It doesn’t matter what it is, if I have to do it 40 hours a week I will hate it.
This right here.
Theres breathing and there’s sleeping… Checkmate
I think that’s a misunderstanding of the intent. Obviously having a miserable job will make you miserable. But not everyone has to have a job that is their life’s great passion. It’s OK to have a job that just pays the bills. It’s OK to not care about your work.
That’s the part that CEOs hate to hear. Capitalism wants everyone to believe that their work has to define them, has to be the most important thing they do. Because if you get people to believe that then 1) that depresses wages for the “meaningful” jobs by creating more competition, and 2) it sells the lie that you have to go above and beyond because if you’re not treating your job as a calling then you’re failing at life.
It’s OK to clock out on time. It’s OK to put in the minimum effort required. It’s OK to care about your work life balance. And it’s OK to find a job that just pays the bills and doesn’t stress you out.
Exactly. You don’t have to like your job.
But you can’t spend half your life doing something you hate.
And in the middle is where I guess most people are, a job is just a means to an end.
Pradoxically, I think for a lot of people, understanding that your job doesn’t have to be your passion is actually the key to not hating it. People push themselves to give everything they have to their work in the belief that it somehow brings meaning to their lives, or they put up with endless abuse to do a job just because it’s something they’re passionate about. Those same people might be a lot more happy and less stressed if they were willing to check out and just let their job be a job, or find some work that pays the bills while they pursue their passions as a hobby instead.
Everyone is on a different part of the spectrum. There was the hustler or “ambitious” one who makes their whole life about work. Then lately there’s more young people completely dissolutioned on the supposed “American Dream” and just do the bare minimum to stay employed.
I think you need not necessarily passion, but a little bit of pride in what you do to keep moving and not making over a third of your best years into a soft prison. You can be prideful of a job you otherwise find mundane. But, the times of “work above and beyond and you’ll be rewarded” is also over and we need to accept that, unless you’re working for yourself (and you’re playing an even harder hustle in that case anyway).
I’m not gonna say “balance is key”, becsuse it really depends on your lifestyle. but I think most people need to find a dial between 20% and 70% and figure out where they lie for proper work-life balance.
Many years ago, a high school teacher gave us a speech on jobs - he said there were 3 reasons that you should have a job. Either:
- You love the job so much you would do it without being paid
- You get paid so much you would be crazy not to do it
- It gives you a living, and enough free time to do the things you actually like doing
I think about that speech a lot. I think maybe there are one or two other reasons to have a job as well (like you need it to support a family, it’s a stepping stone to something you actually want, etc) but in general I agree with this idea.
This age will be looked upon as a terrible dark age, and it will be mind-bending for the future generations how barbaric we were.
Assuming we just don’t end up in an I have no mouth, and I must scream scenario.
There is also a lot to be said about colleagues and company culture. It’s better to do a job where you’re not that invested in doing it with great colleagues in a great company than having your dream job in your dream field in a completely toxic environment.
I think another thing that people miss is that anything you HAVE to do (i.e. responsibility) is going to get old at some point. My “dream” would be to make its as a musician, but even that would get tiring and monotonous at some point after doing it over and over again. I mean, I’d still take that life, but every job has plusses and minuses.
I’m over 20 years into my field. I used to really find the science behind it fascinating.
Now I don’t give a shit and just want to be free and never think about it again.
It’s just plain old black and white thinking, if you don’t love your job it must be horrible and you hate it and it’s soul draining, as if these are the only two options. There’s a million options between those two points where you can be happy and take care of your responsibilities even if your job isn’t your perfect job chasing your great passion. Personally I think having a job that defines you or is your purpose is pretty off putting
To play devil’s advocate, you do risk getting fired at a time when it’s getting harder to find another job. Oh, but they won’t outright fire you, because that means they might have to pay unemployment, so instead, they’ll harass you until you quit.
CEOs and other managers that are like “you should do more work for me for free” are bad people who should not be allowed to lead
Like my old CEO at a startup wanted people to work nights and weekends to hit deadlines. I’m like, if we make it big you get rich and I get the same salary. That’s a horrible deal for me. Give me a lot of equity and we’ll talk.
But those people will continue to lead as long as our economic system continues to reward them.
So “never take a job you hate, unless absolutely needed for reasons” is a good advice
Except that everyone HATES working for capitalism, whether they realize it or not, and we all ABSOLUTELY need a job for reasons like survival.
I’d much rather spend my time working hard for something where I actually get to keep the value of my labors. As it is now I create millions of worth for the capitalists to extract (steal) from me and I get enough to not die. Neat… Who the hell wants this? Why do so many people keep defending capitalism when everyone is getting scammed and 99% of their profit stolen from them and funnelled up the pyramid scheme to a shareholder.
Nah. There is a difference between content of the work and how its value is used. Do I think some bastards well deserve to die and society has been crazy for ages now? Yeah. Do I hate doing my job for it? No
It’s also hypocritical because companies fully expect you to pretend to like your job for their own satisfaction.
I worked at a job a decade ago where the management expected you to show your company pride OR ELSE.
But they didn’t seem to have a problem doing layoffs.
This kinda stuff is something I respect in the generation below me where I work. They have no concern with saying they hate it and want another job in front of management. While I usually only feel comfortable saying it to coworkers at the pub.
Was this your boss?
Spend 2 generations going “we’re a family!” then ousting otherwise well performing workers. Then are stupified when the next generation no longer falls for the propoganda. Gen Z is in for a reckoning on this society.
Who actually believed the family bullshit though. It was something at least I was laughing at for all these years.
Nobody with half a brain believes it.
Boomer and GenX who still thinks hard work pays still can’t stop saying it.
The worst part of my day, the worst part almost every single day, is when I have to unwrap myself from the arms of those who love me the most before getting in a vehicle and driving away from them at the maximum legal speed. All the nonsense at work I can mostly handle. I even have a job where I can be creative, I’ve got a job so cool that if I mentioned my job title, nobody would believe me.
But I really just want to be home with my wife.
But I really just want to be home with my wife.
Sorry, can’t have that until you’re 65-70. Then you’ll just be sitting in hospitals with each other and figuring out how you’ll pay for end-of-life care.
Yaaaay.
Sometimes we are disappointed to wake up and find that society hasn’t collapsed.
I’ve got a job so cool that if I mentioned my job title, nobody would believe me.
Is it “CAD monkey,” perchance?
That’s part of what I do.
Ah, Projectwise admin…
I don’t… think so?
Im sort of an emergency draftsman. Someone sends in some piece of machinery that is broken/worn out. Said machine is taken apart. Any parts that need to be replaced are dropped on my desk (if they are small enough) and im asked to figure out what this scrap metal used to look like, so I can make a 3D model and drawing of it. That drawing is given to someone who actually knows what they are doing, and they will replicate the part.
This leaves me with random downtime, I have used that time the last year or so to study and get my drone license.
And that’s the cool part. I’m a drone pilot. Ten year old me is looking on with approval.
Dang, that is cool
You know CAD and are a drone pilot? Don’t let surveyors find out.
They would have to pay me to make me listen.
Plus the unpaid commute for many of us, which is both lengthy and expensive in many cases
It’s a lie. A bad job absolutely will negatively affect the rest of your life.
Man, I live in a county dominated by a military base. It has been and still is hard finding suitable work that is not department of defense or a contractor. If I had a job that supported our military it would be weighing heavy on me.
Have you considered working for the county itself (or state)?
Same, but whole state. I was able to for a good while but have been laid off from anyone who isn’t, which is like 3 places. I knew going into the engineering college that I did was pipeline to the labs, but I promised to never work for the military or any federal contractor. Or even anything tangentially related.
I just want to be a farmer now. Sell eggs and peppers at the farmers market. I don’t need much to live.
I prefer “work to live, not live to work”.
I have a very professional job. I could of I wanted to absolutely pour my entire life essence into this job and I would probably make more money than I make now and be more professionally successful.
But in reality, my career is and will always be a way to support me and my family. Bottom line.
You should absolutely be looking for a job and a career that gives you balance, wherever that balance may be for you personally.
Honestly I have never heard anyone give the advice in that post anyway…
I’ve turned down promotions because I knew what it would do to my mental health.
I’ll let the ladder climbers climb. I don’t want to hate my life all day, every day.
I wouldn’t say I spend those 40 hours “dedicated” to it. I am physically present at best.
There is a difference between not liking it and hating it though.
It’s a spectrum.
I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until I was 30 - that diagnosis helped a lot.
When I was growing up, I was convinced I was going to be a programmer like my dad. And when I was seeking work, I was trying to work my way up doing tech support to get my foot into the tech door.
The problem is that this was in the late 90s, before chat support (which I was much better at surviving). Telephone support sucked. I’m good at it, but I passionately hate it. I kept getting jobs doing it.
I remember once of them, around 2003, I got a job for a cable internet provider. Went through training, got out on the floor. I lasted about two weeks and one day I literally could not talk myself into going to work.
That’s really not what they’re talking about. In my case, I had to find something else to do.
All the saying really means is that it’s okay if you don’t enjoy your job - that you don’t wake up and go HOLY SHIT I GET TO GO TO WORK COME ON LET’S GO GO GOOOOOO. You do have to survive, of course. And if you’re in a shitty place, if you can find a better place, go for it.
But it’s okay if you’re mostly just ticking the hours at work and you can find your passions outside of it.
You also have to be able to stand up and stop after-hours bullshit, too. That is stolen labour and is illegal.
But it is complicated, sure. One simple saying is not This Is The Rulebook For Everyone’s Life.
Part of the problem is many of us can’t describe what a good job is. So we just stick with what we got.
i want a job close to home, where my boss makes sure im not working too hard and kicks us out when its time to clock out. i would honestly do pretty much anything for a boss like that. these MBA cunts think they need to squeeze every drop of blood from us but dont realize that if they just treated us like humans with a little fucking compassion theyd get so much more.
I’ve wanted to blow my brains out at every job I’ve ever had except the one I currently have.
I decided that I was going to blow my brains out unless I could find a job that treated me with respect, paid me fairly, and gave me decent benefits, without piling on so much work that I felt like I was being physically crushed.
I got lucky and after 1,000,000 applications and basically at the end of my rope, I finally got it. Or, honestly, I probably would have blown my brains out cuz I was pretty much over this shit.
Our work culture is fucking dogshit.
I used to complain to my dad about my truly horrible jobs, and he would always say something along the lines of “No one likes their job.” and treat it as if all jobs are equally bad, so I should stop complaining.
About six months after he retired he realized he had legitimate PTSD because his jobs were so awful, but he had to fully relax before he could even feel it. He’s a lot more empathetic now, but my current job is actually nice.
Same story here.
My parents had to step out of the shithole grind they’d been normalized to before getting enough perspective to have sympathy. And even then, they didn’t have to deal with one million applications and a super intensely competitive job market with shitstain computer moderated hiring processes that we do. They had their career jobs by their late 20s. I didn’t get mine until 35 and that was after a super long job hunt and crazy background check and living pretty near poverty level the whole time.
My dad liked to think that me complaining about jobs meant I didn’t want to work and jerk off all day. Nah. I wanted to be treated with human decency and not worked like a machine until I burned out, without much to show for it.
Our work culture is dogshit.
