As someone who is going to have to get a job in 2-3 years, I’m dreading the day. Going to the same place 5 days a week coming home with no time and energy left for anything you actually like and doing this for FOURTY years or even more if you were unlucky, sounds HORRIBLE!! How could anyone actually like working?
FWIW maybe an office job isn’t for everyone. Some people need different challenges and changes of scenery. Some of those jobs may be a bit more blue collar. Things like survey teams, equipment operators, trades, etc. Probably union gigs, too. I couldn’t handle office politics or being trapped either.
I absolutely despise work. If there was any way to survive while living alone in a studio apartment or trailer home without having to go to a job I’d do it in a heartbeat. I work a much better job now than I was from 2014-2025, but that’s only cause the pay is better and I listen to podcasts all day instead of being forced to interact with people. I still feel my soul being drained when I wake up at 3 AM and have to drag myself there just to do some B’s I’d rather not do, but I don’t have any other choice given I can’t find anything that will pay better without experience or wasting years on a piece of paper.
It’s either work or twerk and i aint got that kind of body
People don’t want to work. They want to live and pay for shit. Work is the only way for people that weren’t born rich to get money. Well, either that or crimes, but some crimes can be seen as illegal work.
Most people don’t want to feel useless, so if you cut their access to cheap dopamine (phones with internet, social media) they might seek out some work out of boredom.
What really sucks is that society expects us to be “specialists” in one thing for the rest of our lives, as if we are fucking ant drones or gears in a complex machine. It’s great for economists and the rich and awful for our individual wellbeing, though some people do enjoy doing the same thing over and over for very long periods of time.
If your really worried about working do your best to find a work place that is fun rather than a workplace that maximizes your income. Assuming you have interests try and find a job that plays to those interests and it helps to feel like your actually helping people rather than being another cog in the machine.
Problem is there’s a ton of interests with jobs that just don’t exist really anymore or those jobs pay the absolute bare minimum. Like my main interest/hobby is film and writing my thoughts about every single one I watch (along with videogames, but film is easier for me cause it requires a lot less from me). I don’t have any interest in making a movie and becoming a paid critic nowadays is near impossible with how flooded the market is with hundreds of thousands of people doing it for free in their spare time. I could work in a movie theater or something similar, but then I’m back to making state minimum wage instead the almost double that I’m currently making.
I grew up on a subsistence farm. Everyone always worked. Every single day of the year. Some days were very long, some were short depending on what needed to be done. To survive. Of course we had fun and time off as well. It’s about balance. Most people don’t have to do back to the land subsistence living anymore because they substituted living in cities and taking paying jobs to buy what they need. No matter the path, you still have to do some sort of work to live. You can choose which path to some extent. There are small farms looking for people to come work for them in exchange for room and board.
There are many reasons. One is just wanting to know your contributing. Sorta goes with the good days work for a good days pay. Although given pay nowadays is more of a reason not to work. Then there is doing things you are interested in and enjoy. I worked IT for a cs research visualization lab that did a fair amount of networking and colloboration with other labs and fields. It was amazing. Worked at another place were I was hired by a guy and I enjoyed working under him and with the people at the company. Man he left and the job lost a lot of what made it decent. Other places I worked had some good folks and you combine that with my general interest in problem solving the whole contributing thing and its not bad. Granted though I really hate the way we from full time education to full time employment to nothing (if your lucky). would love a citizens income and a more 3 day work week so that the general idea is at some point to work and go to school 3 days a week each and then you fnd someone and have kids you can split it to someone is at home everyday and when they are grown you maybe can grab more educations and it would be nice for the 30 to ramp down as you approach retirment.
When you ask a question like this in a place like this, understand that you’re going to be getting replies from people who have jobs where you can sit around and be bored on the internet
Or sad, unemployed people.
I mean, isn’t school a bit like that?
Not exactly. I get OP’s point. I’m 25 so I’ve experienced both, and they weren’t the same for me.
School is more about the experience and the journey than the results, or at least that’s what it feels like. It’s the place where you get to spend time and joke around with your friends while developing knowledge together. Your teachers form genuine connections with you, and most of them do care about your well-being and development. If you’re lucky, you get to have a mini party on your ride home with fellow students singing and dancing on the school bus. You get to go on fun outings and field trips. You’re ultimately responsible for no one but yourself, and every day yoy learn something new.
With work, there’s a very hostile environment. Everyone has a huge ego problem, your boss makes it clear that they’re not your friend, you’re forced to collaborate and be friendly to your colleagues even though you may not like some. You can’t just decide to take a day off because clients and colleagues are depending on you. It can be monotonous and stressful. Your only social activities are probably icebreakers or eating out on a day that’s supposed to be relaxing (like Christmas holidays and whenever you’re nearby). You have other responsibilities when you get home as well, which aren’t a sports club or music lessons but chores and admin stuff.
I know not everyone’s experience is the same. For some, school is where they met their worst bully and had a miserable time whereas work was where they met their best friend and had fun. This is just me explaining why I relate to OP in our view of school vs work.
School didn’t even feel obligatory for me, it was just a planned fun day. I enjoyed most of it: the teachers, the students, the timings, the duties. I even enjoyed some of the homework (and I hate the idea of homework)! There were little tasks that seemed exciting like taking the attendance to the administration’s office, going around picking up each class’s donations and consent forms, decorating the classroom door for the Christmas competition, getting the keys for the teacher from their staffroom, going next door to borrow a marker, doing group presentations, and being my turn to read the class book, and so on. Work usually lacks these little everyday tasks and just focuses on earning the company money and being professional. It kills joy and personality.
Good workplaces are like the after-school extracurricular classes, you go because you’re interested, it’s fun to problem-solve with people.
I have to be regularly told to go home at the end of the day.
Finally a positive answer! I completely agree, I enjoy working with competent people, solve issues, and improve myself. Extend my knowledge and experience, try out new stuff and help other people get better.
Place and purpose baby! Working for someone/being exploited sucks shit, sure, but doing stuff is awesome. What else are you gonna do?
This, and working with a team, and working towards the public good. Building successful teams, improving processes, implementing efficient and sustainable systems - all good fun to achieve.
That said these take weeks and months to accomplish where I work. I’d love to be a chef where the results of my labour was more … immediate.
We like to be useful. Pitching in and doing our share and making/doing things for other people who do the same for us feels good. Its a large part of what got us here and not living in caves dying of infection.
Recently its become perverted though. There’s not enough satisfaction from being a useful member of society, and too much of the guys above you shouting “more! Faster! Better! I can replace you so easily!”
Its a fuckin nightmare, but gotta eat
because they have to, else they starve to death.
they are gonna make you hate being unemployed and long for a job by simply making you live with material scarcity if you don’t.
Allow me to come at this from the other side.
I can’t work. My body gave out, and even though the shit show that is disability income keeps me below the poverty line, I’m essentially useless at any job that requires me being upright. So, I’m stuck there.
But if I could go back to work, I would.
I’d want to be picky at this point, but there’s a lot to be said about having structure and an external purpose (as opposed to finding one within yourself, which is still possible while working, just not necessary).
Since my job was at least emotionally and mentally fulfilling, I do miss the actual work ad well. I mean, fuck the industry and the actual available employers, but doing direct patient care was fucking awesome, even when it was stressful or painful (be it physical or mental pain).
The pay sucked. Bad enough that even working full time, I technically have a higher income now than when my hourly rate was at its highest back then. But going in, helping someone, that was the shit right there.
I could have gladly done the hands on work for forty years. Even though most days I was exhausted at the end of the day. If you’re lucky enough to have a job that fulfills you, the only problem is when you can’t take breaks from it, or when the broken system means you can’t make a real living doing it.
I recently had a loved one have a major medical event. During the aftermath, I had plenty of chances to use my old skills, and it was one of the few bright points that got me through the fear and stress of it. There was still that old joy at really, truly helping someone get better, to have a less bad day at the very least.
But, legit, there’s other things I could gladly make a job of if I were both physically capable and could make enough for it the be worthwhile.
What sucks for what you’re asking is having to work just for survival ata job that isn’t fulfilling.
That being said, I’ve known a ton of people that were quite happy being a cog in the machine as long as the pay was enough to let them live how they wanted.
Besides, you don’t have to plug away at the same blah job the entire time. It’s entirely possible to not only switch jobs, but move into different industries. Like, one of my uncles over his almost sixty years of working was a prison guard, a foundry worker, a school custodian, a woodworking instructor at a high school, and a mill worker. When he’d get tired of something, he’d just start looking for something with similar pay (or better) and jump ship. He bitches about being bored now that he’s retired.
