Why Work?

[NAD]

So seriously, is there any real purpose behind a job besides earning a paycheck to pay for stuff that does not involve your job? Maybe I just feel worthless because I find my job pointless (I do brick and stone pricing for a masonry contractor, which serves no purpose but to make money off of foolish home buyers spending too much on making their house look just like all the others is this tract housing nightmare). I guess some jobs aren't entirely pointless, my girlfriend is a nurse and helps the sick, that is infinitely more important than this sales / estimating crap that I do. If I am not to have a job that actually holds meaning in the grand scheme of things, I at least want one that I find enjoying, or just the least bit intellectually stimulating.

So how about your job? Worthless? Fulfilling? Fun? Annoying? Stupefying?

"Oh God, my back. It hurts so much. And my job is so unfulfilling."
--Homer Simpson

 

[J.]

my job is not pointless, but it would be if sales people weren't so damn lazy. It is not fulfilling or fun.

[rant]It can be very annoying, especially when the slaes people asked the same fucking question every week. I swear, sales people have got to be the fucking dumbest people ever. How hard is it to take a customer to lunch and talk about complete bullshit? Sure, they can talk your ear off about complete nonsense, but when it comes down to actually knowing our products, they know jack-all. Which is why they come to me. And yet, they're the ones making 6 figure salaries plus bonuses. [/rant]

At least I have a window office.

 

[JayKeeley]

I'm a management consultant - used to help build big eBusiness trading systems for huge corporates in the chemical and oil sector. The job involved lots of travel, staying in nice hotels, flying first class blah blah. But that gets tiresome, although it pays well. The 'strength' of the job is dependent on the client engagement I work for. Some clients are great...

....my current client sucks. I've ended up doing some job in the pharmaceutical sector, and it couldn't be more boring - all financial work funnily enough. I'm still in my same job, but I'm hating what I'm doing. Why do you think I'm on the web all day!? I'm also burned out - after this, I need a change, but my life isn't as care-free as it used to be now that I'm married with a kid. I can't just get up and go, so to me, work does equal rent and bills (and diapers). Nothing much more.

Without trying to sound condescending, I wholeheartedly recommend anyone who's not married yet to do all those things early in life. I can't say I have any regrets - I went out and travelled the world, bought a house in London, got a great job and did really well at it - I partied a lot. The timing of getting married was just right, and having the kid is the best - but the job needs to change now to suit my mindset.

Thing is, the stuff I wanna do pays crap.

 

[Black Winter Day]

well, i'm skipping my statistics class today if that counts

 

[NAD]

Thing is, the stuff I wanna do pays crap.

Aye. I changed my Monster.com resume last night to suit a writing job, and also to show a wish to relocate. Then I checked out the starting salary in Arizona for staff writer. I'm broke now and make nearly double their figure!

My girlfriend doesn't quite understand my wish to be foolish before getting married but... she hasn't bugged me about that settling down bit for awhile so I'm safe for the time being. I need to get off my ass and wander the globe soon though.

At least I have a window office.

My office window opens to the hallway where there is a window to the parking lot and police station across the street. I have a windowed window office.

 

[J.]

My office window opens to the hallway where there is a window to the parking lot and police station across the street. I have a windowed window office.

I just got my window office today. I overlook the cortyard with trees and a flagpole and a nice decorative fountian.

I would look for another job, but this one pays quite well and has excellent health insurance coverage. Plus, I'm closing on my house on the 31st and plan to propose that same day, so I kinda need money.

 

[JayKeeley]

With regards to writing, I'm sure we've all considered 'music journalism' perhaps?

Well, check this out mofo's: BW&BK pays nothing. I mean, literally nothing - the writers don't get paid, at most they achieve some level of notoriety.

I've heard that the only person who makes a 'living' out of BW&BK is the editor, and he makes $40K Canadian per year.

Make of that what you will...

 

[NAD]

I'm going to start my book soon. I'll probably lose money in the process of getting it published (if I care to anyhow), but I suppose that's not the point anyhow.

 

[Ayeka]

After doing three months at Sainburys and a week's work experience at the local newspapers...I feel like I never want to work. Ever. But I guess I'm going to have to someday. I've got 7 months of school left to give me a buffer zone...I can only hope it doesn't take too long after that for my band to start picking up momentum else I doubt life will be much fun

 

[JayKeeley]

After doing three months at Sainburys and a week's work experience at the local newspapers...I feel like I never want to work. Ever. But I guess I'm going to have to someday. I've got 7 months of school left to give me a buffer zone...I can only hope it doesn't take too long after that for my band to start picking up momentum else I doubt life will be much fun

Are you planning on going to Uni after A-levels?

 

[Ayeka]

Not immediately. It's impossible to escape the detail being given to us about filling out UCAS forms at my school, and I'm one out of only a handful - I'd say less than half a dozen - in my year who isn't applying for Uni. I'm torn between a Music or a History course, and to be honest I'd rather not rush into it and pick a course for the sake of it - I only actually began considering Uni as an option just under a month ago. If I had the choice, I wouldn't do it, because I'm sick to death of studying, but now it's looking like I might have to change my mind in order to get more of a buffer zone from the Real World an impromptu gap year looks like it's in order...

 

[bloodfiredeath]

My job is pretty worthless. I'm a business analyst in the IT department of a large health care insurance company (not hard to guess which one). Family and friends ask me what I do for a living and I never have a good answer. They pay well though.

I've never looked at a job as anything other than a means to an end.

 

[NAD]

I think that it's cool you work for a health care insurance company and have Goremageddon for your avatar.

 

[bloodfiredeath]

I think that it's cool you work for a health care insurance company and have Goremageddon for your avatar.

heh heh... yeah...

 

[ChiefB]

For the last ten years I have been working as an IT consultant designing large scale Internet and email systems. The money was absolutely fantastic at the time, giving me the ability to do anything. My last contract was working for a UK mobile phone operator who were opening a network in Thailand. Crazy hours was the norm and the immense pressure and the fear of failing drove me straight into the hospital. My heart had suffered trauma along the wall lining, thus swelling up. I decided from that moment on that this is not how I want to spend the rest of my life - in an office.

For the last two years I have decided to write screenplays / radioplays and was fortunate enough to attend the 3 month screenwriting course at the New York Film Academy. I am now back in the UK with a more positive mind about what I really want to do with my life.

You only get one shot at life, don't sell yourself short.

 

[lizard]

my job is a computer help desk, plus I do the admin work on our agency's drug testing program. It's pretty much the best job I've ever had, because dealing with other people's mistakes can make me feel pretty damn brilliant!

Without trying to sound condescending, I wholeheartedly recommend anyone who's not married yet to do all those things early in life.

haha I agree %100! unfortunately this is the kind of good advice people never realize the wisdom of until they've either 1) followed it or 2) it's too late to follow it.
I was fortunate that my dad was in the Army and was able to take us to Germany three times (thx Hitler!). It's funny that I spent so much of my life traveling around, now that I'm settled in I don't go anywhere if its more than 10 miles away, I'm not familiar with it. luckily, Ohio is so boring I'm not missing much.

 

[JayKeeley]

Crazy hours was the norm and the immense pressure and the fear of failing drove me straight into the hospital.

You see, I don't get this. I've never understood the situation of being stressed to the point of being admitted to a hospital. Does the trauma just hit you out of the blue or something? Sure, I get stressed, but I go home and have a tommy.

All my working life, I've done nothing more than what is required. I'm not a brown-noser, and I don't want to be a CEO. I don't even care about titles. I just want to earn enough to be happy - I don't think I have ever even yeanred for that penthouse apartment in uptown Manhattan.

An observation of working life in the US compared to Europe:

(1) Americans get an average of 12 vacation days per year. Absolutely pathetic. (I get 28 btw, and that is considered exceptional - in Europe, I was on 35). Also, in the US, there is no such thing as a sick day - in other words, if you get sick, you have to use a personal vacation day if you're at home bedridden. Unbelievable.

(2) The white collar sector is remarkable when it comes to being busy at work. First of all, the yanks spend waaaaay too much time in meetings that lead to nowhere. Also, when my co-workers have finished their 'deliverables', they actually go out looking for more things to do. Can you believe that?

People make their jobs the core centerpiece of their lives. It's the same sort of people who would win the NY lottery jackpot on a Friday, and go back to work as usual on Monday.

 

[lizard]

I get 11 holidays per year off, but I also get four hours of sick leave every two weeks and six hours of regular leave every two weeks.

I've had jobs before that I'd wake up in the middle of the night and start thinking about what I was behind on, what I had to do that day, and that's no way to live, worrying all the time. my current job is fairly worry-free.

and you're right about meetings...these "managers" spend the bulk of their day in meetings and nothing ever gets done. They could eliminate a whole level of management and things would go more smoothly, because then we could work without being constantly interrupted by people who don't know how anything technical works.

 

[J.]

I get 15 paid time-off days (PTO) and 1 floating holiday (because of the numerous days Jews and Arabs get, they decided it was only fair to give another day to the Anglo), so I think that's pretty good.

Also, in the US, there is no such thing as a sick day - in other words, if you get sick, you have to use a personal vacation day if you're at home bedridden. Unbelievable.

THis is only true in certain companies. Where I work, this does not apply. I get as many sick days as I need without affecting my PTO. Of course, I don't abuse it (I've called in sick only 2 days since I've started working here which will be 3 years in March). However, my g/f gets something like 22 days for PTO and sick days.

The team I'm in has people all over the world (Belguim, Ireland, California, etc..) and it amazes me how many damn holidays the Europeans get. I swear, those individuals on my team have a holiday every 2-3 weeks. Plus, don't some EUropeans take a month off or something? Like in August? We're workaholics in America, which is ridiculous. I'd much rather be happy making just enough to support a family, and still enjoy other aspects of my life, than be miserable making a ton of money yet never getting away from the office.

People need to remember this: It's only a job.

 

[JayKeeley]

The team I'm in has people all over the world (Belguim, Ireland, California, etc..) and it amazes me how many damn holidays the Europeans get. I swear, those individuals on my team have a holiday every 2-3 weeks.

Yep. Look at it the other way round though, most Europeans see Yanks as workoholics because of that. Europeans also work less hours on average per week. I think it is 35 hours/week in Europe compared to 40 hours/week in the US. That's 20 hours less a month in Europe which equates to a couple of days doing your own g-thang.

Plus, don't some EUropeans take a month off or something? Like in August?

No - that is an urban myth. However, since they accrue so many vacation days, Europeans can quite easily take 4 weeks off straight if they so choose, and of course the Summer is the most popular time to take off (when the kids are off school).

We're workaholics in America, which is ridiculous.

I tell you why - when Americans come out of university, they have a huge debt to pay off. Then, if they buy a house and car, it's more debt. All together, the average American 25 year old could be in debt for $500K quite easily. The American lifestyle depends on having good credit too - which is just another way of saying "lots of debt and lots of repayments".

So my theory is, the average American is dependent on his/her job to pay off these accumulating debts. It's almost as if they're grateful to even have a job just so they can pay off the loans.

Me? I don't even own a credit card. And guess what? My credit rating is in the toilet. Bah!