No. 11112Anonymous 21st February 2017 Tuesday 8:42 pm11112Will I ever find a job which won't make me want to kill myself?
I guess this is more venting than anything else as I suspect the answer will be 'no'.
I've had two 'proper' jobs in my life - both office based. The first was a graduate scheme which was fairly competitive. I never really wanted the job but I didn't want to disappoint my parents by not getting a decent job straight out of uni. When I got the job I felt like I shouldn't be there - everyone else on the graduate scheme was really enthusiastic and motivated and competent, whereas all I could do was stay slumped in my resentment, daydreaming about anything other than work. It was alright for the first few months but it didn't take long for me to become immensely demoralised and demotivated, trying to get through the day doing as little as possible while fantasising about jumping out of a window in between applying for other jobs (with no luck).
I managed to stick it out there for 2 years, and I have since got a job in something I find more interesting. For the first 3 months or I didn't actually mind getting out of bed in the morning, I perhaps even enjoyed the job. But now, 4-5 months in, I just want to get out by any means necessary.
I wonder if I feel this way because of the nature of office work, or if I'd be any less miserable doing other types of work. I suspect a lot of the resentment I feel has to do with the corporate and yuppy cultures which I detest, but find myself forced to play along with. Or perhaps it's a broader resentment towards the drudgery of wage slavery and work in general.
I suppose what I want is the freedom to work as much or as little as I want to support myself, without having my surplus labour extracted, rather than being forced to work 9-6 Mon-Fri in return for a wage. But I've obviously been dispossessed of the means to do that because capitalism etc.
>>11112 Hello me. I just started branching out into other work just to see if I got on better with it or not. These days I just go from job to job inbetween travelling for cheap. My advice would be to explore as many avenues as you can if you haven't got a specific idea of which kind of job you'd thrive in. I will say though that the chances are it could just be the people you work around. I've had some ok jobs that have been made horrible by the people working there, and shit minimum wage jobs that have been great fun thanks to the people I was around.
>>11112 >Is there any way out?
Statistically speaking, probably not. It depends on your abilities. You could start your own business, but most business fail in the first couple of years.
I spoke to a cleaner once at my old school, who said he loved his job and wouldn't ever trade up for something better paying if it meant more responsibility. At the time I couldn't comprehend his reasoning at all, because as high-achieving sixth formers it was our presumed destiny to get careers and become respected professionals.
Now, feeling much like you, I think the gist of it was this: by taking a job which requires no mental exertion, no stressful social or political games, and which has total predictability, he could much more comfortably get through the day (with a pair of headphones in while he worked) and felt much better for it as a result. Whereas office workers may get home at 9pm and feel too drained to do anything except rest and go back to work the next day, my cleaning acquaintance still had plenty of energy to spend his free time doing things that brought him joy.
This may well be some 'grass is greener' nonsense, so feel free to disregard it (since you naturally know yourself better than I know you).
>>11115 >Whereas office workers may get home at 9pm and feel too drained to do anything except rest and go back to work the next day,
I simply outright refuse to do this. I don't care if it's 'expected'. Put longer hours in my contract and pay me more, then I'll do it. I don't mind putting in a few hours if I know I've been lazy or if there's a deadline or something but I don't accept any more work than I can reasonably manage in the time allowed.
OP here again. I've been meaning to reply to this thread, but I find it hard to bring myself to read and write things, let alone think about my future, after a day at work. Naturally this doesn't help with applying for new jobs.
Each day I feel closer and closer to quitting without a backup. It's only a matter of time until some jobsworth on my team patronises me about the correct way to suck a clients dick one too many times and I snap and just walk out. I guess I'll just try and live off what little money I have saved up and supplement that through Deliveroo work, if that's even a viable path.
>>11114 >My advice would be to explore as many avenues as you can if you haven't got a specific idea of which kind of job you'd thrive in.
This seems like an attractive option in theory as I can't understand how anyone can bear doing the same job for longer than 3 consecutive months. But wouldn't people just eventually stop hiring me when they see that I can't commit to a job for a substantial period of time?
>>11119 >Put longer hours in my contract and pay me more, then I'll do it.
This is one of my main grievances. No one at my work seems to do just their contracted hours, despite not getting any overtime pay. Yet they just sit down and take it. If the company wants to take on more work they can either pay us more or hire some more fucking staff (though even if they did offer me more money for more hours, I'd like to be able to refuse it because the main thing I want is more of my life back). Instead they take on new business and expect us to take on additional workloads, and they get away with it because everyone working there is a spineless bastard.
So last week my colleague gave me a bit of a bollocking which led to me admitting that I don't know what I'm doing working there. She said the whole team have noticed I give off a vibe like I don't want to be there, and basically encouraged me to look for another job.
This has obviously made things kind of awkward so I feel I kind of have to quit. Nothing would make me happier. I'm thinking of just sending a resignation email to whoever it is I'm supposed to send it to tonight, even though I don't have another job lined up. How terrible an idea is this?
I have enough saved up to survive for probably 2-3 months without another job. I suppose if I can't find anything I'll just become a Deliveroo driver. I wish they'd make me redundant so that I'd be able to claim JSA in the meantime...
I don't think I can take another month of working there for my notice period though - is there anything I can do to get myself garden leave?
>>11233 Find a new job and suck up the notice period. Man up in the intervening period. No matter how miserable it will be for a few weeks, being out of work is worse and the temporary happiness you feel from writing them the fuck you letter won't make up for the hassle you'll have to deal with afterwards.
For those interested in a change, there a a shit ton of (poorly paid) outdoor activity jobs in Asia. Hard work, but fun as fuck, and you will not starve.
Right, smug mode off. Have a look at some of the vacancies, then if you have pertinent questions I will do my best to answer them. But seriously, lad, that was hardly fucking difficult.
Okay, I admit my response was not the most helpful. So: my village has an outdoors activity company that employs about 60 Westerners. These guys are cracking people - the chaff gets ditched fucking fast. As a result the long termers are all exceedingly good people.
Each week they have a different school group camping by the beach - say 100 kids, average age 12. Each day the staff take the kids out on the ocean, hill walking, mountain biking, etc. Each evening about 10 of the staff camp with the kids to keep an eye on stuff.
They work 5 days a week at the school, from 7 to 7. On the other two days they chip in a day or twos labour depending on requirements on the farm that helps subsidise their existence.
They are provided with free shared accommodation - two to a room. Food is shared, with a rota scheme for cooking and much of it comes straight from the farm. Expect lots and lots of fruit and veg.
For first-timers or complete novice full training in first aid, health and safety and the like, while also being trained in surfing, sailing, skateboarding and the like.
The pay is initially dire, you will not exactly be saving, and you won't be hitting the bright lights of Wan Chai on your wages, but you will be able to afford a few beers and smokes, and have an instant community of other staffers to have fun with.
Professionalism is key - you will be dealing with children in risky situations. Basically, don't fuck around, get stuck in and be pro-active, and it will be notice.
After about 18 months you will be able to angle for a salaried position, either with that school, or with one elsewhere. The money then starts looking pretty reasonable. Very much like ESL teaching.
At the end of the day, if everything goes tits up with my career I may just hop over to a management position, I am 30, have management and admin experience, kayak, sail and hike, and am health and safety trained already. It is a pretty fucking cool job, I will give them that. And the world becomes your oyster with a bit of experience.
The only issue you might have when applying is contract start dates - they work around school term times. But if you contact enough of them you will get a bite.
It is a physically demanding job, but that is half the fun. I mean, what would you rather do? Spend the rest of your life in a fucking cubicle surrounded by faceless morons, or get paid to surf?
Just avoid the ones in Europe - you want to do this in Asia. Just trust me on that.
So they're basically using gullible gap year twats as slave labour. Clever.
Consider working holiday visas for Australia, Canada, or New Zealand. It probably wouldn't be as exciting as working with kids in bongo-bongo land but at least you'll get paid.
Oh, I was in themiddle of a conversation when I first posted. I then realised while my post was correct, it wasn't exactly bringing anything to the table. Hence then posting up a thread in /job/.
