Asklemmy

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.

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.

I haven't worked since pre-covid.

I worked approximately 40 jobs over a 30 year period. Now that I have been able to view them through the lens of time, I can see which ones I truly loved and which ones were gaslighting me into thinking i loved them and which ones were critically bad for my mental and/or physical health.

Younger me thought working in a library was the dream job and settled for working in a few bookstores, all chain stores, not local. I for one am glad that many brick and mortar book store chains are shuttering. Being forced to upsell predatory magazine subscriptions to the elderly, ripping covers off overstock returns, daily mobs of Karens sharing their opinions on romance novel lasciviousness and countless other things, made me not even want to read for a few years after the place closed.

One of the best, most fun and least paying jobs was a Taco Bell. Note I say 'a' Taco Bell, meaning a specific flocation. I have worked at 3 total but that one particular location was just a blast. I had fun with coworkers, got free food, made my own hours mostly, could walk to work, it was just the best. Not the most glamorous and I mentioned low pay but that's to be expected from TB.

At my last job I trained new employees for a call center. It was a very toxic workplace, high stress, low pay to the point it broke minimum wage laws multiple times, a 'we are like family here' company but also management extorted sex from employees, mandatory christmas and thanksgiving parties actually on the holiday, coupons for customers that we couldn't use which were better than our lauughably small employee discount, that kind of nightmare kind of place. By this point, I stopped caring about what any company wanted from me and did what I wanted and naturally that led to my repeated promotions into the trainer role. I said the same thing to every trainee, about 250 people overall:

"Never let a company decide if you can have fun. If you hate your job, leave and don't look back. If you make plans with friends but your job refuses to give you the day off, which would you rather remember doing? If your life flashes before your eyes when you die, what will you see?" I've run into some of those trainees since. Two of them said it was the best job advice they ever got. Another told me it saved them from going through with a planned suicide.

I hope these stories help your perspective. I should add that I have never made a lot of money, don't have a degree and by societies standards, most would consider me an absolute failure, which makes me find it hilariously ironic that I'm pretty happy with my life so far. Not working for 5+ years will do that.

I've hated some jobs less than others, is the most I can say.

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.

I have the worst bullshit job.

Cannot quit, without dying. Disability support. If you do anything that can be construed as able, they cut you off. They send "assessors" to assault and defraud you under pretence they're checking you're disabled enough (like that's not already cruel undeserved punishment if that's even what they were doing)... and they'll cut you off. They keep you down, and then blame you, and then hold you up as an icon of hate, smearing you with lies like instead of being the most vulnerable, you're a professional conman, and they spread this across the paid propaganda "news", so not only people do not care when they kill you by starvation, freezing, denied medicine, stressed and pained enough to end your own life, they cheer it on, not realising this is supposed to be the social security safeguard that's there for us each and all, them too, should they fall on hard times too. ... And if you try do anything (or even if not), they cut you off. Paid to do nothing, to stay down. Not paid to help get back to strength. And then the hateful, and the callously stupid and ignorant who think they have good intentions, want to throw the baby out with the bathwater and cut you off entirely, like that'd solve it, and the disability would magically disappear, following the same logic of a witch-hunt, same as the fit-to-work scandal's assessment scam... if the woman drowns, if the benefit claimant dies, they're innocent. If they do not, then they're a deceiver to be killed or punished... ... The worst bullshit job. There's nowhere to quit it, from here, in this trap they maintain. I hear some places actually try to help... rather than just increase suffering in negligence, just for their own uptonsinclairian convenience and delusion. They're just doing their job... blood on their hands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvRz8HrEVKY

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.

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.

If you liked it, it'd be a hobby instead.

It can be enjoyable at times but don't leave your life inside the office.

Your colleague sounds like a corporate drone.

But, in a corporation, learn to be quiet when your voice is not required.

I wouldn't say i enjoy or like it to a degree of liking a hobby, but the job suits me and has more benefits to my daily functioning than negatives, besides the paycheck.
I do like the steady and stable routine work provides.
I can listen to audiobooks without any issues and theres minimal interaction with others and the ones i do chat with are mostly friends, some of them already before working there.
The physical and active nature of the job is decent as well, yes i might be physically more tired, but I've tried sitting still in front of a computer screen. That type of a work just drains me completely, which doesn't make sense as theres minimal movement. Half the time it's just struggling trying to stay awake.

Biggest downside is probably the working schedule running in weekly rotating shifts.

I like my job in general, although I'd like if I had to spend less time working.

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.

I'm privileged enough to love my job. I love it so much, that I do it as a hobby at home. If I made a billion dollars tomorrow, I'd tell a few people to fuck off, but I'd volunteer to do something similar for a non-profit.

I haven't loved all my jobs. There are plenty that I hated. My experience is that most people don't love their jobs. It was a combo of hard work, focus, and immense amounts of luck that allowed me to get here.

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 have the benefit to currently beeing paid to do what I love. My dream is to find a job that continous that, but with my experience in the job market, options look bleek.

But, different people have different experiences and perceive the world different. Maybe your coworker honestly likes the job, good for them. Maybe they are just braindead with a working body, able to persue tasks, who cares. You do you and as long no one bothers you keep doing as you like. Your perspective is as valid as mine. And If I end up in a simmiliar scenario, I prolly have the same thought.

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 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.

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 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

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

I don’t mind my job and generally like the people I work with. I’d probably still do similar things if I didn’t need the money.

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.

Sometimes I like teaching, sometimes I don't. I think it's usually a net positive, but since ChatGPT became a thing it's becoming a bit of a burden. Either I'm worried about them cheating or I'm noticing each semester the students get worse at thinking for themselves, or both.

It's a fairly open enrollment university so there's a pretty low bar for base knowledge and scholarly ability but like... this is something else. I have successfully taught statistics to a 6th grade drop out single mom from Mexico through motivation and patience, but now a 19 year old fresh out of American high school fails the basic logic required of the course and argues when I give them an F over it. Something is very wrong lately and I'm hating it lately.

So I guess the answer is I used to love it and now loathe it? We'll see next month...

I love my career, which took a very long time to develop.

Over the years I've had plenty of jobs I didn't like, some I'd even say I hated.

Some helped develop my career, others were just solely for the paycheck, though I'd like to think I learned something at each.

Been at my current company for about six years, and I have to say, I love it.

It's a company I respect, making products I believe in, and my role gives me the freedom to do projects the way I want, with the technology I want.

I like the people I work with, and I can honestly say I've not once woken up with that dread of '"Crap, I have to go to work".

The company, my chain of command, and the people who use my systems, all appreciate the work I do.

Now, would I do it for free? Hell no, those are hobbies.

My only real answer as to why you should like your job, I know love is a stretch for most people, is that a job you enjoy doesn't leave you as stressed and burned out as one you don't.

I don't like my job and haven't for about a decade. I'm not there for enjoyment. I'm there because I don't think a different job would improve my life.

Working a job I hate is a choice. I choose to be there whether I feel trapped or not. I'm pleasant to everyone I work with and I work hard.

I really like my job. Most of the time it’s not super stressful. I basically made my hobby my job. I don’t do it as much as a hobby anymore, but it’s not like I hate it. I just have a lower tolerance for BS.

Since I have to work, I don't mind the job I have. I'm good at it, I get to exercise skills not everyone has so I am welcomed as a useful teammate. The nature of the job exposes me to no shortage of new things to learn, which I greatly prefer to repetative days.

If I won the lottery tomorrow and no longer needed to work, I would be gone before my boss had a chance to read my three sentence resignation letter. All the things I enjoy about my job, I can do better on my own as hobbies or volunteering or other social community-based endeavors.

I don't know that anyone I work with would say they enjoy it right now. We're going through a particularly awful re-organization that no one is happy about. My emotional distance from my job puts me at an advantage over others who look for more life meaning in their job/career.

Many jobs have this weird, culty feeling where we all pretend work is great but you can't say it out loud.

In my last job most of my colleagues were pretty open about how much it sucks to have to work but most of them (developers) earned very well and were saving up to quit.

I wouldn't even live in a filthy city if it wasn't where the work is.

I hate my job. lol

I do, to the point of worrying about what I'll do when I retire.

I like my job, sure. If I didn't I'd get a different one.

I kinda agree with your coworker: I have to like my job. I tend not to do things I dislike, so anything I depend on my livligood for needs to be something I find motivating in and of itself.

I enjoy aspects of my job:

• I'm a public servant and I do think I give value to the people I serve.
• my job is complicated. I've only been here for just over a year but I'm involved in training people (we've been hiring a lot recently)
• somedays I like to get away from my family for a few hours, somedays I don't.
• I'm not micromanaged. We have specific targets to hit but no one yells at me for taking a longer break or harasses me for being a couple minutes late to work. This also motivates me to stay a few minutes late somedays to make it up (shocker who would have guessed that it improves morale).
• I'm unionized, with sick time, vacation, and benefits. Plus another guaranteed raise next year.
• I get 1 paid EDO every 2 weeks and recently was approved to work from home 4 days every 2 weeks.

These are all great! However there's aspects I don't like :

• I don't like the rigidity of schedule. Having to wake up every day at the same time to work for 8 hours.
• I have to drive in and I resent that. That also means dealing with parking.
• there's plenty of small things I don't like. Also our workloads are insane right now and we're doing a lot of coverage of coworkers.
• previously I was in health care and direct patient care and I miss that.

I try to enjoy the good things and quiet down the bad with any job. Don't ever mute the bad completely though, it'll let you know when it's time to leave.

I love the good part of my job - playing with kids with disabilities. I hate the stupid assholes that i work for and might not make it through another school year because of them.

I like my job. There are new problems to solve everyday, which keeps it interesting. There's a sense of accomplishment when things are completed. I like helping my folks advance. I take a lot of pride in my work. Without that, I'd still want to work. I get bored otherwise. I don't sit still well and the idea of laying around to relax sounds miserable to me. My wife is that type of person. Taking a Sunday to put on music and read a book is a perfect day for her. For me, it's torture. I'd rather remodel a bedroom or pull weeds in the garden.

I've had two jobs that I've genuinely liked. One of which I think I loved.

For me, my like came from the mild challenge and the different things I could do day by day. I enjoy puzzle solving and researching information. I also love learning. So for both of those jobs, that worked out great for me.

It's a nice position to be in, but it's also a tight rope to hold that balance, I believe. It's very easy to fall off in one direction or another for even a slight change in direction or balance.