I have a multi-faceted job, but certainly part of it I find fulfilling. I also have a fantastic workplace and the best co-workers I’ve ever experienced.
@2many2no Ditto on the “broken tools” part. I used to use a program that let me do my job in two hours and gave me plenty of time to do analytical work.
The new tool which “helps” me do my job now takes me eight to 10 hours to do the same work with no time for analysis. Because of this, my department is now hiring three analysts, costing us more money because we need more people.
/giphy work fail
@2many2no right on sometimes you need to buy your own tools I’m an electrician love it the only thing I like more is cars but don’t want dirty hands all day
@daveinwarsh , hey, i too am retired, also with a good pension. i am not in a museum and i doubt you are either. perhaps we made some sound investments? before all the stock splits happened appl stock was under $20 a share. not bragging, but, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes ya don’t.
@f00l Nope, though I like some museums. There’s one in Cody, Wyoming called the Buffalo Bill Museum that’s the most amazing one I’ve been to. I thought it would be some little hoky place (like the Roswell UFO museum) but it was incredible.
I got the pension for working 30 yrs being a building mechanic/carpenter for government, starting early in life at this. Instead of college, I went to work & went to a trade school at night. I actually ‘retired’ early, before I hit 60.
@f00l@daveinwarsh@bayportbob
Not yet retired but will be eligible for a pension. Company transitioning away from pension plans for new employees since 2015. My ‘max salary’ relative to pension calculation is already frozen, and ‘years service’ caps in 2020.
Current plan is to retire in 2020, but begin collecting pension in 2028 (just under $50K/yr)
I used to write and copy edit IT-related articles, and now I’m actually doing IT. Certainly fulfilling in some ways, and it’s nice to feel appreciated and indispensable, but I definitely feel burned out more frequently than I’d like.
On the bright side, it’s not a service industry job. I’ve gone through that unholy trifecta and I never plan on going back.
this career (number 3, or maybe 4) has been very rewarding. I have been:
restaurant manager/owner
contractor/remodeler
EMS/firefighter
ER nurse.
Each was great while I was doing it, but when it got to be too big a PITA to get up to go to work on any given day I would change to a new career. Now, at 61 I am enjoying my current (and maybe last?) career, working 7 days on/ 7 days off.
I often tell the students I precept that life is too short to do something you despise 8 hours a day just to draw a check…
@chienfou when I told one of my favorite high school teachers I was going to be a teacher (which I’m not, but I digress) she had one piece of advice: “before you sign the contract for each new school year, ask yourself: do I still love the subject and do I still love working with the students. If either is no, it’s time to stop.” (She was probably late 50s at the time and I think she retired as a teacher though she did take a one or 2 year sabbatical about 3 years after I had her).
I take that to any job: do I love the work and do I enjoy helping the people I work with. Things like management (or school) politics and the commute and other adminitrivia can be solved (even if it means new employer). But the core has to be there or everything else is worthless and it’s time to find something else (not just same job/different employer).
@chienfou My dad gave me nearly the same advice: never take a job you don’t really enjoy just because the money is good. Money is never worth being unhappy at work every day. I broke that rule a couple of times and regretted each decision within a month.
I love working in TV, but I’m done with the bad hours and lack of a social life, so I’m trying to move to something that better supports my life outside of work.
Well, I have a awful and unfulfilling customer service job in the health insurance industry. Yuck. But it keeps a roof over my head and cream cheese wontons in my belly.
AND…I own a small business doing what I love. I am a leatherworker and make awesome custom pieces. A calling, a passion, however you say it, it is quite fulfilling. But, I barely break even. I’ve only been in business for 18 months, though, so you never know…
I am very meh in my position at the moment. I would love to do something else, but am having a harder and harder time figuring out what I can do due to my new-found deafness on one side. I am in school now trying to figure things out, and hope to get it figured out soon.
I’ve been all men since birth. I call it chronic apathy. I know it’s probably not a good thing, but I don’t really care. And that bothers other people, but I’m straight.
I like what I do. The location is great, the people are sweet, working in this industry is emotionally rewarding, and the benefits are seriously amazing. (Yes, I have a pension. I’m under 30. Also great nearly-free health insurance, and close-to-free dental and vision, and plenty of vacation time.)
But especially by the location’s and my skillset’s standards, the pay is terrible. There’s no upward mobility for me to make that better. The tools could be better, and better managed. We’re all worried about the future of the place.
A career? no… i make little/no money doing my life’s calling. But, yes, for the most part i feel fulfilled… i am a homeschool teacher (for a few years more - our elder son is an 18 year old junior at University and our 13 year old has a few more years at home before moving on)… i am a licensed massage practitioner, but i mostly donate my time/skills rather than getting paid in cash… and the past few years i’ve spent a not-insignificant amount of time at home and travelling around the country providing assistance and care to friends and family-of-my-heart during times of hardship (new baby, post surgery, etc). Definitely a calling… but not a career in the socially accepted meaning of the word.
I don’t know if I found my career calling, but I’ve at least found an industry where I’m content: the performing arts. I do email marketing for a performing arts organization, and I like it. Mostly because I know it’s something that actively makes the world better.
Nope. I’ve worked in retail for 12 years (aka a third of my life) and I’m tired of being blamed for so many people’s “mistakes”; I’m not even a manager. I would love to leave but my overprotective mother would prefer I stay put. More people would rather harass me over the sound of my voice than listen to what I actually have to say. The only place where I’ve ever been taken seriously was college.
Years ago I found a way to use my main hobby and skills to fund a reasonably comfortable life in the big city and mostly raise two wonderful daughters (daughter unit two will be done with her undergraduate degree in May). I’m told I’m pretty good at my job and while parts of it suck at times, much of the time I’m fairly happy with most of it.
@serpent i thought a thought that i thought i had thought but the thought that i had thought wasnt the thought that i had thought i had thought so maybe if i had thought the thought that i thought i thought i wouldn’t of thought so much.
I’m 37 years old, and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
/giphy so sad.
@hems79 I’m 40, still wondering…
I have a multi-faceted job, but certainly part of it I find fulfilling. I also have a fantastic workplace and the best co-workers I’ve ever experienced.
It took me into my 30s to find what I truly love to do, but now I’m doing it.
I do the job that I want, but the people who run this place want me to do it with broken tools.
It definitely lowers the “rewarding” factor.
@2many2no …you don’t happen to work at the Firestone I take my car to get serviced, do you? It would explain a lot!
@2many2no Ditto on the “broken tools” part. I used to use a program that let me do my job in two hours and gave me plenty of time to do analytical work.
The new tool which “helps” me do my job now takes me eight to 10 hours to do the same work with no time for analysis. Because of this, my department is now hiring three analysts, costing us more money because we need more people.
/giphy work fail
@2many2no right on sometimes you need to buy your own tools I’m an electrician love it the only thing I like more is cars but don’t want dirty hands all day
There should have been an option for ‘Yes, I found my career calling but it isn’t the job I have now.’
I’m doing exactly what I wanted to do.
I’m retired with a good pension.
@daveinwarsh
Retired with a good pension? Shouldn’t you be in a museum?
@daveinwarsh , hey, i too am retired, also with a good pension. i am not in a museum and i doubt you are either. perhaps we made some sound investments? before all the stock splits happened appl stock was under $20 a share. not bragging, but, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes ya don’t.
@f00l Nope, though I like some museums. There’s one in Cody, Wyoming called the Buffalo Bill Museum that’s the most amazing one I’ve been to. I thought it would be some little hoky place (like the Roswell UFO museum) but it was incredible.
I got the pension for working 30 yrs being a building mechanic/carpenter for government, starting early in life at this. Instead of college, I went to work & went to a trade school at night. I actually ‘retired’ early, before I hit 60.
@f00l @daveinwarsh @bayportbob
Not yet retired but will be eligible for a pension. Company transitioning away from pension plans for new employees since 2015. My ‘max salary’ relative to pension calculation is already frozen, and ‘years service’ caps in 2020.
Current plan is to retire in 2020, but begin collecting pension in 2028 (just under $50K/yr)
Finally found my calling. Retired, fishing, golf, and crabbing.
I used to write and copy edit IT-related articles, and now I’m actually doing IT. Certainly fulfilling in some ways, and it’s nice to feel appreciated and indispensable, but I definitely feel burned out more frequently than I’d like.
On the bright side, it’s not a service industry job. I’ve gone through that unholy trifecta and I never plan on going back.
this career (number 3, or maybe 4) has been very rewarding. I have been:
restaurant manager/owner
contractor/remodeler
EMS/firefighter
ER nurse.
Each was great while I was doing it, but when it got to be too big a PITA to get up to go to work on any given day I would change to a new career. Now, at 61 I am enjoying my current (and maybe last?) career, working 7 days on/ 7 days off.
I often tell the students I precept that life is too short to do something you despise 8 hours a day just to draw a check…
@chienfou when I told one of my favorite high school teachers I was going to be a teacher (which I’m not, but I digress) she had one piece of advice: “before you sign the contract for each new school year, ask yourself: do I still love the subject and do I still love working with the students. If either is no, it’s time to stop.” (She was probably late 50s at the time and I think she retired as a teacher though she did take a one or 2 year sabbatical about 3 years after I had her).
I take that to any job: do I love the work and do I enjoy helping the people I work with. Things like management (or school) politics and the commute and other adminitrivia can be solved (even if it means new employer). But the core has to be there or everything else is worthless and it’s time to find something else (not just same job/different employer).
@chienfou My dad gave me nearly the same advice: never take a job you don’t really enjoy just because the money is good. Money is never worth being unhappy at work every day. I broke that rule a couple of times and regretted each decision within a month.
@chienfou
Fire dispatcher here. Firefighters deserve way more credit and pay than they’re given. Thanks for your service!
I’m a 911/fire dispatcher. It’s rewarding to help people but I’d rather own/run a B&B in Vermont or Connecticut.
I love working in TV, but I’m done with the bad hours and lack of a social life, so I’m trying to move to something that better supports my life outside of work.
Well, I have a awful and unfulfilling customer service job in the health insurance industry. Yuck. But it keeps a roof over my head and cream cheese wontons in my belly.
AND…I own a small business doing what I love. I am a leatherworker and make awesome custom pieces. A calling, a passion, however you say it, it is quite fulfilling. But, I barely break even. I’ve only been in business for 18 months, though, so you never know…
@QuietDelusions you and @meh should talk to each other…
@baqui63 But…what would I say?
@QuietDelusions /shrug
I’d love to hear if the Mediocre employees think they found their “calling”.
No wrong answers.
Well… Unless @snapster happens to pass by.
@PlacidPenguin My career is bombarding @galmaegi with questions, which is pretty fulfilling.
@woodhouse Your career has been fulfilled.
@galmaegi @woodhouse
Assuming that @woodhouse hasn’t started planning his retirement, this question is aimed at both of you.
Either one of you wanna read my latest support ticket and answer it in the affirmative?
@PlacidPenguin We are working on it
@PlacidPenguin Wait, we’re talking about my retirement, right?
Meh.
I’m making it a career ensuring I click the meh face everyday. So far I have perfect attendance since the first week I started.
I am very meh in my position at the moment. I would love to do something else, but am having a harder and harder time figuring out what I can do due to my new-found deafness on one side. I am in school now trying to figure things out, and hope to get it figured out soon.
Also retired. Never did find a calling. Probably because I never really looked.
I’ve been all men since birth. I call it chronic apathy. I know it’s probably not a good thing, but I don’t really care. And that bothers other people, but I’m straight.
I like what I do. The location is great, the people are sweet, working in this industry is emotionally rewarding, and the benefits are seriously amazing. (Yes, I have a pension. I’m under 30. Also great nearly-free health insurance, and close-to-free dental and vision, and plenty of vacation time.)
But especially by the location’s and my skillset’s standards, the pay is terrible. There’s no upward mobility for me to make that better. The tools could be better, and better managed. We’re all worried about the future of the place.
Sigh.
@Kawa What is the industry, please?
@compunaut Healthcare, specifically at a public hospital.
I heard my career calling once, but I was busy and let it go to voicemail.
Yes, but it seems to be calling me nasty things.
@cranky1950 You’re cranky.
@hems79
Are you sure he’s not cranki? Or crankie?
@f00l just as long as it isn’t latefordinner.
I’ve found what my calling is… But I haven’t found anyone willing to pay me to do it.
https://meh.com/forum/topics/what-is-you-dream-job#58a8f0bb0757a90a3c2bae21
A career? no… i make little/no money doing my life’s calling. But, yes, for the most part i feel fulfilled… i am a homeschool teacher (for a few years more - our elder son is an 18 year old junior at University and our 13 year old has a few more years at home before moving on)… i am a licensed massage practitioner, but i mostly donate my time/skills rather than getting paid in cash… and the past few years i’ve spent a not-insignificant amount of time at home and travelling around the country providing assistance and care to friends and family-of-my-heart during times of hardship (new baby, post surgery, etc). Definitely a calling… but not a career in the socially accepted meaning of the word.
I’m trying to strategically earn enough just money to live the rest of the life that my job is shortening. I might retire at 50.
Thanks stupid bot, now I have this song struck in my head
/youtube your body’s callin
I really hated my job, so yesterday I quit.
@Flanjygo Details?
I don’t know if I found my career calling, but I’ve at least found an industry where I’m content: the performing arts. I do email marketing for a performing arts organization, and I like it. Mostly because I know it’s something that actively makes the world better.
Nope. I’ve worked in retail for 12 years (aka a third of my life) and I’m tired of being blamed for so many people’s “mistakes”; I’m not even a manager. I would love to leave but my overprotective mother would prefer I stay put. More people would rather harass me over the sound of my voice than listen to what I actually have to say. The only place where I’ve ever been taken seriously was college.
So yeah, I’m stuck.
Years ago I found a way to use my main hobby and skills to fund a reasonably comfortable life in the big city and mostly raise two wonderful daughters (daughter unit two will be done with her undergraduate degree in May). I’m told I’m pretty good at my job and while parts of it suck at times, much of the time I’m fairly happy with most of it.
@baqui63 shut up baq, no one wants to hear about your career contentedness here!
do keep me in mind if you’re hiring, tho, and you need someone marginally good at almost nothing with computers.
Finding a career and a place in the sheeple society is too conformist for me. I’d rather reign in hell, than serve in heaven.
@serpent i thought a thought that i thought i had thought but the thought that i had thought wasnt the thought that i had thought i had thought so maybe if i had thought the thought that i thought i thought i wouldn’t of thought so much.