What is your favourite thing about your job, and what don't you like about it?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

And what line of work are you in?

Do the good bits massively outweigh the less good bits - or vice versa?

Thought this could be an interesting thread, to get some insights into what people do in their day to day at their job. There are lots of job titles out there where I only have the haziest idea of what people in those roles actually do!

I'm job hunting at the moment so a bit obsessed with jobs and careers and the roads people travel to build a career

Fostering

Best bits
Watching the change that love and stability can bring, seeing them learn to trust, watching them just be a child.

Worst bits.
Saying goodbye, it is like losing a part of your soul.
Some of the harrowing things we are told.

Archivist

Love cataloguing material from lots of different subjects and periods of history and learning all the time, lovely colleagues, the pay, flexible working & holidays, most donors and researchers.

Don't like making decisions on data protection (is interesting but I'm anxious about getting it wrong), trying to justify my existence to people who aren't interested in history and see it as glorified filing, and paper cuts!

I work in forensic mental health.
Best bit- I feel we really do offer great care for people who are challenging. Offer lots of counselling and therapy for PTSD. The nursing team have so much patience and care for people who are often rude and physically abusive. I also like the problem solving aspect and the investigative side of looking into background/ family history. There are so many people out there who honestly didn't stand much of a chance of any other life except a life of crime.
Bad: NHS so the pay. Not having enough hours in the day. The terrible management. Agency staff costs not doing much to spur a review of wages and workload. Awful staff retention. No real recognition of the pressure we are under to admit new patients. The coffees bad too!

@peak2021 I think you're a doctor.

Chef in Hotel .
Like - long hours,hot ovens,free food,little contact with the public.

Dislike - all the wankery presentation ideas from the owners,shite kids menu,throwing away vegan food cause few order it.
Chaos of Xmas .Shops closed when finish work at 1am .
Eating crap leftover food .
Not seeing the sun much,missing out on car boot days out,horrid temp staff,,no time to do the household stuff some weeks.

also low pay by MN standards - i manage okay but worry that if i get ill there is no safety net from the state

I also ran by own small Modern Antiques biz
Like - the thrill of the Hunt,making a profit,learning new stuff.
Dislike - the contempt the public have for dealers,the low pay for the long hours,the paperwork,the shop lifters ,giving free valuations,the endless cleaning ,the council digging up the road every few months .

I am a (very part time) Fitness Instructor. Best bits are:

Keeping myself fit while earning
Helping people to find a love for fitness
Witnessing people reach their fitness goals
Above all else: the positive impact on mental health (mine and the participants)

Negatives:
Zero hours contracts
Working evenings and weekends
Can all be easily scuppered by an injury
Hard to earn anything at the moment!

Like, I'm my own boss
Dislike, how some people look down on me.

I'm a cleaner.

Hate every single thing about my job and all the other jobs I’ve ever had.

Waiting for a lottery win so I never have to work again!

Pharmacist
Like my team, currently brilliant.
Dislike whining, bitching customers. Nothing is good enough for some people, as evidenced by a couple of threads on here. Worst is when the postal pharmacies let them down and they come in demanding I have to sort it out. Fuck off!
Also, my nurse SIL who believes I am just a 'shop girl' even though I earn more than she does and have 2 post-grad diplomas when she barely scraped her degree.

I like it when I complete year end, and when my management accounts reconcile easily.

I don't like when people lie to me. If the cheque isn't in the post, just tell me you don't have the money to pay.

I’m a Personal Assistant to a busy executive Director.

I like that I have a lot of freedom to manage my day to day workload, my boss doesn’t micromanage or breathe down my neck. I’m also a one woman team so I don’t have to worry about covering the work of others if they’re off etc.

I like the problem solving aspect, building relationships with a range of people, and the satisfaction of keeping things running smoothly behind the scenes.

I dislike the fact that some members of my department view me as ‘just’ support staff and will try and offload their more tedious admin onto me. I also find event planning (Christmas parties, team away days, ‘zoom’ fun...!) quite stressful but need to organise them on occasion. They always go well - I’m just always worried people aren’t having a good time!

Best bit: picking up a child who has a hearing loss or needs glasses as they wouldn't have known otherwise

Worst bit: seeing/hearing about the children with safeguarding concerns.

That's under usual circumstances right now the worst bit is being redeployed into an area I know nothing about.

I usually work in the school nursing team as a health assistant.

Warehouse

Like..
I go in, in the morning, get my jobs for the day and just crack on, I'm left alone, unless im needed, and being a smoker, I can split my 40 min break how I like over 8 hours!

Dislike..
Its fucking Baltic inside in the winter and roasting hot in the summer!

Marketing manager in mini pharmaceutical company

Like: working with sales team, helping them abs through that helping patients and doctors
Dislikes: hierarchical approach, highly regulated business creates lack of autonomy

@waterlego could you share any fitness tips? I am fit but flabby and struggling to reduce body fat percentage

Oooh. What sort of exercise do you do corona?

Manager in forensic mental health

Love to see those we work with change positively. The team all of them from support workers to senior consultants (we have a good solid team and great set of bank workers) the challenges and every day is different. I am never bored

Dislikes senior management who are working from home full of their own self importance that have no idea of the pressure we are under and some have little understanding of the people we are managing. The endless meetings that are not clinically related. The work load at times it’s just too much especially this year I’ve been at break point at times

I love my job it’s very rewarding

It's the same answer for both. Managing people. I love managing people, I think I'm generally good at getting the best from people and I love to see people develop and to give them opportunities to do so. But OMG, some people (a tiny minority, thankfully) are just so difficult and obstructive, no matter what you do.

Special Needs Teacher
Love most things..great satisfaction in seeing children grasp things..fun with children..colleagues..never boring
Dislike..constant new demands from government which gains nothing but adds to our time being spent writing policies etc. And teaching from home!

@1FootinTheRave
Me too midwife in south east. Could have written your post word for word.
COC will cause mayhem. Many midwives will leave as unable to practice like this. The older labour ward based midwives like myself just don't want to work in community. Cheeky buggers making us use our own cars as well. I will leave if they insist I do this.

Best bit: I have lots but ultimate best bit is seeing parents faces as I pass them their baby. Always special, but especially following a loss or lots fertility problems.

Worst bit: Dealing with bereavement, assisting a delivery to a silent room and knowing their won't be cry. To watch a woman (and whoever is with them) broken, it is just devastating. I am strong there and then but then have to go into a room and have a bit of a cry myself.

I am a midwife.

NHS administrator.

I like most of my colleagues. I am very good at admin so it plays to my organisational strengths and my ability to work ridiculously fast. Knowing that I am doing my part to help in the area we work in (children) as all information comes to my team to be distributed. I like that I have training opportunities and can work my way up (to an extent, this ends for admin far lower than for clinical staff).

Dislike: being ignored by management, feeling like you are very much at the bottom at times, being very micromanaged by 1 manager in particular, 1 difficult colleague who rubs everyone up the wrong way, has been consistently complained about yet nothing is said and excuses are always made for her. Dealing with calls and paperwork when a child has died. The things I have to read on records can be bloody awful and we get no training or help in how to deal with deeply upsetting information except told 'don't read it'. Not always easy or possible. If you could forcibly sterilise people, I'd be all for it!

Well paid
Like dealing with different countries and learning new things

Downside - dealing with difficult people , politics and egos of
More senior people who really should have grown up a bit

I have two jobs: I'm an in-house solicitor specialising in litigation and engaged on a particular project. I'm also a part-time university law lecturer.

The jobs in turn:

1. Solicitor

Good: great salary, very interesting project, a lot of job satisfaction, flexible working hours, wfh, great colleagues

Bad: my job is dependent on the longevity of the particular project, very long hours and the client can be very demanding at times

1. University lecturer:

Good: love what I do, love the students

Bad: not great pay compared to my day job, a lot of prep

I do love both my jobs, but doing both at the same time means insane(!) hours and a lot of juggling!

Best: Research, relative freedom day to day, the money
Worst: an incredibly small minority of students, and all the bloody planning!