JimW
支那暗杀团
I don't as I've already been found out.
Do you have a job which doesn't make you feel alienated and depressed?
- Thread starter J Ed
- Start date
Recess?
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
I love my job, I get paid to do something I love and have a huge passion for. I'm also fucking good at it.
Chick Webb
Countryfile and a can
Sorry, I thought everyone could see my inner vision of all of us on this thread being high school movie stereotypes.
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
That's common, don't worry, I have that feeling when I start a new job too.
I don't understand.
Thank you 
adidaswoody
Like a star
Haha it's got so close so many times when I'm half asleep
who needs a thumb anyway though?
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
my jobs would be grand if it wasn't for the senior management.
adidaswoody
Like a star
I want to play a game.I've seen all your films
emanymton
A cat politely sat on the flaming gardener.
I hate my job, and I basically get paid to be pedantic and picky these days. Mind you I do work for a bank.
In general I think it's more complex than just liking or not liking your job. For many people it is not necessarily the job itself that they hate, but the experience of working for someone else. I imagine this is especially true for people who do a job that they feel is in some way worthwhile and positive (nursing or teaching for example). And when we are talking about alienation, it is something we all feel in and outside of work, as the nature of work distorts are experience of the world and obscures the fact that all work is about relationships between people and ultimately about meeting some human need somewhere. Look at the op even when dealing with people face to face sometimes we are still unable to see the other person as human and treat them more like a machine. Then there is the fact that when we go to work, we give up our freedom and liberty and make ourself subservient to another, we live in a society which tells us we are free and equally, yet fails to apply them to one of the most central parts of our lives.
In general I think it's more complex than just liking or not liking your job. For many people it is not necessarily the job itself that they hate, but the experience of working for someone else. I imagine this is especially true for people who do a job that they feel is in some way worthwhile and positive (nursing or teaching for example). And when we are talking about alienation, it is something we all feel in and outside of work, as the nature of work distorts are experience of the world and obscures the fact that all work is about relationships between people and ultimately about meeting some human need somewhere. Look at the op even when dealing with people face to face sometimes we are still unable to see the other person as human and treat them more like a machine. Then there is the fact that when we go to work, we give up our freedom and liberty and make ourself subservient to another, we live in a society which tells us we are free and equally, yet fails to apply them to one of the most central parts of our lives.
Winot
I wholeheartedley agree with your viewpoint
Good post. It's stressful and unpleasant when someone else (that you don't necessarily get on with) has control over you. There are studies (from the civil service) which show that the lower down the pecking order you are, the more stress you are likely to feel.
It's a shame the thread had become at times focused on "you are a bad person because of your job".
neonwilderness
What would Badgers do?
I've recently changed jobs and now work a four day week and can highly recommend it
Also the people you work with can have a big effect on things. Previously I was beginning to hate my job, but now I'm working with a decent bunch again I'm finding it much easier even though I'm doing they same work as before.
Agent Sparrow
the age of slippers and migraines
I dunno, I find working for the NHS as an organization feels empowering in many ways; that I'm part of something that is incredibly socially important and is made up of a multitude of individuals who care about doing something meaningful and helpful. Yes there are of course frustrations, particularly so in the climate of cuts and budgets, and yes there is a level of management that makes things difficult for me, but I'm pretty removed from them so the people I see myself as working for are my immediate bosses (often under similar pressures), the specific trusts I'm associated with and the big organization as a whole.
It would, of course, be a completely different kettle of fish if I was working for a private health company. I would be a lot unhappier, and yes, possibly feeling quite alienated and resentful.
I had many reasonably well-paid positions within the social work/voluntary sector and came to hate and loathe nearly every aspect of it. I now garden for a living, am often cold, bored, always broke but never, ever anywhere near as alienated, disillusioned and furious as I was working in an increasingly cynical social work industry. I only have the freedom to make this choice now I have no dependents...if it rains for 2 weeks, I eat baked potatoes and read a lot.
sim667
All aboard the 303 bus.
I was an FE teacher, but the way they are being treated currently meant I ended up bailing out, as there's only so much being told "you're not good enough" on shit pay I could take (even the best teachers are consistently found to be at only "satisfactory" standard in observations).
Now I work in a small local IT company, and the lack of travel, and much better pay are really good, but I do feel a little unfulfilled...... But I can't help feeling that the lack of fulfilment is as much to do with my day to day life as it is with my job.
Now I work in a small local IT company, and the lack of travel, and much better pay are really good, but I do feel a little unfulfilled...... But I can't help feeling that the lack of fulfilment is as much to do with my day to day life as it is with my job.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
I'm in a job which, a good 80% of the time, feels worthwhile, valuable, and, if not "enjoyable" then certainly satisfying.
Until August last year, though, I was working for an employer who increasingly failed to value the work I (and my team) was doing and our professionalism - we found ourselves being increasingly micromanaged and investigated in everything we did. Leaving that job was a wrench: it felt, at quite a gut level, like I was betraying my clients. And, in many ways I was. But if I'd stayed, I knew that I would be increasingly prevented from doing what needed to be done for those who needed it, and that I, personally, would not be able to withstand the stress and aggravation from "upstairs" very much longer. The sense of relief I had when I finally went was palpable, and I realised that, far from getting out before it was too late, I'd probably only just got out in time, as far as my mental health was concerned.
I still do a similar job, but mostly freelance now - that has its own challenges, but even so, the balance between reward and aggravation makes it positive.
Until August last year, though, I was working for an employer who increasingly failed to value the work I (and my team) was doing and our professionalism - we found ourselves being increasingly micromanaged and investigated in everything we did. Leaving that job was a wrench: it felt, at quite a gut level, like I was betraying my clients. And, in many ways I was. But if I'd stayed, I knew that I would be increasingly prevented from doing what needed to be done for those who needed it, and that I, personally, would not be able to withstand the stress and aggravation from "upstairs" very much longer. The sense of relief I had when I finally went was palpable, and I realised that, far from getting out before it was too late, I'd probably only just got out in time, as far as my mental health was concerned.
I still do a similar job, but mostly freelance now - that has its own challenges, but even so, the balance between reward and aggravation makes it positive.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
No.
40 more years and I'm free.
40 more years and I'm free.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
good luck
Sweet FA
✪ Three rounds Lord, in my .44 ✪
Today I hate my job and I am feeling rather naive for saying what I did earlier in the thread.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Work for myself and enjoy the work. Stupidly long hours though, almost every evening and weekend day too. Some prick even emailed on Christmas day last year, that got ignored.
Virtual Blue
ready
i hate my job but the company keeps me sane.
Agent Sparrow
the age of slippers and migraines
Don't think I would be if talking about tendered mainstream services. In fact if terms and conditions weren't protected I assume wages and benefits would be far worse.But richer
Poot
My wife thinks I work too hard
I love my job. It's so varied! Today I was trudging through mud and cow pats up to my knees in search of badger setts. Then I went back to my cosy office and typed up some statutory notices and discussed some surveys, then I went home and changed so I could meet with a pissed-off property developer who didn't like our plans, on a building site in a city.
All this and I only work for 5 hours a day!!
All this and I only work for 5 hours a day!!
lazythursday
Averagely-Known Member
I work for myself, and my clients are mostly in the not-for-profit sector. I am quite good at what I do and I even enjoy parts of it but it's still often alienating and depressing. It's great not having to turn up somewhere 9-5 and great not having a manager peering over my shoulder but I am still totally at the mercy of my clients who sometimes squeeze me dry and effectively make me work for minimum wage or less. And sometimes don't pay at all.
I am lucky in that I earn a lot more than people I know who rely on food banks but it's still well below the national average and I just don't seem to be able to increase my income. The unreliability of income is sometimes frankly terrifying and that makes me hoard money, which means I never seem to be able to make myself spend it on things I really need, or do things like borrow money to get things done on my falling-apart house.
And it can be lonely and isolating both on a day-to-day basis and in having to be totally self-reliant without others / an organisation to lean on. And sometimes I get asked to do things which are just stupid and pointless and I do them anyway cos I need the money, and that makes me feel like a dancing monkey or something. But fundamentally no-one tells me what to do and people do treat me with at least a surface level of respect and that's a huge positive.
I am lucky in that I earn a lot more than people I know who rely on food banks but it's still well below the national average and I just don't seem to be able to increase my income. The unreliability of income is sometimes frankly terrifying and that makes me hoard money, which means I never seem to be able to make myself spend it on things I really need, or do things like borrow money to get things done on my falling-apart house.
And it can be lonely and isolating both on a day-to-day basis and in having to be totally self-reliant without others / an organisation to lean on. And sometimes I get asked to do things which are just stupid and pointless and I do them anyway cos I need the money, and that makes me feel like a dancing monkey or something. But fundamentally no-one tells me what to do and people do treat me with at least a surface level of respect and that's a huge positive.
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