I’d say I have grown comfortable with mine. Its ot something I love, but I never really figured out what “a job I love” would be. My co-workers are ok. The pay is ok. I am pretty overqualified, and I could get much more elsewhere, but… I am mostly my own boss here, I pretty much set my own hours and do my tasks in the order that I want. I’ve negotiated for more vacation rather than more pay for a while now.
I don’t know. People talk about jobs they love and would do for free. They talk about having careers. And I feel a bit like a spectator to the human race. I could have a further career. I’d just have to give up a lot of the things I like about my life at the moment.
I like my job to the extent it’s something I can do well without overtaxing myself, pays sufficiently to cover my bills, and it also offers medical/dental/retirement benefits (they aren’t great, but definitely better than none).
I wouldn’t do it for free. I like that no one where I works pretends we do this for the love of the work 'cause we don’t - we do it for the paychecks. We’re still hard-working and conscientious, we just don’t lie about why we are that way.
I would prefer to be paid for making wonderful creative stuff - and in the past I have been - but it’s terribly hard to do that consistently enough to make a living at it. I’d like to start a side business in that sort of thing, then when I transition to retirement use doing what I like as a source of additional income. We’ll see.
I used to enjoy my job a lot more, but lately it’s turned into a bit of a slog, I must admit. Five years from now, I’ll be retired, so I can slog through anything for that long.
I’m a self-employed artist, and I have no complaints. I spent several decades making other people rich, and now it’s my turn. I gave up a lot when I quit my “day job,” but I work every single day, even vacations, holidays and illness.
I like my job. Sometimes I don’t like it very much and sometimes it’s the best thing in the world, but overall, I’m pretty happy. However, I always remind myself that my contentment is largely a function of management. Current management is a’ight, but I’m not stupid enough to think this will last forever.
On the balance of creating anxiety vs. satisfaction, my job currently is high on the anxiety side. My job is project work that requires travel to the client. Each project is different, each team is different. The current project and team are not providing a positive environment. I feel I am pretty good at much of what I do, if I am being utilized correctly (which I’m not at present). The pay is good, so there is that.
And the travel aspect has gotten old many many years ago. But I’m stuck, in that my skill set is with a dying product. As I am getting close to retirement, I really don’t want to ramp-up on a new product and try selling myself in a new market.
I really just want to make it a few more laps around the track and retire. But future project prospects are shaky, so once this one ends we don’t know what’s next, and that’s where the real anxiety comes in.
Often at the clients I work at, there are folks who have been with their organizations for 30-35 years. They have been coming in every morning to the same place with the same people for all that time. They know everybody and everything and are part of a big family. I don’t have any of that and it makes me sad.
I’ve been freelance for over two years and am struggling a bit with motivation. Always thought freelance was the dream, but instead of having 1 boss… I now have 5… and they all struggle to pay me on time.
I retired as an engineer in 2011, got bored within a year, and have worked part time or temp jobs on and off since then, mainly as a drafter. My current job is mechanical drafter and I went down to 3 days a week at the first of the year, figuring that’d ease me into retirement again when I hit 66 next January.
I like what I do, I like the people I work with, I like the mental stimulation and challenges, and I like getting out of the house periodically. I’m paid very well, and I certainly wouldn’t do it for free. And I may or may not retire again in January - who knows what will happen between now and then? But till then, I’m enjoying myself.
Last June, I left the corporate world to become a full time university professor. I love teaching and helping students. I would do that for free. Prior to becoming a full time professor, in was an adjunct, and I taught for next to nothing because i enjoyed it. If I hit the lotto I’d probably still be an adjunct.
But currently I’m fighting with my assistant dean, who doesn’t understand my field and is clearly trying to push me out. Working with her has become close to intolerable. The department as a whole is dysfunctional, the program is a mess, and I was fed a string of lies during the interview process.
I don’t want to leave. I get good student evaluations, and I feel like I’m really making an impact on their lives and careers. But it’s become a chore to go in, and I’m stressing out about the upcoming contract review process. If I don’t get renewed, I can always go back to making stupid money in industry. I just really don’t want to do that.
It pays well and supports a very comfortable standard of living. I have a VERY short commute (6 minute easy drive), I work at home 2 days a week, and I have very flexible hours. One downside is that I have to commit to a schedule up to 6 months ahead of time - just recently submitted certain work dates through September.
However, I get ZERO satisfaction out of ANY aspect of my job. I’m basically working an assembly line, or bailing out the ocean with a teaspoon. And it can get old having people whine at and lie to you all the time. The incompetence of support staff and management is pretty impressive. And I really have no idea what it is exactly that I’m supposed to be doing - what “greater good” my efforts are supposed to be supporting.
But, like I said, it pays well, I have a short commute, and I work at home 2 days a week! So many folk have it worse. I wonder what it would be like to have a job I really liked, and derived any satisfaction and fulfillment from - rather than simply a means to a paycheck.
Just applied for 2 promotions. One would require relocation. Both would involve much more work for no increase in pay, but would get me out of the worst day-to-day rut of my current position. Otherwise, I’ll be packing these widgets day-in and day-out until I can’t stand it any longer and retire.
I have a genuine interest in what I’m doing, so I do like my job. But the environment I work in is extremely political, and some of the people in my dysfunctional group are worse than useless. I now ignore the worse-than-useless people (after trying to fix the problem and getting myself almost fired for doing so).
I own my business as well but if I hit the mega million I’d keep doing what I’m doing just more of it. I’m in the process of expanding for the first time so it’s incredibly stressful and I haven’t been paid in almost 3 months as my salary is going to my new employees as I get them to the point of earning money to pay for themselves.
Basically my job is in a fun industry and is the perfect blend of creative and science. If I had more money I’d still be doing the design build but I do more research, teaching and making booze.
I do like my job. I install, repair, test and inspect commercial fire alarms. I am paid well enough, and there are a few very nice perks. I am coming to the end of the game though and I plan to retire sometime in the next two years.
It’s a job, and that’s all it is to me. Sure, I want to do it well, and help the people I work with succeed, but no mistake, as a cubicle-dwelling corporate drone - it’s very unfulfilling and at times, soul crushing. It’s not my passion, and I have determined that careers are over-rated.
On the upside, the pay is alright, there are health benefits, I can telecommute a couple days a week, and I do not have someone looking over my shoulder. At my level, I can stay clear of a lot of politics by flying under that radar. So, the conditions are good, but the work itself is not.
I always wonder what having a job that really satisfies would be like, but I put up with this one for the stability (I am the primary breadwinner), and the flexibility - it allows me to pursue other interests on my own time.
I think it’s hard, but not impossible, to find something lucrative that you love to do, but I tell my kids some advice I saw on this board: It’s not “do what you love and the money will follow”, but more like “do what you are good at, be well compensated, and spend your money and spare time on the things you are really passionate about.”
I like it some of the time, not so much other times. We have some kids with big challenges at our school, and working with them is tiring. I do get paid well to deal with it, though. If I moved back to a public library I’d have to take a sizeable pay cut, which we can’t afford with two kids in college.
Exactly where I’m at - and where I’ve been the past 3 decades of my working life. Couldn’t find a job I enjoyed that paid anywhere NEAR my current salary - at least w/o MAJOR constraints on my personal life. And sad as it may sound, I think I’ve become accustomed to a certain level of comfort, such that I’d find it very hard to work much harder and have much less security, for less than half my current pay.
As it is, tho, I have the time and $ to dedicate towards my recreational and family interests. I’m eligible to retire, but every additional year I put in will make my ultimate retirement (around 7 years from now at 65) more comfortable. I get no satisfaction from my job, but I’ve become inured to most of the most unpleasant aspects.