To think it's impossible to love your job? If you do love going to work, what job do you do?

[PuddingLane]

I'm thinking of retraining to try to find a job I love, but wondering if maybe the grass is always greener and most people don't love their jobs and settling for something that's 'ok' and pays the bills is how it is for most people?

I have confusing and mixed feelings about my job. I do enjoy it, and even love it a lot. It can be so rewarding. And being completely honest, it's an ego boost.

Sometimes though the responsibility is crushing, and I feel extremely inadequate. It is also hard work, and draining. I would also say that it has traumatised me.

But it's also sort of made me who I am. It's a part of who I am. I find it difficult to imagine doing anything else for work. I'm not sure I'm cut out for a lot of other jobs. I'm not good at sitting still, I get bored and lonely very easily, and I procrastinate terribly. A constant stream of fairly immediate people-focused tasks/problems suits me very well.

I was a chef in several restaurants for years, then a chef in a large care home then I moved on to run the kitchen and cook in a tiny care home with lots of interaction with the residents. I loved all my jobs and genuinely miss my last place. I still visit in my free time. I had to hang up my whites because of a degenerative health condition sadly.

Now I sell Pokémon cards for a living and I love that too. I guess I'm just lucky!

I love my job despite many who would
find it dull. I work in a customer focussed managerial role in home insurance.

I should add I returned to work after 17 years out as a SAHM and began again in an entry level position having never worked in the industry before. I am
lucky enough to work in a great company with a team of mixed ages (most decades younger) whom I love. I have progressed quickly into more senior roles which is rewarding. Definitely a benefit of maturity and life experience.

I think part of my love for my job comes from years of being Mum and wife, loved but a bit taken for granted. Work gives me huge gratification from knowing I make a difference to customers, team and department. It really has enriched my life far beyond my expectations of what was a hugely scary return.

I'm a metalsmith, and love it. I love working alone, I enjoy the creativity and I love working with precious metals and gemstones. I'm a real tool-head and will always buy a new hammer rather than a new handbag

There are a few downsides - the need to have a social media presence (mine is minimal, and I might just give up with it), and the market volatility with both silver and gold, to name two, but I genuinely love what I do.

I used to really love my job, it was varied and interesting and I worked with very bright people, (who were mostly nice too) but as I climbed the greasy pole it became more and more pressured and the company changed too, becoming much harder-nosed and demanding.
We used to work a four day week, compressed hours, but management insisted we return to five days - same number of hours - they thought it 'looked better' to shareholders and was more efficient. It wasn't, at all, but it was the look that mattered.
It was well paid but I leapt at the chance of voluntary redundancy and an early pension when it was on offer.
I honestly haven't regretted it for a moment.
Editor, financial journalism.

I work adjacent to politics- worked like a dog for years now working a day less a week, with a pa and an assistant for more than twice as much money. i definitely putin the hours though!

I work in a very interesting industry but it’s ruthlessly competitive and badly paid. There’s not much to love if you can’t pay your bills and are struggling for work! Sometimes it’s about getting a good life balance and being realistic rather than choosing a job you love.

i did love mine, it was for a very good cause

It took me a while to love what I did because I was always so caught up in keeping my own children safe.
I picked up on patients' family dynamics quickly and was sometimes able to intervene in ways that were subtle but entirely effective and frequently for the benefit of the unappreciated exhausted mother.
Oh, and the troubled teens. The so sad CAMHS children pouring their hearts out in the middle of the night, where we were safe in the dark.
It took even longer to realise that I had -and had always had- a bit of a gift for knowing the babies and children in my care were on the way to decompensating. It gave me time to call the team and gather equipment thereby turning a possible full-blown resuscitation (?) into 'a few minor tweaks and all's well'.
I'm not a boastful person, I'm really not...but it is nice to remind myself that I was once good at something important.
Rubbish pay though.
NHS PICU Nurse

I love my job - school science technician. Have the holidays (unpaid), it's like the good bits of teaching and helping students without the stress. Fantastic team and boss. Can be a very high workload at times.
Drawbacks are definitely the abysmal pay and the inability to have leave during term time.

I work on events but a permanent role with government.

I do love it. There are some shit bits but I have started reminding myself this is the job that I wanted. I don't get to do fire works, and Santa and memorial services if I don't do lifting logs and picking up dog shit.

I don’t love my job, I love my pay and my team are brilliant. Without the team I have I would t stay.

I am in urban planning, I mostly enjoy interacting with the public/customers and no day is ever the same as every permit is different. However the moaners (a very small percebtage) and politics of the game can be tiresome but I mostly enjoy my job. The pay and working conditions are a big incentive too.

I love my job. Wealth management.

I’m a primary school teacher. I’ve never done anything else. 26th year this year. I love actually teaching children. But.. there are many of aspects of my job that certainly don’t enjoy, far less love. I think teaching is my purpose though. It is professionally rewarding.

I’m not sure anyone loves every aspect of any job.

I live mine. I’m a therapeutic farmer-work on a working farm where people with LD and MH issues come and work along side us and we deliver the therapy as we go. Outside all day, lovely colleagues, lovely animals, interesting clients. The pay is awful. That’s the only down side. Even when it’s minus 1 all day as it will be this week i absolutely adore it.

Same, but mine is music- get paid to do the one thing I love the most, that I would do more if there were more hours in the day!

I enjoy my job. I’d rather not have to work, but I do enjoy what I do when I’m doing it. I’m self-employed though so that helps!

I work in a library, I love books and enjoy helping people find the right books, I don’t mind shelving and tidying . I don’t enjoy running the toddler group or some of the admin, there’s also a few customers and colleagues who annoy me. But overall I love my job, it’s part time though I think if it was 40 hours I’d get bored. It’s also well paid for what it is.

I work in ecommerce for a brand with good products. Specifically I help us show up in search when people are looking for something to help with a problem.

I absolutely love what I do. I love figuring out new tactics, the evolving tech, the psychology of marketing and the analytics. Most of all I love to see the reviews when our products have really helped someone.

I am lucky that the team around me is largely supportive - that can make or break a
job.

I absolutely adore my job and genuinely look fwd to going in. I’m an AHP manager with a clinical role in a cancer service in the NHS.

The service has been stripped back, it’s on its knees. It’s killing me to stay but I love the job. The moments with my patients & their families fills my heart. Going above & beyond for them gives me such a high. It’s getting harder to do due to all the demands on me. I’m expected to do other things now such as clean the kitchen, buy cleaning products out of my own pocket and check the crash trolley. In my 20 years of working I’ve never seen it so bad. We have to take our own paper to the photocopier each time. It’ll be loo roll next. Back in 2004 we had a stationery cupboard, diaries and staff. It was luxury!

I must say, I have always looked for the positives in any job -when I was waitressing as a student I loved that. I think I love meeting new people and seeing what they’re about.

Fashion design - set up my own consultancy, work remotely mainly but lots of travel, and now earn 6 figures. Been a long slog to get here but it's my dream job

I love my job as far as loving jobs go.
But I’d still rather not work!!

I can’t imagine ever leaving my organisation. I’ve been there for a bit over a year. I came from a very regimented role with no flexibility and shift work. I now have a very flexible role, full time wfh and good pay. The flexibility makes a HUGE difference to my quality of life.

It’s in a sector that fascinates me, it’s (occasionally) one of the most rewarding, worthwhile things I could do with my life to make an incredibly massive difference to people so I’m proud to contribute to society by doing the role.

But still, if I won the lottery, I’d resign immediately.

I have a love of my job.. the contact with people, the ability to help, to be there in life’s highs and lows, to form relationships with people that last many years, to be trusted.. I am a GP and it’s what I was born to do, it’s a calling.
I have been doing 30 years now and the job has changed imaginable .. I hate -not being able to get access secondary care services or investigations needed, the absolutely grinding paperwork .. often unti 7 or 8 at night, difficulty having lunch, or a cup of tea or even a toilet break.
I would still do it though.. it’s my calling.