AIBU to not give a shit about my job?

[Stringme]

I have always been a high achiever and work in a professional career with security, good pay, high responsibility and endless scope for progression. I get lots of opportunities to develop myself as a leader etc etc.

It’s a job most people consider to be worthwhile and important BUT I just don’t care. I want to do the bare minimum and then log off. I feel like I’m constantly pretending to care about my personal goals, what I want to achieve etc. Everyone else is so keen and thinks the work is so important.

Am I the only one pretending or do other people do this?

thank you for writing this. I am so burnt out and felt I was the only person feeling this.

🤣🤣🤣

I work in the NHS (I'm an ODP) and couldn't give a fuck. I've only been qualified for just over a year. I'm tired, so tired. I don't want overtime, to pick up extra on calls, or to do extra private lists at the weekends for 4x more pay. I look at the people who pick up these extras with wonder, where do they find the energy? I want time off, I don't want extra responsibilities or to climb the ladder, and am aware I am just a tiny, replaceable cog in a big, big wheel. I'd say I am actually very good at my job and to a certain extent I do enjoy it but it's sucking the life out of me. I do what's required and nothing more.

I wonder if it actually makes you better at your job to care less. Maybe you overthink less, get stuff done quicker etc. Some days I go to a quite detached place and just think fuck it and those tend to be the days I get the most done.

Sounds like burn out to me too OP. I'm being pushed and pushed in my job too - were actually told that I have a fancy new title for my cv and my email signature to reflect what I really do - but no change in pay. Fuck that. Happy IWD by the way.

Same. I wanted to become a hairdresser. I went to a very academic school and my parents were very academic. They all went nuts when I announced this ambition after GCSEs and I was pressurised to do A levels and a degree, and eventually ended up on the professional route. It was real trap for me once I was on that road. I know I would have been a lot happier as a hairdresser. It's taught me that I must try and help my children in understanding what makes them tick and to support them to try lots of different types of jobs if necessary.

Well what's required sounds like a lot anyway

Why would you waste your only time on earth doing something so meaningless to you?

Absolutely! I really only give a shit about my job when I’m sat at my desk doing it. The minute I’m logged off then any thoughts or ambitions go out the window.

I do enjoy my role, I don’t hate work but I am nowhere near as driven as people would expect.

As long as you do a decent job in your working hours, surely that’s what’s important? Your motivation isn’t relevant, it might be money, personal pride, ambition to succeed, whatever… mine is earning a living and not absolutely hating what I do. That’s enough for me!

This is me!! Also in a professional job which I worked hard to get with a degree, masters and professional qualification to get letters after my name. My last appraisal I had to fill in all this rubbish about steps to the next level up but all I could think about was that I do not want a promotion at all! I don't think I've ever cared that much but found it ok sometimes but since having kids I just couldn't care less and am finding it harder not to show it. I would quit tomorrow if I didn't need the money. I feel like everyone I work with LOVES it but I just don't see how as it is so boring.

Thank you for your honesty. It is a good reminder for me as to why I value a happy, stress free life over money. It is hard to remember that sometimes.

I think there's a certain language and attitude that we're all expected to adopt around everything work related but I doubt that most people really are particularly passionate about it really. I mean, it's fucking work, isn't it?

Sure I work hard, and I want to make money, but there are more important things.

I feel the same. Pretty new in my job which I do well enough but not really passionate about it. My team, ie I'm the team leader, are all hard working and driven - they are passionate about the work... and it's fine. I don't need to be 'excited and inspired' to do my job well, I fake it for professional reasons though. Unfortunately my company is big on 'passion and belonging and caring about work and excitment'. So I have to ensure my team feel that way then I just lie in the anonymous staff survey, ie "so pumped to be at work guys!!!", so it doesn't get flagged as an area for improvement for the managers which would make more work for me.

I ask myself a lot because I have a partner who is VERY passionate about their job, it really is a vocation for them. I don’t have that, I am not passionate about anything so much that I’d want to chase a career in it.

There’s nothing that calls to me, I’m happy to do a job well that I enjoy in the moment but isn’t a “calling” or meaningful.

I guess the conclusion is that not everyone has to find meaning in a job. It’s lovely that some people do, but it’s perfectly acceptable to just earn a living and find meaning elsewhere.

The reason we have a productivity problem may be because workers are treated poorly and lose much of their wages to pay for child care.

Unfortunately my company is big on 'passion and belonging and caring about work and excitment'.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. This kind of emotion laden language, about bloody work. It's like we're expected to feel it as well as do it. I think this is all wrong : the focus should be on performance, not on how you feel. My employer gets my work out of me. They're not paying enough for my bloody soul - no one can.

I loved my job and climbed all the wa to the top of the pole. Spent 25 years thinking it really mattered and getting stressed about it. It was getting to a high level that stopped it. I looked at the people above me who were still striving and sacrificing huge amounts of their lives despite having what many people would consider life changing money. When my boss told me her boss called her on the way to her father's funeral and she ANSWERED THE CALL something broke. It stopped being in any way aspirational. Then lockdown hit - coincided with the two highest earning years of my life and I took a major restock. Saved like mad and moved somewhere much cheaper. Now I work 2 days a week for a charity at less than 20% of my former earnings. I have a life, a job I like and more than enough.

But, the money I earned gave me big choices and some amazing experiences so I can't say I regret it. I don't know if it was burnout or sanity but I'm happier now.

I wish I couldn't give a stuff.

My work stress is ginormous. My pay is not. My husband earns double what I do and he just shuts the laptop and doesn't care.

I need to learn this. I know I'm replaceable, I know my children come first etc.

Just need to learn how to not give a fuck.

I’m in the nhs band 7 nurse/ district nurse manager.
Currently off, burnt out and can’t face going back.
The bloody realisation that my kids are now teenagers - what was I thinking working like I have.
The problem is in jobs like mine you get sucked in to caring for others, looking after the team - all to your own detriment.

I've worked my way up, now in a senior position, done all the 'right' things workwise. It's a socially-useful, vocation-type job, not a 'bullshit' role by any means.

At the weekend I had an 'urgent' work phone call that interrupted a family lunch, and on Sunday I was still in a meeting at 7.30pm. Tonight, my boss has literally just texted me with a task she wants done by tomorrow morning.

In a few weeks time I may be made redundant. Work is a con. I'm done.

This is obviously touching a nerve with me as I rarely post this much.

I think it is fine not be committed and engaged in a job as long as you get it done, it doesn't take over your life, you don't look down on people who do feel more engaged in it and you are happy.

I have to pretend all the time to people that I am very dedicated and committed. Sometimes the mask slips and they seem a bit shocked.

Nope. I'm counting down the years towards retirement now. Never thought it would happen to me, I was fairly ambitious when I was younger but opportunities didn't come. The twenty somethings can get on with it now, my energy is going into my hobbies to build a foundation for retirement.

That relentless greasy pole thing just isn't worth it.

I left a job I loved to join one with more family friendly hours. Detest this new job - do everything needed and professionally but I really couldn’t care less and spend my time wishing I could be back in my old one

It really, really isn't.

On your death bed, it won’t be important how much you worked, it won’t matter