Do You Hate Your Job?

I don’t hate my job. But then I mostly work from home writing marketing stuff on a semi-freelance basis. Like you I’ve done the 9-5 or more like 8-8 grind and got sick of it.

I prefer what I do now even though I probably make less money working the way I do. On the other hand the quality of life is higher, I can (and do) take the time to go running in the middle of the day or go grocery shopping with my wife or a bunch of other things that I wouldn’t be able to do working in a more formal, structured environment.

Good luck in your future as a fellow free-lancer and blogger

I LOVED my job when it was a start up..when it got taken over by the bean counters, I started hating it….it’s very very annoying..

I don’t hate my job at all, but I do get tired of working all day to help the owner of the company pay for his $500,000 house and his $50,000 SUV. I’m a software developer for a very small company where the pay is moderate, the benefits are terrible, but I have quite a bit of freedom to do what I want to do.

If I had my way, I would either have my own software company or do writing projects. I’ve got my first article about to be published so I’m at least on the road to that.

In order to really land my dream job, I would have to put in more hours than what I do now. However, since I’m also in grad school and the youth coordinator at our church, time is a commodity in short supply right now. I’m resigned to stay patient and wait for the right opportunity to come along.

I work so I can live and not the other way around. I’m a financial analyst by trade and though I don’t hate it, I look it as a way for me to pay my bills so that I can do the things I really like such as traveling, reading and mentoring and doing community service projects.

I’m nosy though, LB. Knowing your strong viewpoints on politics and religion, are you selective on who you will take on as a client? For example, would you blog for a business where you knew the person had a liberal viewpoint?

1) Do you hate/dislike your job, or are you one of the lucky ones?

I am lucky. I have a job that I like, but it’s not my dream job.

2) What will it take for you to land your dream job, and are you willing to do what it takes?

I am pursuing my dream job right now actually. I want to teach English at the HS level so I am going to school part time to get my degree. Yes I am that crazy, but I really feel it’s what I was meant to do. Which reminds me, if you don’t care about your kids education neither will they. And if you have a beef with a teacher, PLEASE PLEASE deal with it away from your kids. If you don’t respect their teacher, neither will they. (there are id10t teachers out there I know but not all of them are)

I’m a public school teacher *gasp* who also happens to be a conservative and a black male. I have been teaching for five years and absolutely love my job. Everyday is a different challenge, a different set of circumstances. My first three years of teaching, I worked in a low-achieving school and was able to raise my students’ test scores by an average of 20 points on the state-mandated standardized test. Of course some days are harder than others, but preparation is everything in teaching. The better you prepare for your classes then the better chance you will have of increasing your students’ academic performance. I plan to retire–I’m 35–as a classroom teacher; I do not want to go into administration or any other education job where I would not be in the classroom. I would like to stay in the “trenches” and make my impact there.

I don’t hate my job; I can’t say that I love it though. It’s a means to an end and I don’t think I’d be good as an entrepreneur. Have a friend who quit his paying job and has cobbled together several small and marginal enterprises that don’t add up to what he was making before he quit. I think I ditto Tiffany and Ed. I have to admit that I’ve never caught the “work as unto the Lord” thing, although I’d love to be there.

LaShawn,

Yours is a story I’ve been hearing a lot more lately…Possibly because more people aren’t happy with what they’re doing and finally deciding to make the jump…Possibly because I’ve just been a lot more ready to hear it and do something about it myself.

For my own part, this Dr. Jekyll has been working in the world of accounting for (GULP) a quarter-century (or 25 years…whichever seems longer). The very act of looking at the calendar that told me that last October set off a click in my head loud enough that it might have been heard in DC and send the Secret Service scrambling .

At the click, enter Mr. Hyde, who was, despite his reputation as a loose end, was helping the other guy keep sane by acting, writing and occasionally putting his own work up on some very shaky theater floorboards. “It’s 2007 or else you’re never going to get things done.” was his message. “The kids are out of college. Do a bit of Consulting and project work if you want to eat and pay rent…Anything but committing to more than a year at any new desk you can be chained to.”

Damned if he isn’t right. If I’m going to do ANY desk work, it’s going to have something creative as a goal, rather than as a spreadsheeted method of describing cold numbers to people who’ll carp over them for an hour, then do what they were planning on doing before they saw them anyway.

Much to my surprise, he had an ally. I came home on a Friday night, sat down and spilled my guts…to MRS. Hyde; who smirked at me and, in essence, asked me what took me the whole six months since my daughter graduated to decide to act.

The easiest part (for me, at least)was creating the plan, with what I see as reachable goals for the whole year…Which will be replaced and added to as they get completed. I wholeheartedly suggest to anyone considering this…Write the plan up (HOME computer or notes…Use a little common sense) BEFORE you think you need it…You may get to act on it faster that way.

So now comes the rest…The deadline is June 30th. The notice has gone out to all interested parties. The diving board is waiting. The water’s cold, and I have no idea what’s lurking just below the surface.

Time to jump.

I’m embarking on a second career (teaching ESL to Israeli children) and due to a personal, painful health issue in my life, I really haven’t been able to concentrate and make the full effort to establish myself in it. I love the English language and would feel good about helping others to love it, too.

My first career was as a nurse, which I did for many years in several different specialty areas. I put my heart and soul into my work. I felt I was doing something so important, and I felt privileged to be part of patients’ most vulnerable, private times in their lives. My job gave me a sense of PURPOSE, which I think is what we all want our professions to do for us. Near the end, though, I began to get discouraged and disenchanted, what we in medical lingo call “burned out.” I worked at a major city trauma center and I got sick of patching up gang members and criminals and cop killers and drug addicts. I could have switched to another area, but it was already too late: I had become cynical.

Anyway, I’ve heard that people change careers an average of four times in their lives. Not sure if that’s true. Well, anyway, I’m working on number two!

There is no doubt in my mind, each person will know what they truly want to do with their life at some point in their life. For me, I was 40ish. I had risen in my career from secretary to manager of a dept for a very large company. I was dang good at what I was doing because I really liked “the field”. People noticed, not because I tried to make them notice but because I went the extra mile and I did it because I wanted to. I ended up a Director of the company, but that’s not the point I want to make. This is:

I took a 4 hour course, one morning that changed my life. I had an instructor that said to to all of us, I want you to think of the 5 things in life that you want to accomplish. Ok…she gave us time to think and examples of her own life. Then, we were to write down these goals in a day planner and she said, next, I want you to go home and in a quiet time, review these goals and start to break them down. Ask questions of yourself. Ask questions of your spouse or someone important in your life. Really think about how you might begin accomplishing those goals.

So, I did.

No big deal, I sat on the front porch with my dayplanner and did what she said. I can tell you from my heart the truth. I met 4 of my 5 life goals, one being I paid off my house in 10 years which in itself is an incredible story because I simply refinanced part of it which paid off the land it was on (totally unbeknown to me how this could be done..but I asked..that’s all it took I asked).

Today, I can tell you I retired from my job at age 55 which was a life goal. I am comfortable so to speak. I like it. I do some consulting but I am not tied to anyone. However, I think it’s time to look at some new life goals. Ain’t gonna be easy cause I’m 60 years old and life changes as you get older, but I need to do this, for the sake of me as well as my daughter and her family.

So, do I love my job? Well, yes I do, because my job today is being the best mother and grandmother I can possibly be and being independent. Life changes for everyone. We need to set goals for outselves and break them down, devour them, make them who we are, and then outline them as we learned in elementary English classes, and once we accomplish them, then make new goals.

LaShawn, doors have opened for you and you have learned to walk through them. But, I can tell from what you have written, that those doors didn’t magically open. You had to knock on the door. That’s what we all need to do.

And, God bless,
Dianne

First off congratualations on your second year of self-employment.

Me personally, I’m ambivalent about my current job. I was laid off two years ago and after about six months of job hunting I landed this one. Now don’t get me wrong the job isn’t bad and my boss is great,probably one of the best boss’ I’ve had. But the pay is lower than I used to make and since it is a small office the benefits are somewhat lacking. This makes things difficult especially with a wife and four kids. Like I said, the job is not bad, but I feel inside that I should be doing something else somewhere else.

I will keep praying about it. One thing I learned while unemployed is that God is in control. James 4:13-15 became one of my favorite verses from that experience.

I have a great job! I just wish someone could do the paperwork for me so I could spend more time at my job. I am a psychologist and I do therapy all day. It is very rewarding, a huge blessing really. I get to watch God’s healing take place over and over again. And every now and then, God’s love fills up my little room, and I get just a pinch of it on me, and it is the most wonderful thing in the world. It is up there with the birth of my children and the day my wife was saved.

My dream job is winning the lottery and doing what I do for free with no paperwork!

Trey

I’ve been a mainframe computer programmer for just about 30 years, but the last 4 years have been as an almost-programmer. I’ve always enjoyed the people I work with, and up until the job I have now, I’ve enjoyed the work. But I hate the work I’m doing–the ultimate end-product of what I do is junk mail. Yuck.

I’m in the midst of figuring out what I want to be now that the kids have grown up. It won’t be working for myself, because I don’t have an entrepeneurial spirit. I’m content to work for a company.

I was reading a book about career changes, and it asked, “What qualities are you looking for in a job/career?” The first thing that came to mind was that I want a job where I don’t get in trouble for talking to people.

I’ve got my Bachelor’s (Psychology, not computers), so now I’m starting on getting my Associate’s in an Allied Health field, though I still have to decide which one. I’ll be able to talk to people, work close to home, and do something a whole lot more meaningful than sending junk mail.

But first, I’ll be quitting my dreadful job (mid-April) and starting in June, my mom and I will drive around the country in her motorhome for a year. I can’t wait!

Seems to be a lot of IT people on here.

I am also a programmer, and have been doing it for over 26 years. I went through a phase when I wanted to switch to something else, but really didn’t have any idea of what. So I stuck with it, and changed my attitude instead.

There are days when I really love my job, and days when I don’t particularly care for it. The bad times tend to be when I have too much to do or too little to do. For the most part, it’s a dream job. I’m largely unsupervised, work flex hours, have lots of time paid off, a great salary, and usually have challenging projects to work on. There’s no pressure to go into management, which I absolutely hate.

I work at home at times, and sometimes that work is extra hours, but for the most part, when I leave work, I don’t have to think about it.

I have never wanted to work for myself. I’m rather shy, so marketing would be a problem, and frankly, I don’t want to work that hard. I think I might enjoy selling real estate or cars, but don’t want to give up my weekends.

I don’t have a dream or passion for any vocation (or ministry) in particular. Never have. I envy people who do. On the other hand, I’ve enjoyed all of the different jobs I’ve had (except managing people). So I guess I’ll keep on with the old 9 to 5 (or 6:30 – 3:30 in my case).

I love things about my job, but am not ‘loving’ my job. I appreciate my job, and am glad I have it, but it isn’t an object of affection. It fits in well with my life right now, and that’s enough.

I used to love my job, however, I do not anymore. I am currently a librarian, but I just returned to school so that I can work in the paper pushing field of Human Resources.

BTW I am writing this from my job.

Hmmm… what did I do to my link?

Never mind… I popped my web site into the “web site” slot on the user login above .

I recently switched from a full time no benefits position as a postal remote encoder (data entry) to doing customer service for a massive American insurance company. Benefits are good (pension, health, matching 401K, 20 days off after two months, generally friendly supervisors). I appreciate what this company does for my resume, and wallet, and the pay is okay for the work.

The work, however, and dealing with customers, is mindnumbing. It is not what I plan to do long term, I don’t think.

What would I rather do? I want to write (for myself or others), teach, run my own investment company or fund, and start a school for rural and urban poor. Some combination of the above would make me content. (The joy itself I like to assume I can get from God, or self manufacture regardless of circumstance… that is my goal at least).

Switching jobs was the first step in getting closer to my goals, as it gives me more income, plus benefits to protect health. I convinced a friend that we must “make our own fun.” Consequently we started an investment club/fund in order to force ourselves to save, but also, to create a track record to show future investors if we decide to professinalize and expand beyond ourselves, friends, and family. (And we do).

The writing I am trying to do on the side, whether by sending in queries, or marketing my own self published items. The new job provides extra bits of money for that sort of thing (stamps, etc).

As for the teaching and school, I might head that way next. I did some work in a classroom for special needs students as an assistant a couple of years ago, but am not sure I want to be around kids 24/7. I might be better off contributing to education by starting a school, or supporting those who want to with money or books.

(The WSJ had an interesting little blurb in an opinion piece about a woman who started a school who is struggling on a $160K budget, but whose students are performing quite well on SAT’s above the state level. Saturday’s Journal I believe).

In the end, we all have to make our own fun. We have to derive joy, and peace, from God, or from our own mental state, and then use our intellect and dreams to forge a path we can live with. If we must work for someone else, then save that money and reroute it to our true dream.

There is no settling. We can do it.

I don’t hate my job, but I hate to work. I’m a staffer for a state legislator in California. It’s fast-paced and fascinating, and the benefits of a government job are out of this world. I worked hard in college to be able to do what I am doing now. That being said, I echo the sentiments of the person who said that s/he works to live, not the other way around. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I’d never work another day in my life. Admittedly, I’m a bit lazy. I’d much rather devote my time to my own hobbies and interests than work for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for the next 30-35 years. (Unfortunately, at 23, I’ve only just begun.)

Truth be told, I look forward to having children in a few years and being able to take a few years off. I’d much rather be a stay-at-home mom than a full-time working gal. Once my kids reach pre-school age, I’ll probably be excited to get back to work. (Hopefully!)

La Shawn, I have enjoyed your site for a while but this is the first time I decided to respond to a post. I feel much the same as Lewis. I have a job that I don’t really like very well but it has kept my family and myself fed and clothed for 29 years. I have been lucky to have it. I always tried to tell my children when they were discouraged about their jobs that they needed to think about this thought. If it was fun they wouldn’t pay you to do it. The amount of pay they will give you is directly related to the yuk factor. If it is a yuk job, nobody “wants” to do it so they will pay more to get anyone to do it. I agree with the earlier commenter that one should work to live and not live to work. There are so many other worthwhile things to live for. For me, it has been my family.