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Why do we cling to things that are BAD for us ... especially JOBS? Are we afraid of losing an artificial comfort zone? Too afraid of the unknown to try something different ... Of failure? Are some of us masochists???
I began a career switch some years ago and finally completed it. Despite the loss of 35% of my wages, I am ecstatic.
However, I know people who will stay in jobs that are obviously NO GOOD for them. They work long hours, don't take vacation, have stress-related illnesses but proclaim that they have to work this way. I understand the fear of being unemployed but when your health is in jeopardy, maybe it's time to move on.
Why would someone allow their job to literally kill them?
Last edited by queensgrl; 10-23-2010 at 01:20 PM..
I agree with you 100%. Most people are sheep . . . afraid to step out of the box and image is everything to most people. That is why there is so much posturing in business (particularly sales), where everyone claims to be "doing great!" Status is tied up with economics to an unhealthy degree. It's about values. Most people value death with status over health if it means you would be poorer and in a less desirable class. Brainwashing.
Why do we cling to things that are BAD for us ... especially JOBS? Are we afraid of losing an artificial comfort zone? Too afraid of the unknown to try something different ... Of failure? Are some of us masochists???
I began a career switch some years ago and finally completed it. Despite the loss of 35% of my wages, I am ecstatic.
However, I know people who will stay in jobs that are obviously NO GOOD for them. They work long hours, don't take vacation, have stress-related illnesses but proclaim that they have to work this way. I understand the fear of being unemployed but when your health is in jeopardy, maybe it's time to move on.
Why would someone allow their job to literally kill them?
In my case I have no living relatives except an elderly mother living in a nursing home, so if I quit the job that is killing me, my savings would run out in about a month and I would lose my home and end up living on the street. Not a nice prospect going to living on the street in the Northeast in winter, and the wife and kids would not be happy either.
Unemployment is at 11 percent where I live and jobs are non existent in my field and when they see my resume at menial jobs, they say I am overqualified, wouldn't be satisfied etc etc and I don't get hired.
At least if the job succeeds in killing me, the wife and kids will get a nice insurance policy payout and will be able to afford to live nicely.
In my case I have no living relatives except an elderly mother living in a nursing home, so if I quit the job that is killing me, my savings would run out in about a month and I would lose my home and end up living on the street. Not a nice prospect going to living on the street in the Northeast in winter, and the wife and kids would not be happy either.
Unemployment is at 11 percent where I live and jobs are non existent in my field and when they see my resume at menial jobs, they say I am overqualified, wouldn't be satisfied etc etc and I don't get hired.
At least if the job succeeds in killing me, the wife and kids will get a nice insurance policy payout and will be able to afford to live nicely.
I have never left a job without having a job.
But, if you are literally ill from your job, at what point do you say, enough, and set your career on a new trajectory? You don't have to quit now. In my case, I went to school for four years, preparing for a job change that happened five years later -- at the height of the recession. Staying at my old job would resulted in a layoff, as that's what happened to most of my former colleagues.
Someone I care very deeply about is in this situation and since our perspectives on work/life balance are very different, it's hard to give advice. BTW, this person has no dependents.
All I can say is that some people are like this even when the economy is GOOD. Now that it's worse, they're really out of sorts.
Isn't that the truth. Where I live it's common - and has been for generations - for people to work two and three jobs in order to make ends meet even in good times. That is unless you work for the local government but that's a whole 'nother story and a pretty sick one at that!
I do hate to generalize but so many got sucked into the credit routine and, when the proverbial s++t hit the fan, were so overloaded with debt way beyond their means that they completely foundered and continue to do so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by glass_of_merlot
When you die at work.....? What does the word literally mean ?
What word?
I'll be 65 in December and have had my own business now for 15 years. When visitors tell me they'll be back here in 2011 or 2012 I assure them that I'll be here unless, in the interim, I suffer a major heart attack and fall face-first into the fryer. Could well happen!
A job in and of itself doesn't kill you. Diet, lifestyle, genetical disposition and many other factors come into play. A job doesn't kill you but your negative reaction to it might contribute to an escalation in your BP and so on and so forth.
Seems a bit overdramatic. I wonder what the stats are for people who die from stress related to not having a job and work related stress?
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