To think that sometimes 'lowly' jobs are more enjoyable than ' good ' jobs?

[malificent7]

I work as a cleaner/ housekeeper. I love it. I used to teach and so did my boss..we hated it even though it is considered a respectable job.
I also loved working in a shop etc. Granted i am retraining ti do a professional job so perhaps if i had no other prospects then these jobs would become a chore. After all they don't pay a great deal so in the long term i can't do them. Having said that i earn more per hour as a cleaner than as a teaching assistant.
I guess my point is that we shouldn't look down on people doing so called 'menial' jobs.

And you will get a lot of tax credits too, really bumping up your hourly rate. And if you're self employed, you can negate all of your income adn not pay any tax whatsoever.

It definitely feels like that but I think it could be down to other factors.

When I left (a rather posh) school at 18, I bucked the trend and, rather than going to university, buggered off to Butlin's and became a security guard. Basically this involved standing on doors and patrolling the site for wrong 'uns. The pay was rubbish, the hours were long and the weather was, by and large, cold and soggy. However, I remember it SO fondly.

I now get paid well, have a nice large office to myself with all the 'mod cons', decent hours, pension etc. but still hark back to my first 'proper' job and how much I loved it.

Was it because I was younger, had less responsibility, was meeting more new people and getting laid meeting girls (a relative phenomenon having been to an all boys school).

I think sometimes we look back on old jobs with rose tinted glasses because we are actually looking back on our younger, stress-free selves rather than specifically at the job itself.

I guess my point is that we shouldn't look down on people doing so called 'menial' jobs.

100% agree. A menial job is a job, it means someone is working to support themselves and their family through hard work.

I get really angry when people 'belittle' those who work in McDonald's or whatever. These people are getting off their backsides and working in a hot environment and often dodgy hours with shit pay to support themselves and fair fucking play to them!

My most enjoyable job was definitely when I worked at a stately home/ art gallery basically standing around in beautiful surroundings and giving occasional guided tours.

I earn about 10 times now what i did doing that job but if the money were equal I would return to it in a heartbeat!

I work in a shop for not much more than nmw. I love my job. Absolutely love it.

But I’m very fortunate that we don’t actually need the income as I doubt I’d be able to support myself and three kids, although I suppose I’d get tax credits. And I can only do it now because the kids are old enough to not need childcare. The manager aside, all my colleagues are either semi retired or students.

I’m a key holder and run shifts, it’s a fair amount of responsibility for such a poor wage. Meanwhile DH gets paid an absolute fortune for what he does which is arguably an easier ride in lots of ways. 🤷‍♀️

My background is working with children. So lots of responsibility, lots of paperwork in my own time unpaid and barely above nmw.
I've taken a break to have my own children for a bit and have been doing cleaning instead, the lack of stress and my own time being mine again is amazing. I finish at work and it's done, im never st home worrying about it.

I think it’s all relative, what is one person’s dream job is another person’s nightmare. Also factors like if your job pays alright or if you’re struggling affect it, the hours you do etc…suppose your spouse earns great money and you work part time in a café, you would probably enjoy that role more because you can work less hours and your household has another income to supplement it, but someone struggling to make ends meet in the same role would probably not see it in the same way.
At the end of the day we all need to pay bills and it’s tricky to find jobs we love, so it’s great if you find one. But also it’s still work, I would say I love my job but I think I’d still give up work if I suddenly won the lotto. So I would say I love my job in the context of ‘I must work to live, and this job is nice compared to many’, but it isn’t part of my identity.

YANBU. I'm a teacher too, so I totally get where you're coming from. I often think I'd really quite like a fairly mindless job in a pleasant location with no responsibility and no take-home work, even if it didn't pay much. Could only do that because my husband is the main earner though.

I guess it depends on the individual. I can see how a "lowly" job could rapidly drive you round the twist if you're assertive and ambitious, but I'm not one of those people, and some of my happiest memories are of working as a farmhand on an organic smallholding, although the pay was dreadful and was sometimes in the form of a large joint of pork (which was delicious)!

I do have one dream of being a litter picker.

I have worked in a factory setting and quite liked it. Something satisfying about having an end product.

I hated retail work, found it very boring. Worked in childcare on NMW and LOVED it! Would have happily stayed if the pay wasn't so awful. Have worked in an office type job in senior management and found it incredibly boring, even more so than retail. Now a band 6 NHS healthcare professional and love it. I don't think 'lowly' (hate that word!) has any relevance to job enjoyment. Job satisfaction is more important and having good colleagues. People get job satisfaction in different ways.

I took a 50 per cent pay cut to have a stress free and fun job in retail merchandising. I love it but three years in, I miss the money and to be honest, the status of a professional career. I do feel I get looked down on working in retail. I shouldn't of course.

I cleaned hotel rooms just after I finished uni - I really tried to be depressed about it but I just couldn't!

The physical aspect of the work was great for me, getting up early too, and the other staff were mostly kindly migrant women who were earning extra cash while their children were at school, there definitely wasn't any backstabbing.. there was great satisfaction in getting a room clean and ticking it off the list.. I finished around 2 so I used to have a lovely sandwich for late luncheon, then a scoop or two of gelato on the way home.. having the early afternoon off meant I had time for my 'hobbies' (swimming, reading, daydreaming) too - AND because I was young I was able to go out in the evening and still make it to work the next day!

I hated working on the tills or shelf stacking in a shop - mostly due to having to interact with the general public.
However I did enjoy my time on stock control. There's something rather satisfying going through stock and counting everything. Finding a higgledy piggledy mess in the stock room then leaving it tidy and knowing exactly what's there.
Perhaps its also a feeling of power, being allowed my own barcode zapper.
I miss that, but I wont go back to retail now.

I loved my years as a cleaner.One site was just me,I had the keys and alarm code and was basically my own boss on that site-my other site was a school so a large team and two supervisors.

I left to up my hours in the kitchen in a pub (my second job) I wish I hadn't now. I enjoy working food and beverage....most of the time,but there is something satisfying about cleaning a site,looking back,seeing it clean,tidy,sweet smelling and thinking ''I did that,all on my own'' Plus you didn't get arrogant,know it all,rude customers.

I heard part of an auto biography by Michael Caine on Radio 4 - he said there wasn’t one film job where he didn't get something out of it - seeing a great location, meeting some great people learning something about his industry. There was always something.

I could say that about my jobs even the less professional jobs – only one I can’t was one of my first professional jobs – people were shit, work was awful partly as they were sure what was needed- and location was awful – best thing to say is it got me a better job with a pay increase.

Partly I suspect that was expectation but as my entire team left I think it was pretty bad place to work.

After studyding, i went off to France to be a campsite rep. I did it for 2 yrs and I loved it, absolutely the best years of my life. I learned so much, made a friend for live (25 years on we are still friends) and I faced challenges I never knew I could. I then worked for 10 years in London as an events manager, again, amazing time. Nice wage, colleagues who are still friends and nice benefits.BUT the hours, the commute and the stress became too much. I now have an office based job, less money, less benefits, but I'm home 5 minutes after I finish work, I can ago home at lunch time and if I need to, I can work from home. Less stress, less money, but more time for me and my DD.

I went to university got my degree and came home to live. There is very little work here,mostly minimum wage fish packing jobs.
I work 6am to 2 pm, no overtime , no weekends. Live within my means.
Dh works opposite shifts so we've never required childcare.
I'm not rich but have my weekends and afternoons to spend time with dd. And absolutely no stress. I'm happy.

i wish it was i work for fast food ,often at night i am covering food packing serving customers and making their drinks 3 jobs.People often treat you like your thick.I cant get better.

My secondary school education was garbage as i was labeled special needs(cerebral palsy) they deemed me not worth teaching.Although i can walk my legs are stiff.No one wants to hire me i mean hours on my legs is agony enough.

We have a lot of good people come to buy food but i wish the ones that wernt would at least remember their manners.I always treat people with the same respect regardless how they behave.

I used to work in finance. I hated it. I hated too many of the people I worked with. I was annoyingly good at it and to be annoyingly good at it you couldn't be entirely honest and fair which upset me

I stopped doing that and worked for a long time with my partner in our family business

Now I work in retail. It's poorly paid compared to previous roles but the life is so much easier and more honest and I'm much more comfortable with that

we shouldn't look down on people doing so called 'menial' jobs

Agree 100% with this, but personally I found the menial jobs I've done SO boring, and that in itself was soul destroying and made life as a while really depressing, knowing I'd be bored sick for 30+ hours a week. Being paid loads would have cushioned the blow, but of course they were NMW.

I worked retail as a student and hated it. Minimum wage, working weekends, the boredom, the tedious and repetitive nature of the work...urgh. Oh and standing up all day. And dealing with rude customers.

That doesn’t mean it’s a menial job and that retail workers don’t deserve respect.

I now work in an “professional” office job paying twice as much. But I’m still bored! Difference is I can do my own thing, I have my own little office and the job doesn’t involve emotional labour, physical effort or unsocial hours. And I don’t have to serve anybody.

People work in all kinds of jobs for different reasons. Our cleaner at work is clearly a very intelligent woman with great people skills. I don't know why she is cleaning, but I presume that it suits her at this particular point in her life.

My friend's dad had a PhD but chose to work as a lorry driver for many years. Again, I don't know the reasons for that choice, but he always seemed happy so I guess it suited him for whatever reason.

None of us really know why others have made the career choices that they've made. I try not to judge as I rarely have access to all of the relevant facts.