Comments on: Do You Hate Your Job?

By: Interracial Power

Interracial Power — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 04:47:41 +0000

I am a stay at home dad and my children are two and three. On weekends I work with severely emotionally disturbed children (SED) in a group home. Most of the time I can’t tell which job is harder. Men have less outlets when staying at home. Women who stay at home can make allot of friends. When I meet other guys who stay at home I am suspicious of them and they are the same to-wards me.

By: CDS

CDS — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 23:33:12 +0000

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.

By: Mr. Disgruntled

Mr. Disgruntled — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:31:41 +0000

I know how people feel with respect to hating their jobs. Even those of us who enjoy our jobs most of the time get angry at our job from time to time.

Sometimes, the best solution is to vent a bit, and see the humor in things.

On this note, you all should check out:

http://www.DisgruntledWorkforce.com

By: The Boomer Chronicles

The Boomer Chronicles — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:07:17 +0000

Since misery loves company, here are some resources for people who hate their jobs: Disgruntled Workplace Boss Bitching 101 Worse Jobs Than Yours.

By: Jillian

Jillian — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 22:24:01 +0000

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!)

By: Lewis

Lewis — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 00:16:09 +0000

I count my blessings every day that as a hard working stiff, I’ve had an opportunity to contribute to something greater than myself. They weren’t all great companies, but then it was because of my fellow employees and wonderful customers that I always tried to do my level best.

In return for my hard work, I have been able to support my family, who I love with all my heart. It was a very fair trade for my services. I have no regrets over my life as a slave to a big corporation.

By: Finn

Finn — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 20:43:10 +0000

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.

By: Glamchild

Glamchild — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 23:06:42 +0000

1. I don’t hate my job. But I don’t love it either. I feel very neutral. I’m always very suspicious about people who feel rapturous about what they do. Going to work in a trance of glory and pleasure. Not very much pragmatism or objectivity in that.

2. I always wanted to be a DJ. I’m good at choosing songs to fit a particular mood, or occasion. And, I love to dedicate songs.

3. Unfortunately my knowledge of music only extends to old school, classics and jazz. I don’t know contemporary or modern hip-hop. So, there goes that career option.

By: mamapajamas

mamapajamas — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 02:10:25 +0000

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 .

By: mamapajamas

mamapajamas — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 02:08:14 +0000

Like many others here, I don’t *hate* my job, but would rather be doing other things. I work full time in IT at the mainframe/server end, but I am basically an artist at heart. As an artist, in college I went from art history to an interest in anthropology (prehistoric civilizations), took all sorts of fascinating courses in biology and archeology to back that up, but then was not interested in marking time as a college-level teacher while waiting for grants to go on digs… especially not in a field that is overrun with liberals of the most extreme ilk! I finished my degree work, but went back into computers, which I genuinely like (although I do not love them).

So, in all reality, what I would need to get going in the work of my choice would be… a rather large inheritance to finance the dig of my choice :/. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any wealthy relatives. The whole idea of begging for grants to go on a dig annoys me to no end.

A second and possibly more do-able interest is in computer graphics. As both an artist and a computer techie, I LOVE playing with various graphics programs to see what I can do with them.

Some of the results are here.

Again, it would take some doing to support myself just doing computer art, but unlike the archological/anthropological digs, it’s more do-able.

By: Veronica

Veronica — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:33:49 +0000

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.

By: Amanda Rush

Amanda Rush — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:11:12 +0000

I would have to say I definitely hate my job. I got my bachelor’s degree in computer science, and enjoy doing geek things, like building web pages. Being able to tinker with WordPress has been a very satisfying way to do this. At this point, I work in what I refer to as an Office Space environment, and every day is filled with the kind of drama that is supposed to be done with when high school ends. I’m currently taking a medical transcription course in order to make myself more employable, (I still face that problem of being considered unemployable due to blindness), and I hope to move from the call center industry to medical transcription. I hope to be able to travel more once I’m out of this current stage, and to work from home, as that would drastically cut down on transportation costs.

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:09:41 +0000

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.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:34:06 +0000

I am bored with my job and frustrated with the hour long 1 way commute. I program PBXs for a very large telephone company. I make decent money and have great benefits. I do it to keep my wife home with our 2 boys and to keep my oldest son in a private Christian Classical school. I studied painting in college and would love to return to it some day but have no time for it right now. I don’t miss being a starving artist nor do I miss the stifling intellectual atmosphere that has been created in most arts communities. There is more to life! I am, however, very happy with the life that God has given me. My wife loves me and we have 2 adopted sons who are pure joy. I guess you just have to find the right balance. If your job does not satisfy you it’s OK. Just make sure that it is supporting the life that you want at home. Those who have both are really fortunate!

By: ElCee

ElCee — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:20:47 +0000

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).