Working - love or loathe?
 

As I’m about to enter a major change phase in my chosen career I’d be interested to see what you fellow DSC ‘hard’ workers actually think of your working lives.

I know a couple of you have just jacked in jobs and some are moving to new companies and careers, some with trepidation, so I thought I’d poll your views.

Major changes in your 20s are not so life impacting (IMO) as when you reach your 40s (like me :( ) so tell me what you think today – at your time of life – what does work mean to you?

[Edited on 28-7-2005 by everton]

Interesting poll. I'm in a listing phase with work ...

I enjoy the technical challenges of my job and sometimes even the political ones. At the moment though, I'm bored. When my job is interesting and I'm motivated I get a great deal of satisfaction from it but I would never say that I live to work.

There's too many other things I like doing and fortunately my work pays well enough to afford me a few luxuries like the Ducati's I'm currently hoarding :D

I'm thinking I need to move on in my working life though ... I am already a career changer having previously been a soldier/electronics technician.

What are you up to then?

What we talked about in my car the other Friday Tim.

Only bigger, hopefully better, and mucho more investment from me :(

We must have that chat sometime - perhaps after the summer hols.

I`ve been with the same company for the last 22yrs(I know,I don`t look that old)started at the bottom,now factory manager,have been for the last five years,and I`m bored witless!My own worse enemy really,good at what I do,so they keep me doin it.From the outside in it looks ok,close to home,no travelling:D but no unwinding on the way home either:( as long as the work gets done I have a free reign to run the place as I see fit,the wage is reasonable for our area,but boy do I need a change!

Understand entirely Dave

Well we ain't gonna talk about work on Sunday are we? ;);) Really looking forward to it - please, please be dry :smug:

[Edited on 28-7-2005 by everton]

Good call - lets do that.

I'm off out for a ride now - which should it be, ZX10R or 996R!!!!

Tim

Definetly not! As for the weather............Hmmm

http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/7days.asp

I enjoy it now I do it for myself rather than someone else! Always focusses you knowing whatever you earn you keep rather than just getting a cut.

oooh hard one....

part of me says i hate it and only do it for the money, but part of the reason i left my last job was because I was bored half the time.

When I actually get to do something myself rather than dealing with numpties I enjoy what I do. Sometimes I think I would like to jack it all in and do something completely different, but I think my job suits my personilty and my attitude... or maybe i have this personality and attidue because of my job...hmmm

I still do roughly the same work as in my previous role just with a company that has some huge differences to my one which means things that would have been an everyday task previously is now a major headache :(

Having said all that, i get paid so i get to keep my bike so can't be all bad (for today anyway)

I had this exact discussion on the phone with a friend yesterday who was down in the dumps. he said that of all of his friends (all professionals - accountants, lawyers, etc), I was the only one that seemed happy with what I was doing (equity analysis).

Although we eventually concluded that I am a simpleton that is easy to please we did raise a couple of interesting points.
1) For some people, no matter what they do they will feel that they have a higher calling in life. The thinkers want to produce something, the producers want to be creatives, the creatives want to think, etc.
2) If you ate the same meal for the rest of your life, you would probably eventually get bored of it.
3) Some chase the money, some are after job satisfaction. The two are not mutually exclusive but for some reason you rarely get the two together.

If you are bored, you should probably change. We only have one life to live and it's too short to not enjoy half of it.

Chi

None of the above really. I actually like what I do, and rarely find it a chore or a bore. That said, it doesn't rule my life either - more a case of a certain loyalty to my customers because I enjoy it, for which I am relatively well compensated iro money and time. Well enough to pay for and have time to enjoy my Duke..... :)

S'pose I'm pretty lucky work wise.
I'm doing what I want to do, when I want to do it. If the weathers nice I can bunk off early at 6:30pm and ride me bike.
If I'm feeling lazy I can go in late at 7:45 am.
Apart from that, I get to work in a 5M x 5M office at the back of a church with two windows about 2ft tall and starting at 7ft off the floor.
In the same office are four women ranging in age from 18 to 43. From their conversations (which I am sometimes permitted to listen into) I think they all come to work on the same bike (like the goodies) cos they all agreed they're on the same cycle:puzzled:
I even get to goad them sometimes, but only when I'm halfway out of the door.
:sing:

sometimes im happy enough and other times i hate it, i like doing what im doing and it pays well enough for someone in cornwall with no qualifications and it just about keeps the duke on the road. my main problem is bad man management from our rsm, hes more of a demotivator than a motivator !!

unfortunately as a sales rep you cant afford to let the negatives affect you but i do

when things are going and im motivated and the sales keep rolling im happy but when things dont go my watch out, we should work as a small team but that just dont happen and it gets to me sometimes
overall im happy 85% of the time and a bit more today as ive just picked up a new customer 2day that should be worth £120 a month to me, yippee !!!

i'm not even going there with an answer to this ...... Dave, over a beer sometime mate .... :)

You have to have a job first mate :)

Ok own up who voted for -

I'm extremely rich - I inherited/made my money - work is for the masses

:lol::lol::lol:

I see nobody here admits to being on benefits - we don't have anyone that well off fortunately:smug:

[Edited on 28-7-2005 by everton]

Reason #1 for working is to fund the bike, mortgage, car, holidays all come 2ND !!

/ian

I voted....

Working - like eating really - got to be done to sustain life - sometimes enjoyable, sometimes a chore

Closest to the way I feel about work. I love my job, the company and the people I work with. Flexible bunch, family oriented and let me manage myself. Sometimes though, getting up at 5 to fly up to Leeds for an hours meeting is a chore, but most of the time, I'm having a ball....


Don't get me started on benefits, a "friend" of the wife's has just been declared bankrupt, has never had a job, and ran up £30K on credit cards. Lives in a really nice 2 bed house, where normal rents are in 4 figures, and has more spare cash than me :flame:

I go to work to earn an honest living, pay my taxes to keep the country running and because I'd be bored stiff and unchallenged if I didn't.

But for the last year or so I've just been totally frustrated and naffed off with my current job that I've had to stop myself from simply throwing my toys in the air and clearing off never to return to that dump again.

What's stopped me? I need the money, I have a 4-stroke habit to feed, I have no qualifications to get a different job that pays enough. I'm stuck in a rut and need to find a way out... any suggestions would be most greatfully recieved!

Sad git really aren't I!

I love what I do :)
I "want" to go to work every day. The hours can be long and it's cost me in some ways i'd never imagined, but the satisfaction is immense.
I had 15 years on the "treadmill" and when i got the chance via redundancy to start up on my own, I took it.
I had enough cash put by to scrape through for 8 months without having to earn anything. After that, if i couldn't get by, i was goin to pack it in and get a "proper" job again.
I haven't had to do that, fortunately.
The monetary reward isn't that great, but i believe that hard work will always pay off eventually.
What I get from my work though, money can't buy.
Like Chi said, lifes too short. It ain't a dress rehersal. I wish I'd have had the balls to go for it earlier knowing what i know now.

Good luck in what ever you do Dave.

Careful mate ... you're laying yourself open there :lol::lol:

:flame: I despise working....but then I despise most things/people, but it keeps me out of mischief!!!

Ususally i feel like the luckiest person alive and am very greatful for that. After being made redundant at a very early age, i've been self employed/ran my own business for the last 25 years. The moneys not bad and i can do what the hell i like most of the time.

Having said that i still can have really crap days and think whats it all about (yesterday for instance) and sometimes i'm my own worst enemy and don't go home because it is my business and things need doing.

Having said all that i work because i enjoy it, but the most important things are the wife and kids, followed by the bike obsession and work provides me with the most acceptable way of funding al of that other than winning the lottery.

deej

I know how you feel.

I work for a small company and get pi***d off with the us and them attitudes of the production guys who think that sales is an easy option.

Everyone thinks all I do is drive around all day having cups of coffee and nattering to customers.

Fat chance!

I enjoy my work in the summer,not so keen in the winter months-self employed bricklayer,we only get paid for materials used.(roll on global warming) Are the majority of Ducati owners "professional" types or are there many other"manual" workers in the ranks?

Good point Eric, worth another poll eh. How many?

• White collar
• Blue collar

Or can't you say that anymore. It might not be PC?

Your just a wee fanny tho....

/ian

In my experience a lot of people dont truly know what doe's motivate them, most think its money but that is not usually the case. The best thing I ever did was unshackle myself from corporate misery and do my own thing, now I work to my agenda and priorities but I have to live with the consequences of getting it right or wrong. But life couldnt be better and I am actually earning about double my old wage. That'll ding dang do for me!

I guess I am a brown collar worker, I am a developer and my days/weeks are quite varied looking at potential sites, meeting with trades for quotes, architects, Est agents(everything you read about them is true) and the list goe's on. Quite a change from my old employed job as a district sales manager for an insurance company.

To have no job and not want to work must have a terrible effect on your disposition no wonder Berto sounds like such a bad boy.

[Edited on 1-8-2005 by Rossco]

His face is Tripping him 24/7

/ian :devil:

Ian ... :o:o ... do something about your signature gif before you are painfully censored :D

I love my job.

9 Years in the Army and i finally came to my senses.

I only work 161 days a year Offshore, 2 weeks on 2 weeks off, 2 weeks on 4 weeks off.

The money is excellent for what i do but the time off is the key.

I get to take the wee man to school and watch him play football, i get to his parent meetings and am home at nights unlike some poor dad's so i help him with his homework and stuff, things my old man never did.

Sure the 2 weeks away are hard but i am sure i actually get more quality time with the family than some poor sods who work 9-5.

Nice one scotty, thats what its all about.

Maybe going off the point a bit but these two comments are genuine staff appraisal comments from the days when laughing wasn't a disciplinary offence where I work!

For XXXXX work equals pain, XXXXX has a low pain threshold.

XXXXX does as much work as he thinks he gets paid for.


Ray.

My favourite one is:-

X sets very low standards for himself and continually fails to achieve them.

lol Everton, no ones pm'ed me about it, if it does offend then ill gladly remove it.

/ian