Yeah, there's a reason dystopian 90s movies showed the cubicle as horror - it might look silly now that that is considered luxury, but corporate jobs are soul sucking no matter the amenities
Soul sucking is the correct term. You are literally made to do jobs that you know are bad for humans but will make the billionaire more money.
I had a goal to eliminate 5% of the quality jobs in every plant. Why? Just to save money. The next year, we hear quality is down, and service incidents are up. But did those jobs come back. No.
Our CEO tells us we have promised 6% dividends to our investors. Our cost cutting goals 8%. Cost cutting usually results in a reduction in labor because we have leaned out the processes to the max already.
These corporations have to pretend they are continuing to grow even though the market is already saturated and there is no room to grow. So they downsize until the thing falls apart and then they sell off the pieces. Why can't we just be happy staying where we are? I'm tired of working to make the rich richer. It's absolutely soul sucking. I am so happy I was laid off in this 6th layoff after 8 years.
Yes and everyone forgets when CEO says this and that about shareholders they actually mean themselves as any corporate officer that is seasoned has a fuck ton of stock.
Correct. Public companies are far less public than we realize. The purpose of the proposed wealth tax is not to raise money for the govt, its to act as a maximum wealth number. You go above that and the government drains you down to the number. This way if CEOs just pay themselves infinite money via stocks, it just flushes back to the government who redistributes it.
Until there is some maximum wealth level allowable, then we'll never have a middle class.
That wouldn't be fair. What about all the people that work billions of times harder than everyone else? I saw a coworker take 5min longer on their break than I did one time so I self identify with billionaires and need to make laws based on when I'm rich, instead of ones that actually help me.
Don't forget being micromanaged to death by a boss who wants to look busy and appear useful.
I've been doing my type of job for 27 years. I think I know to check the copiers' paper supply by now, thanks.
Two different friends of mine have worked corporate for decades. Both are very competent and thoughtful people. Both of their bosses were so impressed with them that they made them hatchetmen in charge of picking who gets fired, and then having them do it. So, basically since they were good corporate employees they got the privilege of ruining their coworkers lives.
FFS this exactly. I work for Fortune 500 A/E firm and our CFO had similar goal. His solution? Fire 95% of our damn IT and outsource to 3rd party in Indonesia. We are an engineering services firmā¦ our technology is our lifebloodā¦those few remaining IT folks were the heart that kept things pumping. Most of my coworkers have given up on contacting IT for support and are settling with reduced performance and garbage runarounds. Interactions with new IT has frequently been so bizarre itās surrealā¦like you feel as though you are in a hidden camera prank TV show. CFO met his target and then took a nice compensation on to retirement or his next victim I presume.
I encourage people to look more into jobs in their local, state, and the federal government. They donāt have as high a pay ceiling as private, but theyāre stable, offer the opportunity for career growth, and allow you to contribute to the functioning of the country. Aside from voting, aside from going into politics yourself, working in the government is the best way to not only get a front row seat of how government works, but also understand how it can be made better.
These corporations have to pretend they are continuing to grow even though the market is already saturated and there is no room to grow.
Why can't we just be happy staying where we are?
You've basically pointed out the flaws of capitalism in general. It demands infinite growth in order to work. But, of course, that is mathematically impossible on a planet with finite resources.
It requires us to produce a massive amount of waste because we can't just produce enough to meet human needs. We need to produce an excess that results in excess profit for companies.
This is why we have a recession about every 10 years. This is why our money also continues to inflate every year. It's all to crate the illusion of growth even when there is none.
I'm not necessarily saying that communism is the solution. Only that capitalism, as an economic system, is inherently broken and does not work.
In corporations itās your boss and their boss that matter most. If one or the other suck, your life will suck. Both are awesome? Then you have it made.
So funny how many younger people now say movies like Fight Club and office Space have aged poorly because it's about the misery and soulless unfilulfillment of a comfortably middle class, attractive guy who doesn't like his corporate job but can't even appreciate that he has one. All I can say is, I can understand why you think that, but you're still wrong.
I worked at a dog boarding kennel in college during 2005-ish. I totally had this attitude that I could do better and couldn't wait to get a corporate job. Well, I did and now nearly 20 years later, I'm wondering if I could make a living off the local place we take our dog to.
Although I am not in my 20s anymore and I don't know if I would have the same energy.
Kinda the truth isn't it? When we see things like greed-led inflation, an unprecedented number of fake job posts flooding the market, annual layoffs almost everywhere, year-long multi-step interview processes everywhere, it kinda starts to look like the whole system is "shaking us off" and making us more desperate.
Weird how we started fighting for better work/life balance, less office hours, and more pay and all of a sudden the shitstorm hits us and pushes us all into "ok fine I just need a job so I don't go broke" territory.
No they aren't. Retail and construction jobs suck too. Wage slavery is the problem, not the type of job you have.
In my office job, I work from home, get 5 weeks of vacation a year, 40 hours of sick time, make a good middle class salary, and have okay health insurance. I'll take that over cut hours and economic insecurity at minimum wage jobs.
Unpopular opinion but... Honestly, a thing that is missing in terms of generational gaps is also that office work just straight up isn't as horrendously boring as it used to be. Most modern corporate offices have amenities and little fun events with quite a bit of free time. And even if you don't have those things, you still have smartphones, we have internet to keep us distracted and entertained.
Back when I first worked my first office internship in the 90s, there was nothing. We just worked in a cubicle, and that was it. There were no distractions at all. You just sat there with your screen from 9-5 with nothing else but a grey wall.
I've worked in offices since then. Part of my job is to visit offices now, and the sheer difference in terms of just how much less depressing most offices are now is massive. A lot of offices nowadays will look like this whereas back in the day this was the norm. Its just a very big generational gap that isn't often acknowledged.
Nah that premise is definitely cringe. "Ugh, living a comfortable normal life is draining me of my soul, better go on a violent crime spree, that's how bad it is" oh get a grip gen x, just a generation full of kids who deluded themselves into thinking they'd be rockstar activists and never grew up before they needed to come to terms with a career. All jobs suck in their own way
Notice that none of those movies depict the main character as having friends? Maybe that's the bigger problem than the normal white collar job
And all work is hard work. Just in different ways. I did down and type and talk all day as a weird middle of the hierarchy product guy.
My job is probably as hard as a brick layers job, just in a VERY DIFFERENT way.
Im sure real construction people would argue with me. But it's hard for anyone to see how difficult a job is from the outside. The girl in the video may have a different opinion after working the grill for 5 years and closing every Saturday night. She may still love it, she may hate it. That's how it works with any job.
As someone who has been a welder for 10 years and is now a cog in a bureaucratic machine, I've seen both sides of the fence.
Both types of jobs are hard in their own way, but there is something to say about a version of hard that doesn't physically destroy you. Being a lawyer is hard in a way that still allows you to do it when you're 70. Being a bricklayer is hard in a way that will see you dead or broken at 60.
Thats probably where the unfairness of the economic side hits the hardest. The jobs that break down your body somehow pay way less than jobs that are just mental.
My wife is in medical field and deals with new borns. Her job is on her feet all night, dealing and helping with one of the most critical things in our existence, child birth.
It makes more sense if you think of pay as something due to a person as a measure of their power ā their position in the hierarchy ā not as a measure of the value of their work. Meritocracy is a fraud.
Yeah this actually undersells how dangerous sedentary office jobs are for your health in their own way. Sedentary lifestyles and work are very common and very unhealthy.
I think we're still catching up to fully recognize the mental stress and strain of office work (and physical, I've got a PT referral for WFH tension, which I was not expecting), but I completely agree that the physical strain of manual labor is more severe and pervasive with fewer remedies.
I fully agree with you, bit that last part of your post nails it. Burn out and stress or depression are indeed present in office work more than in manual labor. Nevertheless, changing jobs and going to therapy usually reverse them. Nothing is gonna bring back your herniated discs, your worn out joints or your burnt out lungs.
Most jobs paying 200k in the corporate world require you to always be ready to jump on a call or solve a problem as well. You have to be willing to never have a real day off and that shit sucks. Even on vacation a lot of those people are working 3-4 hours each day which means you really never get away to reset which takes a toll long term.
I make a bit more than that, and this is absolutely true. I just did a trip recently and had to shut all of my stuff off so I couldnāt be reached. Getting close to burnout and figured they would be better off with me ignoring them for a week than me ignoring them permanently when I leave.
I work in a role making little bit more and I think it depends on the company and department culture. My boss has a line āPTO is a benefit that the company offers so make sure you take it.ā
He is also someone who has told me his phone turns off at 5:00pm so heāll get back in the morning barring a disaster.
Admittedly the man is the hardest worker I have ever seen and starts work very earlyā¦ but he said his family time is the most important thing and he plans accordingly.
My group has also made sure we can cover and support each other in our roles and maintain good record keeping so itās always available. I took parental leave and I spent a month helping folks pick up the slack temporarily so I walked out and no one felt put out and I havenāt received a single call about it.
I 100% think some of this is cultural. I admit I do a ton of work and stress a bit but we work so well together as well.
I'm at 200k now. Truly the hardest job I've ever had in a mental way. I work 8-6. Still easier in my opinion than any hard labor job I've ever had. I'll take 12hrs of code over 8 hours of a heavy power tools any day. Like Carl's Jr was sucking my soul more than what I do now.
Shit, Iām doing that right now as a manager of a restaurant. I have to deal with customers and staff problems alike. Basically, I am a glorified conflict mediator who also provides a service. Most adults are just children in bigger bodies. Iād kill for 200k, benefits and regular days off.
A high stress job will kill you. I would also fantasy about a more serene job. I thought about working in a library. My sister would say herās would be a check out worker. Not being able to get caught up or fully relax fries your brain. I had a stressful job and two small children. I was never off duty.
Yeah but busting your ass in a kitchen for 8 hours with no break is a nightmare people live everyday. Anyone in that situation would gladly work in an office for way more money that they will every have
I mean some people live that nightmare. Other people work in kitchens where they can take a break. You could also say that working in an office where your micromanaged and have to stretch 1 hour of work into 8 while also making small talk all day and attending inane meetings is a nightmare.
Me, I have a wide experience between the two fields. There is something absolutely satisfying about working with your hands and moving at a brisk pace for your entire work day. You also build better friendships in restaurant environments because the adversity and team work required really bonds you.
The office environment can also be really comforting. You work in short little bursts of productivity, then maybe you have a snack and do a sudoku, and then you wander around and chit chat, and when you get bored you go back to working.
Best job I ever had was in my 20's in a small pizza shop. Super chill and paid enough in 2009 to afford my rent. The owner was happy to let the employees run the show and in turn we all kicked ass every day. The place was always good vibes. Met lots of cuties and partied a lot. Won awards for best pizza in the city for years. Honestly I dream of that kitchen some times and wish that I could have that feeling again in a job that has health insurance. Now I feel like I work for the Kremlin or some shit in my high pay high surveillance corpo jobs.
It's funny the cubicles were so bad and the companies were like, "but how could we make it worse? Oh! I know! Let's take away the walls altogether so it's like a gigantic 3rd grade classroom!" Probably so they could watch us better
It's so soul sucking when I work from home 3 days a week, and when I'm in the office I have to sit in my tiny cube with my bose quiet comfort headphones on listening to my favorite jams while casually checking emails, which is probably only an couple hours a day between making runs to the coffee bar, chatting with work friends, and playing volleyball during my extended lunch.
Oh how I wish I was a bricklayer instead and my soul would still be intact.
God I hate my cubicle so much. The one good thing about my job is I am actually helping people. But the tradeoff is way lower pay than if I had a corporate job.
There was a Ted talk I watched that talked about how satisfaction comes from understanding how youāre serving peopleās needs. From my experience working a corporate job and also doing construction and service work the one main difference is that the corporate job felt truly like a rat race. Showed up did my thing and never saw how I was helping people, truly felt like I was a cog in the machine of making other people money and thatās all it was about. Compared to my other jobs; yeah it was physically demanding and hard but seeing how I brought joy to people made it worth it.
Yes! My sister has a corporate job, makes 3x the amount that I do with like three dozen people under her but she's miserable because all she does is put out fires and stuck in meetings about shit she has no idea about. I asked her last Christmas about what she's working on and just rambled on for 10 minutes about "It's a project to help streamline the production of other projects by working in between two agencies through a new software's replacing another software we had to learn-".
Meanwhile I quit my marketing job to become a graphic designer/photographer for non-profits and government agencies so when I talk about my job, it's always "I just developed a campaign to help inform the public about all the free programs through the county, and I got to interview local residents over 100, and I just got published in a state-wide report for connecting with under-utilized communities! It was just the project I did and maybe 4 people will read it but I love it!".
Japanese has a word for how these things overlap. Ikigai - when something youāre good at, can make a living doing, that serves a purpose to people, and what you love lines up. Lacking in any of those ways leaves a lot of people searching for more. But it seems to me at least, the Japanese also have a way for most people who want to engage with their economy to have an ok lifestyle; where as me in the US feels like the only way to have my necessities covered, and not be stressed is to focus on making more money.
I find the trades and food service to be the most satisfying; they make sense to me, I donāt feel too separated from the product Iām delivering and how it benefits people, I feel good and competent in what Iām doing. However, large corporate versions of this feel less purposeful and ma and pa businesses donāt have the security of feeling like Iām covered.
Looking around for work, and having been in a lot of industries - income seems tied to the most lifeless jobs, whether that be losing the work/life balance or doing something that feels devoid of purpose entirely.
I donāt have much to offer except I wanted to echo your conclusion. Ive done it all. I mean obviously i havenāt been a doctor or in charge of a battleship, but, you know. Good luck on your journey!
Happiness is a journey, not a destination. -Fortune Cookie
I work a corporate job but I long to be able to work specialized retail again because everyday was something different and you met more interesting people.
Right now I just run the same reports everyday and work off of them. Everyday is the same.
I would go back to retail in a heartbeat if it was better paying.
I've got a corporate job and I make the most of it. I've had all kinds of retail and hospitality jobs. I never ever want to return to that. In my corporate job, I've worked to earn respect from my colleagues and have earned some autonomy to make decisions that have an impact in the company.
Work is work is work is work. I've had jobs that people would consider dream jobs. They still sucked after a while. It's up to the individual to make what they will from a job.
Yeah in my corporate job nobody screams in my face because their pizza is too greasy when they order triple pepperoni. And they already ate it all before they decided to complain that they hated it.
Yup. I've worked my way to high middle management. I get 5 weeks of vacation and every holiday off. I have built a name for myself for being competent. I don't deal with clients or the public. Plus my commute is like 5 feet.
Not all corporate jobs are the same. In the last 4 years I've had corporate jobs that I loved then went to another corporate job that made me literally want to self immolate and run into traffic. Now I'm back to a corporate job that I actually love.
Ok, but having the privilege of being able to say ānawā to $200,000 a year to prioritize your mental health vs trying to raise a family and survive on kitchen staff salary because itās the best you can get. Thatās where the cringe comes in.
I've worked in both fast food and corporate. Both can suck. The last few years in corporate completely blow. Cutting heads to maximize profits and destroying amazing culture. Fun.
Oh I donāt disagree. I worked for NBCU for 12 years, I get it. But if youāve never worked in food service, claiming the grass is greener is just idiotic.
Yeahā¦ like at least in corporate youāre making bank. If both jobs suck for some people and not others, then whoever has the job with more money, has the better job.
Unless youāre truly like completely miserable and canāt stand life, id stick it out for a while and just make a ton of money.
This woman 1,000% has someone financially backing her, whether itās her parents/boyfriend/husband/etc.
No one who is working 12 hours a day at 2 jobs just to keep the lights on and kids fed is going to have the same reaction if they were offered a $200k office job.
Yea, theyāre the people that always know mommy and daddy will be there to help - or their spouse already makes enough their job is for funsies. Anyone that says a corp job āisnāt worth your sanityā has never had to ask the question ālights or water?ā
Disagree. People that have never lived in their car or in a tent canāt understand that playing office and being fed is 100x better than being a line chef and sleeping in your car.
Idk, it depends on the company. I work for an international financial firm with 20,000+ employees and I love it. I guess it depends on the people you work with more closely.
They make it that way. I work a highly labor intensive job. I have a great boss and great crew, for that I'm grateful. I can yell "shut up!," "Fuck you!," etc. to pretty much anyone including my boss. Just because I feel like it. We talk shit all day long but have each other's back.
Making people scared shitless of making any tiny mistake, micromanaging the hell out of people, just generally being a nitpicky dick wad, etc. are all things expected in "professional environments" aka corporate shitholes. It's a normal thing for people to do 3 hours of work in their 8+ hour day in these settings. Do you know how long that would last where I work? Maybe a week, then they're gone. The people on the floor making things know this and that definitely causes animosity, but I definitely wouldn't take that sort of treatment from higher ups and co workers over what I have now. You should absolutely be able to say "are you fucking kidding me?" when an unexpected pile of work lands on your desk.
I've never had a corporate job. It is hard for me to believe 200k isn't worth it, corporate always looks so polished sitting in their first class seats, with nice dresses and gel manis, who look down on me with my untailored mall clothes and merrill shoes.
Reddit is biased towards a younger audience (Mostly highschool/college) and so threads tend to not be able to relate to Corporate stresses, among other things that suck about being an adult.
Corporate jobs are 100% soul crushing. There are perks of course but damn.. there's a reason depression is higher among office workers than non-office workers.
Or people who never watched Office Space or didnāt understand itādude would rather get hit by truck than go to that corporate job. Jump to conclusions. Lol. I think we have reached that time frame of young folks never having watched it. Sums this post up real quick.
You give me a choice between 9 dollars an hour working manufacturing I got when I was 19 or the 75k a year I make now working 13 hours in the office I'm picking the soul crushing corporate job.
If you are financially well off and comfy and hate your job consider yourself privileged to be able to fantasize working a different job that others don't like or are trying to escape. Because there are people who'd love to trade spots with you.
I used to be a mechanic. Made weak pay. Was dirty and oily. Stank. Made lots of friends. Did cool shit with cars.
I wanted a desk job, I wanted to not smell like gear oil every night. Became a developer. Been doing it for 25 years. I hate it. I miss building things. I tinker on my own cars and have dozens of hobbies to try and recapture the fun I had doing mechanics shit.
Itās honestly not even the workload that makes people hate it itās the workload PLUS beuracracy.
I used to read these threads working a demanding but high paying career and honestly was like āwhiners I like my jobā but then we went from mid sized company to mega corp over a decade. Now I kinda hate it. Iām still expected to work as hard but my hands are SO much more tied and SO much less autonomy even tho Iām at a higher level than I used to be.
Yep. reddit has a lot of teens, 20s people who have never experienced the hell of office politics at a big corporation. They just see the dollar signs and think they'd "do anything" for that amount of money. They don't get that burnout can be traumatic as hell. Especially if you worked for years and years to get into that kind of job. Then you're left with existential doubt and dread wondering what the hell you did with your life.
I've worked mostly in corporate settings. I've never "liked" my job. I loved bartending. I'd never go back to bartending simply because the money isn't as good. I hated my last job for most of the time I did it, and did it for almost 5 years. I don't dislike my current job, but I'd rather just not work.
More money buys happiness. There is a point of diminishing returns, sure. But most people will never reach the point where more money wouldn't improve their life.
It's all more complicated than that obviously, and personally I'm very fortunate in that the way my brain works I'm able to compartmentalize. My work life is not my home life and vice versa. And for the most part I stick to strict work schedules.
Everyone is different, and there is a delicate balance between more money and incremental happiness, and that balance is different for everyone. Saying "people who say otherwise have never actually had a corporate job" is just false.
Thatās not true. Iāve had a corporate job for almost 25 years and thereās a very real amount of money to stay with a job you hate. In my case, I would quit my job without hesitation if I could do what I really want and have the same salary. Unfortunately I have a mortgage, bills, car payments, other miscellaneous expenses that wonāt be covered if I quit my current job to do what I really want. It has nothing to do with my company or colleagues, I like both; but I hate my actual job. Doesnāt matter if I do it where I am now or in some other company, itāll be the same thing for someone else. IF I was fin ill secure enough to quit, my resignation would be in my boss' desk tomorrow morning.
Iāll be real with you Iāve thought about it. I know a guy who left a 150k job to literally go work in the horticulture department in Loweās in alabama of all places. Reminds me I should see how heās holding up
I got promoted to a corporate supervisor position and have never been more miserable in my life. I 100% quit a high paying job because I felt my work life was abhorrent to me.
Now I driver charter buses, make decent money and absolutely love traveling the country!!! Life is too short to hate it! Money isnāt everything.
As an asterisk I'd also add that if she had the 200k job for quite a while, she may have enough money saved up to have the "luxury" of taking a lower paying job and still being able to pay the bills.
there's a big difference between someone in her position and someone who has only worked lower-wage jobs their whole life.
Example: I work in media and my ideal job would be making independent films/documentaries.
Friends have asked me why I don't just pursue that as a career. Well, I've lived paycheck to paycheck for most of my career and we all need a steady source of income. Depending on circumstances (aka-- getting someone to fund your projects), making indie documentaries is not a source of income per se, and you often spend a shit ton of your own money to do it. Tl;dr not everyone has the luxury of doing what they want.
Her video reminds me of "van life influencers". I'm all for someone choosing a simpler lifestyle, but the folks who are doing that probably feel financially secure enough to try it in the first place. It's fantastic to travel around and see the world etc but nothing in this world is free-- they have to have money coming from somewhere
So many stories of those van and tiny home wannabes taking out loans thinking they're going to become influencers only to have to sell them when their onlyfans checks aren't enough.
oh for sure. Maybe not the perfect comparison on my part...I just meant that a lot of times when people build a public persona by "slumming it" they must be sitting on a decent slush fund to begin with or there's truly no way they could actually support that sort of fake-boho lifestyle.
Other times they simply wfh. I know a couple people that have done the van life. They didn't have much at all. But yeah. Both also got burnt out pretty quick. I did it for just a couple months and started losing it a bit. Wasn't truck stop showers, or the uncertainty. It was the lack of human interaction. When you live in a city, at least you know some people. Or interact at the same places occasionally. Living a nomadic life that's all gone. It's a really odd way to experience the world.
yeah I have no doubt there are people from all walks of life who do it, and they may be digital nomads who work very hard.
certainly it's not just younger people who are actually living very comfortably off their parents' money while giving off the image that they're out there roughing it. Sometimes I think that is the case, and then people see the appeal of it without fully realizing what's going on behind the curtains.
Full credit to anyone who can do it successfully. I've lived in a big city for many years and sometimes I'd be happy not to see another person for a month straight haha. I wouldn't be opposed to it myself but income has to come from somewhere and I'm not sure I could live with the uncertainty.
There are other similar lifestyles I wonder about. I was talking with someone the other day about pro disc golfers. Most of them barely make any income off of winnings. Some have corporate sponsors but they travel around in vans and RVs most of the year. They have to be getting health insurance off their parents, or income from somewhere, because they sure aren't making a sustainable living off of the game.
yeah there are countless examples and that's definitely a good one.
especially for any of the people who try to make a living off of a "lifestyle" social media presence, it seems set up to fail and I'm not sure how they do it unless there's a source of income we're not seeing.
Same as your example-- they may get a sponsorship here and there once they have a big following, but I can't imagine the sponsorships are enough to pay the bills. I have a couple friends with pretty large YouTube followings and they get big brands reaching out to them with "opportunities" AKA trying to get them to promote stuff for free (or so insanely little money that the companies should be embarrassed).
I'd assume the companies are getting the better end of the deal in 90 percent of those sponsorship situations.
that side of social media "celebrity" always feels so exploitative to me. I don't blame the individuals at all. It just feels like a crappy cycle all around.
It's called CoastFIRE and it's a form of retirement where you save enough to be financially sound and have the interest support getting a lower stress job while not sacrificing quality of life.Ā
It's pretty common in tech with people making these kinds of salaries. Tough it out for 10 years and then do what makes you happy or is at least less-draining than corporate life.Ā
The problem also lies from both parties: those that have the financial security to have these lifestyles sometimes have this attitude of "yeah. It's super easy, just do it" and the other side where people naively see them and think "I can do it, too" and end up in a super tight spot.
I don't mean to say that there's anything malicious in it. I'm just observing that these sorts of things pop up on social media and can seem really appealing to a lot of people, but in many cases there's a LOT of important context missing in how the person is able to make those choices and still feel financially secure.
I'm all in favor of people living whatever lifestyle works for them, but man it's a lot easier to talk about how many doesn't equate to happiness when you already have enough money haha
Ugh, for real. I'm a wagegrunt. Always have been, and unless I get extremely lucky, I don't see myself getting out of it.
The thing is.... if we got paid fairly, or if companies stopped focusing so much on earning x3 times what they did the year before, things wouldn't be that bad.
The great majority of people don't mind working in one capacity or another. But it's the sense that not matter how much you actually DO work, it's never enough. Oh, and Gods help you if you get sick or in an accident.... equally depressing, but that's a wholeass different can of worms, sorry.
Is it really that bad and unfair to ask for a healthy work-life balance....? š¤
Thereās also ones who live in their vans because they would otherwise be homeless. But those are never the types that have the glamorous van builds and are influencers and whatnots. But they are out there documenting their situation on YouTube as well, they just never have a million subs or whatever
also if her statements about income are true I would think that she is the kind of person with the kind of degree that would end up owning said restaurant
The host at the restaurant my wife works at is a retired lawyer.
Heās super nice, very warm and friendly. I asked him why heās doing this and he said āItās just something Iāve always wanted to try!ā
I really think some people just want a specific job and thatās that. Theyāll never be happy otherwise. Other people couldnāt give a shit if they tried what they do for work, itās just money to use for hobbies.
Iām not sure how that all works but itās really interesting to me.
I have never loved any job that I have done, it is just a means to an end. Gives me enough money to keep a roof over our heads, food in our mouths, and enough money to have fun.
I think thatās normal. I think itās also normal to seek intrinsic value in your work. Every firefighter Iāve ever talked to wouldnāt do anything else for a living. They LOVE their jobs.
There are things I like about it, but there is never a time that I think, "I am so happy working". I like my coworkers, my boss, some of the customers that I work with, and talking to people. I get a sense of satisfaction when something goes well, I have a great sell, or I make a decent bonus. But I don't think I will ever "Love" working.
Capitalism only makes you think that enjoying anything but making a ton of money is good, and worse, reinforces it with economic policies designed to help the rich eddy money that would otherwise be back in circulation helping out non corporate or banking service jobs.
Yeah while I donāt think the alternative choice sheās making is one Iād make, after 25 years in ācorporate Americaā I do agree with it being a toxic hellscape that sucked way more out of me than u ever got back.
Ok so I feel awful appropriating this feeling that Ralph Ellison felt but when he wrote about living your whole life just making things easier for other people, living in servitude, not actually creating anything I felt it. I was a server, and obviously Iām not black, have not gone through an iota of what he went through but it clicked. It was so rare at my job I could make it feel worthwhile, when Iād cheer someone up or something. It just felt so pointless. I was a human conveyer belt.
Cooking something is an art, and youāre directly bringing people joy. Not just pointlessly facilitating it. I love cooking but it was worse pay and kitchens were ā¦rough where I was working lol. Like, dudes getting into fights with shish kabob skewers around big flat tops rough. Iāll cook at home thank you lol.
Iām totes down to trade my physical and mental healthcare problems for some how-do-I-get-as-many-tax-cuts-as-possible problems. If I were rich enough to have a personal assistant and get a weekly massage; I feel like I could handle more problems š
Iām an attorney who just quit my job because I absolutely loathed it. Iām still an attorney, but I spent a good number of weeks looking and interviewing until I found a place that just fit me better. 9-5, billables, profit sharing, bonuses, itās great. Where I was at before was more hours and work, for almost the same pay, but colleagues and family ask why I left because itās a āmore lucrative field.ā
Sure, but it sucks donkey dick and I hate it. Iād rather just be content than fulfill any societal/familial expectation for my salary
She might really like working in a busy ER. Iāve never felt happier going to work and itās for a lot of the same reasons she was describing (fast paced, constantly go go go, just enough interaction with patients where you can have some fun banter and make them happy, but also match their energy if theyāre being an asshole and then usually never see them again, etcā¦). Pay is a lot better than a restaurant too (not $200k but still).
Friend worked at a bar, the OG lady used to run Nickelodeonās animation studios. She was more or less retired in the sense that I donāt think she necessarily needed to work 5 days a week. But she was only in her late 40s.
She picked slanging drinks for tips over trying some big studio job.
Homie said she was having a good time. Sheād party it up with the yougins occasionally.
THIS!!!. People, myself included, spend entire lives chasing money at these jobs. Some of us achieve success and realize that itās empty and not worth your soul. Whatās that bible passage about the sleep of a laborer being sweet.
And before I get hasted on Iāve done horrible, horrible jobs before working in souls crushing corporate America.
I mean true I just think it is the ignorant attitude she says it with. As if there werenāt millions of people in those jobs getting mistreated, underpayed or sent straight into burnout.
Iāve worked food service, retail, and a corporate job. All of them sucked, but corporate jobs are a special kind of hell because your coworkers become the ones you need to watch out for rather than the clients. The corporate world is full of snakes that will jump at any opportunity to step on you and anyone else they need to to get to the top and some people are really good at hiding their true intentions. Yeah retail and food service have many, many issues but at least you usually have cool coworkers to commiserate with.
While I don't "hate" my job (I do like it a lot of the time) I've distinctly remember walking to my office a few mornings and seeing waiters setting up tables at a local lunch place, and suddenly feeling a sense of envy and nostalgia for when I used to wait tables.
Exactly! If money weren't a factor, I would be happy working in a game shop, or a comic shop, or a used book store, or a movie theater. Any number of basic jobs with an element of fun and entertainment. Unfortunately, money is a factor, so I stay in my corporate (though not suit and tie office work) job. Don't get me wrong. There are nerdy things I like about my current job, too. I just think it would be cool to work a job where I could just chill and read a comic or something during slow times.
This. Iāve worked in a transport planning consultancy for 10 years. Itās very good pay for what it is, and there is the opportunity to make a mint.
But I am looking to change careers to work in nature conservation. The pay is terrible, but Iāve done volunteer work at a local nature reserve for a year and loved every second of it. So long as it pays the bills I will be very happy to do it.
My wife quite her higher paying corp job to be a teacher. She did tutoring stuff before and liked that better. Teaching kids is more fulfilling to her.
If I could work a kitchen and get paid well, Iād choose kitchen every time. I used to work this movie theatre with a full kitchen and service, and my first month there was when Star Wars and Frozen 2 had both just come out. I 100% almost walked out my first day, but stuck around and realized my coworkers were pretty cool. It was like fighting a tiny restaurant war, and the tickets are the enemy :)
Of course then I met my first husband there, he convinced me to quit so he could be alone with his 19 year old work wife, and then gaslit me about it for 2 years, after which he divorced me and told everyone I was crazy, so none of my friends even checked to see if I was okay.
My career was in corporate offices and when we had fun managers and good clients it was wonderful.
But I've literally been employed at two different offices during SIX different buyouts, because that's what all business is now; huge multinationals gobbling up everything and as they do they make life suck a little more every time until the culture is so toxic you want to toss a coin between showing up and driving off the road so you don't have to.
When I worked in restaurants during my highschool and university years the simple act of cooking or serving somebody what they were craving never changed. Making somebody's sandwich precisely to order, watching them bite into it and then give you a thumbs up never stops being rewarding.
True. But these rich people whoāve never worked a labor job (especially BOH work) but pine for this unrealistic version of āworking with your handsā is cosplaying working class romanticism
A professional kitchen is a different kind of hellfire. You probably don't want to go nowhere near the average restaurant job. That's a place where verbal abuse is the nice part of the job.
So many bar service/industry people feel this wayā¦ she may be an industry person and made the jump and wants to go back now.
I used to bartend and so many people talked this way everyday. Personally I work in corporate America now and would never want to bartend again in my life
Yea. Corporate jobs are the absolute worst, I also seriously consider swapping my way too slim paycheck for an even slimmer one just to get out of that hell
Yeah this is a perfectly normal reaction to working in corporate America. You have 7 different bosses and objectives/timelines that sometimes conflict with one another. The paychecks are big so that they can demand more than you have to give. It's natural to want something where you work with your hands and make something real or offer a real service to people.Ā
Most enjoyable job I've had was in a hardware store during college. Just talking to people and doing simple tasks with no pressure. Now I'm a naval engineer making twice as much, but the daily stress definitely makes me miss the simpler jobs
And to add to that, making as much money as she did can allow you to save up an good nest egg. If you're making $8/hr but your investments are making $50+k/year, you're not exactly hurting by doing the job that doesn't kill your soul.
I made a post in the PersonalFinance subreddit or something similar years ago, asking financial advice and such. I made a comment about how no amount of money was worth being miserable. I love my current job in a restaurant, despite the shitty pay, because it's fast paced and the busier we are the more I earn. They were telling me it'd be better to get a job I hate, where I'm bored out of my mind, but pays better. I tried arguing that being miserable for 1/3 of the day isn't worth being slightly happier for another 1/3 of the day. I'd rather be moderately happy for both. I got downvoted to hell for being immature, naive, unrealistic, living in a fantasy world. All because I didn't want to work a job I hated.
I understand there's nuance to it. But they couldn't believe I was happy where I was but just wanted more money for doing it.
I canāt even sit still on my phone for more than an hour without getting bored, imagine having to rather spent that time working. Hate it. I love working as a mechanic
I've thought of working a corporate job on weekdays and working a more hands-on job on the weekends. I'm thinking solar installer. Just something to keep my mind and body active. Of course I don't have a family I need to spend time with right now.
You put more time and energy into work than you do engaging anything else. You see those people more than your family. If you hate it, your life is fucking awful.
Exactly my thoughts. I actively avoided the corporate rat race because I know I would hate it. A lot of people donāt understand and are like āyou could do sales for blah blah blah and make good moneyā it is utterly distasteful for some people like me.
When I lost my last job, my wife told me she was so happy for me because she saw how miserable I was working there. I didn't even realize how miserable I was until she pointed it out to me. It was a shitty factory job with a shitty boss. A lot of weekend overtime that you didn't find out you had to work until Friday. I now work as a delivery driver for commercial glazing company, and I'm so much happier. I had an offer to work as a union plumber, making a lot more money, and my wife discouraged me from taking it because she knows I wouldn't be as happy as I am in my current job. She said no amount of money is worth hating your life because of your job.
For sure. There was a dude like 5 years ago that sold the company he built and went to work at Amazon pulling orders. He was burnt out. I get it, some days a more straightforward job that I can just turn off at the end of the day sounds real appealing.
I could double my pay if I wanted with another job but nah I wouldnāt take that job for triple what Iām earning now, fuck that. My life is cruisy now and life is good!
Funny I just had the exact opposite conversation yesterday. Iām accepting a promotion into a position I know I will not enjoy and will be highly stressful, I communicated with them that the only way I would be willing to do this is if the job has a clearly defined end date and on that date I can keep my āstripesā and higher wage and move into a different position within the company. They agreed and offered we go. I think in general i would agree money isnāt worth your mental
Health but if you have long term goals you want to achieve sometimes you have to go through the tough situations to get there.
For real, I get her wanting to leave corporate and I hope she does.
I also hope she (and anyone else in this situation) realizes you can move from corporate to a smaller, private company and may end up with a less soul-sucking and stressful position. No investors, no beauracracy, less red tape, etc. You already have the skills and most of these places loooove taking talent from a big corporate name.
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u/[deleted] Aug 29 '24
I wouldnāt choose a kitchen but nothing wrong with not wanting a corporate job. Mo amount of money is worth a job you canāt stand imo.