We do exactly the same job.
To me the idea of enjoying a job is an odd one: I don’t want to work, I only work because I need the money. If I had money I wouldn’t work.
I don’t know if this makes me the oddest person on earth, but where I am my coworkers sometimes make me feel so.
She asked me if I enjoy my job. I looked at her surprised while thinking to answer her with a regular blanket manager answer like ‘it is such a honor to work here, fuck yeah, I’d love to work here for free!’ or being completely sincere.
I was in a good mood, so I chose being sincere: ‘I don’t enjoy working, I work because I need to pay for the rest of my life, I enjoy cooking, writing poetry and walking through a forest.’
She looked at me a bit surprised and replied: ‘but you have to like your job.’ My answer? ‘As long as I earn money all’s good.’
This happened in a big room with like 9 coworkers hearing the convo.
Now I don’t know if I just committed job suicide where I work at, but it was liberating saying out loud at the workplace what I think a job is.
And why the fixation that you must like a job? It’s a job for fucks sake. Why do you have to like it?
To me this only confirms my current job is a cult. Am I exaggerating?
If every workplace is like this I should stick with the devil I know…
If I had infinite money and didn’t have to work, I still would, just less and with some different direction. I don’t think anyone thinks liking one’s job is required, but it’s obviously nice to not actively dislike a 3rd of your life if at all possible.
Same! I love laboring for my community. The community work I have done has been incredibly fulfilling and I wish I could make a living doing it. Labor is not a bad thing, I love to labor for those I care about. It just isn’t an option. Sitting idle sucks
Yeah I’m with you, sort of already in a way. I’m lucky enough to be able to work part-time and managed to (finally) get a job doing what I decided I wanted to do while in college. And it’s arts-related. So yes, I do enjoy my job. Do I enjoy working? I mean…. Not really, if I’m honest. But at the same time, it gives me an opportunity to better myself in certain ways that I wouldn’t get in my hobbies, and I do value that.
I think in a lot of cases people have not much choice but to continue working in their job. In order to not go insane in that situation, a lot of those people willingly maintain the self-deception that they do actually want to be there and it is good. It allows them the make the best of the situation and to bond with colleagues etc.
When someone openly undermines that shared illusion there is actually quite a lot at stake emotionally for those people, and they don’t like it.
I’ve hated all my jobs except for my current job. I moved back in with family and work at an animal shelter. Turns out it feels good to do something you passionate about. Unfortunately passion doesn’t usually pay well
Every job I have ever had is some % I don’t like and some % I enjoy. I am very fortunate that for a long time the % I don’t like is significantly less than the % I enjoy. The ratio has been 5/95.
Yes I enjoy my job.
Would I rather sit on the Bay, go out for a jet ski and not work, absolutely. I don’t want to sacrifice my life style to do that so I continue to work.
Are you exaggerating about your work place being a cult? I have no idea where you work but I suspect you are.
If every place is like this, I should stick with the devil I know.
That doesn’t make any sense. Why is this such a big deal to you. So what if your co-workers enjoy their work. That has nothing to do with you. As long as they are handling their work and not dumping shit on you than keep doing your work.
That doesn’t make any sense.
if what I described happens anywhere, why even change jobs?
Why is this such a big deal to you. So what if your co-workers enjoy their work. That has nothing to do with you.
because I feel this is a trap where I’m supposed to say that I love my job more than anything, because I think this is how managers search for the ones who only want a paycheck and to leave work stuff at the workplace, because I work to live, not live to work, because I only want to do my hours and enjoy my life away from my coworkers, because managers actively search for the ones who drink the kool-aid and believe they will get a promotion if they just try harder, because the ones who ‘enjoy’ their jobs are the ones happy to work for the manager for free, because the ones who ‘like’ their jobs are the ones less likely to establish boundaries (and enjoy being exploited).
Trying harder just means you get a pat on your back and a bigger shovel, not a raise.
I almost never want to go to my job, but once I’m there, I usually don’t mind being there too much, it makes me feel good about myself and there are even some moments that I can say I enjoy.
Usually this will last from 3-12 months, and then at some point it becomes a slog where I’ve learned everyhing there is to learn yet get ordered around by stupid people.
At one job my boss once said “it’s work, you’re not supposed to like it” as a justification to not make it more bearable. I couldn’t imagine wasting decades of my life to that mentality.
There was one single job I had that was relatively low-stress and not very alienating, that I found myself eager to go to.
“I’m just here for the money” is an extremely common attitude in low-wage work. It shouldn’t surprise any boss as long as people do their job.
Usually this will last from 3-12 months, and then at some point it becomes a slog where I’ve learned everyhing there is to learn yet get ordered around by stupid people
Love being told im well compensated by the dining director who’s too shortsighted and ignorant to realize disallowing us the right to take home food that’s fucking getting thrown away anyway just hurts people for no gain, when he could look at it as extra compensation to us at no cost to him that would keep people motivated and reduce turnover etc.
Like the guy says “go work at any restaurant you’ll see nobody lets you take home food” and it’s like 1) not even true and 2) literally my point, it’s a perk, and if you remove it well that’s 1 less thing keeping someone here if another job might pay them more
At many restaurants and catering companies, they either give you a free meal once per shift, or a 40-50% discount, or both.
We can eat a free lunch but we should be taking home food when we’re throwing away mountains of it daily. We were doing that for literally years before this guy feigned “realizing” we were doing that and told us not to
Each container of food is worth like $20 just for the food (comparative to what you’d pay buying the same amount) and also represents 1.5 hours of me not having to fucking cook and clean my kitchen at home. We are never going to cook less food because it’s buffet style serving and we are literally always going to have enough thrown away every meal period to feed everyone again multiple times over
This motherfucker talked at me about how he’d make extra sandwiches so he could take them home when working at chik fil a like it’s even remotely comparable. I want so badly to choke this man to death before i die
I worked a Taco Bell where they let employees get any combo meal before or after any shift that was at least 4 hours.
The owner took that away once because profits were hurting from employee mistakes. The new rule implemented was only mistakes could be eaten for free. As one can imagine, this did not improve employee accuracy and mistakes became much more frequent for items that coworkers liked the most.
Ther owner realize their mistake quickly and implemented a new hybrid rule. Mistakes were saved and piled up in the break room. They were thrown out during the main shift changes: after lunch rush, after dinner rush and after drunk rush. Employees could get a free combo meal only if there were no mistakes on the break room table. Accuracy improved significantly.
It was one of my favorite jobs to work honestly, and I’ve done every aspect of food service, from fine dining to catering to factory mass production, back of house to front.
I never liked my jobs until I found one that I did. I work as a meat cutter (I cut primals into subprimals). It’s a job I could see myself doing even in a post revolutionary society. The people I work with are all pretty chill too. Mostly queer libs, which, is refreshing considering jobs I’ve previously had.
I obviously don’t like that my surplus value is being extracted, I don’t love that my manager is being forced to use an AI that allocates the amount of hours we all get each week (which is becoming less and less). But the actual labor? The actual task of cutting meat? I find it shockingly grounding. It just feels like I’m actually doing something someone benefits from.
Getting your needs met is unfortunately a luxury in the capitalist system. As long as my job feels necessary and my coworkers don’t totally suck I get by though. If my coworkers ever actually wanna do union activity they know I’m up for it, and if we ever hit a revolutionary situation, I’ll be down for that too.
I enjoy my job but i hate my boss and the system of wage labor that compels me to work to begin with. But my job is fucking around in a kitchen for 7 hours feeding about 50-60 vegans in a generally low stress environment where i can do literally whatever i want with the food as long as it tastes good and nobody is like “what the fuck is this slop” and i like that and i get compliments on my food all the time and the satisfaction that the president of the college loves my food.
Wage labor under capitalism sucks and i should be paid 3x what i make but i enjoy my job
I love my job. It’s stressful, it’s horrendously unevenly paced, but it brings joy and stuff to people.
Also, I have the nicest office :
Your coworker isn’t wrong if she can afford a choose in her job - yeah, you better like it, it’s so many hours of your time, so much mental space and energy.
The nicest office? Hell, I’d ask if I could move in!
Oh, we hire people all summers. Pay is Legal Minimum Wage. Must speak French and agree to move about 500 chairs a week.
Montrer aus américains, qui travaillent dans un bureau collectif sans âme, la beauté Européenne, est cruel
I once met a ranger in the Lassen Natural Park (North California). He was 100% into it on smoking holes and exotic strates and whatnot - also, he was adamant it was “the best job on Earth”.
The view from his office was nice, indeed.
Work sucks, that’s why they have to pay you to do it
With that said, I currently have the best job I’ve ever had. Job security (niche career I fell into by applying for a retiring coworker’s position), the work is meaningful and helps society, it’s not that hard, and it pays $80k/yr
I probably wouldn’t do my job as a hobby during my free time, but in general I like what I do for a living.
All the fun has been sucked out of my industry and im there for a paycheck now. Sucks because i used to love it, but AI has made it a shitshow and completely unfun.
Now I don’t know if I just committed job suicide where I work at, but it was liberating saying out loud at the workplace what I think a job is.
There’s nothing wrong w saying the truth but it doesn’t help anything at all if it’s not said w discretion.
There were things that I liked and things that I didn’t like about most of my jobs. The thing that seems to matter to me is a sense that I did something useful to someone that day.
I get that at my current job and the best part is that it helps the Epstein class slightly less than everything else. Lol
Whether you like the job or not affects how well you interact with your coworkers and managers. It depends on the team’s environment, though. Sometimes everyone gets along BECAUSE they all agree the work sucks.
Liking your work, or at least not hating it, is rational. We’re forced to do this for most of the waking hours of most of our lifes. Kudos to your colleague for having a positive mindset.
I like my job in general, although I’d like if I had to spend less time working.
