Anyone else just hate working, no matter what the job is?

[DrSheppard]

I'm in a pretty good job right now - the people are nice enough, the pay is very good, the subject matter is relatively interesting and it's flexible (can mostly work from home). But each and every day I struggle. I've felt like this in every job I have, and I've had a fair few! I dislike the routine of work. I dislike meetings and emails and workshops. I hate going into the office especially - I hate the glaring lights, sitting at a desk all day and the feeling of being boxed in. Even in the best of jobs I've had, this feeling never goes away.

I just don't care about work, frankly. I do what I need to do and always get great performance reviews, but I have zero investment in the outcome of what I do. Every day when I log off I breathe a sigh of relief, but the thought of doing this for the next 30+ years is awful. Sometimes I think about retraining but I really don't know if that'd 'fix' it, since I'm already in a well-paid and comfortable role and I've already dabbled in a fair few types of roles. Does anyone else feel this way?

YABU.

I enjoy my job. I get bored very easily being at home, and having seen my parents retire far too early I plan to keep working well in to my 70's.

I quite enjoy aspects of my work and I'm fortunate my job is varied, well paid and I work 4 days pw so get an extra day with my pre school children. However, I really am in no rush to get back auger this maternity leave. I could quite happily fill my time with friends and walks and lunches and a bit of freelance writing, so long as kids still went to nursery (or at least the toddler).

Definitely. There are women who love working, find being a SAHM boring and other women who feel happiest as a homemaker even if they have no children, the housewife/homemaker lifestyle is something they thrive in.

Sometimes though there is depression or ADHD or all the jobs you've done have customer service which many ND for example find difficult. I don't think there is literally no job in the world you wouldn't enjoy but there might be barriers for you to get a job that truly suits your personality. Most jobs are shitty, the nice jobs people don't leave until they drop dead and then it's the one next in line or are jobs that rely on self funding and not making much income.

Me. I thought I would really enjoy working as I was studious and hard working for all academic studies, and I enjoyed doing so. But, to my genuine surprise, this never translated to work.

There are lots of things I am interested in in life in general, and sometimes I have specific projects, that I have created, I am interested in, but in general, I just don’t really feel any passion for any job. I hate how time consuming it is, the nonsense, the bureaucracy, the tedium of a lot of it.

I have had a lot of quite shit managers though. I preferred the job with a good manager or where I created my own work.

I felt like that when I worked in corporate jobs - I just couldn't see the point of any of it and couldn't work out whether everybody else could. I changed careers and now I feel like I have a purpose, in the sense that I care about what I do (not all of it, some at least). A writer called David Graeber wrote a book about what he called 'bullshit jobs.' Jobs that might be reasonably well paid but are quite pointless and nobody would really notice if they disappeared. Not saying your job is bullshit OP but I think there are a lot of bullshit jobs out there and working in one can be soul-destroying at worst and not at all fulfilling at best.

you're clearly in the wrong career! maybe you should be working for yourself in something you love e.g. self employed. Are you creative? Sporty? Outdoorsy? do you like to write? What are your personal interests.

You need to build a career around the kind of lifestyle you would love then you will enjoy work. You're clearly not working on the right kind of things.

I'm self employed and couldn't easily work for someone else again. I enjoy work because it's more on my own terms, I am building my own business doing what I love and time goes quickly. Work keeps me going.

I feel this way too OP but only since I’ve had a child. I don’t know why, but before my son I was pretty driven by work but once I had him it’s like a switch was flicked that made me realise there should be more to life than this monotony of waking up, work, dinner, bed. Problem is I am the main earner and I am stuck working out how to change our lifestyle in a country with such a high cost of living. I hope you find an answer OP and ignore all the posters who get a kick out of sticking the boot in.

I never felt like this until I experienced burn out and a breakdown.

I don't think I'll ever enjoy a job again ☹️

yep. I enjoy studying and I did a lot of that, but the pressures of work, colleagues, offices and performance reviews I find very stressful.
I enjoy working hard, just not in a job with somebody else's rules and expectations. I should be self employed and work hard at something I love but there's not enough money in it.

I don't really like working, even though I work part-time now, and am going to semi retire soon. However, the part of work I do like is going into the office and interacting with the others there, and the people coming in - I'm a receptionist. If I worked from home I wouldn't last five minutes and would be bored to tears.

Having said that, while I am looking forward to no longer working I don't think I would have wanted to stop any earlier, retiring at a young age wouldn't have been for me, and I do love my current workplace.

I'm exactly the same. At the minute I only work 3 days a week and it's a mix of WFH and in the office so stops me from going too demented with listening to utter bullshit all day.

I couldn’t deal with working in an office, I struggle with authority and it all feels - I don’t know, fake?

I work with teenagers now in supported living so I’m in a home environment mostly and get to go out and about with my young person. Some packages are 2-1 and my friend is in the same job so a lot of the time we get paid to hang out together.

It sounds to me like the jobs you have done might lack meaning. It might help to find a job that is meaningful and so even if the tasks aren’t interesting then you are driven by doing something useful for society.

I'd like nothing more than to quit the corporate grind for a lovely 'outdoorsy ' job.

Now if someone could point me in the direction of a lovely outdoorsy job that would pay a knackered 59 year old with 0 experience of outdoor work the £70k p.a. I'm currently on and need to cover my outgoings, that'd be great 👍

“Fake” kind of depends on what you’re doing in the office

not all office jobs are bullshit jobs

someone needs to run payroll for example

I think this is a great post.

It's easy to feel like you're the only one who doesn't feel at all fulfilled by work especially when colleagues seem uber keen and motivated. It's just nice to know others feel the same way.

I meant fake as in having to always be the best breezy, nice, presentable version of yourself. I would find it hard listening to Sandra drone on about her holidays with grandkids and have to nod and mhmm politely.

I don’t think office jobs are fake.

Don't suffer in silence though. Even if it doesn't seem productive, just getting off your chest to someone higher up that there's not enough people for the work is worth having your say.

I felt like this in every job I had. I started my own business and work from home doing it. I do around looking after my little boy and it’s ideal. If I won the lottery tomorrow I probably wouldn’t keep it going as a business but I’d still do it as gifts for people etc, which means I must love it! I think working for yourself is very different. Especially when the amount you take home can vary hugely. I get quite excited to see how much I’ve made each week! Only to be able to buy things and afford life though

Yes I understand that feeling.

I’m 58 and have just ‘retired’ . I’ve had many roles, most in the civil service but I spent a few years in the charity sector. I’ve loved some of my jobs, tolerated others, hated a few, stayed only because of the salary, convenience and terms and conditions.
The ones I enjoyed most were basically event organisor type ones, I loved the creative part, planning, delivering, the buzz on the day. Others have just been soul.
I can’t get to grips with the huge IT systems, I hated Workday with a passion, as well as the recruitment and finance systems.

I left a month ago to be a full time foster carer, my long term child moves in on Friday.
I’ve never been busier or felt more free. Although I’m tied to school holidays again I love that I don’t have to worry about having enough annual leave to cover everything, I can do things to my own schedule and not someone else’s.

Although its only been a month it feels like another life. I had some really great colleagues and I miss them, but as for the rest, the office politics, the public sector bashing. No thanks.

I hated my job so much (I would cry at lunch time from stress) and I physically felt like I couldn’t sit and have a conversation with people any longer who thought it was a good career option 🙈 I just had absolutely nothing in common with them

I love my team and I like the industry. However, I’d be much happier doing 4 days instead of 5. Unfortunately, that isn’t possible (long story short, we have to have minimum numbers to operate). I’m good at my job, but it involves a LOT of confrontation, I’ve done it in various companies for 8/9 years on and off and had to go off sick in January this year after a bad verbal assault.

The only other job I liked was when I was a customer service trainer. I could write my own courses, as long as I included what needed to and was left alone. Loved delivering, to me it was like being on stage! I won an industry award….then got made redundant 18 months later. Had to move back to my home town and after 6 months got the job I have now. I’m on less money than when I started in this field over 10 years ago as I originally worked in London.

This is why part WFH works for me. I am genuinely interested in Sandra’s holidays and grandchildren, so that isn’t me being fake (and I hope someone who isn’t interested interprets it as me being fake), but I’m not genuinely interested all the time.

Thank you for what you do. You can make such a difference so so many little peoples lives.
Perhaps the lack of joy in many office jobs and WFH jobs relates to the lack of joyful interaction and perceived giving something of value to other human being.
Social media has led to so much comparing ourselves to others and the general malaise of dissatisfaction.

People either have a vocation or a work ethic to earn money.

For those of us who don’t want to work FIRE is the best approach Financial Independence Retire Early. I did a version of this and love getting my pension and being able to do what I want with my time.