[wma152]

Try being oncall all the time and not getting paid for OT. Try constantly having to learn new technologies.

[Rakin]

Originally Posted by gmdealerguy

I didnt make it that choice.......you really had no choice if you wanted to keep your job........These changed evolved over time in a lot of businesses. Most people,myself included, rolled along.

Aside from winning Lotto and being in control of your own life, I dont see things changing for the better.

Nothing about work has changed in the last 4000 years. People used to work dusk to dawn in the fields or building the Pyramids then go home to take care of work and family there.

We weren't born into Royalty or huge Riches which means we work must hard and smart.

We've become more lazy and entitled.

[gmdealerguy]

Originally Posted by Rakin

Nothing about work has changed in the last 4000 years. .

Indeed it has!
I am mainly talking about how the 40 hour work week has changed. This is a true fact. As I mentioned already, Henry Ford changed the 12-13 work days to a 40 hour work week at his Ford factories so people could have a quality of life. That hits home for me since I am in the auto industry and over the last 27 years, it indeed has changed. Everything he worked to change for the better has gone away and now it replaced what he changed . Car dealers went from 8-5 jobs and no weekends to hours of 8 am - 8 pm and Saturday and now even Sundays. I am talking about Parts and Service Departments. My dealer is talking about opening 7 am to 8 pm and 11-5 on Sunday. Where does it end?? 24/7 next??
We are not machines. Its a big world and one life, people should be able to try to enjoy life and not be chained to a job. This is what big companies forgot. Europe has the better idea. Too much emphasis on money here and trying to be rich when the CEO's are getting rich and the workers busting their butts with long hours are just getting by. I am not okay with this. Capitalism is abused imo.
I am neither lazy or entitled. Grateful to have a job of course but there needs to be a work/other life balance, no? It's not rocket science.

[nep321]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

I agree with Kid.

You can be just about anything you want. Pick something your passionate about and the money will come. I've been fortunate to pick an industry and a career path that I have thoroughly enjoyed. I work 50-60 hours a week-- but then again I don't feel like I work at all.

Whether your passion is programming computers, flying airplanes or making furniture, if you do what you love you'll never "work".

I hope you're not serious. Your proposition is much easier said than done, especially in this economy.

I can't just "pick" and do whatever job I'm passionate about. I'm not really passionate about any type of work in general anyway, but that's besides the point. But you have to realize that I can only "pick" a job if the job is available AND I have to be qualified for it. My 6 years of experience has been entirely in tax accounting, which is a specialized field. Heck, I've tried numerous times switching from tax accounting to general accounting, and no one even wants to interview me, because that's considered a career change and they could easier find someone with more directly related experience.

So, it's hard for a tax accounting person to get a job in say, sales, for the same reason it would be hard for a computer programmer to get a job in tax accounting. But even if I loved my career, I still wouldn't want to work more than 40 hours per week, because I want to enjoy my life in ways other than work. To me, work is secondary to personal life. It's merely a means of supporting a lifestyle.

When I was a teenager, I had dreamed of being a video game designer, but when I found out that it's highly competitive and requires 60 hour work weeks, I was instantly turned off.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by nep321

I'm not really passionate about any type of work in general anyway, but that's besides the point.

I'm not surprised.

[nep321]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

I'm not surprised.

Do I have be passionate about work? Please....it's just a means of making money to support a lifestyle. Work is not necessarily supposed to be fun.

[gmdealerguy]

I understand the passionate thing......and its true to a an extent. Depends on your lifestyle. For instance, I play guitar. I've been in bands my whole adult life. I've recorded , I've released cd's, I've shared the stage with some big bands in my genre of music. Music has always been a passionate hobby. I'm ome of millions of guitarists. Very few make it to the big time. That was never a goal because you can starve trying to get there so I chose a career in cars with music as my hobby. Would I love to be where Metallica is today with each member being worth $200 million? Sure. They are a rare example. And they starved getting there over 30 years. Maybe some people can do stuff they are passionate about and live well but the majority of us can't. I think it depends what you are passionate about. I loved muscle cars and racing so I was passionate when I started my career......27 years later, I am not. And that is mainly because of the original topic of this post. That's my two cents.

[HeadedWest]

I think it would be pretty hard to imagine anybody who has a 24/7 passion for cost accounting.

[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by wma152

Try being oncall all the time and not getting paid for OT. Try constantly having to learn new technologies.

IT in general can be that way, and nowadays many non-specialties in IT are almost a "commodity". I used to have a passion for IT but too many employers wanted too much of what you describe over the last 15 years and is why I switched to education and training not long after I passed 40 (and many IT shops think you can't easily learn new things once you hit that still fairly young age (see the story below about the Electronics Arts guy.....his wife who I mentioned there was an IT professional subject to that and is also out of IT now)).

Originally Posted by nep321

When I was a teenager, I had dreamed of being a video game designer, but when I found out that it's highly competitive and requires 60 hour work weeks, I was instantly turned off.

It can be much worse than even that, read up about the big lawsuit Electronic Arts employees had over the last 10 years. And unlike some other industries, its not recent there.....a girl I briefly went out with in college but stayed good friends with (who herself is a post-40 IT burnout, see above) eventually married another guy I knew in college and he worked there (Electronic Arts) and quit after several years for this reason and pursued a career change to be a chef.....and the 3 of us are about gmdealerguy's age (he noted in other posts that he is in his 40s and is 27 years out of school) so again, it's far from new in that industry.

As for kidyankee's comment, while I agree its easier to deal with a workweek well beyond 40 hours if its a "passion" of yours (and even a 40 hour workweek can feel grueling if you truly hate the work), I don't think we should be forced to be so one dimensional. What is wrong with wanting to passionately work 40-45 hours/week (to allow for the very occasional time that overtime is really needed) but want to travel, have hobbies, enjoy one's life partner and/or family, etc.

That is the problem here, that we seem to be evolving from the "work to live" model of most of the developed world to a 21st century version of a 19th century lifestyle that is common (if not downright exploited) in much of the Third World.

[nep321]

Originally Posted by HeadedWest

I think it would be pretty hard to imagine anybody who has a 24/7 passion for cost accounting.

Lol exactly. I wouldn't say I'm passionate about accounting or taxes. BUT, I am pretty passionate about working with numbers and laws. Well, not passionate, but tolerable. So, I don't dislike my career, but I wouldn't say I love it. No one enters the accounting field because of excitement reasons. Most accountants have practical, analytical personalities that seek stable, reliable employment so that they can maintain a comfortable, stable lifestyle. And that's exactly who I am. Besides, I'm decent at what I do.