Are the extra-curriculars more fun than the job you love would be? Would you rather be confortable outside of work or comfortable at work? Or, looking at it the other way, is the present job with its accompanying hassles more of a misery than your time outside work would be with the lower income?
I agree with Qadgop the Mercotan: balance is key.
I’ll use myself as an example: I am a technical editor for a large government contractor, working in the IT/software industry. I’ve been in this industry for 10 years. I love being an editor, and in fact recently completed a master’s degree in professional writing & editing, but for the past few years I’ve been thinking about eventually getting out of IT. I think I’d like to do editing work somewhere else, perhaps for a publication or something. I’ve also considered, off and on, getting into proposal writing.
I happen to have 2 friends (former co-workers) who are proposal managers at different companies, and both of them have told me that they think their departments will be hiring proposal writers very soon. Both companies are near where I already work, so my commute would not change, but my earning potential would seriously take off – however, my need to work overtime (sometimes unpredictably) would also take off. Still, if I can get an interview with either company I’ll jump at it: it’s time to make a change, and the earning potential would be worth the overtime.
At the same time, just yesterday I submitted an online application for an opening at a well-known, successful dot com. The job is to be an editor, and the position description sounds like heaven – exactly the kind of editing work I’d dreamed about doing if/when I left the IT industry. Plus, the company sounds like a phenomenal place to work. However, my commute would more than double (to more than an hour each way), and I have no idea if my requested salary is in their range or if they are falling on the floor laughing about it right now. For this job I might be willing to keep my current salary, but could not really justify any kind of pay cut.
Huh? I get paid to be an editor, therefore I must not really love editing? 
It defines what you do for 40 hours a week but does not define the essence of who you are. I agree most people I know like something about their job, but I’d venture to guess that 100 million third-world sweatshop workers would disagree that it is a requirement or that their job reflects the essence of who they are as human beings.
How you perform your job is largely due to your attitude toward work. I have worked in fast food, as a secretary, in retail, as a clown and in IT support, among other things. I did my best at each job, but did not closely identify with any of those jobs as far as a reflection of who I am. My co-workers and boss consistently give me great performance reviews. Yet I have absolutely no interest in IT except as a tool to bring money into my household.
Yes, I believe ideas, thoughts, and wishes are the essence of who we are.
Hmmm…I had an interview today with a completely different company. The job would still reduce my commute by about an hour and a half a day and it would be a much better work environment. Casual dress code, excellent benefits, etc. but it would also allow me to keep basically the same salary and still reduce my cost of commuting. I think I will accept it if they offer me the job since it seems to be a happy medium where I would like my job fairly well but still earning decent money. I would be sad to miss out on a job I really want elsewhere but this could be an excellent compromise.
I couldn’t agree more.
True party conversation:
CookingWithGas: Hi, my name is CookingWithGas.
New Acquaintance: Hi, my name is New. Nice to meet you, Cooking. What do you do?
CWG: Well, I play blues and jazz guitar, I like photography, and of course, I cook.
NA:
CWG: Oh! You mean, what do I do for a living?
I’ve never had a job I’ve truly loved so maybe I’m not the best judge.
The idea that “you are not your job” is bullshit. You spend more time doing your job than you do anything else other than sleeping. What else defines you if not your job? There is a reason you are an accounting, bartender, fireman, lawyer, architect, actor or garbage man. Twenty some odd years of preparation (or lack thereof) have position you to do pretty much exactly what you are doing now. And that job will pretty much contribute to who your friends are, where you live, how you dress and what hobbies you pursue.
My last job working for a management and technology consulting firm was frustrating as hell because of the hours and demands on my time. However, it felt more “me” than my 9-5 job at a big bureaucratic corporation. Yes I worked long hours and traveled a lot, but I also worked with a lot of young, bright, energetic people who I felt very close with. There was somewhat of a work hard/play hard mentality where we would often hang out socially after a long day of work.
My current job, I am there fewer hours and I couldn’t give a shit about them. My boss is a psychopath who clings desperately to a crappy job she has been at for 30 years. What my Target shopping collegues call “the most exciting night out I’ve had in 6 months” I call “wednesday”.
So basically, I’d much rather be at a job I don’t hate than make a couple extra thousand bucks.
I think that in addressing this question, you have to distinguish between the sorts of jobs where you can just devote forty hours a week to it, and not have to do much out of the office, versus academic/professional/executive jobs that have a strongly defined career trajectory and do come with a certain lifestyle attached. For the former, it’s definitely good enough to have a job you don’t hate with decent pay and benefits, but for the latter, you really do need something more as you’re going to be investing a lot more energy into it. I don’t know that you necessarily have to love your job in that case, but I think you do have to like it at least a little bit.
with me it boils down to this
40% enough money to justify the effort
55% enough satisfaction to get by on the shitty wages
5% NO FUCKING COMMUTE
I am very good at what I do, and get recognized for it
Staff from other departments are begging to work for me… Why? Not because I am easy to work for, but because I continually lose people I have trained to higher positions (I turn down promotions regularly… )… Alsp people working “under” me tend to gain wierd and wonderful skills… (how to be walking towards a phone when it rings… (simple, a phone rings every 2.5 minutes… don’t stand still… always walk towards the phone desk if you are doing nothing else… looks psychic to outsiders)… 3 ways to deal with a customer blowing their top… 1) smile, 2) pause, 3) Listen… really really listen…
I live more than 2 minutes away from work, and less than 5… if they ever move, I will get a job that pays more… and they know it!
FML
Let’s assume three weeks off between vacation and holidays. That leaves 49 weeks, or 490 hours less a year that you’re giving to your job. And you say there’s 2K$ less in transportation costs.
Dividing 8000/490 gives us 16$/hour, or 32$/day less that you’re getting.
Are 32$ a lot to pay for 2 hours of freedom?
It may seem hypocritical, as I currently make a pretty ridiculous amount, but I prefer a job I’m comfortable in to one that pays more, so long as certain needs are covered; anything I make beyond my “needs amount” is “available,” “extra”. My current project involves a SheBoss I’d sometimes like to smack upside the head (preferably with a hardcover book) but I’ve already figured out when is it she gets on Idiot Mode, so I can work around it; everything else I like or can deal with. The previous one… one of my current pleasures is getting Yet Another Call from that company and saying “no” - again. I couldn’t wait to get out of there, that place was making me physically sick (both due to bad seats and to their unethical approach to anything).
Add in “an opportunity to look close-up at my field of interest before investing a lot of time and money on it” and my answer goes up to “damnit man, what are you waiting for?”
Would you like my brother’s email address? Not AP specifically, but by age 3 it was very clear he was headed for the financial field. His amazement at discovering business administration as his vocation (age 15) was only matched by our amazement that he hadn’t figure it out by then, we sure had. He’s currently in Controlling (International) for a multinational and as happy as a bear in a field of salmon trees.
I should have phrased that better. In my opinion, to love a behavior means that one would engage in it in preference to other (non-life sustaining) behaviors. I’m not saying that one cannot love some aspect of a job and get paid. I’m saying a job involves more than just the main duty-editing in your case. There is also commuting, coworkers, office environment, paperwork, specific hours, standards of dress and speech, the region you live in, etc. The employer pays the worker the sum of all of this, not just the main duty. I am sure that if money was no object, you would continue to edit, because you love it. However, I would guess that you would not do all of the things that go along with your editing job now. Furthermore, an employer probably would not be interested in paying you for doing editing in the way you would like to do it.
I don’t know how a field I have no interest in could possibly reflect who I am. My work ethic reflects who I am. There’s a huge difference between the two concepts.
I don’t hang out with anyone from work in my off hours. Most of them are in other countries. Most of the contact I have with my co-workers has to do with work and is facilitated by the fact that we work for the same company. I would not continue a relationship with them because we really only have work in common. And the ones I do have a non-work relationship with would be part of my life whether we worked together or not.
My husband works on a dock in a plastics factory. Do you think he cares whether he’s loading buckets or gold boullion onto trucks? Do you think he is somehow intellectually attached to his forklift? He also doesn’t hang out with anyone he works with. He doesn’t even attend the company christmas party.
What about the far-fetched scenario of a Doctors Without Borders doctor who is kidnapped by FARC soldiers and is forced to chain his fellow prisoners to a tree each day? Do you say he’s a torturer or do you say he’s a person who’s dedicated to helping the less fortunate live better, more productive lives? I’d say he is decidedly “not” what he does.
How could anyone attach a particular job to the substance of a person’s self? If the jobs are all interchangeable and there is no passion for the work, “you are what you do” cannot be a true statement. The fact that a person works or doesn’t work says more about that person than the job that’s performed does.
It seems to me that your adult job is far less important to who you are than your experiences during your ‘formative years’, ie. home environment, schooling, friends, national/regional culture, religion. Certainly your college experience and education have a lot to do with it. If someone majored in French literature and worked as the VP of Northeastern sales for a toilet paper factory, I’d expect them to read French books for leisure, hang out with other European literature people, and save money for a vacation in France. I’d even argue that the jobs you had in high school and college have more to do with your personality than a career job.
I’d say that “a good job” is defined much more by one’s satisfaction with the work environment than by the salary. The job I have now pays substantially less than my last job (I’m back to what I was making 6-7 years ago). However, I now get to see cwPartner every day at work and every night when I come home, and I no longer feel a passionate hatred for my job and everything related to it.
Ironically, my current job responsibilities aren’t much different from those of my previous job. Having sane co-workers, managers, and clients makes all the difference. I’ve been at this new job for about a year, and I don’t think any amount of money could make me WANT to go back to the old job.
Doing a job that you love has got to be one of the best things that you can have in life.
If you love a particular sport,or archaeoology,astronomy,music whatever and you actually get paid to do that every day then contentment must be there.
I’ve come across quite a few people who say that they enjoy their work ,but the true test is …would you continue to do your job if you won a huge amount of money on the lottery?
I’ve never had a job that I 've truly loved myself.
Your experiences growing up will certainly shape your attitudes about work and how you perceive the world. A poor kid from a bad neighborhood might view becoming a doctor or lawyer as a lifelong dream while a kid from a wealthy family might view it as a tedious obligation he is forced into because of family expectations.
I’m not sure if there even is such a thing as “doing what you love”. I’ve heard it said that the best way to ruin a perfectly good hobbie is to turn it into a career.
The problem with most jobs is not the work itself. It’s that you have to perform the work in a work environment. You have people telling you what to do and where to be and how to act constantly. You have to conform and fit in with people you probably can’t stand and would not associate with other than the fact that you share the same employer. Your personal goals and interests are constantly in conflict with the interests of a large, impersonal beurocratic institution. And like it or not, everything else in your life - where you live, your hobbies, your vacations, your lifestyle is tied to the fortunes and whims of your employer.
Because jobs are not interchangable. When I worked in management consulting, we tend to hire people who are extremely social, motivated and career oriented. The hours and travel are such that if you aren’t that kind of person, you are not going to succeed. Your job defines you to the extent that you embody the traits and qualities that will make you successful at that job.
And as I mentioned before, other than sleep, what activity are your performing more than 40 hours a week?