I suppose we all have days when we would like to chuck in our current job for one that is completely different. Well, I have had one of those weeks when I think I would enjoy being something completely different than my everyday job. My job is somewhat high-profile in my professional circles. While working full-time and pursuing my doctoral degree, my job keeps me very busy with new program development. I am responsible for many things and must answer to many people. Some days I just want to be a hotel maid or something similar where I can be left alone. Some days I just don’t want to be the person who has to have all the answers.
When I was in high school I was a hotel maid and I really liked it. It was physical and I got to work alone. Each room had to be left in a certain condition and I learned to tell at a glance what was needed or missing. The requirement was to clean about 10-12 rooms a day. At the end of the day I could walk away satisfied knowing I had finished every last thing. I slept well and never dreamed about the job.
Now that I am 18 years into my career, I earn a great living, have lots of challenges, but many days I just want to have a job that I can leave ‘at the office’ at the end of the day. Sometimes I have even thought of going to a trade school to learn something like aesthetics or massage so I can make a change to a job where I can nurture others and leave at the end of the day feeling like I got every last thing done. But, there are the ‘golden handcuffs’ as my job offers great benefits, travel (going to Amsterdam in a few weeks), four weeks vacation, and a pension plan that is just too good to leave. I am relatively happy, but sometimes I just want to be part of the ‘housekeeping staff’, or have some job that is physical.
Does anyone else ever want to trade in the ‘professional life’? Has anyone had the courage to do so (I admire you!)? Were you happy with the decision?
Maybe next week will be better…
Pat yourself on the back for being in the position you are in, because this particular reversal goes in both directions, and there are those who wish they were you.
That being said when I finished my PhD I went immediately to work for my alma mater [not exactly a good decision] I was under paid [in my opinion] and not 100% satisfied. I was spending 70 hours a week and living for the position and the stature, and that took it’s toll on me, my marriage, and my life in general.
I made the decision one semester that I would not be returning in the autumn, I would take a leap and go off on my own and consult for a while and start my own business. I was tired of the long hours, I didn’t have any children and I had the support of my wife.
I set out with a small clientele and worked my way up into an industry where I quickly began to see the fruits. I liked working from home but I missed the everyday interaction with large groups of people. I decided to cut back on my business after two years and I took a job as Executive Director for a large Environmental Advocacy Firm in CT. I love it. It’s a feel good job, I draw a modest salary and I still do jobs on the side with my own business.
So did I truly change directions and move on out of the corporate hubub? Not exactly, but close.
Again, some weeks are better than others, pat yourself on your back, have a cup of tea and think about where you want to be in a couple years. Visualize - that helped me immensely.
I have what many people would consider a dream job. I design videogames for a living. It’s very creative work, plus I get to travel a lot, and play with all sorts of new hardware and software before it gets released.
The hard thing is … everything I do is so subjective! I mean, eventually a game ships and I find out if I made the right decisions or not, but for a year or two at a time I’m making major, major creative decisions on instinct alone. Sure, I can be systematic about some things, but this is a creative business and lots of times the difference between a good game and a bad game is very nebulous and intangible. There’s no process to follow, no guideposts. Sometimes I have to argue very aggressively for something that I can only justify with my gut. “I have good instincts, trust me!”
And then, if I fail, I will fail publicly. The game will ship and reviewers will rip it to shreds and people will dump all over it on message boards.
Sometimes I wish I had a job that was more cut and dried. I want someone to give me a fixed list of tasks that can be accomplished using some sort of standard procedure. Then I could march through them one-by-one and leave work at the end of the day feeling like I’d accomplished something … instead of the nagging feeling I have all the time that I’ve overlooked something essential that will bite me in the ass six months from now.
Of course, I’d probably be bored as hell with a job like that after a few months. But right now it sounds like heaven.
I don’t have a glamorous or high-paying job (university staff position – need I say more?), but the expectations to produce a lot of creative work (writing, design) are high. There are days when I long for a job where I don’t have to think in that particular way.
Every time I go to the dentist, I think, “Wouldn’t it be nice to be a dental hygienist?” I wouldn’t have to meet a quota of billable hours, like I did when I worked in advertising. I wouldn’t be expected to churn out cleverness. I wouldn’t take work home every night. (Dental hygienists – please chime in now to disabuse me of this notion!)
I’m not a dental hygienist, but here’s my impression of the response:
“Dear Lord, how many mouths can I look into in one week? They’re all basically the same, except for the ones with the really bad breath. Scrape, scrape. The biggest decision I make all week is which part of the mouth to start in. I can feel parts of my brain leaking out my ears. For this I actually studied in high school? Maybe if I hadn’t married that no account jerk, I’d have gone farther than this in my education and experience. I just wish someone would trust me with something more significant than which tooth to scrape out first.”
I don’t have a particularly glamorous or high-profile job, but I do have a lot of tasks at my work, both immediate and long-term ones. Some days what I wish for is the equivalent of the hotel maid job, particularly in terms of it being a job that someone else would perform when I took a vacation. I am lucky enough to get a lot of paid time off, but there’s no way to take it all without unwieldy amounts of work piling up.
I sometimes wish to trade up as well. While my job is not high-profile, it puts me into contact with a lot of people who are. I often say, “I’m not a bigwig, but I meet with the bigwigs.” Sometimes I wish I were a bigwig. Overworked as I feel at times, why not earn the salary to match.
Or, trade up a different way, to someone who has enough money to not work and stay at home with their kids. But only if it was the moneyed stay-at-home option, where there’d be resources to do lessons with the kids and outings, not the stay-at-home where I’d have to be frugal and only go to free story hour at the library or whatever. I do that already—it’s called vacation time.
I took early retirement from my federal job in 2006, and have spent my time since then trying to get my head back together and decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. At 55, I think I still have a few options, and there are a number of interests I’d like to pursue. I’m “comfortable” financially, but a little extra income wouldn’t hurt. As a friend has pointed out, I need something to put a little structure in my life; sitting around catching up on my reading and watching DVDs is nice, but I’m starting to turn into a hermit, which is not good.
My first ‘real’ engineering position was at a great up-and-coming firm. (That firm is now in the Engineering Top 500 US Firms now). After working my way up the ladder for 8 years, I was in charge of my section; supervised other engineers & technicians; and was in line to head the department one day. I had married a computer software guru, our kids were in soccer, gymnastics, piano, etc etc etc. We were living the lifestyle of those energetic suburban families with lots of expendable income.
It just wasn’t “me”, though. I walked away from all that (the marriage too eventually). I took a position with the City (along with a substantial pay cut) which gave me greater satisfaction - an opportunity to really help people. Nowadays I have my own consulting company and can work as much or as little as I need to.
I suppose I haven’t traded in the ‘professional life’ totally, but I have tailored it to fit my needs, instead of squeezing myself into it. I’m very happy with it.
I’m thinking I might like to be a massage therapist. It sounds peaceful and fulfilling. But I don’t know if my hands could handle it. I’m not really happy being a receptionist.
It is interesting to see that there are some of you who would trade jobs. I had not thought of the idea of making a change into consulting, or similar, as a way to use expertise without the mega-hours and frustrations with the professional track.
Our local economy is strong and if a person wants work, it is there, and at a decent hourly wage. Sometimes I feel guilty for wanting to ‘opt out’ as I have worked hard to get where I am and have paid my debts. It is a good place to be, but the pressure just gets to me sometimes, especially as each year the expectations go up and there is just that much more to live up to.
What keeps me going? When I am not travelling, lecturing, or providing peer training, about 70% of my time is spent working from home. And I know there is no other job on earth that is going to give me the income and benefits I enjoy while working in my pajamas!
Maybe when I retire I will go back to working in a hotel as it will keep me in shape.
IANADental Hygienist, but my experience as factory worker probably fits in there. I work all day, every day, on an assembly line doing the exact same thing. Pure muscle memory, brain not required. It’s boring and repetitive and hard on you physically, we get lots of carpal tunnel syndrome and -itises, sore feet and hands are unavoidable. I’ve had foot surgery, shoulder surgery and stitches in my 14 years there, par for the course.
Many of my coworkers fit the factory worker stereotype, uneducated and ignorant and highly unlikely to remain employed for long anywhere but a unionized protective environment.
We have zero say in the amount of hours we work, vacation time is largely taken when the company decides it’ll be taken.
On the plus side, I know exactly what I have to do, there’s never a deadline or sales goal my paycheck depends on, my duties aren’t dependent on management’s whims. I go in, do my job, they pay me, no worries. In a union shop, your job is safe unless you’re a colossal screw-up. Making a living has consistently been the least stressful part of my life since I took this job.
Never traded in a professional job, just thought I’d share a view from the other side. Sure I get wistful and think about trading places with various other careers, and in fact I’m going to school part-time to do so, but the security has served me well so I’ve no complaints. It’s only human to want to escape, the grass is always greener after all.
