Are you happy with your job?

Lately I feel like I’m completely in auto pilot mode. Just existing.

 

That's not good. What do you do? Is it the specific place you're working or your boss putting you in that mode or is it the career?

Time to do some introspection. You don't want to spend the next 40 years on auto pilot.

I've been on auto pilot at my current job for a very long time. I went back to school to get my Master's in hopes of finding my way out of my job and it didn't work out. It's been frustrating.

 

I loved my job (currently on medical leave of absence). 35 years ago next month I walked into a hangar in Oakland California and started my dream job.

I am working very hard to make it back. I consider rehabilitation my job right now. But I am 57 and if I don't make it soon I will just retire. To keep my license current I volunteer for a local war bird owner helping him keep his antique fighter plane flying.

 

Aw this is so awesome you found your dream job xx sorry to hear you’re on medical leave I hope your health improves. Omg! Revelation of the century, you are 57!!!!???!!?? What! Here I was thinking you were in a your 40’s!! I swear Americans are on some youth juice!!

 

It’s not I’m feeling at crossroads potentially a mid life crisis lol.

I’m very grateful to have a job in the first place. My title is contract operations coordinator lol tongue twister.. I basically work for tech transfer company commercialising Intellectual Property on site at a University. I’ve been in this role for 7 years now and I guess I’ve learnt all that there is to learn. Lately I’ve been toying with the idea of becoming a hairdresser but the pay cut would be so significant that it probably isn’t an option right now.. trying to weigh up the pros and cons. I know I need to be in the creative space but it’s not a space that pays well sadly. At the start of the year I moved an hour and some change out of the city so travel time is two hours plus each day which is added a few more crows feet to the eyes lol.

Man I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been in the same pickle and even got your masters. What do you do? What’s holding you back from jumping ship?

 

I'm in the same position as you with my job. Though, I've been at the job a lot longer than you. I've reached the end of what I can do there and I reached it years ago.

My title is engineering administrator. I basically support a bunch of mechanical engineers at a manufacturing company. The job is intended to be a 2-3 year stint. This past June, I've been in that same position for 18 years. 18 freaking long ass years.

Why did you stay so long, you may ask? Well, like you, I'm a creative person, and I've been job hunting off and on for years. But, for the longest time, the only jobs that seemed available for me were basically admin positions - answering calls, ordering office supplies, making travel arrangements, etc. No thank you. I did get a Master's degree in Library Science. But, that didn't pan out to get me out of my position, but it allowed me to finally refocus my job hunt into more technical jobs that aren't glorified secretaries. I'm too old to be a freaking secretary.

If I could, I wouldn't even work in the business world. It holds no interest for me at all. I'd be making movies or writing screenplays/books if I could afford to do that.

A little backstory, I started my position as a C level. I moved up to B level after about 5 years and have been stuck since then. It got so bad there were years I didn't get a raise because I was at the "top of my pay grade". I asked my boss once what it would take for me to get to A level and he gave me this ridiculous answer, that was pretty circular in logic, and that told me everything I needed to know: it was never going to happen.

I did finally get a 3% raise last year. I was tooling around our HR site and discovered the last time I was given a raise (and it was less than 3%) was in 2018. So, basically, I'm working for less money every year, instead of the other way around.

It's very frustrating, but I have been on interviews over the last year. It's just a matter of finding the right fit.

Good luck to you!!

 

Ermm are we the same person or what lol!!! That’s a trip because lately I’ve been wondering why I entered the business world myself lol! My background is real estate, I was in real estate for 10 years before I landed my current position, the enticer being I know contracts and the world of IP is a fascinating place!! Being a single parent on one income has kept me holding on lol and being too loyal lol.

That’s crazy your role was only meant to be short term and you’ve been there for SO long now!!! Amazing!! No doubt that’ll end up being me too lol

I support scientists and doctors and researchers and students with all types of fascinating ways of thinking!! I’ve seen it all!

You sound just like me lol I’d be a designer if I could enter the competitive market and actually make it!

Can you start off small maybe? I totally think you should look into it, you don’t have to have a lot of funds to write a screenplay? Go for it! You never know where it could land you. How about internships? Are they a thing over there?

Money wise, my next move would probably be securing a government role but again it’d be in an office environment and I’m not entirely sure I’m with that lol I just always have too many ideas and in my head of what I could do. Lately I’ve also been contemplating disability work.

Same here, I get paid monthly and over the past seven years I’ve been there it’s gone up very incrementally. By about $80 per month, on paper it’s good but when you live in an expensive ass country where you have to basically pay to fart, it’s tough!! And feels like you’re always in deficit.

At least you’re securing interviews! That’s pretty awesome I was looking up pays this morning because I’ve always felt like I’m pretty well remunerated in between $70k-$85k including super with no experience, but apparently I’m $850 less per month in accordance with other roles!!! Disability work out here pays between $35-$89 per hr with set block hours for the most part.

I think God did us a disservice by planting us here and not giving us any solid direction on our paths lol

 

TY Becca.

 

I don't work in any of the fields listed, but I'm not surprised. I would probably add the legal profession to this list as well. As for my job, I'm relatively pleased. It's not my favorite area of specialty, but it's in a related area that is challenging and I don't find it tedious. I will say that, because I've been promoted and things have generally gone smoothly, I have noticed how easy it is to get carried along when you career has its own momentum and you look up and years have gone by before you know it.

 

Well done on the job promotion! It sure is easy to get carried away lol I’m at that point where it’s like if I stay another three years I’ll get my long service leave but then it’s also like do I want to not be mentally challenged for another three years :-/ I wish we all just were born and given the keys to a nice home, car and a job fulfilling the purpose of our existence - it sucks that some of us spend forever trying to pinpoint what career would really make us genuinely satisfied! I’m nearly 40 and don’t even own my own home nor have I ever been married or felt so alive in any job. I’m starting to feel societal pressure to conform to the norm and lately I find myself cocooned in self reflection and disappointment that I’m nearly 40 and this just isn’t it for me. Yours truly, Debbie.

 

I enjoy my career very much!

 

Be my sugar daddy lol

 

I feel the exact same way regarding my own job.

Although I'm very appreciative to work where I do however after eight years of doing the same thing coupled with the pandemic making the job not nearly as fun as it used to has me wanting a change of scenery.

Right now I feel as if my current employer is simply a weigh station for my next destination.

 

Wow, that’s a trip!! We are living identical lives in terms of work lol!

COVID slowly things down so much on the research front!

Where do you see yourself next? Inspire me haha!

 

I's iz poor now.

I can be your Splenda daddy tho

 

Sitting in a cubicle all day long can get old very quickly. Even if it is a decent paying honest job with terrific benefits. It's helped me to build up my credit and permanently stay out of debt as well.

However I have had one foot out the door since March of 2020 (I was quiet-quittng long before it was even a thing).

I was one of the handful of employees who refused to work from home (since they cannot mandate us to do so) and I've come into the office everyday because I didn't want to get cabin-fever. Lol

Going to work used to be a blast everyday when the building was full of people and the job was relatively simple. These days upper management has become completely analytics driven and all about the metrics.

Now it's a shell of what it once was since there's literally a skeleton crew of people there.

Where do I see myself next? That's a very good question, becca. I honestly believe that my steps are ordered so I'll end up exactly where I'm supposed to be no matter what. No worries.

 

Wow. Everything you have just mentioned is everything that I’m going through too (except I did work from home) during all the extended mandated lockdowns from our overreactive government), I completely relate.

Before Covid I was run off my feet completely, the day would fly by and before I knew it I was out the door. The office was buzzing with fun, vibrant colleagues, but a mass exodus over these past two years has seen the vibrant culture that once was completely dissipate.

Sometime when I enter the building and walk down the hall I feel like I’m entering the morgue, I’ve never worked anywhere were the culture is so mundane. But hey, some fresh carpet and a fresh lick of paint has been deemed the remedy for kick starting what once was….

I was talking to my colleague just yesterday saying how sitting in an office eight plus hours a day then commuting for over two hours per day has me in my worse shape I’ve ever been and I’m not enjoying it. We were joking that I need to find a rich man lol so I can just not work and go to the gym haha!

I originally gave myself until the end of this year to jump ship, but I still have no clue what I’d want to do if I closed the doors to the office life.

I love that philosophy ~ what will be will be huh!! It’s the only way :-D

We’ll figure this out..

 

No cubicles.

 

Yes there's plenty of similarities and shared experiences regarding what you & I are dealing with on the job whilst having to adjust and adapt to these interesting times we now live in.

I also believe it's similar that we'll figure this out. I went through this at my last job a little over eight years ago which landed me my current career.

It's time for another change though.

 

The COVID era was quite interesting. I'm still with my current employer, but just as COVID was really getting serious... My position was being shifted to the university's main IT group as they were centralizing all IT operations. I joined that group just in time for us so shift to a remote work status. Of course we all became insanely busy as the university move to remote work status for most employees. Of course for us we had to drop everything we were doing and immediately pivot to getting staff prepared for remote and hybrid work mode. Myself (and many of my colleagues) shifted permanently to hybrid mode. I go in 2 days per week as I need. I'm still doing some system administrator tasks, but I'm also doing from light PM'ing of projects. I was just approved to shift to 100% remote work mode as I'd like the freedom to relocate as many have. Thankfully, things continue to go well for me at work