Ask Lemmy

No. I just try to work places that don't actively work to harm the world.

My job is important but I feel that either I'm not equipped enough for it or that my users don't get value out of it.

Without getting too specific, I'm a data engineer that is doing ETL work for maintenance data. So it could allow the business users to optimize the business and potentially lower a large carbon footprint while also saving the company millions.

I have a devops background so I really just need to git gud at databases and data engineering

Yup. Psychiatric nurse. I think the field needs a lot of advancements and a lot of the tools I have are barbaric but I'm doing the best I can with what I have and trying to contribute to my field by teaching and pushing for advancements.

I haven't had a job that should exist since I was a tutor in college. Every position since then was either a fake busywork job, or tech support for people in fake busywork jobs. =/

911 dispatch, yeah, kind of important.

Wish I could do it for just fire and EMS, and not police, but that's the way the system works, and the most interesting calls I get are for police I suppose.

In a more ideal world where people don't have to work just to survive and make ends meet, I probably would still do it, just not on a full-time schedule. It's one of those things that needs to get done but that absolutely not everyone is cut out for, so I think it's important for those of us who can hack it to step up to the plate to do it.

As far as whether I'm proud of what I do, well I'm proud that I get to help people, I'm proud of the skills I have that allow me to do it well, but otherwise it's just a job, I don't brag about what I do (although I do have a ton of interesting stories from it that I like to share)

And since it is a full time gig and I have tons of things I'd rather be doing, I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to retire someday and never having to go into the office again.

My job is important within the company, but that's about it.
I'm not proud to do it though, just mostly amazed I got this far at all. Impostor syndrome runs strong with me and even after all these years there's still a nagging worry that they'll find out that I've been faking my competence.

Indirectly important. I help make the tools others use to do important things. Or rather I'm learning to. I'd say that what I do is as much art as precise science. The pay is a bit knaff but it's interesting work.

I have a great job, I'm reaching the end of a successful career and I'm very happy with the choices I've made in my professional life.

But my job is NOT important and I'm not proud of it. I'm only proud of having the honesty to do what I'm paid to do well. Beyond that, my job is a means to an end: supporting my loved ones. They are what's important. Nobody goes to their grave reflecting on what they did for a living.

No and no. I help produce luxury goods for obscenely rich people... 2 units of our product, depending on configuration is my entire years salary...

Yes. I'm an IT sysadmin for the last fully independent local newspaper in my country.
It's pretty challenging because a newspaper needs special systems that are a clusterfuck of tech debt that the suppliers don't fix anymore, since the entire industry is dying.

No. It is just an easy job that pays the bills and I can completely forget about it the moment I'm out the door.

Open source developer.

I'd say it's relatively unimportant in the greater scheme of things; nobody dies and the world would keep going even if I stopped.

But I'm mostly proud to do it and I enjoy working in the non-profit sector, especially since I don't have an asshole boss or corporate interests to worry about.

On the flip side, I make less money than I would in the corporate space. But I suppose I value the freedom more than the money

My job isn't important at all - it basically just makes money for our CEO, but I am proud of how little work I can manage to do while still staying in the good graces of my manager, so there's that.

Its not important at all. My job brings no value to the betterment of humanity. But in private i hope i can develope some free software to better ppls lives ^^

Yep and yep and I've been incredibly lucky. I help run a spirituality (Buddhism-ish) related website. I don't have much formal training, I've just been a shut-in nerd for decades and picked up skills that turned out to be useful for the teacher (they tried to make a website that was total shite and I told them as much. Long story short, they hired me).

I'm actually on permanent neetbux due to mental health issues ('twas partly the treatment resistant depression that led me to look into spirituality) but I'm allowed to earn a certain amount without losing my benefits. I get paid that exact amount and I largely choose when I work and how much. From my perspective, I'm now getting paid to the stuff I used to do as idle fancy. Which is awesome. I'm also mentally in a much better place thanks to my own practice and the community. I definitely couldn't handle neurotypical life but at least I can do a bit of work, kinda take care of myself and not let my home devolve into a total legbeard nest. Glad to be able to help provide service to others that was helpful to me. Plus despite not having very good people skills, I'm appreciated by my boss and the community and I'm welcome to be as I am, I don't have to mask or sell "good vibes only".

I work for a company that makes lab and medical testing equipment, if you've had a medical emergency that required blood tests then odds are good our equipment was used. It feels good knowing that I work somewhere that has a positive impact on many people's lives.

But, I've met our company president and he's a complete piece of shit. I almost quit because the idea of making him even richer makes my stomach turn. Unfortunately I've been unable to find someplace else that will pay me what I need to continue to support my family... so I look at the positive things that we do and try to forget the psycho.

My job at the minute isnt important but im super proud of it. Im basically an ATM but a human version. I get to help the blind, deaf, super-technophobe-old, mentally enfeebled etc. Im literally no better than an ATM, but because im helping people who struggle im feeling that job satisfaction.

My previous job in a meat processing factory was relatively important, if I fucked up lots of food never made the shop shelves or made a lot of people poorly. My job satisfaction was in the negative though I hated it so much.

Important? No. I write open source software for a living, but have been partly railroaded into a corporate project that sucks the joy out of work.

Proud? Fuck no!

Not that proud, as it's a fairly trivial IT thing with niche elements. "Anyone" could do it, but there are so many different elements, all of which are trivial separately, that there aren't a whole lot of people in the world who can do what I do because of the odd combinations.

So while my work is (mysterious and) important for the particular industry I'm in,I'm sure any IT geek with networking and linux experience could do it after a few years of training.

As for importance, kinda. The higher-ups consider it important enough to grant me every demand I stated when they tried to poach me from my previous employer. I was looking for an excuse to turn them down, but they agreed to everything. For example, my contract stipulates that any flight over four hours warrants business class.

My biggest point of actual pride is the fact that I got to where I am despite growing up on a dairy farm and never finishing hischool.

I work with data collection and reporting on students and teachers and the job is both important and I am proud to do it. The data are used for funding, makes continuing services when moving between schools and districts smoother, shows progress or a lack of progress on some educational goals, and my part in the process is ensuring it is collected and is reported in a way that matches the intended collection. I have worked in the same agency for almost two decades but have hoped around the various areas and amd the go to person if someone doesn't know who to ask.

I also get pulled into the more difficult projects, such as our rework of the agency website so we can meet accessibility requirements and the information is kept up to date and cleaned out when it is no longer relevant. Keeping projects from being derailed is something I am apparently really good at. My current position is a project manager, the good kind that keeps things moving so everyone else can do their job and spreads the credit around.

Will society collapse without me? No

Will the company collapse without me? Probably not, but they’d be a lot worse off.

But I love my job and the people I work with. Plus I know I’m basically unfireable.

I'm an IT purchaser for a public health system. Get rid of me and my colleagues and the system would keep ticking over for years in some form.

But I'm a small part of something very important.

Im a teacher so yes. Do I still eagerly await retirement? Yes.

No and no, I'm thinking about working for myself as an independent automotive diagnostician. That would still be somewhat unethical and hard work, but at least I'd face real challenges and be helping people on an individual level. I can't just quit my day job right off the bat due to health insurance. I'd have to start doing work on the side, but business insurance plus equipment and subscriptions would make it difficult to break even. Plus I haven't worked on cars professionally in about 12 years so I'm not up to snuff on working on newer cars.

I should probably state what I do first: I’m a lab tech for a company that does materials testing for a large number of aerospace and automotive companies.

It’s incredibly important, and we don’t fuck around. There are international specs and standards that we are held to, and laws that ensure we follow them. I’m doing my tiny little part to ensure that any vehicle you climb into is as safe as it can be and yeah I’m a little proud of that.

The job itself can be a bit of a grind but I like it primarily because I can go about my day with no one pestering or micromanaging me, and it’s a good brain challenge occasionally.

No and no. I make way too much money for the value that my job adds to society, which is nearly none, and I want to totally blow up my career and do something that helps people. It’s harder when I have folks relying on my but I am moving in that direction

I make safety glass. It's a job. A few of our machines are kinda neat, I guess. How necessary we are is debatable.

Nope and I’m not.

Yes and yes. I'm a health inspector.

Would absolutely not do it for free. There's a lot more that I do than just inspecting restaurants and beauty premises:

• inspection accommodations (hotels, motels, rooming houses, student forms, hostels, camps)

• respond to environmental complaints (dumping, pollution of storm water, failing septics, installation of septics)

• residential complaints (the worst!! People don't want to talk to each other and problem solve like adults so they threaten each other by dragging me in to sort their shit out for them. If they don't get the result they want, it's my fault 🙄)

• emergency response (we suddenly had importance when covid came around, but the nation still wouldn't acknowledge us as important because we're not in the "response" side like nurses and doctors. We're prevention, and nobody cares about us; bushfires, floods, air quality)

• mosquito detection (for diseases they carry and treat the areas that we find have carrier mozzies for diseases like Japanese encephalitis, Ross River, etc.)

• pest control, hoarding, land use, subdivisions, swimming pools, drinking water quality, disposal of dead carcasses, cemeteries, exhumation, outbreaks like gastro, too many things to list. We're pretty much involved in everything that affects human health.

But we're underpaid, underappreciated, perpetually short staffed and quickly burning out, and mostly unknown to those who don't run businesses that require council registration by law.

No

I work as a cleaner. Just regular apartment building hallways and the like. Yes, I think it's important - they had me work through Covid. I also know what it looks like when there's nobody to clean for a few days. Pay is poor but I can listen to podcasts and audiobooks in peace so it's chill enough. I am proud of the work though. I hadn't thought about the impact of custodian work before I started doing it myself and realized how big of a difference it makes. I get by with my pay because I don't have kids but my workmates definitely struggle. It should pay more.

Yes, and yes.

In the greater scheme of things? No, my work probably isn't that important. Within the company, though, I'm helping make our manufacturing processes more efficient and/or safer. It's very gratifying to make other people's jobs easier so that they can go home at the end of the day without being so exhausted or in pain from manual labor.