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I have had many soul-sucking jobs over the years... In between jobs about 6 years ago, I had a part-time job trying to get people to take legitimate research surveys over the phone. It really does come down to a positive attitude and a smile on your face and in your heart. If you have a positive attitude, people pick up on it and take your survey, if not, they tell you to eff off and threaten to turn you in to the FTC for violating the Do Not Call list even though we technically weren't governed by that law. Try explaining that to a mom cooking dinner with screaming kids in the background or a senior citizen with the evening news at full volume who can't hear and refuses to turn down the TV...
I got paid per person I signed up. Towards the end when I had gotten a *real* job that paid me per hour (shocking!) and was working at that all day and then coming in to finish out my 2 weeks' notice, my attitude turned into "I don't care, I don't want to be here, I just want to go home, kill me now". People picked up on this and I stopped getting people to take the surveys. I was going to this job (paying for gas money, mind you!) to make NOTHING. ZERO. ZILCH. THAT is the definition of uninspiring.
Last edited by scratchNsniff; 01-23-2012 at 12:59 AM..
In 1996 I had a job as a shelf reader in a college library. Basically scanning row after row of books and replacing books into the proper order as needed. Very mind numbing.
I had a job like that in college too where I shelved books and did shelf reading and I loved it! I don't enjoy working with people so I loved the solitude of just me and the stacks. I would gladly do that job again if I could make similar money to what I make now at my boring desk job.
ANYTHING in a call center. I hate being a phone slave.
This.
Call centers are the modern day assembly lines. Working in a call center was the worst thing I have ever done. I didn't know that level of boredom was even possible. It was such mental anguish I would have rather had physical pain. Seriously. I would often think that if I wrapped my car around a tree on the way to work, I'd at least have an excuse to not go in and mindlessly read a script over and over and over for 8 hours.
They didn't care what she did as they just didn't have anything for her to do.
That's the way it used to be in customer service jobs. I remember back in the early 80s working fast food and during the slow times my coworkers would breathe a little easier, even goof off. But the work was done and we developed a great camaraderie. It was actually FUN to go to work sometimes.
Fast forward to today. During my month long stint at McDonalds during the rare slow times, even though the work was done you didn't even DARE to ask a co-worker about themselves. Me and co-worker got reamed for this even THOUGH we were trying to look busy cleaning something that was ALREADY eat-off-of clean. We had barely said 3 words to each other when the manager came around the corner all nazi-style telling us there was no time for idle chit-chat.
There's no camaraderie like there used to be. It's like they don't want to let people get to know each other anymore. No enjoyment of the job allowed. And if you even SEEM like you're enjoying your work, management will do whatever it takes to burst THAT bubble.
I met someone once who was a "chicken-sexer". She and dozens of other workers in the plant stood around and felt up baby chicks to determine sex. The fast ones did like 10,000 per day. She was allergic and broke out into horrible rashes for like a few bucks an hour.
Or the remote public transport parking lot attendent. I think the woman I see has been there for years on the night shift, waiting very late/early morning just in case someone gets off the train to get their car. In a booth with no more than a foot of space on each side. Creepy and boring I'd think.
I have a great schedule, get off at 4pm, take off whenever, everyone is nice, good benefits, it's easy, BUT it is sooooooooooooo boring and I don't make much money (<$15 hr). I spend my day playing online, on my phone, listening to the radio, looking out the window, & staring at the clock. I get maybe 15 minutes of work. I feel like my degree was a waste--I want to DO something.
I'm trying to decide if I should try to get out or not. Sure, the flexibility is great but I might die of boredom if I have to do this for the next 30 years. I feel more useless with each day of work. I'm glad to have it but I think it's more of a job for lazy people that are ok with doing nothing everyday.
Coach, you sound just like me!
On the surface, I really can't complain. Like you, I have great co-workers, can take off anytime I need to, it's so easy a 10-year-old could do it, very little stress, I don't have to deal with the public, I have a nice office. But yeah, I too, often find myself being unproductive and drifting into reading news, listening to music, reading blogs, etc. I'm not much of a Facebooker; what I do in "wasting time" is actually filling my mind with useful information, but I'm still not doing the task at hand.
I feel awful about it, as I honestly do want to do a superb job (as my boss has been really good to me and I respect her). I want to feel useful. I want to feel as if I've accomplished something when I leave each day. BUT....there is NO way to make my job entertaining, any way you slice it. I honestly think that anyone in my position would get bored to tears and end up killing time, even if you have an insanely long attention span (which I do not - ADD all the way!) And yes, I know about the useless degree thing. Journalism major here - about the most useless degree out there. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but you don't think about actually finding a job when you're a sophomore in college. Little did I know that it will NOT land you a job.
It's nice to know someone else is in the same boat. I pray that you find what you are looking for!
Supermarket checkout operator. I did it for 5 years for 2x days per week while at University. Besides counting the float at the beginning and end of each working week, all the job involved was scanning groceries, bagging them and taking payment (and most customers paid by card, so no brain work there) - try that for 8 hrs straight! About 90% of customers were OK (and some were nice actually); the other 10% were rude or treated me like an imbecile because of the work I was doing.
On top of the work, most of the full-time staff there, were, shall we say, less than inspiring, so the place had a depressing atmosphere (most of them said they hated working there, but did nothing about it). What got me through was knowing that it had an end date, and when I graduated I could get a decent job. It was also good motivation to study and graduate, otherwise being stuck there with those whingers was the only alternative.
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