Anyone else hate their job?

You would do something you love for free. There's a reason they pay you to go to work. For your long term health, you can't hate your job to the point it's a constant dread and strain on your life. You aren't going to love it though. If you can't stomach the job you have, find another one.

 

I’m a nurse, I see a lot of people come in just for the money, then they leave, I love my job, its management that drives me crazy

 

It was weird as hell coming to my current company, the token female electrician out of almost 40 dudes, and having literally every person ive worked with being super helpful. Everyone wants everyone to succeed. Quite the culture shock.

Quotes free. My great grammy used to say it, she gets the credit.

 

Here’s a bit discovered:

It’s tough talking about bossing, unless you’ve made a foray into it.

 

True, though I've only experienced low management. I've admittedly not been a manager of managers.

My grandad told me this - "your boss is going to want the job done in his style, and your reports are going to have their own ideas. Fuck em both. Do your job your way." I always took that philosophy with the grain of I'll do it my way, and let my reports do it theirs... But only as long as it's getting done.

 

I learned to feel the prominent figure had a right to fair concessions. After that, let a guy do his job.

Of course, none of this is maintained without effective communication.

 

I tried being the boss and just didn't like it. I didn't mind making the decisions and the responsibility, I just didn't like the hours spent on work outside the office. The pay wasn't worth it. I got tired of being on call 24/7 including vacations. I much prefer being one of the workers. I come to work, get paid for the hours I work, and leave when I am done. I don't think of work again until I walk into work on the next scheduled day.

Here in the US we all get to pick our jobs and professions, so it's really an internal review if you don't like the path you are on. You can always change it if you don't like how it's going. Just try not to do stupid stuff that limits your range of possibilities.

 

I spent 20 years at a place that sucked the life out of me day after day. Bad management and bad coworkers who quite literally plotted against me. 5 years later, I work with an outstanding team and I’ve never been happier at a job. Get out.

 

Agreed. This is exactly where I and my previous boss butted heads. If I can meet timeline targets with accurate, precise, and repeatable results, then I expect the freedom to do it my way, which is the exact same give/take I fostered with my team. I had someone who demanded that i do things in a disruptive order of operations and was unable to explain why when I asked the purpose. I truly try to dig in, be the eternal student, and find the reasoning, but when the only reason is to micromanage, that's when life gets miserable. It drives me bonkers because all I think all day is "there must be a legit reason to put this particular cart before the horse, or prioritize Z project over X and Y, there has to be a reason, no person is that shallow and controlling just to be controlling," but sometimes you really do work for that flavor of dumbass. The one that makes you run the long way around the hill, and won't sit down for a single conversation about it.

Hence, burnout.

 

Reminds me of a guy I spent time with in the Nineties. He was born and raised in Yugoslavia. East Block. He said that brains and ambition didn’t matter. “We all got the same”. He loved America.

 

Reminds me of the story about a lady who cut both ends of the ham off before putting it in the oven. Her daughter asked why do you do that. She replied your Grandma always did it this way. Grandmother came over for Thanksgiving…grandma why do you cut the ends off of the ham before putting it in the oven? Because it didn’t fit in the pan! Too many managers are trying to fix adaptive challenges with procedural fixes. It will never work. While you need strong systems once those systems cease to be effective you have to adapt. Adaptive solutions require a mindset that I don’t have all the answers, while at the same time believing that the answers exist in the room. A manager who understands this must trust his resources to create innovative solutions, and not be afraid to ask them “what are you doing to get this level of success?” And then be humble enough to give credit and promotion to the one/ones who are driving the work.

 

That’s one side of the coin. I’ve had my share of 4 year olds asking “but why?” When they have no real interest in the answer. All they know or care is they are inconvenienced.

 

I turn 50 next month. Kids are 7 and 9. I’m stuck and no way out.

I do contemplate attempting to switch over to an electrician. I seem to enjoy that work the best. I don’t hate software development but the only fun times are the early startup days and when you have to support young kids, the startup sacrifice is not viable.

So, yeah, I’m stuck.

 

Electricians make good money, you could work for yourself. All the ones I know have all the work they need. Believe me I get the feeling stuck part! You might have a great option though. Electric is magic to me. I've always been a mechanical nuts and bolts guy.

 

You’d def take a pay cut initially but bumps up as you get closer to your licenses. We have greenhorns who have never seen the business end of a shovel starting at $20-23/hr. Better pay in the PNW, similar to us in the Northeast, vs the southern states.

 

I made my move at 52.

It took some work to get my licenses in order, but once you identify a career with staying power and high demand, you can start to see if you can get certified.

If it requires a license, figure out how to get certified and see if there’s a path to provisional credentials. That way you can get paid while you get licensed.

 

My brother is in his early 30s and worked as an electrical engineer for about 5 years off and on. Now he's trying to find an apprenticeship in a trade, preferably as an electrician, and no one will give him a shot because they just assume he won't be in it for the long haul.

 

The dude im paired with started at 52 also after being a welder for 30 years. Said he didnt know how to wire an outlet when he started, “clueless” as he says. Hes 60 and the best journeyman we have. Never too late.

 

Yeah, $50 an hour would be a nice retirement wage and being able to pick and choose work as well. I see the appeal. Might be a little tricky to get that paid cert time.

while my family is still mid cycle I’m just completely stuck though. Can’t even really change jobs, can’t move, must provide healthcare. It would be so much easier if I hadn’t had kids but they add a dimension to life.

 

It's a good dimension, though. Raising 2 girls has been the best part of my life. A job is just a means to an end, but yeah, I get feeling a bit stuck. I was lucky for a bit when my girls were little and worked as an independent contractor (software developer working from home), so I got to spend a lot of time with them as toddlers. Once they started school, I couldn't spend that time with them and figured having real health insurance was a good idea (I did carry catastrophic just in case), so I re-entered the corporate world.

I considered civil engineering and sometimes wish I had gone that route, potentially spending more time outside doing tangible things.