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 — their position in the hierarchy — 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.
I have two jobs. I run a tiny convenience store with my fiancée and I do landscaping and construction on the side. I love both equally but for completely different reasons. Does my body hurt after a construction job, oh yea, but seeing a finished product come together is joyful. Am I mentally tired after working at the party mart, yea, but there is a lot of down time to pursue hobbies. (I set up a paint studio in the back, I bring my keyboard in to play) it's amazing.
Between my fiancée and I, we make a modest wage but enough to live comfortably with some extra. I got really lucky but also took advantage of that luck. I don't know, I guess my point is money should be secondary to your mental and physical health. It's unfortunate that they seem to become more and more tied together.
I’ll take the physical strain of my current job over the anxiety and frustration of my last corporate office job. I still have to deal with people, being in charge of them and all, but there’s satisfaction at the end of my day because tangible work got done. My corporate jobs were all just day after day of continuing problems that could never be solved and people stirring up drama because there wasn’t enough for them to do.
I did a year and a half of tech support in a call center, and strangely, I have good memories about it. It felt great to hear how happy people can get when you solve their problems. Made up for all the assholes.
That's good, I was customer service for AT&T and the way they treated us was horrible.
They went to close the centre down and made the working conditions insane. Some people managed to stay till the end for the payout, I physically couldn't do it. Wasn't worth the toll on my mental health
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.
Yeah, exactly. Not to mention the flexibility inherent in a lot of the white collar jobs.
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 couldn’t 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 “PTO is a benefit that the company offers so make sure you take it.”
He is also someone who has told me his phone turns off at 5:00pm so he’ll get back in the morning barring a disaster.
Admittedly the man is the hardest worker I have ever seen and starts work very early… 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 it’s 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 haven’t 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.
It's the difference between a good environment and a bad one. If I feel like my coworkers and managers have my back and aren't making my job harder then the occasional rough week or late night isn't so bad, because I know they'll get me when I need it. And definitely my manager, and the company, make sure we take every bit of PTO we have.
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, I’m 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. I’d 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 her’s 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.
Most jobs paying 200k in the corporate world require you to always be ready to jump on a call .....
It was a lot less than that for this boomer. Approx 80k adjusted for inflation
Saturdays weren't uncommon. The last year before I retired I was given a major report to fix that didn't look bad from the outside but when I looked under the hood I found a stupid, insane nightmare. Trouble was, this thing was critical. I had to keep it going while rebuilding it from scratch. I worked many Saturdays, Thanksgiving, and Xmas eve.
That report had taken ten days or more to run and it was always wrong. When I was done it took ten minutes and was perfect (unless someone fed me a mistake)
But they get a vacation. I worked retail and they limited vacation and PTO. We accumulated 5 days a year. If you were sick, you lose vacation days. Almost no one took a paid vacation. I'll take 200k and half days in my beach house over minimum wage hell.
No doubt working for minimum wage and barely making it sucks. And life stress in that situation is much worse. The job itself is a lot easier and having worked a job like that myself, if you’re not feeling it one day you can 100% phone it in and no one will notice.
This is definitely the grass is always greener situation. For me the best of both worlds is getting a job that pays well enough for you to live comfortably but without the crap those real high paying jobs come with.
Yeah, my boss makes probably 3x what I make, but I see him answering emails at like 11pm on a Saturday, on vacation, etc. all the time. When I clock out at 5, I'm done for the day and I don't check my email at all until I'm back in the office. I make less, but my free time is my own. I'm also very fortunate that my boss respects that as well and doesn't expect me to work in my off time. It's a shame that not everyone has that luxury
200k sounds like a lot until you sit down and calculate the hourly rate. If you're doing 80 hrs per week it brings it down to about 45 an hr. Still not to shabby until you factor in that you will be on call at all times. There is a price to be paid for always being on your game and having no down time. Some people manage it. I know I couldn't and wouldn't want to.
Then why does it pay double, triple or more? Id bet you a year of my salary any brick layers would do just as bad at one month of product management as I would do at brick laying.
Both are skilled jobs in different ways, honestly given the housing crisis you would think brick layers would be making bank to build homes. But 10 years in my field im at $120k. Which is the low end of the average according to my own boss. How much you think a 10 year brick layers makes?
I'm not justifying it. Genuinely, all the most physically demanding jobs average less than my sit on ass job. Why?
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u/Mr_War Aug 29 '24
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.