Work

[cjsmith]

How many people here look forward to going to work in the morning? How many people say to themselves "That was a wonderful weekend, and I'm glad I get to go to work on Monday" or "Wow, I can't believe they pay me to [fitb]; I'd do it just for the fun of it" or "The people at my company are great and I'm glad I get to see them every day"?

I know there are people who are glad to have their jobs, or who feel grateful that their skillset happens to be lucrative, or who enjoy some aspects of their jobs but not others. I also know that there are people who basically hate their job, their coworkers, the activity, the salary, the hours, every bit of it. What I haven't seen is anyone who loves every bit of it.

I know my friends list. Y'all can be a contrary bunch. If I say I haven't seen FOO, several people will respond that they personify FOO. I wanna know who you are. Then I'll ask you how you got that happy.

Comments

[ohhjuliet.livejournal.com]

I do love my job, despite the fact that it's a circus. :) Four years and I still never wake up and say "oh i hate going there" Granted there are days I say "I'm too tired to move" but it has nothing to do with work :D Yes, I love my job. Woot!

[dieppe.livejournal.com]

The past year has become, for me, a struggle to drag myself to work every day. There have been a few days that I ponder driving and just keep driving (or worse) because it's that bad. I am, truly, unhappy with work. AND I try not to talk about it with my partners because I'd prefer that they not worry about me...

Because my social life is very happy and just... stellar... and about the only thing keeping me in on piece somedays.

Oh yeah, and the mortgage thing (wanting to continue living where I do) is the driving force otherwise I'd say "fuckit" and leave.

SO... I guess I'm not one of your "loves every bit of it" kind of people. :/ I get paid enough to make it worth my while, but not really enough to kick ass. Hell, I'm sure some unemployed PhD's make more than I do. ;)

Bleh.

[wordripples.livejournal.com]

No, not every bit of it. I can say I love my work, but not necessarily the job. From the time I learned to program, I wanted to be allowed to get paid for doing it, so I took classes and worked and worked and proved myself until I was. Almost 20 years later, I'm still kind of excited that they let me program for money. If the fairy goddess of career retraining decended upon me and said, I will grant you the schooling and time and money to change careers and end up making the same income, I would just take the money and stick with programming.

Job is the environment and the people and the stupid management tricks, so I don't always love that.

Now, I don't now nor have I ever loved getting out of bed. That is a completely different story.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

On the whole, I love my job. I complain about incessantly and sometimes it really pisses me off and I think about leaving, but I do love it. My job and me are like one of those fussy old couples that have been married so long they don't want to think about a life apart, but they do like fantasizing.

I'm exactly where I want to be in my career. If I stopped being a tech writer tomorrow, I'd be okay with that because I've done what I wanted to do.

I founded the Tech Pubs dept at my company, designed the look of our docs, and created the system for running doc projects. I have the freedom I need to meet my responsibilities. People love my work.

I wish that people understood what I do better because then I'd have better access to the resources that I need -- staff, time, information are all too small, but very necessary.

I love my job because I have enormous responsibilities and most of the resources and freedoms that I need to do a good job. I am occasionally listened to and respected in that vague sort of way that people reserved for those who do stuff that looks like a snap to them, but know that they could never actually do it themselves.

[jmkelly.livejournal.com]

I like my weekends and I like my work days. I sometimes wonder what kind of a sicko I am--having a touch of obsessive-compulsive disorder definitely helps--but my work is always interesting and only rarely annoying. Of course, I'm the kind of person who finds punching down twisted-pair cable on wiring blocks interesting, or at least enjoyable. Not as intellectually stimulating as other parts of the job, but sometimes it's nice to give abstract thought a rest and just concentrate on getting the blue, orange, green and brown pairs nicely punched down. And if it's a 25-pair cable--oh boy, that's blue, orange, green, brown and slate, overlaid with white, red, black, yellow and violet. Pretty heady stuff there!

What a contrast from my last job, where I spent my days on system administration, policy, office politics, and bullshit--especially bullshit.

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

I love my job. The novelty still hasn't worn off, it's interesting, it pays well, the people are professional and nice and seem honestly glad to have me there, and I feel certain areas of expertise I've developed through the years being actually USED -- and PAID FOR -- and APPRECIATED. It's great.

And every morning, I think to myself, "Oh GOD. Do I HAVE to go to work today? Again???? Didn't I just do that?"

Except for the weekends. The weekends I think "Il-hamdullilah, I don't have to go to work!!"

So, dear, how do you like YOUR new job?

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

I love my job to the extent that I find myself dreading the boring down-time on weekends. My co-workers are bright and interesting and sometimes huggable, the work is meaningful and challenging, my skills get good use and it pays reasonably well. Travel can be a bit much, but otherwise the hours aren't too bad.

[eichin.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe not every bit - there are certainly frustrations - but I picked this job over random hacking and gardening (and I dumped adero in favor of random hacking and gardening :-) There are some good threshhold questions - if they weren't paying me, temporarily, would I still do it? Answer: only if [certain coworkers] were still there - ie. the people are more important than the money. (The money still has value: reminds them that my time has value, also shows that what we're doing has value, if we can successfully get paid for it - but I'm here for the interesting work and the interesting people. The money is mainly so that I can buy a t-zero (http://acpropulsion.com/)...)

Not that I actually just leave jobs for being "less than ideal" - I find a have a pattern of becoming extremely bored (with evidence like showing up to work at random/intermittent hours, and spending the time learning new and only vaguely justifiable technologies - at Cygnus, it was DocBook and SGML) and then being very susceptible to new opportunities (thus the leap to Arepa, where I already knew yonah and warlord and jeff and nancy - and I could come in as the 6th employee...) rather than actually seeking anyone out. Adero was unusual in that it was the first time I could, financially, just go, and there had been enough what-are-we-doing introspection already (I joined them via acquisition, not interest, fastengines had been a lot more fun.) Even before that, though, my tolerance for unpleasant jobs was always low simply because I was (fortunate enough to be) in such demand that alternatives presented themselves rapidly...

[redgrrl.livejournal.com]

Nah, not me. I like parts of my job, and I like the career enough to go into some aspect of it (researching/writing), but I want to do that outside a traditional work environment and, hopefully, in support of our business. That's the next big challenge for me, and I think it will keep me interested and motivated for many, many years. There's just so much to learn and do and so many opportunities...that's really important to a classic Gemini. :)

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

I enjoy my work a lot. I'm a psychologist. I get to talk to lots of fascinating people, hear their stories, and assist in their growth and empowerment processes.

Last night was particularly cool - my substance abuse support group chose to stay 15 minutes past its typical ending time, so that they could continue to hear about each others' weeks and give each other support. I remember thinking midway through group that I am so happy to be working with these folks.

This isn't to say that there aren't stressful days - like when I need to confer with Child Protective Services about a serious abuse situation. But on the whole, I'm happy with what I'm doing.

[msmichelle.livejournal.com]

I enjoy my work with technology and customers. I like working in the medical area b/c it's dynamic and intrinsically valuable to society and all that. It pays a fair wage but it could always stand improvement ;). And I need to contribute to the household. And, I've done heavy travel jobs before which this one is not (Sucked!), it has a very manageable travel load.
But, I have never been thrilled on a Monday (today included). I don't think I ever will be. Yet, I am the type who needs to go and be involved outside of the house.
I guess I want it both ways, sometimes. That's my biggest problem. But, ultimately, I want to build a future, etc. And, as we've discussed, we're all in charge of that, ourselves (despite the illusionary "cash" we're socking away through SS). grr.

I must admit...

[ex-kerravon856.livejournal.com]

...that after several jobs that did have valuable lessons and experiences associated with them, none gave me the sense of accomplishment and pleasure at doing them like the one I have now.

I seem to have at long last arrived at the work environment that all those other jobs have culminated in...the one where it all fits, and I actually do go to work with a sense of looking forward, rather than just "trying to get through the day". No kiddin'.