I don't understand how people are enthusiastic about careers/work

i am happy you are happy

i just don’t seem to have any time for extra curricular ‘productive’ stuff
:cry:

Sell some of your massive tellies, they just waste your time.

Long post no one will read

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LONZO!

I just saw a Ford with the same shitheap LED indicator thing that some Audis have.

Thought you’d want to know.

is it more the idea of the ‘workplace’ that fills you with dread? If so, maybe you could look for jobs where you could mostly work remotely.

So then you can be a wage slave and also lonely? Good one casseroles!

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I am kind of OK with work. It doesn’t delight me, or fill me with dread. It’s just stressful at times when there are people breathing down my neck. Usually as they have promised something knowing full well we can’t deliver, but it’s up to everyone else to step up.

I am a software developer. And at 40, have always worked in IT. I am interested enough to make it bearable, but it’s not fascinating. It’s only really when I can deliver something useful that people use day in day out that it’s very fulfilling. The geeky part of me likes being set a challenge and delivering…having to use my own problem solving abilities and being given autonomy to do so. I think that is pretty universal in terms of job satisfaction?

I am not wildly ambitious, peers are now CIOs and running their own business, whereas I am pretty much a grunt. Mind you, I work close to home, make a decent (not amazing) wage and as I say above…it’s OK. I value time/lifestyle more than money to a large degree.

Probably one of those Vignale trims. Disgusting.

no, nor can i

This is pretty much where I’m at. I’m a SQL/VBA/reporting/web developer. I plod along, but to be honest nowadays I’m bored of being stuck in an office and I have minimal interest in what I do. I’d love to give it all up and do something different. But i’m not sure exactly what I’d want to do.

My wage is reasonable and my outgoings are pretty low and I have no commitments. But still I worry about not having a job.

He might not be lonely, he’ll be working and when he’s not working he can hang out with the people he chooses to hang out with not the ones he’s forced to talk to because he works with them.

He can chat to us on dis if he gets lonely anyway :slight_smile:

Or he can sit in a pub or coffee shop and be around other people. Or he can go to those hubs where other remote workers go but there’s less pressure because you’re not ‘colleagues’

the other thing about doing code is that people think you’re IT and that you love gadgets and fixing things (like when they can’t connect to wifi). It’s like you’re always on call. I don’t even like computers really.

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I’m not sure what you study at Uni, but a lot of people have been in the same position as you and you are not alone. It isn’t a case of being like the other people you’re imagining who love their careers. Many people who are career driven, who are enthusiastic about work, are putting on a show and have a lot of their own stress and anxiety problems when it comes to other stuff. The work/life balance is difficult to get, and it seems like you can only ever get it through life/learning experiences. That you don’t have things figured out while at Uni isn’t a slight on you at all. That you have these doubts is very normal! I hope you can do the same/a job related to the course takes your fancy.

But it is a tough balance to try and get. As mentioned in posts above, the amount of work that we do relative to our lifespan is absurd, and I’ve found this quite depressing in the past. Making things more frustrating is that many jobs require you to be in the workplace for a longer amount of time than there is work to do. For most of the year I could quite comfortably get through most of my work in a 4 day week. Yet me and so many people I know waste hours of their time stretching out tasks that can be done much faster than they actually are.

You have to focus on the things you do in your free time. Finding stuff to do after work is key. Lately I’ve been making an effort to go to the cinema more, go to more gigs, social events, University lectures (ones open to the public I mean) and all that sort of thing. If you do music/writing/art/photography/other creative stuff it can be great to set aside a solid chunk of time devoted to that in the evening, and spend some time at work thinking about what you’ll get up to/reflect on it the next day when you’re back in. Sometimes when I’m in the process of mixing/mastering tracks I’ll put them on my phone and have a listen while I’m at work, making mental notes about what works and what doesn’t.

Stuff like this makes a huge difference to my mindset, and if anything helps motivate me while I’m at work. Especially if I’m not wasting my money on shit as well. Saving up money to get a small holiday/an actual permanent item (e.g. PS4, a proper good winter coat) all makes the work seem a lot more worthwhile. If I’m blasting all the money on booze and takeaways and drugs and frivolous stuff, it makes me feel like I haven’t worked for anything at all, that I’ve moved horizontally. Being able to buy a new piece of music kit on the other hand, makes me feel like I’m actually doing something worthwhile with my life, instead of just working to work even more and get nowhere.

Massively depends what kind of job you have and your financial situation though. I used to do 12 hour shifts, 3 days on 3 days off across all days of the week, alternating between dayshifts and nightshifts, and at the time paying for quite expensive rent. Very little chance to do anything outside of work, which got me into a really terrible rut. But when you’re just out of university, in a lot of cases these difficult jobs are temporary, and options become available. Things do get better!

Edit: Shit this is long! Longstoryshort - Hang in there BarleySugar, you’re not alone and these doubts are normal, but you’ve got reason to hope!

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"How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?” As a certain Mr Bukowski once said.

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But God who’d want to be?
God who’d want to be such an asshole?

Or become a wankaholic

See I was thinking of going into IT as it seems to be very flexible and well paid, and though it is not fascinating it seems to be more ‘future’ proof than most jobs.

Are you me posting under a different account this is eerie man.

50%!!! that’s an enormous amount!
then if you factor in ‘life work’ like doing the washing up or whatever then you hardly end up with any time at all

:neutral_face: