Anyone else hate their job?

Very true, I agree 100%. I feel trapped though, I've been there so long it doesn't seem to make much sense to start over somewhere else. I think any factory job is going to be the same no matter where you go. We have a pension, it's not a lot but it's something. I'm always trying to come up with something better I could do, maybe only fans

You're right though, I keep telling myself I have to snap out of this rut. Being mad all time is exhausting

 

You are right, it is exhausting and steals your energy away.

When I started out in factories decent jobs were tough to find, "decent" defined as full time and having health insurance. You didn't get into the really good places unless you had someone on the inside to put a word in for you.

For the young guys without that advantage you were pretty much begging to get a foot in a door - any door, any job. The man doing the hiring could reject you for any reason, real or imagined, there were 50 or 100 young guys right behind you trying to get in too.

When I did land a decent job I was so thankful to have a job that it took me years to realize the some people actually enjoyed what they did as opposed to just doing it to provide for themselves.

I did move up to better positions over the years, it wasn't the easiest path but it worked out.

Surely if I wasn't "too soon old, too late smart" I would have done something different, on the other hand it did provide for me all these years. This is now and we can never go back even one day.


I guess what I'm trying to say here is although we may end up feeling somewhat "trapped" in a job after so many years in the sense that we really can't make a lateral move and keep our seniority, benefits, hours, pay rate and so forth -- on the other hand our attitude of how we spend our day is completely in our own hands.


I got to work about 5:15 in the morning, if everything was working well I was leaving about 5:15pm.
At the end of the industrial park road where I worked were some pretty shabby rentals, every afternoon it was above freezing an old man (probably old before his time from a lifetime of bad habits) sat on the corner in a wheelchair.

Often I was leaving at 6, 7 or 8pm or later.

No matter how bad a day I had - how tired, dirty, angry & sore I might be I always thought that fellow in the wheelchair would probably be delighted to change places with me.

Years went by and he disappeared one day, I never knew his name or his story but I remembered him every day as I drove away and was thankful that I could.

 

It was the same when I started, and it used to be one of the better paying places to work. Now everyone has passed us by, and every contract they take more from us. Inflation has really killed us...lots of other people too. I keep telling myself to find the good in it and not let things bother me so much. I'm really struggling with it though. I'm mad and depressed on my days off just thinking about what kind of mess I'm going to walk into.

 

I understand that for sure, been there too.

Something that helped me was my mental separation between "me" and "them".

Much of my day was spent adjusting for and correcting the boneheaded things that others did, both workers & "superiors", I was very good at my job, good enough that over the years I became almost invisible. I adopted the idea that it really didn't matter how badly others mismanaged their time and jobs as that was out of my control.

What I could control was done to the best standard I could, leaving for the day I could say that I had given an honest days work and it was good work - although I couldn't control "them" I was satisfied with my contribution.

And that invisible thing - after I retired they found out just how much I silently attended to.

 

We are more likely to accept our current situation than change. It’s human nature.

Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side, sometimes it’s not, but if you never walk up the fence and peer over you can’t find out.

 

It's like we work at the same place lol. The work force has gotten so bad, and management just lets them slide cause they know they'll just quit if they say anything to em. Now us old timers are expected to do more to make up for them. The feeling of being taken advantage of bothers me as much as anything. Thanks for the advice.

 

You've been giving great advise rusty. I was fortunate to have someone like you in my latter years and I listened. There is nothing more defeating than your very own negative outlook on life. For OP and everyone else, there will always be DBag's above you if you're in the working world. You let them do what they want and let them fail. You should focus on what you can change and let the rest roll off your back. I know a lot about Maintenance and how valuable it is to operations, but you won't see me writing policy about it without talking to the folks who are doing the work and how I can help them. You've all seen bad leadership and management, so you know what not to do when you get up in that position or should know!

We all want to live in our comfort zone, but when you don't have a choice.....move! That's the only way to really change your life's situation. If you're in manufacturing you'd be surprised how well that translates into industrial maintenance especially for the DoD. You don't have to be a tech wiz or anything else.....just open to learning something new or trying it. So many people have such a hard time changing! Don't cry about life if you're not willing to try something new (just a general statement not directed at anyone here).

Side note: just read an article about 20 something year olds that were surveyed (850 of them) and it said 80% brought their parents to the job interview (either in the interview or to the place) and 50% of parents actually contacted the hiring manager (some statistic like that). I interview 20-30 people annually whether for jobs or internships and I would as they're watching me.....cross their name off my list immediately if it came to that. The only reason I would accept a parent in the room would be if there was some kind of handicap that I needed to be aware of.

 

Honestly, it sounds like your subconscious is screaming at you for change. I was there too. I loved working in the corporate world, but I hated the people around me. I grew to loathe them, I grew to resent my lack of mobility and my pay. It made me a very irritable person to be around. I could be professional and hide the fact that I was unhappy, but if you do that long enough then the unhappiness starts to become visible. I had a boss-bully that made me irritable. And the more irritable I got, the more she micromanaged, the more irritable I got. Couldn't take a leak without having to respond in writing why I chose to do so. I knew I needed to change. I knew what my unhappiness meant. I unfortunately procrastinated what my mind was telling me until it all blew up like a dang soap opera drama, and it got to the point of hiring legal counsel. I quit and went to work in an industrial plant.

Its dirty work, the hours are worse, but I'm able to mold my department the way I want, and I've already been promoted back to comparable pay. Better yet, I have multiple career paths to choose from now. There's room for growth. Every day is a new challenge. Its stressful, but its a happy stress. The stresses are puzzles to figure out and solve, which is entirely different and foreign to me. I'm used to the former stresses of being trapped and hand-tied by decisions that I disagreed with. My stress gained self-confidence, and thats a very weird and wonderful thing to experience. And the really weird part - people love me here. They hated me there. Its fascinating how a personal level of camaraderie affects your career - they like my humor, they like my personality, which means everyone wants to stop and listen to my ideas. When they dont like you they attempt to talk over you at meetings, and it has long term effects. That's a very strange and new experience for me also - at meetings now, if I simply inhale deeply people stop talking and turn to face me. Used to be before that, I had to find a quiet spot, start talking, then raise my volume to overpower the chronic interrupters. I had always heard that its not you, its the personalities you work with that make or break your success, but I never fully believed it until I saw it.

If I were you, I'd float a resume or two on occasion. See whats out there. Its very often a change of scenery and a fresh batch of people will revive you.

 

Like they say in the world of dating and courtship:

“If You Always Do What You’ve Always Done, You Always Get What You’ve Always Gotten.”

 

That is some in-depth writing there RL.

I can't recall if I experienced any of your scenarios while on 25yr active-duty USAF....probably happened but it's a bureaucracy not a democracy in the military.

I've had 10 civilian jobs since I retired in 2011...current one should be my last before 2nd retirement.

Maybe it's the career field that makes a difference?

I was trained as a Air Force Logistician which interfaces with all branches of service (MILSTRIP).

I've had more great supervisors/trainers than not...and it is challenging to be around negative people because of the aura they display...does not bring out the best in anyone.

Glad to hear you are pleasant to be around...until, it's time not to be pleasant. lol

 

Don't do it...how often do your bosses change? I hate my current boss...been at this company over 20 years too...but I know that before i know it, they do another re-org..

 

I can relate to the first part for sure. I keep my shit together and don't loose my cool...I'm screaming inside though. I keep thinking I should have worked with animals. They all like me, and I like them. It doesn't help I'm dealing with a torn rotator cuff. I've always stayed in good shape, but now I'm falling apart too. I know it's part of life, and everyone else has crap going on too. I just thought things would have turned out better. I have no excuses, it on me. Life can be pretty humbling.

 

There is a good message in here with a lot of truth. As you subject yourself to stuff that you don't like it can drag you down and affect your outlook, long-term experience, and ultimately drag down your career. The future feeds on the present so you have to take risks now to push things in a favorable direction sometimes and a corollary of this is there is a real cost to your future self to not taking risk, getting comfortable, and letting the status quo dominate if it is not ideal. Somehow you have to keep in mind that it is the process not the destination that takes most of the time and the challenge is to find a way to get there which is enjoyable. Personally, I would live in my truck and work for myself vs work for people I didn't like and I have done that and honestly enjoyed it.

 

I went from a job I was really cozy at in 2023 to a job I was even cozier at and paid $20,000 more a year - it's all relative.
Cozy Job A: 73k a year, hard to get things done - i.e. getting the owner to spend money on technology and let me upgrade the environment and make it more secure. Great boss who retired and then I got put under the Controller's perview, and she was a my way or the highway person.

Cozy Job B: $91K a year, a micromanager of a boss about 5% of the time, 12% bonus, reallllllly awesome teammates.

In the end, you don't know unless you try to find something different.

It can't hurt to look and interview can it? Nothing means you have to accept a new job offer.

But I would say try.

 

Finding the right job/career can be tough and I believe more people don't than do. I didn't settle into the career I finally retired from until I was 47 years old and it wasn't perfect but it generally paid well and had decent benefits. It all worked out OK and I'm grateful for that.

 

In my 59th year, career IT. Had the most amazing, disturbing dream last night.

Amazing that I was able to "beat" all the other techs at a symposium, organizing all the individual booth firewalls into a super computer cluster by stealing a bit of code into each as it was brought up. IT/007 stuff, including physical intrigue, and using an old 9600-baud modem to control a person's heart, taking them to the edge of death and bringing them back thru the "technology" as well as my breathing into the device.

Disturbing in that I realize there is SO much more my talent could have accomplished over the years.