How important is it to enjoy your job?

sink_or_swim

I am not enjoying my job and my old company have asked me to go back to a better role paying more than I earn currently but a lot of other aspects of our life would suffer and there are so many more reasons not to take the job than to take it.

Are we mad for even considering it? What would you give up to ensure you were happy and stress-free at work?

worried_jim

I once and only once walked out of a job after two months without having another one to go to. It was making me sick and depressed so I knew for the good of my health I had to stop.

This was in 2005 and I am still with the next company that employed me now. I would never do something I didn't enjoy or like the people I work with. I feel very fortunate not to have been in this position again, the dread waking up every morning was awful.

OP- go with what makes you happiest.

Guest101

It would be good to understand what the cons are.


Relocating? Additional travel? Working weekends?

k3lvc

sink_or_swim wrote: »

I am not enjoying my job and my old company have asked me to go back to a better role paying more than I earn currently but a lot of other aspects of our life would suffer and there are so many more reasons not to take the job than to take it.

Are we mad for even considering it? What would you give up to ensure you were happy and stress-free at work?

Happy and stress free are not mutually exclusive - some of my happier times at work are when I've been stressed and some of my sadder ones when there was no pressure.


Only you know how you thrive and what your personal drivers are. For me security/stability/personal profile/work life balance are more important than day to day task enjoyment. Lifestage and personal circumstances also dictate the 'enjoyment' vs 'practicality' elements

BJV

It will depend on you. I have made lots of in hindsight bad decisions in my life and thankfully lots of good ones. I walked away from a very well paid job because it was killing both me and my family. Yes you need enough money to live but there has to be a work life balance. I found that I never saw my children my husband or friends. It was really hard but now ??? life is ok. Love work and have a much better home life. Perhaps not quiet as much money but then I don't have to spend it all the time in guilt purchases, making up for the fact that I was not there?

So no you are not mad!

Dill

You spend 5 days out of 7 working - don't do a job that makes you that unhappy.

sink_or_swim

k3lvc wrote: »

Only you know how you thrive and what your personal drivers are. For me security/stability/personal profile/work life balance are more important than day to day task enjoyment. Lifestage and personal circumstances also dictate the 'enjoyment' vs 'practicality' elements

This is a very good point. All those factors would suffer if I moved.

I don’t particularly have an issue with day to day task enjoyment, it’s more the fact I feel underappreciated and am promised things that never appear. A friend who has just left my company has advised me to move on (without even knowing about this offer) as she says there are people here who are very unhappy about the prospect of me being promoted to their level, despite me having much more experience than them. She feels I will never be fully appreciated here and am just fighting a losing battle.

Guest101 wrote: »

It would be good to understand what the cons are.
Relocating? Additional travel? Working weekends?

Cons are mainly relocating and as hubby wouldn’t be able to get a job in the new place he would be commuting back 2 days a week (working from home the rest of the time). But as he takes on more responsibility, that might increase so our time together would reduce, and the cost of that commuting would eat up the extra wages I'd be getting.
There would be no weekend work, but more foreign travel (I used to enjoy this quite a lot though) and as a manager I’d sometimes have to work extra hours around deadline times but you get this time back in lieu.

We love our house here and it's now almost exactly how we want it so moving again isn't appealing. Neither is having to start the whole process of refurbishing somewhere new.

jaydeeuk1

You'll be spending the majority of your life doing it, you'll be spending more time with work colleagues than your partner/children, might as well do something you enjoy. Also shows why its important to stay on in education or do some sort of apprenticeship, gives you far more choice on what you'd want to do. I've been in the same job since I left uni, love it, I actually look forward to Mondays. I'd still work here for free if I could afford it! Maybe if I spent more time working and less time on MSE or hotukdeals, I could work through choice rather than necessity.

sink_or_swim

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

You'll be spending the majority of your life doing it, you'll be spending more time with work colleagues than your partner/children, might as well do something you enjoy.

Half of me agrees entirely with this. But what if doing something you enjoy impacts negatively on your family life? It is a balance and I don't want to be in a job I love but have a miserable husband who I see less of and who is forced to spend 7 hours a day on trains!

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

Also shows why its important to stay on in education or do some sort of apprenticeship, gives you far more choice on what you'd want to do. I've been in the same job since I left uni, love it, I actually look forward to Mondays. I'd still work here for free if I could afford it! Maybe if I spent more time working and less time on MSE or hotukdeals, I could afford to work for free.

I found the opposite to be true! Both hubby and I have so many degrees and further work qualifications that the fields we can work in have become so narrow and we have very few career choices open to us. I guess you need a balance. Enough education to give you lots of options, and not too much that you're pigeonholed.

AndyBSG

My job is dull and uninteresting and I have to work with people who are so incompetent it occasionally makes my blood boil

That said, I wouldn't change it because although the hours of 9 to 5 are incredibly dull I get paid very well and rarely have to work outside of those hours.

I think it's more due to my mindset that anything else though as while i'm at work I simply 'switch off' and when I walk out at 5 each evening I don't think about it again until 9 the following morning.

For me it's simply somewhere I go a few hours a day to allow me to enjoy the rest of my life so nothing that happen there bothers or affects me in any way.

Never really understood the whole job satisfaction thing.

I've always loved cooking and trained for 3 years at college as a chef and worked in the restaurant industry for 8 years... Ended up hating cooking and only re-discovered my enjoyment of it several years after leaving the industry.

Also had a job delivering and fitting kitchens which I really enjoyed but the poor pay meant that I couldn't really enjoy the rest of my life.

On balance, i'm much happier in my dull and boring job that allows me to spend plenty of time with my family and friends and pay me well enough to go on holidays and spend money on my hobbies

Noctu

sink_or_swim wrote: »

Cons are mainly relocating and as hubby wouldn’t be able to get a job in the new place he would be commuting back 2 days a week (working from home the rest of the time). But as he takes on more responsibility, that might increase so our time together would reduce, and the cost of that commuting would eat up the extra wages I'd be getting.
There would be no weekend work, but more foreign travel (I used to enjoy this quite a lot though) and as a manager I’d sometimes have to work extra hours around deadline times but you get this time back in lieu.

We love our house here and it's now almost exactly how we want it so moving again isn't appealing. Neither is having to start the whole process of refurbishing somewhere new.

Ok, those are some pretty big cons... having to move house, and moving from a house you love? Your husband having to work away two nights a week? The cost of commuting eating up the extra wage? Not sure I'd go for it personally.

How about just trying to find another job elsewhere, near where you live now?

P.S. I escaped a hellish job in February... I do know what it's like... but I wouldn't give up our lovely home and move for another job, to me that would be more stressful than sticking in the job I had. But that was my situation...