I am not in a comfortable situation in mine. It is a bit toxic tbh. The rest of it seems normal - so many meetings, everyone fumbling around trying to meet the goals that shift around. I do like the parts where I get to write code though:-).
Nobody enjoys 100% of every day and every activity. But do you enjoy your job… mostly?
No, but I’ve never enjoyed any of my career paths, even though they’re ones I set out to pursue. Programmer to Designer to Video Editor, I think I just enjoyed the climb.
I mostly enjoy my job:
Good points:
- I have a very good boss who does her best to make our lives easier, and whose expectations of us are clear, consistent, and reasonable.
- I have an excellent benefits package.
- I have very good work-life balance.
- I have a very short commute.
- There’s an on-site fitness center that’s pretty nice and is open before work.
- I get along pretty well with my coworkers.
- I mostly like what I do, when I can get my brain to shut up and cooperate in actually getting some work done.
Bad points:
- I could probably get a sizable pay raise if I got a similar job in the private sector.
- Our institutional funding depends in part on the state legislature & gubernatorial executive actions so we can easily find ourselves with unstable funding.
- Because of budget crunch, we are in a hiring freeze and my department, who just lost a person to retirement, will probably be denied authorization to hire someone to fill the newly vacated spot.
Overall, it’s worth my while to stay here. At a minimum I will stay long enough to vest in the pension system, and because I hate job hunting with a passion, I’ll probably stay at least as long as my boss is here.
No, but it’s more the conditions than the job itself.
Baking can be enjoyable and actually kinda meditative. On the rare days that I get to just do that, it’s nice.
But my average day is spent fixing what’s been forgotten/ignored, and filling in every role no one else felt like doing that day. All four morning people can be there, I’ll still have their leftover work to do as they all start getting ready to leave once I come in for the afternoon, and whatever was already planned for me.
They all leave their work space worse than a kindergarten class on fingerpainting day. Yeah, of course you need to leave an hour early, again. Your table is caked in 2 feet of icing and there’s a pile of dishes pouring out the sink.
My managers shouldn’t be allowed to work together, they spend more time talking about their personal issues than they do actually working.
I have spent months telling them that I’m burnt, we need at least one more night person, and on weekends having two together would help. They got another morning person instead. All while telling me we’re getting in “so many applications”.
Our company wants to sit there and praise us for being the top preformers in our area, but it’s more important that the larger, but worse preforming, stores get all the new equipment. We can just put up with equipment they don’t even make parts for any more. I work with the Ovens of Theseus, it’s put together with entirely refurbished parts picked out of the salvage yard at this point. They also can’t hold temperature for shit.
It feels even worse, because it’s not something I feel like I can talk about anymore. I know my friends are tired of hearing me bitch about work, I can’t talk to my coworkers.
Yikes!? Ultimately it sounds like you are expected to either “take it or leave it”, doing more work than them e.g. if you have to clean up after both them and yourself and also your planned work and also any of theirs. I’ve heard that about baking: it’s toxic.
I hope you can figure something out, like maybe you can switch to the morning shift yourself? That might not be as ideal for your circumstances, but it sounds like “ideal” is out the window entirely at this point, and you are trying to simply survive somehow.
I mean, it’s a job so no, but it’s the best I’ve ever had. Pay is bad, but i come in, do what i need to do and leave. Occasionally i get paid to hang around or go shopping while i wait for deliveries, but i mostly get off early (to the detriment of my paycheck). I’m definitely going to have to get another job eventually, but I’ll hold on to this one as long as i can make it work.
Becoming self-employed was the best professional decision I ever made.
Very much so this. Been free of direct bosses for a decade ( clients are the replacement bosses though).
But I can fire my bosses, and have once. And I have total control about my workplace ( home).
There are many downsides, it’s not all good. I think the trade off is worth it
