I hate my job. I have worked in IT for 20 years and three years ago left a rewarding managerial position for a day to day support role that paid extremely well. Having taken that step down I can do my job in 2 out of 5 days of the week, I spend the other three days on STW. I’m bored, under utilised, and unmotivated.

What I have noticed in my time though is that the achievers/high fliers are the ones that consider the job interview process to be never ending. Every day in the office they brag and boast about their achievements and kiss the asses of anyone they need to to get ahead.

I was recruited when the head of my section was supposed to be resigning, and she was not involved in recruiting me. She ultimately did not leave, and I joined. She doesn’t much like me and seems constantly concerned that I am working in the shadows to replace her. She seems to lack the authority or confidence to fire me, and is just trying to get me to move on by starving me of work to do. She has no idea who she is dealing with…. 😀

Currently ‘work’ as a senior Occ Health Nurse managing a service that is under threat of closure next March and completely undersupported by my seniors. Absolutely hate it and am completely demotivated, have work to do but don’t know where to/ can’t start. I have aninterview for junior ward nurse role Friday – quite excited about prospect of getting back to looking after punters and having no managerial responsibility 🙂 And will take home same pay as will have shift enhancements!
Suspect am burnt out and like a lot of people currently looking at alternative career, thankfully have supportive wife who is encouraging this 🙂

Muppetwrangler nails it!

Another Mac Monkey here. But a self-employed one. Sometimes I go into customers, sometimes I work from home

Self-employment is ace. It immunises you from all the shit that most peoples days are filled up with. The details or the environment I’m in, or the people I work with, barely even registers with me. All the office politics, etc? I genuinely couldn’t give a toss about any of it. Turn up, do what I need to do, send it to print, go home, send invoice

I will never ever be ’employed’ ever again. Not a chance! I can’t think of anything worse than being in a position I can’t just walk away from. I’ve only ever done that once, but people treat you with a lot more respect when they’re aware that you can, and you will, and that the above-mentioned office politics are of no interest or consequence to you

That’s a two-way street though. You have to deliver. Nobody gets a freelance designer in unless they’re on a tight deadline.

I was told by a recruitment consultant that nobody would ever employ me anyway, as they’d see all those years of self-employment and presume I’d be unmanageable. The word she used was ‘feral’. She was right 😀

I absolutely LOVE my job! And I know, and truly appreciate, how lucky this makes me

I am the laziest workshy person I have ever come across. I’m reasonably well educated but loathe working with people, loathe structure and rules and lack any type of ambition and drive

Describes me in a nut shell. i’ll find the easiest and most efficient way to do something and automate it if possible. Lots of excel shite that’s repetitive and manual, well not anymore. gave me back 1-2 days a week at work but now struggle to fill in the time other than researching my own stuff and STW forum lurking.

Need a new job I think, still to find my niche and get bored after 2-3 years.

I looked around and everyone seemed pretty relaxed, no phones ringing off the hook, office empty by 3:30, plenty of emails planning staff dinners for Xmas and lots of nice long lunch breaks for everyone. I can’t help but feel I’ve wasted 15 years not working in an office.

+1 – well pretty similar..
I did 10 years doing woodwork/construction before going back to uni @ 31 to do an Engineering/technology degree.
I’ve now been working in my current role for 11 years, Engineering/manufacturing project management.
Whilst it does annoy me at times – for various reasons – I’m well aware I’m onto a good thing, as I generally get left alone to do the job as I see fit.
I get 28 days holiday, get a day off for the Christmas lunch (paid for by employer) two days a year doing ‘team building’ activities (went curling last week) and a day off to do a regular charity project.
I think I get paid fairly for what I do, particularly when you take into account the company car/phone/laptop/healthcare/etc.

I’d certainly rather be doing this than be outside in the cold, or doing shift work in some warehouse where nobody knows my name.

Or teaching, like my wife, who gets home from work an hour after me then does 4 hours of work most evenings, whilst being paid around 25% less than me..

Big dummy is Boris Johnson and I claim my £350 m for the NHS

I am the laziest workshy person I have ever come across. I’m reasonably well educated but loathe working with people, loathe structure and rules and lack any type of ambition and drive. I now drive a black cab two days a week and its the only job I’ve ever done that I haven’t hated. I earn buttons but I don’t dread going into work (a first for me) and have a great quality of life.

I would be the last person I would ever employ. I just take the piss and cannot be replied upon in a work environment.

Poor but very happy.

You sir are an inspiration (says someone who more often than not is the last d*******d in the office at gone 6pm…)

There’s a lot I could learn in my job… if I was interested in it! I just switch off.
Still I get to ride here and never have to spend those daily hours commuting in the car, that would kill me, I’m sure.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/01/sydney-hardy-nippybus-boss-fires-bus-drivers-with-blunt-note?CMP=fb_gu

Theres a old saying that when the factory maintenance guys are sat around playing cards, then that’s a good sign. I see the same thing in much of computing, if you are busy all day then you are the wrong person, automating most of your job is an essential part of the job.

I used to work very long hours striving for promotions but the stress killed my immune system. It was only when the same thing happened again that I realised radical changes were needed. I moved to Scotland away from the SE England and I commute to work by bike on a traffic free path. I enjoy my job but can do it blindfold. Every now and then I get an urge to seek a promotion or to move to another company but deep down I know it would be the wrong thing to do because I am fundamental happy. I just have to fight the urge to screw that up.

Every now and then I get an urge to seek a promotion or to move to another company but deep down I know it would be the wrong thing to do because I am fundamental happy.

I think being happy or at least stress free is pretty much priceless….

Hence I’ve been at the same place for 17 years, bar a 6 month nightmare excursion to another company, which ended in a nervous breakdown.

Theres a old saying that when the factory maintenance guys are sat around playing cards, then that’s a good sign.

you’ve just reminded me of a funny conversation I had with my (recently retired) dad last month. It felt like it summed up a certain difference in perspective between the boomer generation and their kids…

Dad: …so Brian built this machine from scratch.

Me: why didn’t they just buy one?

Dad: Well, that would have been expensive.

Me: As expensive as paying Brian a wage to design, source and build something that was already on sale?

Dad: But Brian was being paid anyway. They didn’t pay him any extra.

Me: But presumably he’d have stopped doing his normal work, to build this machine? So that was a cost.

Dad: Ah, yes, well, there wasn’t always much work to actually do…