To ask whether you enjoy your job?

[Bollypears]

..... and if so, what do you do?!

I work in Corporate Governance and it’s mind numbingly boring and monotonous. I fell in to this career years ago rather than choosing it but now my experience, qualifications and skills are all very specific to this field and don’t seem to be particularly transferable. Due to my role being quite specialist and well paid, it’s not easy to change career without taking a substantial pay cut which I just can’t really do (mortgage etc).

Every day consists of clock watching, wishing the day away and thinking about how much I’d rather be anywhere else but there. I work with nice people, the role is relatively low stress, performance wise I’m doing well... I’m just utterly bored and demotivated inside. From Monday onwards I count down to the weekend and even by Sunday I feel horrendous about the thought of another week at work.

Some of my colleagues appear to love their job and I wonder whether I’m the odd one out. I often daydream about quitting the job all together or getting signed off work just for a break from the boredom, but of course I don’t. I sit at my desk and/or in meetings thinking to myself, is this really how life is supposed to be?

I’m genuinely interested to know whether others feel the same or if this isn’t the norm. I know those who come across me at work would have no idea I feel this way. I can’t speak to many people about this IRL as it’s a bit shameful. I know I should be grateful to be in well paid employment but it doesn’t help how I feel.

For those who do enjoy their jobs, I’m very interested to know what you do if you don’t mind sharing please!

My dream job is what I do, nursing.
But I have been so utterly utterly ground down over the years by it that I am desperately searching job boards for a new job.
I hate it.

But are you well paid? It seems that lots of jobs seem to tick all the boxes for money, but are mind numbing!
On the other hand, I enjoy my job(s), as I work for myself and spend a lot of my time outdoors and in other people's houses doing either cleaning or gardening.
But the money isn't that great and I couldn't live on it, but it's bringing money into the family 'pot'.
Be grateful for what you have, at least you have security.

Self-employed. Love it.

On the whole yes I do

Just wish I had more time and resources to do it well - public sector- social services- short on staff and money (and time) but working with teenagers is great

Yes I enjoy my job. 40/60 mix of office work and out at meetings or site visits.
Some days it can be hard but the good outweigh the bad

Love mine, I’m a relocation agent

I'm a manager I love it but its absolute rubbish pay I cant stay past a few more years although I'd love to stay

I work in Federal Government in Australia. It's incredibly boring and i feel like all the people around me that are happy doing what seems like pointless work are insane.
The sound of everyone typing in unison and the same boring office conversations everyday make me want to run screaming out of the building and into the wilderness hahaha.
It's good money and good job security, only reason I stay. I am not going back after I go on maternity leave though, going to retrain and do something outside of an office environment.

Yes, I work for a small company where I am the marketing department.

Every day is different, some bits can be a bit dull but on the whole I learn something new most weeks. There is one very irritating person but every company has at least one. What job’s perfect? The commute is short, no traffic and my boss is reasonable & good at his job.

Oh dear, I am doing a corporate governance qualification!

I don't want to work in it though, but I am vaguely enjoying the qualification - as long as I keep passing exams and don't need to retake. I work in a senior role in the public sector and find it really interesting. I do get bored easily though so I am moving around between roles every few years.

Do you want to tell us more? When did you last change job? What sort of things do you do?

I'm an academic.

It's alright.

Good points:

• My qualifications are essential so all the years I spent studying were worth it.
• I'm relatively well paid.
• I have huge freedom and autonomy over my time and what I actually do in my job.
• No dress code at work
• No real management, we're trusted to do our jobs mostly.

Bad points:

• Increasing pressure to meet unrealistic targets.
• Posh entitled students.
• Increased audit culture has changed our relationship with students from educators/learners/collaborators to customer/service provider.

I'm planning on taking early retirement at 45.

I work for a small international charity (I don't want to be too specific as outing). I'm challenged every day and I'm learning new things all the time. I don't have one area of work so I have have a variety every day. Previously my job was very specific and no opportunity to get involved in other areas of the company I was working for - so boredom set in quickly, followed by being utterly demotivated. When that happens I'm good at recognizing it and getting out.

TBH if you can afford a pay cut get into the charity sector - though we don't pay that badly for skilled staff. We're crying out for people with your skills and the work could be interesting.

@MySonIsAlsoNamedBort ah I could have written that haha, how I feel your pain!!!

Yes. I work in employee relations as an advisor and I love the whole process of advising and using my specialist knowledge to help solve HR problems and facilitate decisions.

I haven't got as far in my career as I'd like as I took a step down after having kids, didn't care then but now I'm ready for a bir more progression only the work life balance where I am is so great that I cant bear to give it up. And the money is good too

Ah well you cant have it absolutely all I suppose.

I am a support worker for younger adults who have mental health diagnoses, autism, challenging behaviour and learning difficulties. Majority of who are non verbal. I used to work dayshifts, then changed to nightshift when I had my ds. Currently on mat leave with dd. I like my job. I enjoy helping and supporting people to live to their potential. However, I do not like the company I work for, and many of the staff they are now employing. There is often a lack of care in care. It's sad and depressing. But, I like my job.

Been self employed for 10yrs and hate it. I am grateful if the experience it has given me though, I will no longer moan about the things I used to as an employee.
I have started as a lunchtime supervisor at a primary school and love it. It will not financially pay off long term but it's great for helping transition back in to employment.

I love my job.
I like the people I work with, generally
I like the autonomy
I like working from home mainly
I like that it’s never boring and is fast moving
I like it has social worth
I like it’s intellectually challenging
I have generous leave allowance

I’d quite like a higher salary but can’t really complain. It’s good for public sector.

Senior analyst in a think tank and absolutely love it. I find the work interesting and challenging. I am paid what'd you expect for my level in my sector. I have a fantastic work-life balance and a great set of colleagues.

I like some parts of it.

Unfortunately, I've been promoted out of the range of being able to do the things I enjoy. It's a small company, and I'm COO, which means every bit of shit comes my way.

I like working, but the pressure to ensure the company's survival in a challenging environment is crap, unenjoyable, and the staff are entirely unappreciative of how good our company actually is to work for (flexibility and great pay punching well above the norm), and the efforts undertaken to sustain it.

I'm working on my dream career as a writer. I don't care that it's highly unlikely to pan out, I have to go for it, and in the meantime, grin and bear it here.

I'm pretty sure you're under selling yourself without realising, there is no such thing as a specialist job with no transferable skills!

You need another pair of eyes to look at your job for you, and I'd recommend speaking to a career adviser outside your field, and they'll tell you how your work is transferable to completely different domains.

I don't mean to be harsh, but what exactly are you waiting for? Do you really want to be doing the same job in 10yrs from now? Money isn't about everything, I wouldn't want to waste my short life doing a boring job... you won't be starting from scratch... you have a lot of skills that you need to discover...

When was the last time you reviewed your CV? When was the last time you had your CV reviewed by a professional?

Can't stand my job, but it offers me all the benefits I need (which, despite reasonably frequent searching, nowhere else offers!)

I work in Marketing which I love, but for some reason we're managed by a Head of Sales with no Marketing experience, in an office full of very sexist, racist, angry salesmen who have no respect for others.

Hate it.

On maternity leave at the moment but I love my job. I work in policy for a pharmaceutical company. The company is great, they look after us well and the job is varied and challenging.

I am jealous. I want a mind-numbingly boring job that pays well. I can put up with boredom with no problem at all.

Yes, mostly. I'm an MFL teacher, but these days I teach a couple of hours each in lots of primary schools, plus a bit of adult teaching, whereas I used to teach full time in secondary school.

It pays poorly, but it's so much less stressful than being a 'proper' teacher. Teaching is very rarely boring. In fact I've often thought I would like a nice boring, low-stress job, preferably one where nobody ever speaks above conversational volume and where I'd only have to speak to one person at once or maybe nobody at all.

I used to be a very sociable person, but 20 odd years of teaching is enough to make one value a bit of quiet and solitude! Children can be lovely, but the constant interaction can be a bit relentless.

I like my job. I work in finance (risk, specifically). The type of work I do appeals to my pernickety side. The company has paid for all my qualifications and I work with some fantastic people. However, I am not necessarily miss popularity outside of my team, purely because of the type of reporting I do . Pay is decent and flexible working is simply priceless for me.