What was your favorite thing about working? (move, community, celebrate)

[galaxyhi]

I see we have a least liked thread, how about your favorite thing about working?

I always enjoyed the new merchandise coming into retail. Being the first to see it before it went on sale to john q public.
That and cooking up new dishes for the restaurants i cooked at for my second job.

How about you?

What was your favorite thing about working?

( please dont say things like " getting to retirement ", "vacation time off", etc. Im looking for the FAVORITE aspect of your work itself)

[bigdogmom13]

I worked in a hospital (I was a respiratory therapist). I loved chatting with my patients and getting to see all kinds of interesting, weird, or gory stuff in the emergency room and trauma rooms.

[JRR]

I worked for many years in the tire and auto service business. I really enjoyed interacting with with the customers. So many nice people that would come in, year after year; sort of like having a huge circle of friends. At Christmastime, ladies would stop by to drop off homemade cookies, cakes or candies.

After I changed careers and went to work for a financial services company, I spent my last several years reviewing brokerage account applications/documents for complex accounts (corporations, trusts, partnerships, LLCs). I really liked that work. It was like being a detective, going through the documentation to determine who actually owned/controlled the entity. Always interesting when the trail would eventually end up at the Cayman Islands or some other foreign country.

[brightdoglover]

I liked feeling my own ability to be centered and clear in communicating and perceiving what was really going on with another person (worked nights in a psychiatric hospital) and being able to make a good connection really quickly.

[Clemencia53]

I was in the military. MOST of the time we worked well together - organized.

I'm in groups and organizations now and i just want to pull my hair out - lol.

Sheesh even grocery stores should follow the commissary way of doing things. You go up the aisles one way - follow the arrows. . There is one line for the checkout and you go to the next available checker. It goes really fast.

[Huckleberry3911948]

The opportunity to learn a great deal about human nature
Which accounts for my present great love of plants and cats

[upnorthretiree]

I was a trial lawyer and loved the adrenaline rush of going into a deposition or a court proceeding, with your brain firing off and sparking on every circuit you have, and some new ones that just existed for the occasion, as you processed information and developments at the speed of light. The restfulness of retirement is wonderful, but I do miss those days of the heady feeling of having your brain rush in, to paraphrase, where angels fear to tread.

The aftermath was complete exhaustion. I remember once a client comparing the modest car I drove as a government lawyer to that driven by the attorney hired by the company suing us. He wondered if there was a similar difference in what we did to celebrate after a trial closed. I explained that for a week there would be no difference at all, since every trial lawyer I knew celebrated the end of a trial by sleeping for about 7 days straight. Or at least turning out the light and hiding under the covers, before emerging recharged.

Forgive please the scientific liberties I took in my description in paragraph one. I don’t know what’s actually going on when your mind snaps into a whole different level for a limited period of time; it happened when needed, but now it’s never needed. I still enjoy reading and mildly exercising my mental faculties, but it’s just not the same thing when you’re not pitting yourself against an opponent in an intense, focused, time limited arena.

[StealthRabbit]

• Paid vacation. (My favorite thing!)
• Flex Hours (Ruined me for other employers)
• Very interesting innovation (US patents and such)
• Lots of very smart co-workers who were excellent collaborators / mentors (and we had very lucrative investment clubs)
• Seeing inventions go to market / or helping others.
• Profit Sharing (I was able to give away to neighbors ./ others in need)
• FREE hotel and airline perks / miles / clubs
• very interesting technical lunch / seminars & speakers
• Paid volunteer time (and teaching)
• Benevolent founders of company (taught me to give away talents and money)
• International company recreation areas (FREE for employees)
• Lots of opportunities within company to learn / contribute
• Beer busts
• Free lunch (on Night shift)
• Paid lunch breaks
• Free donuts / fruit / coffee (staff of 20+ to stock coffee and donut stations)
• Free use of company supplies and machinery for personal invention
• Open door policy (no offices). in fact NO LOCKS / fences on the exterior doors of a 5000 employee factory (when I started)
• (5) International assignments including 100% support of my family.
• Really excellent community support from company. (including hiring teachers in summer so employees could take summer without pay)
• Nice 'park-like' settings
• 1600 acre ranches (3) of them, free cabins for employees

(My employer also paid for (5) free degrees) That was nice of them

[MI-Roger]

I was a design engineer for building systems for years, then became a Construction Manager for primarily civil projects. My two favorite things:

• Learning new things; products, concepts, equipment, etc.
• Spending hours working in a massive sand box watching full size Tonka Toys move the earth. There is nothing quite like the smell of hot asphalt on a steaming summer morn.

[Piney Creek]

I had a lot of friends at work. I still see some of them, but i do miss seeing some of them on a daily basis. (Not enough to go back to work, though, LOL).