Forget that I ever existed

Brynsam

Even more unhappiness is created by having a negative attitude and not being willing to make change happen if you don't like where you are. 

If you're talking about me making no attempt to leave a job I hated for so long then yes that was a mistake. At the same time though none of the jobs I've applied to are very appealing. I realised years ago that I have zero interest in what I do but a lower paid but more interesting job isn't going to pay the mortgage.

What exactly is stopping you from doing something about finding a more interesting job? Looking at your other posts, you seem to set up some very bizarre barriers to your own success and happiness - a working day which finishes half an hour late so it would spoil your dinner....is it worth spending your working day doing something you don't enjoy just so you can eat at a customary hour? You clearly hate change, but unless you can countenance some sort of change, you'll spend the rest of your life doing something you don't like just to pay the mortgage.

The_Urbanite

I'm a "millennial" who went to university. I landed my dream job as a result and have been happy with it ever since. Something that helped was making the decision as to what I wanted to do fairly early on - all that was left was to do what was necessary to get there.

Recently though I've been philosophising about the concept of making a living. I mean, we're told (by who?) that we must exchange quite a lot of our time for a relatively small amount of money, but who says that's how we have to live? Why can't we flip it around and exchange a little bit (or a lot) of time for a lot of money? Or make a living getting paid to do things we'd gladly do for free?

Quite a lot of people think this way and clock onto opportunities that allow them to make a living without being unhappy.

hyubh

ushjr said:

I used to go to a weekly meeting that was a 10 minute walk away so no expenses involved but that ended up being done on the internet. As for being in the zone, I've been there with boring repetitive work where I've set myself targets and seen the time fly by. Being creative is overrated, I've been in brainstorming sessions with flipcharts etc which results in people just stating the bleeding obvious.

'Being creative' is patently not 'be[ing] in brainstorming sessions with flipcharts etc which results in people just stating the bleeding obvious'. However it might involve, for example, automating away 'boring repetitive work'; or devising in the first place a simple 'repetitive' process that almost anyone could do, in order to solve a business problem; or implementing a better means of communication than everyone wasting 20 minutes walking to and from a meeting room to speak to each other; and so forth.

theoretica

The_Urbanite said:

I'm a "millennial" who went to university. I landed my dream job as a result and have been happy with it ever since. Something that helped was making the decision as to what I wanted to do fairly early on - all that was left was to do what was necessary to get there.

Recently though I've been philosophising about the concept of making a living. I mean, we're told (by who?) that we must exchange quite a lot of our time for a relatively small amount of money, but who says that's how we have to live? Why can't we flip it around and exchange a little bit (or a lot) of time for a lot of money? Or make a living getting paid to do things we'd gladly do for free?

Quite a lot of people think this way and clock onto opportunities that allow them to make a living without being unhappy.

Very much so.  Also arranging your life so you don't need to earn more money than you want to - sometimes not spending is a better option than earning more.

onylon

ushjr said:
Automating boring repetitive work rarely works. We had a huge team of developers, project managers and god knows what else working on automating things that really didn't take that long which always failed and they'd never fix them because IT tickets weren't raised in the correct way whatever that was. 

As for wasting time walking, surely a meeting where people are refreshed after getting fresh air is more productive than where everyone's half asleep because they've been at their computer all day.

Automation is very powerful but it has to be applied intelligently. I'm a network engineer and I'm often asked to do the same peice of work literally hundreds of times. I could do each piece seperately and redo it from scratch every time or I could create a template that a junior can use to replicate my work. Junior engineers working from templates are bored engineers, they tend to have a high error rate, it will still take weeks and I will have to sit on them the whole time because they wont want to do it. If I template everything up and then use a computer instead of an engineer to apply it then I can get the whole thing done in a few hours (or minutes if its a simple one). The only problem is that with automation is that I will have to front load the work - ie I invest a few hours to set it up and then it takes the same amount of my time to do that thing 100 times or 1000 times. People dont like to plan ahead so its really hard to know if its going to be worth that investment

Mickey666

Barny1979 said:

Mickey666 said:

Barny1979 said:

Mickey666 said:

If your idea of a less boring job is having to get up to walk to the fax machine then I guess you've never had a creative job that requires thought, concentration, calculation, creativity, responsibility . . . the sort of thing that pulls you into a 'zone' and makes the hours fly by without even being noticed.  Besides, such things are only one phase of typical project work.  Once the design work is complete the resulting product or system has to be built, commissioned and handed over to the customer.  That will typically involve plenty of travelling to external meetings, much of it abroad in my case.  Nothing like a two-day trip to Boston USA (including helicopter shuttle flights direct from Logan airport to the manufacturing plant, of course - because time is precious) for a bit of trouble-shooting then arriving back in the London office to find tickets for Tokyo on your desk for Monday to help plan customer support during the commissioning phase.  And if you think Skype or Zoom replaces serious business meetings then I guess you've not been a frequent visitor to the business lounges at all major airports - besides there are no air miles for video conferencing so how else would you get free family trips to Disney and Universal Studios?
Perhaps you're just not aiming high enough

Not all office jobs are project-based.

Of course.  And not all project-based jobs are office based either.  What's your point?

My point was you''re trying to make project work glamorous and sexy, it really isn't, as are a lot of office jobs.

Not really, I was trying to point out that project-based work is less routine and offers more scope for variety than many jobs.  I don't think the being office-based or not is particularly relevant, it's more the nature of the work.
I'm not suggesting it's for everyone, in fact I'm sure it isn't, but I was addressing the OPs concern about having a boring, repetitive job.

Barny1979

Mickey666 said:

Barny1979 said:

Mickey666 said:

Barny1979 said:

Mickey666 said:

If your idea of a less boring job is having to get up to walk to the fax machine then I guess you've never had a creative job that requires thought, concentration, calculation, creativity, responsibility . . . the sort of thing that pulls you into a 'zone' and makes the hours fly by without even being noticed.  Besides, such things are only one phase of typical project work.  Once the design work is complete the resulting product or system has to be built, commissioned and handed over to the customer.  That will typically involve plenty of travelling to external meetings, much of it abroad in my case.  Nothing like a two-day trip to Boston USA (including helicopter shuttle flights direct from Logan airport to the manufacturing plant, of course - because time is precious) for a bit of trouble-shooting then arriving back in the London office to find tickets for Tokyo on your desk for Monday to help plan customer support during the commissioning phase.  And if you think Skype or Zoom replaces serious business meetings then I guess you've not been a frequent visitor to the business lounges at all major airports - besides there are no air miles for video conferencing so how else would you get free family trips to Disney and Universal Studios?
Perhaps you're just not aiming high enough

Not all office jobs are project-based.

Of course.  And not all project-based jobs are office based either.  What's your point?

My point was you''re trying to make project work glamorous and sexy, it really isn't, as are a lot of office jobs.

Not really, I was trying to point out that project-based work is less routine and offers more scope for variety than many jobs.  I don't think the being office-based or not is particularly relevant, it's more the nature of the work.
I'm not suggesting it's for everyone, in fact I'm sure it isn't, but I was addressing the OPs concern about having a boring, repetitive job.

Project work can be dull as dishwater depending on the project and the individuals involvement. Horses for courses.

Mickey666

Sorry to hear that you've had such poor work experiences, but you can't expect anyone else to look after your job/career prospects - you have to take on that responsibility for yourself.  YOU are the only one who can change things for the better and if you can't do it then don't expect anyone else to do it for you.

amandacat

I had my first job in the 90s at age 16 and I hated it. I changed job several times and hated all my jobs in my 20s. I was 31 before I found the career I loved and was able to progress. I don’t think it’s unique to millennials. 

ginger_chocolate

ushjr said:

Mickey666 said:

Sorry to hear that you've had such poor work experiences, but you can't expect anyone else to look after your job/career prospects - you have to take on that responsibility for yourself.  YOU are the only one who can change things for the better and if you can't do it then don't expect anyone else to do it for you.

I thought at the very least someone would give me some work to do when I took the job but that never happened. 

To be fair I have had this experience too and it's really frustrating - being under-used has an effect on your self-esteem after a while. I think, rather than focusing on seeking "fulfilling work" and getting down when it doesn't happen, it's more productive to think about what would make a "fulfilling life" - make a list of all the things that you love to do, make you happy etc regardless of whether they make money and then work out how to organise your life to allow those things to happen as much as possible.
My sister-in-law is an accountant. She doesn't particularly enjoy it (although she doesn't hate it either). In her early twenties she asked herself "what do I really enjoy doing?" and the answer was "going on luxury holidays". Rather than faffing around trying to find a career she loved, she just looked for the highest paid most secure career that utilised things she was reasonably skilled at and "didn't mind doing". As a result she now earns loads of money working relatively few hours (under 40 a week) and enjoys great holidays several times a year. The job isn't all that exciting, but her life is. In recent years I've come around to thinking a out work in a similar way - if I can't get paid to do something I love, I can at least do work that gives me the time and money to do what I love in my free time. I'm much happier that way. I just wish I'd had that attitude in my twenties tbh...