do. 100% performative.

With this attitude I've managed to bluff my way through a fairly successful civil service career. I walk into meetings thinking that I just need to say enough words for people to fuck off and leave me alone, and that's really all it takes. Go here, do this, say that, whatever. It's all a game.

[Twit 2]

I find my job very soul destroying. I'm a soul destroyer.

[Cerys]

I love my job - but now that I've lost it, I'm really not enjoying working out my notice.  It makes me wonder if I'd have ended up hating it after a few more months anyway.

[Mrs Wogans lemon drizzle]

When I was at uni one of the summer jobs I had was at a flower delivery company's factory.  My job was to flatten cardboard boxes and then chucj them in a skip.  Litrally that was it, all day.  It was quite hard work, and crushingly boring.  I think I lasted a day.

The next job I got was on a factory production line making cakes for M&S.  My job iwas to ice a smiley face, which due to the cakes moving past me so fast ended up looking demonic.  I was only there 2 weeks and fucking hated it.  Most of the people there had been thier for years, it was those peoples "proper" job and I felt sorry for the poor bastards. 

I look back on those jobs 20 years ago and realise how lucky I am now.

[Gregory Torso]

I think you should be able to go into the job centre every couple of weeks and say to your job coach, "OK i haven't applied to any of those jobs you sent out to me, but look, I did these drawings, they're really nice, and I think that's a far more valid way to spend whatever is left of my existence, putting art into the world, right, because let's not kid ourselves, most work is meaningless, nothing, demeaning tasks we're set so we can somehow earn our continuation in this disappointing life. so please may I please have the absolute pittance that I am forced to crawl through the tepid pissy mud week after week for under the supercilious glare of your cold dead eyes thank you very much, and I can continue to draw and write and try to bring things into this realm instead of feeling like my soul is leaking out of my arse, instead of being screamed at by a man in a jumper because the machine that takes passport photos has broken down, why can't I just exist without having to meet any sort of criteria?"

[Phoenix Lazarus]

 I'm paid to burn records by James Brown and Barry White.

[SpiderChrist]

When my Dad died, well about 3 months afterwards, I found myself in a different team at work. My heart wasn't in it, I was having counselling, my anhedonia was in charge of me. This cunt calls me into a meeting and suggests that I would be happier in a different team, maybe in a different company altogether because "I don't understand people who don't like their job. If you don't like your job you should get a different one". This was when just getting to work in the morning was a monumental effort for me. Cunt says "Is there anything we can do to help?" which is, as any fule kno, is just a box ticking arse covering question. I replied "well you could bring my Dad back." The meeting then progressed into a critique of my reasons for working (money for food and rent etc) which were, apparently, totally incomprehensible to the cunt.

[Vinnie01]

Work is slavery, it is. Anyone who says they love their job is a cunt.

I walk into meetings thinking that I just need to say enough words for people to fuck off and leave me alone, and that's really all it takes. Go here, do this, say that, whatever. It's all a game.

I always thought that too.
As for people not leaving me alone, particularly persistent people has nearly been on recieving end of my anger as I have nearly hit a couple of employees before.

The hospitality sector seems to lose a lot of their employees according to many videos on YT.

Also my work coach rings me, they placed me on a course too.
I am also doing another course which I paid for myself to change job fields to something of my interests.

When my Dad died, well about 3 months afterwards..

"I don't understand people who don't like their job. If you don't like your job you should get a different one".

Sorry to hear that, my foster dad also died last year. I also never understood how people like or love their jobs either.

I mean yeah that's most jobs. As someone who suffers with severe depression I've come to realise the faft I've even managed to snag a job is amazing. I really am unfit for work and so feel grateful I'm getting paid to be a bit useless at a job.

It's going to destroy you eventually.

My illness recently occurring through last job nearly did that as it is PTSD, this is 1 of reasons why now I see a CPN as well as for OCD.

[JaDanketies]

I was clear as day to my old bosses, "You work for either love or money, and I don't love tech support," but they could never find the cash to pay their staff well.

Literally every working day I'd lock myself in one of the toilet rooms in the office complex and have a wank. Most days I'd get up and just slowly walk around the building, or perhaps find a quiet place to have a nap.

Almost every employment I've been in has been terrible. In my first professional job, nobody had time to talk so you just heard loud keyboard clatter all day. We got a radio and it was next to Iain, every day I had to ask him to turn it on and turn iy up, then if his phone rang he'd turn it down to inaudible levels and I'd have to ask him to turn it up again.

The worst was the boiler insurance scammers. When I joined, I could see that they were doing some dodgy things to fool people into signing up with them, but they told me that this would change once they moved to Internet sales. I then helped them (single-handedly) start ranking in the top 3 positions on Google for their searches, and they began earning millions online. All that happened was the scam became more efficient. That really damages you. When you view yourself as a moral person but psychopaths use you to rip off tens of thousands of people.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I actually like my job. Just earlier this week, I had a student helpless with laughter when we were discussing a photo of a group of pigeons what looked like a gang of rappers, when I suggested that they actually covered songs by the rapper Tupac  but their collective name was actually " Coo*- Pack" (* you know, because of the noise pigeons make), and I really enjoyed that. If that makes me a cunt, then so be it ( well, I'm a cunt for lots of other reasons, to be fair).

[checkoutgirl]

Has any experience this or a mental health decline as result of doing such jobs?

In my last job but one I only lasted a few months because the job was like a high pressure sales hassle people on the phone thing but the job description didn't mention this. I don't know why people aren't more clear about what the fuck the job actually is. I was stressed and anxious most of the time. One manifestation of my mental state was intrusive thoughts of my immediate superior guzzling a torrent of shit. He sat beside me and it would pop into my head at least a couple of times a day. I mustn't have liked him very much but to be fair he was a Chelsea fan and admitted it in public.

I also recently got fired due to covid and have no intention of going back into the same sector. It seems extremely common right now. I see it as a blessing. Covid made me see that the job I was in was just a job and the sector was shit anyway and I knew it but couldn't really evaluate or act on it while I was in it.

Life is funny sometimes.

[Vinnie01]

In my last job but one I only lasted a few months because the job was like a high pressure sales hassle people on the phone thing but the job description didn't mention this. I don't know why people aren't more clear about what the fuck the job actually is. I was stressed and anxious most of the time. One manifestation of my mental state was intrusive thoughts of my immediate superior guzzling a torrent of shit. He sat beside me and it would pop into my head at least a couple of times a day. I mustn't have liked him very much but to be fair he was a Chelsea fan and admitted it in public.

I also recently got fired due to covid and have no intention of going back into the same sector. It seems extremely common right now. I see it as a blessing. Covid made me see that the job I was in was just a job and the sector was shit anyway and I knew it but couldn't really evaluate or act on it while I was in it.

Life is funny sometimes.

I am glad another person has intrusive thoughts as well, so I am not fully alone with this one.

I noticed in that particular sector they were getting worse and that warehouse job on the agency made it worse.

I have spoken to my CPN about the intrusive thoughts (OCD associated with anger) as I noticed it more with persistent people in the warehouse in March & April just before the illness. This person thought I was going to hit him at one point. This is why I wont be a lifeguard.

This job got rid of the agency workers.

The job I had for 20 years was a kitchen job, cleaning dishes and etc. It was indeed also a high pressure job. This job fired me last year in October due to COVID.

I did have a sales type job before but it was multilevel marketing, the company that did this went bust in 2018 but I quit it a while ago due to doing full time like hours in another job.

I too shall not be returning to hospitality sector again. At the moment I been doing various courses including computer programming (Currently writing an assignment on it).

[Ham Bap]

From my experiences:

1) Working with the public.
2) Call centre work (which also involves close dealings with the public)
3) A job that has no chance of promotion or a decent pay-rise year on year. A job in which you exist but its futile to have any aspirations for.

[TrenterPercenter]

Genuinely love my job even though I work ridiculous hours.  Had a big old chat with my mate last night who told me in no uncertain terms he is worried about how fucked I am right now and how I need to take a break (not going to happen anytime soon)  I've also worked for the best part of 15 years doing other jobs alongside this work just to pay the bills; in a way I miss late night shelf stacking and all that there is piece of mind that comes with it but sure it gets boring.  I often think about sacking things off and going back to that stuff.

That might sound bleak but it isn't; I love doing something that at least tries to make shit a bit better for people; always felt this urge and it has sustained me for 20 odd years.

If you are in one of these jobs that you don't want to stay in you should be thinking about what you want to do and how you can make it happen.  No bullshit, if you are bored at work you've basically mastered everything you need to do so get cracking on what the next thing is.  Obviously don't leave until you got another job but you are under no liberty to commit yourself somewhere unless you feel it is working for you.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

That Pinhead lad from Hellraiser. Or does he eat the souls?

[touchingcloth]

Work is slavery, it is. Anyone who says they love their job is a cunt.

I've had two "proper" jobs since graduating from university. I went into the first of them as a new grad and hated it pretty much from day one, but it was an easy job where it was easy to hide in the background so most of the effort I spent was making it look like I was doing actual, productive work when really I was pissing around surfing the old information superhighway.

I felt trapped in that job because the salary was high enough that I'd have been mad to have left it on a whim, but after ten years in the job they advertised for voluntary redundancies and I leapt at the chance.

I took a big pay cut compared to that job when I moved to my current one, but I genuinely enjoy the work so I can say that it is possible to enjoy your job, and that money is worth less than having at least some engagement with and investment in the things you spend forty hours a week doing.

That said I'm also a commie so I do recognise that I'm a wage slave, but one of the happier ones. Like Calpurnia.

[Johnny Foreigner]

When first I started in this line of business, I thought it wasn't proper work at all, because real work involves using your hands; I kept thinking that I wasn't qualified for desk work and I should be doing manual labour instead. I suppose it was a mild case of imposter sydrome. But I have now been doing that same job for well over a decade. It is completely intellectual work, in that it exclusively consists of sitting at a desk and typing, all day long, sometimes until late at night and sometimes all weekend. I constantly, and quite reluctantly, learn new things that do not remotely interest me and I never interact with customers. I do it because, at the end of the day, it's a comfortable job and a steady source of income. That is my sole motivation.

I do think pay rises are a myth; they don't exist in the real world. Who has ever heard of salaries going up? Salaries obey the law of gravity.

[earl_sleek]

I've had a pay rise twice in my life, but both times it was when I was working in the care sector so it was going from shit pay to slightly less shit pay.

[thenoise]

Work is a load of shitty jam.

[Kankurette]

I love my job BUT it took me many years to get to the point where I could be a freelance translator full time and I've worked in a couple of jobs that really fucked up my mental health. It wasn't the repetitive nature of the work, it was my colleagues and often being under ridiculous pressure. Like being shouted at to type faster because a solicitor wanted several letters going to the DX NOW NOW NOW. I couldn't cope. I am not made for office work.

ETA: I'm autistic, I don't have OCD but I do have intrusive thoughts and I sympathise because they are a nightmare.

[Johnny Foreigner]

I lack the courage to turn freelance. Working as an in-house employee gives me the security that I needn't worry about work drying up; if there aren't any assignments, it's the PMs' fault, not mine: sourcing customers is their job. The trick is never to assume responsibility for anything.

[bgmnts]

I love my job BUT it took me many years to get to the point where I could be a freelance translator full time and I've worked in a couple of jobs that really fucked up my mental health. It wasn't the repetitive nature of the work, it was my colleagues and often being under ridiculous pressure. Like being shouted at to type faster because a solicitor wanted several letters going to the DX NOW NOW NOW. I couldn't cope. I am not made for office work.

ETA: I'm autistic, I don't have OCD but I do have intrusive thoughts and I sympathise because they are a nightmare.

If you are able, the only work i'd suggest is local authority admin work, if times get tough. They're usually a bit less horrible than private sector office stuff. In my experience anyway.

[Kankurette]

I worked in the NHS as well.

[Blumf]

Before anyone says I should be a lifeguard due to my leisure centre stuff, I cannot do this job due to health reasons

How about a leisure centre receptionist?

[Cloud]

I'm in a job that I don't hate.  I consider that a massive plus in our world!

I mean, it's kind of shit, terrible pay, people endlessly whinging about us (we're IT), soul destroying in some ways, but I don't dread going in.  It just is what it is and pays for staying alive and enjoying the weekends.

[Johnny Foreigner]

When answering to correspondence at work, the phrase to remember is:

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Your remarks are duly noted.

You can simply paste the aforementioned phrase into any email to which you are replying, and subsequently delete the email. It works every time.

[Vinnie01]

How about a leisure centre receptionist?

I am not sure how that work out with me and my OCD. I certainly need something like ERP for it. That is 1 thing I see a CPN for.

Last thing I want is a rude customer.

I totally avoided customer facing work for many years due to seizures which has recently made their come back.