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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

I absolutely hate working and believe it to be the worst thing about being an adult. AIBU?

389 replies

IntoTheSunset · 01/12/2015 17:16

I'd like to allay any concerns that anyone might have about my work ethic firstly. No one has ever complained about it in any job I've had. I realise that people have to work. I just find it depressing that I will likely have to continue working into my sixties and beyond. I'm 42 and would gladly retire tomorrow if I could. I also don't like how a person's place in society is defined by their job ahead of anything else. Do any MNers feel similarly?

OP posts:

Dumdedumdedum · 01/12/2015 18:50

I had a very chequered career after uni, finally finding my niche at the age of 32. Shortly after, I met my now DH and my life changed completely when I married him. I moved countries and was unable to follow the career I had found success in. I haven't worked for many, many, years and really wish I had continued with something I enjoyed and which I was good at. In my current situation, I might be able to find a job for which I was paid peanuts and had to work ridiculous hours, so I'm not bothering. This doesn't mean I don't wish I had pursued the career I enjoyed all those years ago. I feel a failure nowadays. My poor husband works his socks off (though is a workaholic, so probably enjoys it) and I wish I had the opportunity to do the same, in something which fulfilled me. But every single day, I feel lucky that I can smell the coffee and the flowers, instead of having to go to a job I hate.

OctoberRose · 01/12/2015 18:50

I have good working hours, 10-4, 5 days a week and term time only. Office job.

I do enjoy it, it's not very stressful and the people are -most of them- nice.

I have worked more hours and enjoyed my job then too.

However, I would LOVE never to work again! I would find so many more interesting things to do with my time, especially if money wasn't a concern.

I am always on count down to the 6 week summer holidays [grins]

lorelei9 · 01/12/2015 18:53

Barbarasmum - I don't have children. I'd also take the view that if I won the lottery, someone else who needs the money could have my job.

I volunteer already - yes, I'd likely increase that if I won the lottery but not to more than 20 hours a week? That sounds like more than enough. (depends what you do but my volunteer work is the kind that is emotionally quite tough).

I wouldn't think that someone living on their own money "should" work to pay society back. Not one of us here filled in a form to apply to be part of the world did we - our parents wanted us/had an accident so here we are.

Orda1 · 01/12/2015 18:53

I do like my job but the I do it to buy nice things.

LunchpackOfNotreDame · 01/12/2015 18:54

No. I love working. I hate taking sick leave and really struggled with bordem on mat leave.

squidzin · 01/12/2015 18:55

Yeah, totally.

Fuck handing over 10 (or abouts) hours per day every day for My Whole Entire Life, just to make someone else exceptionally wealthy. While I am expected to be grateful for the insecure pressurized drudgery of making them wealthy.

Ratrace sucks.

BabyGanoush · 01/12/2015 18:56

Barbara'smum, or those really the only options? You say: " Paid work, voluntary work, charity work - or Jeremy Kyle"

fakenamefornow · 01/12/2015 18:57

I'm with you op. When I was a sahm life was just bliss. We couldn't afford it to go on forever though. If I could and it were possible, I'd happily live on benefits level income, I really don't need much money and would be happy growing veg, going to the library and riding my bike. Unfortunately it wouldn't be at all fair on my husband. If he gave up his job as well then we wouldn't have any money at all, well, a small amount of savings that might last a year.

SeldomAthleticFC · 01/12/2015 18:57

I work in Local Government and it's OK. I work with a nice bunch of people, the pay is not bad and the work is fairly interesting. But more and more it's about meeting stupid targets and less about providing a good service and helping people.

But even if I had a really great job, I want time to do gardening and travel and read and go for lovely long walks (not a short walk at a snail's pace with reluctant children).

I am in the work lottery syndicate, so there is hope!

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 01/12/2015 18:59

Absolutely agree.

I work to live. If not working was an option there is no way I'd do it.

SoWhite · 01/12/2015 18:59

I love my job! The work itself is phenomenally interesting, fast paced and has incredible real world implications for whole countries.

The working environment, and some of the people, I'd happily pass on though.

Wineloffa · 01/12/2015 19:01

I love my job. Love the people I work with, the different experiences and interesting folk I encounter on a daily basis. It's interesting and entertaining and I imagine my life would be quite dull without it!

squidzin · 01/12/2015 19:03

I actually work for myself now (design/make/sell) but have experienced a great deal of massively underpaid unappreciated thankless exhausting work for the benefit of someone else. Getting screwed by the system. Exploited. Etc etc. NEVER AGAIN!

PontyGirl · 01/12/2015 19:03

YANBU

why did they have to make the lottery harder to win?

FaFoutis · 01/12/2015 19:04

YANBU.
Working ruins my life.

nickEcave · 01/12/2015 19:04

I've done a huge number of jobs in lots of different sectors. Some have been reasonably enjoyable which, for me, requires the right combination of nice people, variety of work and a certain level of autonomy. I think the key to enjoying work, unless you are in a field you are passionate about, is part-time working. I work 3 days a week in a university and really enjoy it but honestly cannot think of anything that I would like to do for 40 hours a week.

CheerfulYank · 01/12/2015 19:05

YANBU. I was never more delighted than when I got to pack it in and SAH.

I did manage a cinema for awhile and loved that actually. I got to plan events and be creative, plus all the movies I wanted to watch. And all the buttery popcorn and peanut butter m&ms I wanted to eat, which turned out to be a bad idea, waist wise. :o

Now I do part time child minding, which is just an extension of being a SAHM. A friend and I are going to start our own out of home child care center soon and I'm happy about it...mostly.I'm still only going to work 3.5 days. I just...like to be at home. I don't get bored. I like gardening and baking and reading and walking the dog.

Ideally I'd like to hobby farm.

Stanky · 01/12/2015 19:06

I only work because I have to. If I won the lottery, I would volunteer at an animal rescue, and travel. As it is, I have an ok balance working part time. Some weeks, I get on a roll and work extra days, but other weeks, work just seems to get in the way of my actual life. Unless I win the lottery, I will always have to work.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 01/12/2015 19:06

Barbarasmum - what has it got to do with you?

waxweasel · 01/12/2015 19:07

absolutely despise working, and am bored of people trying to crack the code to find out what my 'dream' job would be- dream job is an oxymoron to me. A job is just a way to get money for my actual life, i hate every second and find it a massive waste of my time

Wholeheartedly agree with this. I was talking to DH about this the other day - my NDN had been chatting to me asking about what my 'dream job' was, and I said to DH that it just doesn't make sense to me - working is just a basic uninteresting necessity like going to the toilet is, and I don't spend hours wondering how I can make shitting more interesting. He said I should use that as my opening line in my next appraisal

I actually have a job that plenty would probably think interesting - varied, uses your brain, having an impact on society, etc etc. I'd still happily jack it in tomorrow. Am counting down the days to mat leave, but dreading the return as this will be my last baby so last bit of freedom ever. At least I'll still be part time so the misery is contained.

Campaspe · 01/12/2015 19:07

I'm a snivel servant and I hate it. Pointless work, crazy bureaucracy and too much management bullshit. I can't afford to walk away from it, and I appreciate that I'm not working in dangerous conditions, but the utter pointlessness of so much of what I do gets me down. My bosses are stressed and unappreciative. No decent payrise for years. All my colleagues feel utterly demoralised and are frankly counting the days until they can go.

Would like to do something worthwhile AND interesting (well, who wouldn't?) but I don't have the confidence to try anything else. A little bit of my soul dies every time I have to attend yet ANOTHER meeting on why staff survey results show such low engagement from staff.

I just want to read books, surf the net and listen to music basically. Sigh. Only 20 years until retirement...

WhoTheFuckIsSimon · 01/12/2015 19:08

Totally agree. I'm 40yo and dislike my job. Awful atmosphere and very stressful. It's a job I trained for a long time and I work for the only employer I can do this job for in a 40 mile radius.

It's quite well paid but ive recently dropped my hours to three days a week. I can't cope with the stress of working more hours.

Dh moans a bit that im a lazy slacker. Financially I don't need to work full time. Ive told him I will happily work full time at a different job but it will pay less and it seems daft to work full time for the same wage I currently get three days a week.

I reckon I can last a few more years doing this before I totally burn out and have to go and take a pay cut and do something very different.

29redshoes · 01/12/2015 19:09

Yep, totally agree!

I've had jobs I've hated, but also jobs I've quite liked. Given the choice though (and loads of money) I'd retire tomorrow. I can think of so many things I'd rather be doing!

MarshaBrady · 01/12/2015 19:10

I need to do some sort of work, whether it be thinking or pure creative. I'm happier when I do. I don't necessarily need to be employed though, I'd self-employed is great.

DeoGratias · 01/12/2015 19:11

I lvoe my work (and my hobbies). I want to do it until I die. I am paid a fairly large amount to work for myself often from home. It is a bit like being paid for solving crossword puzzles. It is just as enjoyable as just about anything else I do. I am very lucky.

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