To have hated every job ive ever had?

@PriOn1 Totally agree and have often thought the same. After 6 hours I’m totally
checked out. If they were to scientifically measure how much work most people do in a standard work shift, it’d be interesting to see how much is actually productive work. At least for me, 45 minutes is hiding in the toilets…

@Codlingmoths I agree. There are some horrible opinions on here. I assume people realise all those lovely enriching things they would do if not constriained by work are often enabled by people doing normcore typey typer jobs.

Your wifi service, your mobile phone service, your electricity, the food and books you buy from shops, the nice country areas you want to walk in, the books or apps you use to learn a language, the exercise classes you go to, the transport you will use to go on holiday. All supported by typey typer normcore jobs.

The UBI some want to have to enable people to work less will be desiged and administrated by someone with a typey typer normcore job.

Hating your job does not make you a better or more interesting person.

My DH is the same. He'd well educated, has had 'good' jobs, jobs that seemed on paper perfect for him, but he ends up miserable in every one of them. Sometimes a few years down the line he'll look back and say "that wasn't that bad", but at the time he hates it.

No answer on how to resolve it.

I find it hard to respect people with this kind of opinion. Can’t you be passionate about working for a small tech firm that improves the healthcare experience, in say booking appts or running scanning equipment ? Can’t you be passionate about a logistics and planning role in running a busy port that is essential for your countries food supply? Or working for a bank that literally underpins everyone’s life, it’s basic financial infrastructure. I value being able to get a mortgage and do my banking online, I can easily understand being passionate about all of these things. All of which are normcore typey type jobs (are you 8 years old??)where you sit at a desk and work at a computer. As is my job.

Feel for you OP. I’ve felt like this much of my working life, except the last few years. The thing that’s made the difference is working part time. Yes, I know it’s a huge privilege and not everyone can take the hit to salary (if employer will even agree to it), but honestly, the balance it has restored to my life is tremendous.

I now work 4 days a week, 9.30-2.45 in an office with nice people. The work is ok, but every other job I had where I worked FT daprained me and I resented massively. I felt a permanent senses of mild depression that the vast majority of my valuable waking hours was taken up with working. Even if you finish at 5.00pm, that’s pretty late in the day really, your body is feeling a bit weary from working most of the day already, so it used to feel like I was wishing my life away waiting for the weekends.

I don’t get that awful end of holiday or end of weekend feeling any more thankfully. If you can possibly trial working PT I’d highly recommend it. Work feels a much smaller chunk of my life now and I hugely appreciate having much more free time to myself.

But where from?
Benefits are paid out from taxes collected.

I’m going back to work tomorrow (also civil service) and am dreading it.

Was at a friend’s this evening and spoke to her husband, who drives a lorry. I’ve often thought I would quite like to do something like that as it doesn’t require a lot of brainpower and doesn’t have unpleasant levels of responsibility (which I do) so I asked him how he felt about going back. He said he feels the same as I do and reckons most do.

The only times in life when I’ve enjoyed my job are when there are people there I like. Even then, I rarely stay long. At the moment, I’m trying to calculate how long it will be until I can afford to go down to four days a week. I feel that would be much more bearable.

I also think UK working hours are brutal. Frankly, by the time I’ve been there six hours, my productivity drops off and I reckon most other people are the same. There’s lots of chatting or Teams chat. We’d probably get through a similar amount of work if they cut down our hours. Nobody is going to do it though, as UK managers are obsessed with “getting their money’s worth”, even when they don’t.

No benefits system. Everyone gets the same amount each week to spend as they wish on UBI. It's a great idea.

It is very privileged that we have the choice now but some satisfaction has been lost in the working culture nowadays. My dad says that the work was physically tough and often unpleasant but the camaraderie, organised social activities and community made it bearable, you wouldn’t exactly look forward to working but you would look forward to the things that were part of your work.

Well, if it were enough that you could live on it but not comfortably, most people would still choose to work and therefore pay tax. Because more people would work part time, there would be more positions available so less unemployment. And poverty costs the country billions; by vastly reducing poverty you would have more people needing less additional state support, better standards of health and education, and therefore the possibility of more people doing high quality jobs, paying into their local economy and supporting small independent businesses, greater possibilities for artistic and creative expression, and therefore higher levels of wellbeing generally which again increases productivity, reduces sick leave/ long term ill health unemployment, and puts more money into the economy.

it would pay for itself.

Temping might work well for you OP, is that an option?

I enjoy my job most of the time but I wouldn't be doing it if I had alternative ways of paying the bills! I get bored easily. I despise office politics. The older I get, the more I see the 5 year cycle of new manager has idea, it's a disaster and gets quietly shelved, manager gets promoted/better job, new manager comes in and has this great idea...

The whole bring your authentic self to work, and care about it like it's family is crap. I have seen people made redundant and out of the building within the same week, regardless of how good they have been or how committed they were. We're just numbers on a spreadsheet at the end of the day.

I will do a good job out of personal pride but I don't invest my emotional energy into work, because when push comes to shove my loyalty and commitment means jack shit if costs have to be cut to give the shareholders what they want. My number will come up at some point, so I am trying to make hay while the sun shines.

I was exactly like you, but I was lucky enough to escape into being a SAHM (loved it) and now I’m working for myself at home, for which I am grateful every single day.

When I had jobs I hated I coped by knowing I had to do them because I needed the money. Like you I did quite a few different jobs. Didn't get one I enjoyed until I was well into my 50's.

@RM2013 did you go from corporate to healthcare/nursing by any chance?

There must be some parts you find tolerable or even pleasant? Even if they're not obvious parts of your job.
Up until I was 39 I'd always worked shifts and even though some awful jobs in that time, the shifts made it less monotonous and I appreciated my weekends off as well as enjoying days off in the week. Also doing three long days a week was great.
Can you look at different jobs with a different shift pattern? It might be more bearable getting 12-14 hours out the way in one go.

And as others have said, it depends on what life is like outside of work. Does work leave you enough time or energy to do the things you enjoy.

I feel the same as you OP. I’ve never enjoyed working regardless of the job, after a few months I hate the repetitiveness and there are always a group of bitchy staff. i find it difficult to be around people all day and have no peace or time alone mostly. The only job I tolerated was as a temp cleaner as I worked alone and in my own time and pace. I’d love to have a job I enjoy but I’ve never been ambitious or had any interest in a particular carer. Work from home jobs are hard to come by especially when I don’t have experience, but that would be my dream to stay home and not mix with anyone. I lack any skills or social confidence to do anything professional, I’m pretty sure I’m ND too. I resent the fact I can’t be home with my children enjoying them grow up, instead I’m a slave to a company while childcare raise them. (I know not really but that’s how I feel). Why work for nice stuff if you don’t get time to enjoy it. Hugs to those who feel the same and struggle each day. Humans weren’t supposed to live this way, the earth provided everything we need to survive until the government took control.

Not an option for everybody. Most jobs are pointless. Besides the pointlessness has only just become too obvious to ignore, but too late to do anything about it with three kids to support.

Then do something not pointless? It's not that difficult.

I don’t mind my job particularly, but the sheer pointlessness, other than simply paying the bills, has begun to seriously depress me after working for 35 years non-stop (not all in the same job or the same company).

What’s the point? The vast majority of us are doing nothing of any real use, just lining somebody else’s pockets. The world we will be leaving will be worse than when we found it, our children will struggle to have anything near the same standard of life that we have had but also in a society that is becoming ever more impersonal, selfish and stupid.

We have been so relentlessly gaslit as to what is supposedly important that many will defend a system that is going to eventually collapse and take most of us with it. For what? An extra weekend abroad, some Botox and a mountain of unnecessary Chinese plastic crap? We deserve the shit show that is coming our way really.

One great essay to start the ball rolling:

https://medium.com/@scottsantens/how-to-reform-welfare-and-taxes-to-provide-every-american-citizen-with-a-basic-income-bc67d3f4c2b8

There are lots of other ideas out there too, easy to use a search engine.

Again. People can work if they want to, People can work if they want extra money, but it frees us to follow our desires. I would be fine to sign up to something that said I need to put in x number of hours over my lifetime to contribute my time towards my community/humanity, but my financial needs are already met to a decent standard. What I struggle with is the wasted time so many of us experience, there are loads of pointless jobs just moving money around, taking us away from our children, away from friends and family, quashing our creativity.

Loving your job is a dream sold by capitalism. The reality is the vast majority of us cannot be arsed but we have bills to pay.

I can relate to your post OP. In my 20’s and 30’s I did jobs that I mostly hated. It wasn’t always the job I hated, sometimes the people I worked with or the commute.

Before I turned 40 I re-trained - think uni degree, a lot of hard work and a complete career change. I’m still doing the same job over 10 years later but I’ve had to make a few adjustments. For example part of the job was shift work but I told myself that I was so desperate to do the job that it would be fine. After a few years I really resented having to work shifts and it made me start hating the job. I couldn’t afford to take a drop in salary to re train or do anything different so I’m kind of stuck. I’ve managed to get a 9-5 role which is better as I feel I have more freedom.

I feel massively anxious about going back
to work after a break and sometimes even just after the weekend and I worry endlessly that I will make a mistake or that people think I’m crap at my job - I do think this is more linked to perimenopause though.

I would just prefer to be at home but bills to pay and all that

I wouldn't mind working quite do much if it paid well, but just over NLW for 40hr of my week makes me resent it.
My weekends are crammed as I refuse to let it not do what I want. I go to exercise classes during the week but it's at the expense of spending time with DH. If we had an Universal income I would reduce hours.
I also feel cheated, as a young teenager in the early 80s we were told computerisation would reduce the need for working and we would have more leisure time.