I considered starting a thread on my job situation. Just over six years ago I got a job in a government department, I spent the first five years in an entry level position (not unusual) which was mostly outdoors work and required a lot of travelling around, it included shifts, long hours, a large degree of autonomy (as long as you remained contactable and the work got done the powers that be pretty much left you alone), close work with one other person (I was in a subteam of three people from a larger team of sixteen of whom you worked with one other person on a given shift) some periods of monotony and was occassionally dangerous. And in general I loved it, however about a year and half ago an opportunity to move to a different department presented itself which I took as it seemed like a good idea.
This position is 95% indoors based in an office environment in a small team, its a post thats pretty hard to get into and fairly prestigious, lots of contact with the movers-and-shakers of the organisation and better opportunities for promotion…and…I hate it! Whereas I used to look forward to going to work (about a four on your scale, occassionally a five), now its very much ‘just a job’ and a three on most days, sometimes a two.
I find my job very boring and lonely and would quit in a day if I had money. My old job was better but I also was only working part time (20-30 hours a week) and I had a much better social environment. That job was a 4.
I said 3, but if you’d have asked me a year and a half ago, it would have been a 1 or possibly a 0 (thinking about leaving without another job lined up). Fortunately, they shit-canned our former manager in IT, his manager (CIO), and most of the business folks who were having us do such stupid stuff.
3 +. Objectively speaking it’s really a very good gig, so I’d say I’m just a tad above tolerate. As I’ve often said I don’t dislike going to work - I’m paid quite well relative to national standards, have very solid benefits, it’s usually low stress, usually includes a moderate amount of downtime, absolutely minimal direct supervision and I’m reasonably competent at it. I’m shackled with golden handcuffs as leaving this job at this point in my life would be ludicrous.
But I do prefer leaving work to arriving. It doesn’t particularly interest me and the very occasional office politics ( almost all external to my unit ) are annoying. Actually minor annoyances are legion. Thankfully in my particular situation they can mostly and usually be ignored.
I love my job, greatest co-workers ever, fun smart people, and I love the work I do, for the most part. One point that makes my job great is my schedule. I work 4 days a week on a 2 week schedule. I have every other weekend off and every Tuesday and Wednesday off. I wouldn’t work here for free, but I certainly love what I do. My work mates are my primary social life too. If I weren’t working I would be a hermit, and no one would discover my body for weeks after I died.
Unless there is a job with a description of near full-time travel to exotic destinations and doing whatever you wanted to do there, I have a hard time imagining any job that would be higher than a 3 for me on this scale.
I’m surprised that someone in management doesn’t know that a public poll will skew neutral to positive. Even on the anonymous internet there is a concern that you can be “found out” and nobody wants their boss/employer to find them voicing negative opinions about their source of income, yet brown nosing isn’t a fear.
I vote to plead the fifth… even though my opinion of my job is very positive… it is a principle thing (or is it and I’m just sucking up?)
I love my job and am proud and happy that I am able to earn a good living in a very difficult, specialized and competitive field… but if I was independently wealthy, I wouldn’t do it.
My job is stressful, often fairly labor intensive, and low-end. I’m home for lunch right now, and I’m covered in dust and sweat. I work at a retail store which is… rather known for the lowest class of customers in the field. The kinds of people who we have to kick out of the store for spitting tobacco juice on our shelves, the kinds of people who flip off the poor door greeters when they walk in. Customers assume all of us who work there are uneducated buffoons (whereas my shift is probably one of the most educated in the store; of the 60 or so folks on thirds, more than half of us either have four-year degrees or higher, or are working on them, and another handful are putting themselves through vocational/technical schools). We’re all pretty bummed about that perception, as we’re not using our educations, and we feel stuck in a dead end. The chain has cut staffing to the bone, the sales floor is always ready to descend into chaos since there’s no one dealing with it during the day. It’s a physically exhausting job that also happens to give us a low view of humanity… fun!
However. I get paid very well for what I do, and I’m damn good at it. I don’t have to take work home with me at all. I have “tenure” as one of the longer-term employees, so I can choose my days on and days off. I get four weeks’ vacation and two weeks’ personal time a year, plus accrue more personal time over the course of the year; in essence, I have seven to eight weeks of vacation a year. Great insurance (thankfully, I’m full time, which they don’t hire for any longer), a good 401(k). I like my managers and coworkers, getting along with all and having several as friends outside the workplace. I work with no direction, management defers to me when it comes to doing my tasks, and I always get the highest possible evaluations each year. And getting the sales floor look picture perfect by the end of my shift allows me to work out my OCD tendencies.
I’m really torn about my job over all. I’m looking to start grad school in spring and enter academia, and want to retire from the store. I’ll be hitting my 20th anniversary in October, and I’ve already spent over half of my life working for this place… but I really like the people I work with, and do get satisfaction from my daily labors.
I wasted decades, working my ass off to help make several despised employers rich. Then I “quit my day job,” and became a full-time (or more) artist. The pay is somewhere between minimum-wage and zero; I get no sick days, holidays, personal days, pension, healthcare, 401(k), or even weekends off. Most of the time my only income is Social Security, which covers less than my minimum living expenses.
But I gave it a “5.” I am doing work that I love, and that I’m damn proud of. I work at home, totally flexible hours, no more 3-hour commutes, no dress code, nobody to talk to except the cats and sometimes my partner, I don’t have to listen to other people’s crappy music, I set my own deadlines . . . and now I’m working my ass off for myself. Every piece I do is, in some way, an improvement over the previous piece. You could literally line them up in chronological order, and I could tell you what I learned or changed with each one. It’s the perfect job for me.
Yes, this poll needs a neutral setting. As it’s currently worded, 3 seems mildly negative rather than neutral.
I like my job well enough most days, but if I own the lottery I’d at least cut back to part-time (if not quit entirely). It’s very intellectually stimulating, but has too much tendency to take over my life.
I work in a call center and would rate it as one-point-something. The pay is decent and I don’t mind talking to people. Taking regular phone calls as part of a larger job would be fine. But, like the Chinese water torture, the sum of any call center job is worse than its parts. Something about the complete lack of autonomy, being told when you’re allowed to take a piss, and shifting that time from day to day is incredibly dehumanizing. I had to fight HARD to get the same lunchtime every day, and I was very lucky to get even that small consideration. I wrote my boss a well-reasoned narrative about why I didn’t want to move to a new cubicle (it’s louder there, I’ll be unhappy and less productive), and they moved me anyway.
I’m pretty sure some prisoners already DO work as call center employees. But my situation is better than that. At least I can go home at the end of the night!
I voted for 4. Though if I were independently wealthy, I’d probably quit and travel the world…but that has nothing to do with my job, just a life goal (to go everywhere).
I like my job. I like my coworkers. I even like (most of) my bosses.
I’d have to give it a solid 1.5. I enjoy the work, but my boss is apparently in a competition with himself to see just how miserable and humiliating an experience he can turn the workday into.
I’m in the same boat, but I gave it a 3. I’ve got the possibility (however remote) for something better within the company, and unlike my previous job, I don’t have to deal with a lot of abuse. I genuinely like most of my co-workers and my boss is easy to get along with. But the work itself gets monotonous and I have to hit so many points in each call that some of them seem pointless. So let’s just say that I’m not in a huge hurry to leave, but if something better came along, I’d seriously consider it.