How'd You Make It Through All Those Years Hating Your Jobs? (pension, beach)
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I've come to realize that I've hated just about every single job I've had, and I'm not yet 40. Some of you on here mentioned that you hated your whole work life and couldn't wait until retirement from the beginning of your time in the workforce. How did you get through all those years?
I'm not naive enough to think work should be fun or exciting all the time. We work for an income to pay bills and take care of life's expenses. Some are lucky to be able to follow their passion and it produce an income for them. Most of us just have to accept something tolerable and live with it.
After awhile, it seems that all jobs become mentally (or physically) draining. Changing jobs often helps temporarily; but these days, even if you find something great, it never lasts. There are so many company buyouts, mergers, layoffs, management changes, etc. It can be frustrating to jump around and finally get something that's manageable, get settled; then, due to one of the aforementioned things, it comes to an end. You're left to start over, often taking another job you don't really want.
I know the key is to focus on the good aspects of your life and your life outside of work. The problem is that we spend the majority of 5 out of 7 days of our waking lives at work. How did you push yourself through long enough for retirement? We really have no choice, but how did you make it bearable?
As I get older, the more I want to live below my means, have 0 debt except the mortgage, etc. Money buys options if it can't buy happiness. Options give you flexibility to continually change your situation to maintain happiness. Living for Friday afternoons gets old, and the deep Sunday night blues get old too.
For me it took until I was in my late 30's to find a job I was suited for and where I was treated decently. For years I had jobs where my co-workers were crap and management too. I saw it all. Co-workers that were petty, vindictive, drunk, coke heads, sexual harassers, suck ups and just plain rotten people. Management that had no clue, and just wanted to ripoff the workers and line their pockets. It took me a long time to realize that nice people are not top managers. The nice guy is down in shipping, the President of the company is an a-hole. Forget about unions and democracy in the workplace too. Either like it or get out. Our way or the highway. That's it. You have no say, and if you mouth off too much they will cram it up your rear before you are fired. I finally found an ok job and hope to retire from it. But even where I work they have done away with the pension and everybody is 401k for themselves. Working is no picnic and it never will be. In the classic book "North Dallas Forty" the character is asked how he likes playing football. The answer is "it's better than selling life insurance, but not as good as being born rich" - that about sums up all jobs.
I never expected my job to be great. It was what I did to pay the bills. I am a person who likes trivia and interesting facts, though, so even though the industry within which I worked might be dull to some (public contracting/engineering & construction) I learned a lot just by dealing with paperwork and procedures.
I did have some good coworkers, though, some of whom turned into lifelong friendships, particularly after our shared experience on 9/11.
The biggest downside of my job was always the commute. It is part of the deal when you live in New Jersey and work in New York City, as a few hundred thousand people do. There's a mile-wide river between the two places and only a finite number of ways to cross it. You use the commute for reading or napping, but it adds to the length of the day. On the other hand, it was easier to sit on a train and let someone else do the "driving" rather than sitting in a vehicle in horrendous traffic.
There were periods of time over the years when the job was a little worse because of a power-mad supervisor or because the politicians that run a public agency decide to freeze wages or reduce benefits to public workers to garner votes from a public who buys into the idea that we all sit around doing nothing collecting fat paychecks.
My last few years were a whirlwind of long days, constant emails including on nights and weekends, dealing with a crazy boss and the politics of the projects I was working on, but they were the best years, too. I wouldn't want to do it again, though. I'm done with the rat race. There are younger rats in the maze now who have the energy to deal with it all, and they are welcome to it.
I loved my job, it was different just about every day. But after nearly 40 years, I grew tired and emotionally drained, have back problems and nightmares. It was time to pack it in.
I think I've had hills and Valleys in my working career. I actually loved my jobs when I first started out. I'm in research and development and truthfully when I first entered the career, companies actually wanted to develop new things and research. now it's 100% totally about the return to stock holders, at least with large chemical/pharmaceutical companies. lol we call it research by stockholder.
Now to be totally fair it's not just that the job has changed, I've also changed. like @mightyqueen801 I've always had a job that involved an hour commute. it's the choice I made for a bigger salary but now I'm finding that what I did at 28 I no longer want to do at 58. Also I've had 30 years of dealing with corporate BS, again when I was younger I didn't mind doing the BS dance to get good ratings and good raises. Now I've learned the game (and it's rigged against the worker) so my patience with it is gone.
I have been blessed that I've never had a really horrible boss and my coworkers are some really good friends.
As to how I make it bearable? I have a great life outside of work, I realize that what I do does not define me.
Also I've had 30 years of dealing with corporate BS, again when I was younger I didn't mind doing the BS dance to get good ratings and good raises. Now I've learned the game (and it's rigged against the worker) so my patience with it is gone.
This is where I am after only about 13 years of it. I simply don't care anymore. I'm too young to be that way, but I figured the game out very early, and I really don't want to play it anymore.
I've had three different careers in my life, and I enjoyed all three. I made changes because I'm a person who believes change can be a good thing. I thought, the world is full of interesting things to do and life is short, so there's no reason to do only one thing all my life.
In each career I've held positions that I really loved, although as I put it, every job has its crappy bits. A couple of times I found myself in positions that I hated (e.g., bad management), so after a few months of putting up with it, I just moved on to something else.
I've come to realize that I've hated just about every single job I've had, and I'm not yet 40. Some of you on here mentioned that you hated your whole work life and couldn't wait until retirement from the beginning of your time in the workforce. How did you get through all those years?
I'm not naive enough to think work should be fun or exciting all the time. We work for an income to pay bills and take care of life's expenses. Some are lucky to be able to follow their passion and it produce an income for them. Most of us just have to accept something tolerable and live with it.
After awhile, it seems that all jobs become mentally (or physically) draining. Changing jobs often helps temporarily; but these days, even if you find something great, it never lasts. There are so many company buyouts, mergers, layoffs, management changes, etc. It can be frustrating to jump around and finally get something that's manageable, get settled; then, due to one of the aforementioned things, it comes to an end. You're left to start over, often taking another job you don't really want.
I know the key is to focus on the good aspects of your life and your life outside of work. The problem is that we spend the majority of 5 out of 7 days of our waking lives at work. How did you push yourself through long enough for retirement? We really have no choice, but how did you make it bearable?
As I get older, the more I want to live below my means, have 0 debt except the mortgage, etc. Money buys options if it can't buy happiness. Options give you flexibility to continually change your situation to maintain happiness. Living for Friday afternoons gets old, and the deep Sunday night blues get old too.
Guess I am one of the lucky ones- except for one job when I was maybe 23 or so ( which lasted less than a year) I have always loved my jobs. I worked with people that became lifetime friends, and thoroughly enjoyed my work.
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