Do you like your job?

[Skip Intro]

Or is it just a place you're forced to go to get money so that you can avoid starvation and being without shelter?


And a followup:

Is your goal in "earning a living" to be happy and "get by", or to make as much money as you can?

[SweetZombieJesus]

1. It's ok sometimes

But yes, I rather resent capitalism in general.

[Ladyhawk]

5. I was brainwashed into believing that capitalism

was the best thing since sliced bread. Now I see things quite differently.

When I was able to work, it consisted of doing the best I could and sucking up to the boss, only to see promotions and raises given to people who didn't deserve them. Also, male kids doing summer jobs (same job as me) got paid twice what I was paid. It really made me bitter. I began to wonder what the goddamn point was.

Now that I'm disabled and on a starvation pittance of $750 a month, I really, really hate capitalism.

Communism sucks, too. Isn't there a better way?

[Skip Intro]

7. Man, that's really tough

My mom recieves only nine hundred and something from SS, and can barely keep her utilities paid and buy her medications.

I don't know what the answer is for humankind, but I'm pretty sure it involves EVERYONE sharing the world's resources equally while contributing to the overall good to the best of their ability as necessary. The "powerful and privilaged" would howl and snarl at such a suggestion, I'm sure.

[Ladyhawk]

8. The powerful and privileged

would howl and snarl at such a suggestion, but so would the brainwashed stupid white men like my brother.

[newyawker99]

25. Congrats Ladyhawk!! 100 posts

A :toast: for your first milestone!! :-)

[Ladyhawk]

2. If I had a job, I'd tell you.

After dealing with the government for three years, I'm convinced that disability and Medi-Cal are designed to kill off the disabled.

Bones tossed to me by my freeper family are what keep me housed, but dealing with them makes me wish I were dead, sometimes. Faced with a mostly bleak-looking future, I've been really losing it lately. Last night I went to my religious reich mother's house to fix the computers and saw a big hardcover book with Ronald Reagan's face on it next to my brother's computer.

Overcome with rage, I took the book and smashed it against a sharp corner until Reagan's head was as dinted as his political beliefs. Jesus, I haven't done something like that since I was ten. Oh yes, it was wrong. But lately, I just haven't cared.

Then I did something less destructive, but with just as much anger: I re-directed neoconservative URLs to liberal URLs so that every time my brother wants to read the Drudge Report or see what Rush Limbaugh is currently blathering about, he gets to read the Sludge Report and Take Back the Media.

I've been seriously thinking about selling everything I own and living out of my car, just so I don't have to deal with my family anymore.

[TSIAS]

3. My job is okay

I work part-time at a library, along with being a full time student. I don't make much money, but I like the job. The hours are pretty flexible. The people I work with are very friendly.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. I love my work (in fact both of them)

In my day job, I deal with litigation and labor rights. I am fiercely (you may have guessed) for the underdog. My satisfaction comes out of maybe a few days worth of work a year ( the rest is rather rote repetition) but enough to have me look at myself in the mirror and say I am using my life doing good works and making a decent living at it.

In my other job I am an entertainer and that feeds the HAM in me.. I get tired because I work a lot of hours so that is the only draw back.

[Runesong]

6. I pretty much gave up on "jobs" 10 years ago.

I have been self-employed in some form for many years now. I painted houses for a while, for the past 2 years I ran a computer store which is now morphing into a new age shop :)

After wasting most of my 20's working my ass off, getting nowhere being exploited by republican business owners, I made an oath never to punch a clock again.

[Redleg]

9. I love my job. I am a university professor.

I enjoy the teaching and the research. I work long hours but really have a lot of flexibility in how/when I work. It's a great job! It also pays well and has excellent benefits.

[Abe Linkman]

10. My job is solving job hunting problems.

As the only (to my knowledge) Job Hunter's Consultant in the country, I help people get jobs - something that many people believe (wrongly) that recruiters do.

I like my work because over the past 16 years, I've learned a lot about so many different kinds of jobs. It's a big world out there, and most of my clients are amazed when I explain to them how it is possible to have far more options that merely making another lateral move...if go about it strategically and don't just see job hunting as a process or series of things that you do, with the result being a job offer. People who think that way always believe that re-doing their resume or changing a thank you note or some other part of the process, is the key. It isn't.

What I like most about my job is BEATING THE SYSTEM. Helping people get jobs in spite of HR's efforts to derail their candidacy because of something having nothing to do with their ability to handle the job.

[FarLeftRage]

11. I sort of like my job...

Although I know I am grossly underpaid for what I do (Systems Administrator on 3 different platforms), I am looking around for a better job.

As far as "earning a living" to be happy - no, I wish they would pay what I am really worth so that I can "get by" better than I am doing now.

[Maine Mary]

12. Which one?

:shrug:


The one where people shout obscenities to me over the phone or the one where the media feels it has the right to dump all over me w/out any facts to back their tales up? (I do both telesales and am a State Rep.)


Just kidding. That stuff happens on both of my jobs but the rewards outweigh the negatives. The public servant rewards are self explanitory, I think (even though we Maine Reps. make a mere pittance for money).

But my telesales job has it's rewards too; beleive it or not. It's ok money (for Maine) However there are also some other benefits. For example, I spent about 40 minutes this morn on the phone with an elderly lady in Columbus, Ohio who told me about ALL of her woes including raw sewage ravaging her home which the city refuses to compensate her for. She's a litigant in a class action law suit and it looks as if it'll be settled in her favor. But she was in poor spirits today and I hope I helped some by listening. (BTW I just listened and didn't try to sell- (sheee...don't tell my boss ;-) )

But anyway, I hear stories of woe like hers all of the time. Old people rarely ever take the credit cards we are offering, but they often want to have someone to talk too. I take the time to listen even if it means no sales. Funny, my sales aren't any worse, and most of the time, better then everyone else's. I think you get back back what you give in one way or another. It seems to work for me anyway. :-)

[RobinA]

18. Shoot...

"The one where people shout obscenities to me over the phone or the one where the media feels it has the right to dump all over me w/out any facts to back their tales up?"

My job includes both of these into one low-paid job. I'm a caseworker for Children & Youth. I usually like it and always feel challenged, unlike the corporate job I had for 12 years and hated with a purple passion. At least in this job when I feel frustrated I feel like it matters to someone whether I work things out. In the corp. it was all much ado about nothing. These days I can't even LISTEN to people's tales of their corporate travails, I get flashbacks.

[nuxvomica]

22. You are the telemarketer from heaven!

Why don't you advise the industry on your technique? :-)

[jburton]

13. Ugh. No.

I've been living the glamorous life of working for a temp agency for the past year. Absolutely hate it. Always looking for a real job, but the current atmosphere is dim, to say the least.

I don't know what is the worst thing about temping, but I have my top three
* Having somebody explain to me in great detail how to do things like turn on a coffee pot, etc.
* Realizing that the company is paying around double of what I actually get -- the agency gets half.
* Realizing that the company would rather do the above than actually hire a real employee with benefits.

Temp Agencies are the sweat shops of the white collar world.

[sangha]

14. Yes, I do

I work as a system engineer for a charity. I've got a pretty secure job, I work with nice people who are mostly liberals, and I get to help people.

[Deja Q]

15. All I care about is a stable job with competent management

No longer sure about stability, but the new management sure is incompetent. :-(

I only care about making what's necessary (poverty level + $12000, so at least $32k per year, though $40k is ideal), I'm not greedy in a monetary sort of way.

And for what my job is worth. Corporate america is currently devaluing IT where, in order to make $40k a year, you need to have a Bachelors degree and have any number of certifications, though there is more server-oriented tasks. But that's still a bullshit wage for somebody who has to deal with maintaining constant backups and being responsible for the data 24/7. _|_ to corporate america, I wish all their data would get scrambled.

So if I lose my job, I will probably move to another field, though a solid photography job is very rare. For what I am currently doing, I can't even get $30k elsewhere. :eyes: If I lose my job, I go bankrupt and if the bankruptcy "reform" takes effect, I'd rather commit suicide than pay back the greedy worms. Not when they take away the property and still demand I pay for all of it with their insane interest rates, which covers the initial price plus lots more -in their favor. It's one or the other, not both in their favor.

[BigMcLargehuge]

16. The work is great, but the pay stinks...

I am an instructional designer, that is, I create learning systems for complex technical telecommunications topics. I design and write courseware and instructor lectures in a way that is most conducive to the skill level and learning goals of the specific audience.

I think of it as an art akin to tailoring clothes. I have to make sure the instruction fits just right. Although I ignore or refute most current ID theory (it's not applicable to the real world in any way, shape, or form) I seem to have a knack for structuring courses for optimum learning success.

The average pay for someone at my level, with my responsibilities is about 60K a year. I earn less than 35k as I work for a smaller training company.

Got a nibble on my resume this week... we'll see if I can land it.

[BigMcLargehuge]

17. My goals

I almost "get by" as it is now. To me "get by" means everyone gets their money, car loan people, student loan people, landlord, power and oil companies, insurance, doctors and dentists ect. What I'd like is to earn enough to get all those monthy expenditures covered and leave a little left over for savings.

Right now my bank account empties every two weeks to match my two week pay period. Occasionally I have to borrow money for groceries or "shop" at a food pantry.

I try to avoid using credit, though I have a charge card (innactive at the moment) and have a credit councellor to help with some old bills established when I was much younger and much less wise.

It would be nice to know I didn't have all this hanging over my head, it would solve alot of the current frustration in the McLargeHouseHold.

Who knows... Maybe I'll get a raise after 2 years of pay cuts.

I can hope right?

[Lady Freedom]

19. HELL YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have 3, yes 3, jobs! I have yet to start the third, it starts in Sept. But the two I an at, I looooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeee! They are sooooooooooooo coooooooooooooool! I LOVE WORKING IN TV! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

[LWolf]

20. Well,

I love my job. I'm good at it and it helps people. It's a calling.

I despair over the system that controls my job. It works against all of my efforts, raises everyone's stress level, and harms some people on the way to pumping up political and bureaucratic careers.

If I could find a way to do my job outside the system, I would.
I also fight to change the system from within.
If I didn't have to go to work for the rest of my life, I'd be thrilled to leave the crap behind. But I'd miss the work.

I want to make enough money to achieve some of my dreams, live comfortably, and not have to stress over the budget. I work to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. I'm not comfortable yet, and may never make enough in my chosen profession to reach that point.

[shanti]

21. yes, i love my job

just wish i can keep it....got a pre-layoff notice last month:-( i'm an adoption consultant.

[nuxvomica]

23. I like my job and hate it at the same time

The worst things about my job:

• If I make a mistake, it costs a lot of other people more work and the company a lot of money. I am responsible for the company's biggest data assets.
  
• Every day is completely different from the previous day. Unexpected things always occur, breaking my focus from a longterm project.
  
• I am often caught in the middle of corporate politics concerning technology. I often have to argue technological issues with people who have more education on the subject than I.
  
• Most people I know don't understand what I do.
  
• When things go wrong, I am often called into work at off hours or have to postpone time off to meet deadlines.
  

The best things about my job are everything above except the last one.

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. I work out of my home, so most times I like it.

But there are days (like today) when I put it off until very late at night, and then sit here goofing off on DU when I should be working. All in all it's a great job, I just wish I had my priorities straight...hey wait, I guess I do!:)