I fucking hated my job so much I took an early retirement last month. I’m looking for something else now to supplement my pension.Not sure what it will be, but I am sure it won’t be teaching.
Sorry Leaffan to hear about your job. You won’t like my response either. I like my job a lot. I had actually started a thread back in 2011 about being approached for this job (Job interview & process question - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board) but never really ended the thread by saying that I got it.
I’ve been at it now since 2011 and though my core expertise and competencies are addressed by the job, it regularly strays beyond that core enough that there are constantly new, challenging, and interesting aspects to it and my bosses and co-workers are great.
I did have one not-great year a couple of years ago but it was more of a drag than anything else. I am extremely fortunate with this.
I ***really ***hated my job up until about a month ago–that’s when our manager from hell retired. Her departure made things 100% less stressful but did nothing to relieve the boredom. So, while I’ll never love this job, it pays well and has excellent benefits–that’s good enough for me…
I like the hours, and I like the pay (Especially profit sharing!), but that’s about it.
I work a compressed shift. Which means I get 3 or 4 days off a week. I fucking love that!
While my current job is great, I did quit 2 immediately before it because they became unbearable.
The first one would have been fine (despite the long-ass commute) but the woman they had me working with was a hard-core OCD nutcase. I thought I’d figured out how to work with her and things seemed to be going fine. Then all of a sudden, she decided to change how she’d told me things needed to be done, which would have required me to go back and change a metric buttload of drawings that I’d already completed according to her original, written instructions. I went to the boss, said “I can’t do this any more” and the next day, I had my exit interviews. What really killed me was that my boss, *his *boss, and *her *boss all knew what a nutcase the one woman was, but no one seemed to be willing or able to do anything about it. It was the first job I’d ever quit.
Next job I had wasn’t bad - when there was work to do. But there were times in a 9-hour day that I literally had 15 minutes of work to do. What really pissed me off - I was working as a contractor to the Navy. So the government was paying my company a ridiculously huge amount of money for me to just sit and do nothing. I couldn’t even waste time surfing because our network was NMCI, which is a tool of the devil himself. I quit that job to take the one I have.
I got an email from one of my coworkers there - he said after I left, it got even worse. He’d have 2 or 3 hours of work in a week, plus they’d hired more folks after I (and 3 others) left, and they were all idle. The moral of the story is: just because government contractor employees are idle, it doesn’t mean they’re lazy slackers. It may mean the contract is being kept in force just in case… Your tax dollars at work.
For a long time, I had two careers running side by side and I loved them both. I retired from one to concentrate on the other and I have found that I miss that profession. So now I’m trying to get back into it again.
Of course I hate my job. That’s why they call it going to work.
I’d hate working for someone other than myself even more, but if I won some ginormous mega-million jackpot today, I wouldn’t even remember to call off sick.
Excuse my vagueness…
I was very, very good at the job I had for about 15 years, but I didn’t really like doing it. For one thing, it involved managing people. Enough said about that. (OK…I absolutely HATED that part of the job.)
Then somebody offered me a job as a consultant to people who were doing the same job I did AND to clients who purchased these services. That changed everything completely.
People were basically paying me to tell them, “I tried that several times and screwed up every single time.” As a consultant, I was sharing hard-won wisdom with others. I worked much less and made much more. Plus, I wasn’t in charge of other people. If there’s any option at all for you to do something like this, I can highly recommend it. (For example, can you teach others how to do what you do? I developed a one-day class that I present on a regular basis and I charge about $700 per student.)
I used to have a job that I hated as much as **Leaffan **probably hates his. It was damn meaningless work and long hours. 12 hours was a pretty typical day. But at least the people I worked with were fun.
Now, my job is just something I have to do. Eighteen months ago I might have said I loved it, even though I was really busy. Now all that busy is catching up to me. But, I like the pay. And here also, the people are pretty good.
I love the work I do and I enjoy working and accomplishing lots of things. But I hate my job. Is that helpful? 
UGH. My experience with NMCI was at the beginning of it, and it was a flaming trainwreck of destruction back then. I can’t imagine what it’s morphed into since.
Back to the OP:
I love my job. I truly enjoy working on helicopters; it’s a great feeling to see one fly for the first time after a major component replacement or a major inspection, and knowing that my knowledge and skills directly contributes to the miracle of flight.
Some of my employers, however, have put some serious effort into trying to make me hate my job. My current employer is on the wrong side of the equation right now, which sucks.
I hated my last job. I dreaded going to work every day, but I hung for a few years because they gave me more money. And while I wasn’t making a ton, between my wife and I we could live modestly with a few indulgences without worrying about money. That’s really what kept me there for so long. I never really even enjoyed it overall. 9 years…
Unfortunately, I was pretty pigeon-holed too, so it was hard to bail without taking a pay cut. So I kept going.
Well, that will, after too long, fuck with your mental health; I had to go.
So in April I took a large pay cut to basically start over. Completely new realm of knowledge.
And while it’s too early to say I love my job, it’s definitely something I’m enjoying so far. Tons of stuff to learn, which keeps me engaged. I’m only stuck in the office about half the time; I’m doing a lot of “field work” right now. Once I’m trained up and on my own, I’ll get to work from a home office. My boss is super hands-off…basically if I turn in the work I’m required to and maybe a little more, I can expect to run my work as I please.
And they have tuition assistance. So I’ll let them pay for a second undergrad. I’m not eligible for assistance with a graduate degree until I’ve been there 5 years.
And my retirement accrual carried over from my last job, so I’m eligible in 2030.
Well, the Mother Fucking isn’t so bad, but that other thing…
No, I don’t really like my job, but I’ve gotten a new perspective on it.
I started work at this company in 1996, and I was laid off in 2009.
I spent six years temping, and looking for a permanent position.
In 2015, I got an email from the place that laid me off. Would I like to come back?
So, here I am, at less pay. And I just got a raise for .26 an hour more. That’s ten bucks a week extra. Two years, thirteen cents. I’m still making way less than back when I started. And I owe way more because of the six temping years.
And you know what else? I am also a caretaker for my elderly mom.
So the job that I have here, that I don’t like, gives me a break from my caretaker job that I like even less for five days a week.
No, I don’t like my job. I am grateful to have it, believe me. But it still sucks.
:(:(
Leaffan, you forgot to put the cover sheet on the TPS report. Did you not get the memo? I will send you another copy, mmmkay?
No, I don’t like my job and complain about it a lot. If I was having a conversation with my younger self, I would have a lot of explaining to do. He’d be like - “what the F are you doing? I did not want to end-up like you! You have wasted my life!”
However, the trappings of a modern, suburban life with some comforts and luxuries thown-in, plus three other people depending on my income, means I long ago accepted that I would be working for the man for a while.
I have had jobs that were unbearable, and just moved to something else that was less trouble. My current job, and it is just a job, has enough flexibility that I can focus on non-work interests during off-hours, while still maintaining the shackles of responsibility. If you can, find something more tolerable, and pick-up some other interests to focus on outside of work. Careers are over-rated. Life is too short to be miserable.
I don’t hate my current job at all, but I know from where you speak.
I once had a hated job. I used to hope I was involved in a car accident on the way in so I wouldn’t have to go to work.
mmm
I’m hoping for a house fire.
ETA: It would solve so much.
I hate aspects of my job with the fire of 1000 suns. Part of my job is to provide webinar training. It is bad enough when it is for North American audiences but overseas audiences are the worst! Language issues are bad enough but when you add cultural differences (listen politely through the training, ask no questions, then do it wrong) it sucks hard. Luckily that is a small part of the job (once or twice a week for maybe an hour total).
The rest of my job is not wonderful but I can stand it. My manager is laid back, I’m paid pretty well for what I do, I have 4 weeks of vacation a year (plus 11 stat holidays), and a flexible enough schedule that if I need an hour or two during the day for appointments or such then I can just take it. I also never have to work more than 40 hours a week. That provides enough incentive to keep me from job searching.
I don’t even have s job so cannot comment! I would like a job, though
After not being able to work for a year, and then taking two years to find a temporary part-time holiday job that turned into a permanent, full time job as a store cashier?
You betcha sweet ass I love my job.