“at 50, with no mortgage and 2 grown up kids, do you think I give a monkey’s knacker about my ‘personal development'”

Why not? Is your life over yet? Always scope for greater personal development. A bit sad that you don’t seem to think so. 🙁

Mid 40’s, mortgage free, always looking for new stuff to do and learn. Even considering a return to academia. Possibly even a whole new ‘career’. Never too late.

Why not? Is your life over yet? Always scope for greater personal development. A bit sad that you don’t seem to think so.

or maybe, I might just be happy and content with my lot?

“or maybe, I might just be happy and content with my lot?”

So what’s wrong with doing other stuff? Wouldn’t you much rather have a job that was fun and interesting, rather than spending 40 hours a week being bored? 😕

So what’s wrong with doing other stuff? Wouldn’t you much rather have a job that was fun and interesting, rather than spending 40 hours a week being bored?

no.
I would rather be happy and content.

You’re happy being bored? Ok. 🙄

Covered for someone on holiday for a fortnight once.
The job?
Emptying golf balls out of their boxes.
Thousands a day.

You’re happy being bored? Ok.

no,i am a happy bloke doing a boring job.

Not me!

Everyday I get to experience the gut wrenching drama of human conflict through Quantity Surveying.

It looks a bit like this…..

Preparing to do Battle

The thrill of Victory!

The agony of Defeat!

Had a warehouse job once.

Had to pack X legal records a day into boxes to take to another warehouse by 12 midday each day.

It took maybe 20 minutes in the morning to get them together ready to go. Rest of the 8 hour work day was spent building box forts, skipping work early and not telling anyone, watching films, whatever. In a horrible dingy warehouse.

But I was with a good mate doing it so wasn’t all that bad.

thisisnotaspoon – Member
Unemployed

Get up

Find job advertisement

Write covering letter

Get absolutely no feedback, not even and automated response

Repeat untill you give up and do all the house work, have dinner cooked and ready for when the OH comes at home

Feel for you! 8 months of it I had. Although, no OH to wait for!
“The right job will come along” said everyone.. and it did. I can ride to work every day. That’s all I need!
But… I preferred being out of work to the rest of it… found plenty to keep me occupied.

clodhopper – Member
You’re happy being bored? Ok.

Why the hell would you roll your eyes at someone content in what they’re doing?? Weird 🙄

Why the hell would you roll your eyes at someone content in what they’re doing?? Weird

oh, and I forgot the most important bit, I can ride offroad to work everyday too…………… 🙄 😆

Now THAT’s personal development 😀

Transferring sponges from made in China boxes to mad in UK boxes before sending then to body shop.

“Why the hell would you roll your eyes at someone content in what they’re doing??”

I agree, it wasn’t the right emoticon. Really don’t know how anyone can be truly ‘content’ being bored for 40 hours a week. Wouldn’t you rather be doing something interesting in that time?

“I can ride offroad to work everyday too”

So what? I can do that AND do something interesting every day! 😆

Which, today, is waiting for glue to set. Which isn’t that interesting. 😳

As an agency nurse I once worked on a research contract – my bit of it was to watch people breathe as they slept.

30+ young men in a room. I have to go to person 1 at exactly the hour, count their breathing for 30seconds chart it go to person 2 and at 1 min past count their breathing. Repeat every hour so you barely get time to sit down between rounds. 8 hrs a night 6 days a week for 8 weeks but it paid for a holiday.

Single most tedious job I have had

Clodhopper – its the difference between working to live and living to work. People can get fulfilment from things other than work.

Granted, but I vowed to never again have a ‘boring’ job many years ago, after literally being in tears most mornings, at the sheer monotony and pointlessness of what I was doing then. Had jobs for a lot less money, but a much better state of mind. Now, I work when I want, and have loads more fun. Helps not having massive debts and living costs, but I’m in a position where I dictate what I do, and not have to live to work. And the ‘work’ I do, I don’t see as actual ‘work’. So, win-win! 😀 I appreciate not everyone is that fortunate though.

done a few as summer jobs, luckily none lasted too long.

Most boring was on reception at a commercial recycling centre: 2 phone calls in 3 days and no visitors. Smoked myself silly, by Friday night I couldn’t actually speak! 😯

Envelope opening.

I’d forgotten about this one, at the council: envelope stuffing. Had a huge pile of circulars to go to every house in southampton, i stuffed every one in an envelope.

And the ‘work’ I do, I don’t see as actual ‘work’. So, win-win! I appreciate not everyone is that fortunate though.

nail on the head, I see my day as socialising with my customers, and you lot on here.
and I am so fortunate that I don’t even go for the money as I don’t need it, just to be social………. 😆

Point taken Cloddhopper

What do we expect really. Humans were designed to have their fight or flight mechanisms and general adrenalin response activated reasonably often – that’s why a lot of us here sit at our desks dreaming about doing something that might kill us. We’re overgrown apes brought up on millennia and millennia of hunting, fighting and shagging – what we really want is for our senses to be bombarded with stimuli.

I worked for McKenzie clothing one summer before they went bust. My job was to sort out the thousands of odd, returned shoes that they had been throwing in the warehouse for years.

As I started to run out of pairs, I was told to match closest sizes, 9 with 9 1/2 10 with 11.

Near the end of it, I was just sticking shoes of the same appearance in boxes to be sold.

Long summer that.

” I am so fortunate that I don’t even go for the money as I don’t need it, just to be social.”

So you’re not that bored then after al! 😀

Most boring actual job I’ve ever done was probably packing records into cardboard boxes. I think two days I lasted there.

“at 50, with no mortgage and 2 grown up kids, do you think I give a monkey’s knacker about my ‘personal development'”

Why not? Is your life over yet? Always scope for greater personal development. A bit sad that you don’t seem to think so.

Mid 40’s, mortgage free, always looking for new stuff to do and learn. Even considering a return to academia. Possibly even a whole new ‘career’. Never too late.

Some people enjoy mundane jobs, its not a bad thing. Why do you think ton needs to be personally developed and its sad that he doesn’t. People can be content with what they have, it doesn’t make them any less intelligent.

If you want to ‘return to academia’ just for the sake of it then that’s up to you, doesn’t make you a better person. Some of us enjoy our life to the full as it is.

I spent a summers evening with a young lady once, working in a bakery.

She put the cherries on the rum babas, I closed the box lid. An hour in we were gibbering. So we swapped, and got a lecture from someone in a hairnet, and returned to our assigned post.

I’m a professional so I finished the shift, but never went back. A friend has a similar role there over summer and claimed he used to get a small weekly bonus simply for showing up to all his allotted shifts.

EDIT: I’m about as ‘work to live’ as you get, but that really was a step too far. I quite enjoyed shelf stacking, something about the order you could create…

“Why do you think ton needs to be personally developed and its sad that he doesn’t.”

Because I just think it’s sad that anyone could not want to learn and discover new things, explore new avenues and ideas. Maybe that’s just me. I don’t believe Ton really doesn’t give a ‘monkey’s knacker’ about his personal development anyway. I’m sure he likes going on holiday to new places, meeting new people, having new experiences etc. He has admitted he likes the social aspect, and socialisation is part of personal development anyway.

“If you want to ‘return to academia’ just for the sake of it then that’s up to you, doesn’t make you a better person. Some of us enjoy our life to the full as it is.”

I never claimed it would make me a ‘better’ person. It might, though. And I accept that some people require less stimulation and intellectual challenge than others.

Most boring was on reception at a commercial recycling centre: 2 phone calls in 3 days and no visitors. Smoked myself silly, by Friday night I couldn’t actually speak!

I’m going to assume that was before mobiles / internet as that sounds like a dream job to me

And I accept that some people require less stimulation and intellectual challenge than others.
Fickos, you mean?

Yeah, fickos. 😀

Because I just think it’s sad that anyone could not want to learn and discover new things, explore new avenues and ideas

Learning and discovering new things doesn’t need to involve going to work or university.

I once worked with a chap whos first job was in a big oil company accounts dept he had to unstaple the receipts on each expense claim and….that was it, someone else reconciled the claim. Just piles of receipts waiting to be unstapled and passed to the person sitting next to him. It was 25 years ago so no doubt automated now.

Some people enjoy mundane jobs, its not a bad thing. Why do you think ton needs to be personally developed and its sad that he doesn’t. People can be content with what they have, it doesn’t make them any less intelligent.

A pal of mine has been in exactly the same job (concrete technician) for the same company since he left school – he’s now 50 y/o.

He got a new boss a few years ago and this guy was pushing my pal to apply for more senior jobs. My pals’ answer?

“look, don’t think that the reason I’ve never moved from this job is because I can’t, it’s because I don’t want to”

He’s perfectly contented with his lot.

And when they put speed limiters on the vans, everyone complained except him. As he said, I’m paid to drive the van. If it goes slower, I will just cover less distance.

Once worked in a meat processing factory. 8 hours shift. My role was to stand by one conveyor belt, which was transporting some breaded chicken fillets and from time to time I had to give it a gentle knock to remove an excess of breadcrumbs from the belt. I had suicidal thoughts…

It was 25 years ago so no doubt automated now.

Only if the documents are digital or no longer stapled. I worked for a microfilm co years ago, there was only one way to remove staples and alphabetise documents: Low paid women 🙂 (Well, I did it sometimes and I wasn’t woman).

I developed personally and became the boss. Now I’d be happy pulling staples 🙂

This is my very first post on here after about 3 years of furious lurking, this thread has definitely struck a chord with my feelings about work at the moment. I found this article yesterday and thought you fine folk might appreciate it…
Hunter Thompson Letter

I’ve copied the text for those lacking the motivation to click the link (frequently happens for me), the last paragraph is the bit that got me…

April 22, 1958
57 Perry Street
New York City

Dear Hume,

You ask advice: ah, what a very human and very dangerous thing to do! For to give advice to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal — to point with a trembling finger in the RIGHT direction is something only a fool would take upon himself.

I am not a fool, but I respect your sincerity in asking my advice. I ask you though, in listening to what I say, to remember that all advice can only be a product of the man who gives it. What is truth to one may be disaster to another. I do not see life through your eyes, nor you through mine. If I were to attempt to give you specific advice, it would be too much like the blind leading the blind.

“To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles … ” (Shakespeare)

And indeed, that IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal. It is a choice we must all make consciously or unconsciously at one time in our lives. So few people understand this! Think of any decision you’ve ever made which had a bearing on your future: I may be wrong, but I don’t see how it could have been anything but a choice however indirect — between the two things I’ve mentioned: the floating or the swimming.

But why not float if you have no goal? That is another question. It is unquestionably better to enjoy the floating than to swim in uncertainty. So how does a man find a goal? Not a castle in the stars, but a real and tangible thing. How can a man be sure he’s not after the “big rock candy mountain,” the enticing sugar-candy goal that has little taste and no substance?

The answer — and, in a sense, the tragedy of life — is that we seek to understand the goal and not the man. We set up a goal which demands of us certain things: and we do these things. We adjust to the demands of a concept which CANNOT be valid. When you were young, let us say that you wanted to be a fireman. I feel reasonably safe in saying that you no longer want to be a fireman. Why? Because your perspective has changed. It’s not the fireman who has changed, but you. Every man is the sum total of his reactions to experience. As your experiences differ and multiply, you become a different man, and hence your perspective changes. This goes on and on. Every reaction is a learning process; every significant experience alters your perspective.

So it would seem foolish, would it not, to adjust our lives to the demands of a goal we see from a different angle every day? How could we ever hope to accomplish anything other than galloping neurosis?

The answer, then, must not deal with goals at all, or not with tangible goals, anyway. It would take reams of paper to develop this subject to fulfillment. God only knows how many books have been written on “the meaning of man” and that sort of thing, and god only knows how many people have pondered the subject. (I use the term “god only knows” purely as an expression.) There’s very little sense in my trying to give it up to you in the proverbial nutshell, because I’m the first to admit my absolute lack of qualifications for reducing the meaning of life to one or two paragraphs.

I’m going to steer clear of the word “existentialism,” but you might keep it in mind as a key of sorts. You might also try something called “Being and Nothingness” by Jean-Paul Sartre, and another little thing called “Existentialism: From Dostoyevsky to Sartre.” These are merely suggestions. If you’re genuinely satisfied with what you are and what you’re doing, then give those books a wide berth. (Let sleeping dogs lie.) But back to the answer. As I said, to put our faith in tangible goals would seem to be, at best, unwise. So we do not strive to be firemen, we do not strive to be bankers, nor policemen, nor doctors.WE STRIVE TO BE OURSELVES.

But don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mean that we can’t BE firemen, bankers, or doctors — but that we must make the goal conform to the individual, rather than make the individual conform to the goal. In every man, heredity and environment have combined to produce a creature of certain abilities and desires — including a deeply ingrained need to function in such a way that his life will be MEANINGFUL. A man has to BE something; he has to matter.

As I see it then, the formula runs something like this: a man must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his DESIRES. In doing this, he is fulfilling a need (giving himself identity by functioning in a set pattern toward a set goal), he avoids frustrating his potential (choosing a path which puts no limit on his self-development), and he avoids the terror of seeing his goal wilt or lose its charm as he draws closer to it (rather than bending himself to meet the demands of that which he seeks, he has bent his goal to conform to his own abilities and desires).

In short, he has not dedicated his life to reaching a pre-defined goal, but he has rather chosen a way of life he KNOWS he will enjoy. The goal is absolutely secondary: it is the functioning toward the goal which is important. And it seems almost ridiculous to say that a man MUST function in a pattern of his own choosing; for to let another man define your own goals is to give up one of the most meaningful aspects of life — the definitive act of will which makes a man an individual.

Let’s assume that you think you have a choice of eight paths to follow (all pre-defined paths, of course). And let’s assume that you can’t see any real purpose in any of the eight. THEN — and here is the essence of all I’ve said — you MUST FIND A NINTH PATH.

Naturally, it isn’t as easy as it sounds. You’ve lived a relatively narrow life, a vertical rather than a horizontal existence. So it isn’t any too difficult to understand why you seem to feel the way you do. But a man who procrastinates in his CHOOSING will inevitably have his choice made for him by circumstance.

So if you now number yourself among the disenchanted, then you have no choice but to accept things as they are, or to seriously seek something else. But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life. But you say, “I don’t know where to look; I don’t know what to look for.”

And there’s the crux. Is it worth giving up what I have to look for something better? I don’t know — is it? Who can make that decision but you? But even by DECIDING TO LOOK, you go a long way toward making the choice.

If I don’t call this to a halt, I’m going to find myself writing a book. I hope it’s not as confusing as it looks at first glance. Keep in mind, of course, that this is MY WAY of looking at things. I happen to think that it’s pretty generally applicable, but you may not. Each of us has to create our own credo — this merely happens to be mine.

If any part of it doesn’t seem to make sense, by all means call it to my attention. I’m not trying to send you out “on the road” in search of Valhalla, but merely pointing out that it is not necessary to accept the choices handed down to you by life as you know it. There is more to it than that — no one HAS to do something he doesn’t want to do for the rest of his life. But then again, if that’s what you wind up doing, by all means convince yourself that you HAD to do it. You’ll have lots of company.

And that’s it for now. Until I hear from you again, I remain,

Your friend,
Hunter

I once spent a day putting magazines in one side of a sleeve and a supplement in the other.

It was difficult to make it through the day but I did. Some **** actually told a couple of people to not sit down whilst working, even though the table they were at was smaller than the other and it was killing their backs bending over all day.

I went back to the agency at the end of the day and told them that was no job for a human!

I also did ‘cotton chipping’ in oz, which was basically walking up and down a 2km cotton field hitting weeds with a hoe. Did that for 2 weeks.

Paper sales. Stuck it out for a year, don’t think I ever sold anything. Spent all day updating stock lists (playing solitaire) or collecting samples to post out (skiving in wharehouse behind massive rolls of paper) I was told I’d have to spend a week with the guys in the wharehouse/sheet production to learn more about the trade. This involved loading those huge rolls of paper in to a machine which cut them in to sheets and stacked them at the other end. I lasted an hour watching this before telling my boss I couldn’t do it. Some of the blokes had been doing the same thing for 20+ years!

Call centre work, check!

Unemployed is definitely the worst but have been a candle packer, caravan cleaner, slimy muck from giant condenser tower shoveller and bagger, blasting grit shoveller and bagger to name but a few, currently though Environment and Sustaniability advisor is proper boiling my piss. Just **** make me redundant you bastards. (OK it should be a great job but I’ve just had enough)

“Learning and discovering new things doesn’t need to involve going to work or university.”

No-one said it did.

Personally, I find the idea of going every day to a boring job, just for the social aspect, if you don’t actually need the money, absolutely bizarre. Why not do something interesting and socialise? Why waste a chunk of your life in a boring job, when you don’t have to?

Glue’s dry now. 🙂