Do you have a job which doesn't make you feel alienated and depressed?

[trabuquera]

Alienation and depression are vital parts of my job description

 

[catinthehat]

I'm pretty fortunate to be doing a job I love in the tea time of my days. I was a university and college lecturer for around 20 odd years and for the last 8 have been collaborating with an Icelandic not for profit NGO run by a person whose books and theories I have always admired. In August I started working with them as my main job. We do several things but mainly training teachers, ed psychs and policy people in anti discriminatory education and intercultural pedagogy. We travel a lot as part of the job. We can be as critical as we like as we are not government funded or tied to any business, we don't need to make a profit just enough to live and we are located in Iceland which means my taxes go on stuff like education and health and not military etc. Its also consistently voted as the best country to be a woman in. So not in the least alienated and depressed by my job now. Apart from the fact of 'why did it take till Im 58 to be doing something I actually like'.

 

[billy_bob]

I do. I manually masturbate caged animals for artificial insemination.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I do. I manually masturbate caged animals for artificial insemination.

This thread is about your jobs, not your hobbies.

 

[Boycey]

events carpenter, workshop hand, art fitter...

i have jobs which exhaust me, make me just enough to live on with the occasional treat but no- they do not make me feel alienated or depressed. for the most part i work for/with friends where there is mutual love and respect which makes me feel exceptionally fucking lucky. there are a few occasions where i have to deal with a multi-faceted clusterfuck of bureaucracy but they're few and far between and pay me more money.

 

[Sherman Tank]

I would find it bewildering to think there are people out there who think all jobs are automatically alienating and depressing, until I remember that many jobs are and some people have no experience of empowering jobs, or degrees of work autonomy. I think it's partly down to a failure of our education and training approach which doesn't support the idea of workers taking more control over their own work. This has means not just the rank and file worker, but also managers.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I think it's partly down to a failure of our education and training approach which doesn't support the idea of workers taking more control over their own work.

Management don't support it either, probably because management only exists because of the false notion that workers can't be trusted to do their own jobs properly without adult supervision.

 

[J Ed]

I think it's partly down to a failure of our education and training approach which doesn't support the idea of workers taking more control over their own work.

No, the thing you're thinking of here is capitalism.

 

[moomoo]

I get paid for driving round the countryside, looking at sheep and listening to the radio. And I only do it two days a week. What's not to like?

 

[Sherman Tank]

Management don't support it either, probably because management only exists because of the false notion that workers can't be trusted to do their own jobs properly without adult supervision.

That's what I said - managers are workers, and they don't believe in their own power or that of other workers to make organisations work better.

 

[SpookyFrank]

managers are workers, and they don't believe in their own power or that of other workers to make organisations work better.

Probably because the best way to make an organisation work better is too shoot all the fucking managers.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I get paid for driving round the countryside, looking at sheep and listening to the radio. And I only do it two days a week. What's not to like?

My dad's mate drives the local library book bus round north cornwall two days a week. I've never been more jealous of someone else's job.

 

[billy_bob]

This thread is about your jobs, not your hobbies.

Just because I might be doing it anyway, even if I wasn't getting paid, that doesn't mean it's not my job

 

[8ball]

I get paid for driving round the countryside, looking at sheep and listening to the radio. And I only do it two days a week. What's not to like?

PM me if they ever have any jobs going.

 

[Addy]

I love my job.
Identifying problems and working out root cause analysis and solutions with suppliers to our industry.
Travel overseas to identify and develop new suppliers for our company to use.
Mentoring a new team of engineers to pass on manufacturing and problem solving knowledge.

Market is down at the moment and reduced hours are being negotiated, but bring on the 4 day week, that would be the icing!

 

[Roadkill]

I love my job. There's a lot wrong with it and it's properly hard work sometimes, but when it goes well there's a tremendous sense of achievement. Today has been one of those days.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Almost any work can be enjoyable as long as your boss isn't an arsehole.

 

[Sherman Tank]

Almost any work can be enjoyable as long as your boss isn't an arsehole.

Probably because the best way to make an organisation work better is too shoot all the fucking managers.

How many managers are there in this country? How many of them earn squillions more than their fellow colleagues?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Almost any work can be enjoyable as long as your boss isn't an arsehole.

Mine's a right cunt.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

Pretty fucked off with mine at the moment, and I'm self-employed.

 

[Addy]

Almost any work can be enjoyable as long as your boss isn't an arsehole.

My ex manager was a complete old skool bully type of cunt.
Would I work for him again? ....Definately!
I knew how to manage him!
How to stay 1 step ahead and be able to answer all his questions before he even asked them.
Never show weakness even if they are your manager providing you have the answers and you know more than they do.

 

[SpookyFrank]

How many managers are there in this country? How many of them earn squillions more than their fellow colleagues?

It's not about earnings, it's about the fact that management is a wholly unnecessary thing invented to give the rich an excuse to be rich. It's about the fact that a bad manager can sack a good worker, or a stupid manager can tell a smart worker what she should be doing.

 

[SpookyFrank]

You can go to school to learn management ffs. As if it's an actual thing like bricklaying or heart surgery.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

It is.

I put it to you that you are describing supervision, which is not the same thing as management.

 

[Sherman Tank]

I'm not sure you understand how society works Spooky??

 

[SpookyFrank]

I'm not sure you understand how society works Spooky??

If I didn't understand how society works, I wouldn't be so cross about it.

 

[SpookyFrank]

It is.

I put it to you that you are describing supervision, which is not the same thing as management.

It's a thing in the same way that 'being a twat' is a thing, it's not a thing that actually needs doing.

 

[billy_bob]

Pretty fucked off with mine at the moment, and I'm self-employed.

My feelings exactly. You wage slaves think you've got it bad? Your boss's jokes are shit? I even know which shit joke my boss is going to tell before I tell it.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

You can go to school to learn management ffs. As if it's an actual thing like bricklaying or heart surgery.

Of course it's a thing, what a monumentally stupid thing to say.

 

[Favelado]

I've been sick of TEFL for years but just started at a school that's actually well run and gives us tonnes of resources to work with. I'm really enjoying it.