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Original poster

Is anyone else just not able to be employed for long without hating it?

75 replies

OnEdge · 06/03/2011 12:34

I have never been able to stay working in one job for long. I just hate it so much. The people get on my nerves, i get so bored i want to gouge my own eyes out. I have tried and tried all sorts of different settings over the years.

(I now run my own business doing something I am good at and that I love).

Was chatting to my Mum about it, and she said that I am unusual, and that most people are happy to be employed. She worked as a radiographer in the same department for 35 years.

It isn't an issue of laziness, because now I am finding that friends and family keep telling me to take it easy and not work so hard etc.

I was watching a lady last night in a Pharmacy and I just thought how can she do that every day ? All shelves and white surfaces ? Doesn't she go mad???? I don't mean that in a judgemental way at all. Just wondered how others feel about it and if any one else is like me.

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Heroine · 06/03/2011 12:39

Your mum is wrong - many many people feel like this - some manage it by changing jobs at the same level a lot, some by trying to move up, some by focussing more on hobbies/house/family some by religeously going to theatre and reading books to experience other lives others (management consultants/lawyers/case workers/media freelancers/project managers/marketing campaign workers/careers advisers (the ones who work direct with clients for a short period)/trainers who can run a range of different focussed courses for different groups/employers etc/ and so on.. manage it by taking on different work with short focussed timespans/outcomes changing every six months or so, or every year or perhaps in three year bursts, say.

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 06/03/2011 12:40

I think the best jobs are always a compromise between your personal passions/interests and the demands of the work itself. Your mum's job (speaking from no experience whatsoever) may have had a great deal of variety from day to day and offered a lot of scope for meeting different people and updating technology meant new training and new skills. So she may have had variety in that sense?

I will never do a permanent job again after spending 12 years in big big companies - I want to find another way.

lubeybooby · 06/03/2011 12:42

Me! For me the only solution was going self employed. It's worked for 3.5 years now and I still love it, loads of motivation etc. Stick me in a company as an employee and I'm rubbish... I thought there was something wrong with me for ages, I thought I was lazy/workshy etc. Not so. I have barely had a day off in that 3.5 years and work all hours, but it's on my terms so that's fine.

saintlyjimjams · 06/03/2011 12:48

Me although partly that's from constraints of having a disabled child as well. Now run my own business, like you not lazy, am clocking up the hours. I don't think I could be employed again.

UnquietDad · 06/03/2011 12:50

I think there is a "golden triangle" of work: hours that suit you, enjoying the work and being well-paid. Most people I know have one of these at least. Some lucky people, like me, have two. Some VERY lucky people have all three, and I'm working towards that.

If you have none of the three, it's time to get out.

saintlyjimjams · 06/03/2011 12:51

Think lube has it - it's having to work on someone else's timetable that does it for me.

BuzzLiteBeer · 06/03/2011 12:57

Yep, but I think its just that I never did jobs I was really interested in. I've had ones that made me want to jump in front of a bus rather than do another shift. not for long for much longer though.

Original poster

OnEdge · 06/03/2011 13:43

Oh phew, not just me then.

I nearly set the fire extinguishers off in one job. I was on nights with a real bastard in charge. I went off sick in the end and went to a Billy Idol concert instead.

I had a 9 month spell in a job that I thought I loved . I loved the work, but it was the daily routine that killed me. I tried parking at different ends of the car park every day and walking a different route into the department but it beat me in the end. Luckily I got pregnant in that one.

I am the same at home. When I am preparing the baby's bottles, I have to do it a different way every single time. I am crap at routines. Its all or nothing. Is it a personality type ? I know a few people who work full time on same job for yonks and just don't question it. I do, I ask them how they feel etc and they just think I'm odd.

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Original poster

OnEdge · 06/03/2011 13:45

Even my dream dream job in the end was unbearable. I think it is to do with being in control.

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Forster · 06/03/2011 17:10

Yep me too. Unbearable. I am now freelancer tis lovely

Acinonyx · 06/03/2011 19:17

I find it unbearable too - and I think my employers do too . I work PT and mainly from home now. My parents used to despair of me too.

morethanyoubargainfor · 06/03/2011 19:21

I do as well, normally last about 2 years in a post! then i start to look for other employment. I also can't not think of anything worse than working the same hours on the same days every week, week in week out. I have to have shift work to keep me interested.

Forster · 06/03/2011 20:58

I think it depends on personal circumstances. My mum suffers from a recurrent illness and from time to time needs help. I found it too hard to cope with a full time committment, the family and my lovely job and helping her when I wanted to help her. We now have a lot less money, but I fell less stressed and thus the family is a lot happier.

gabid · 06/03/2011 21:13

The word 'permanent post' scares me and always has done. I have been a supply teacher for 10 years now (with 2 kids) the kids are an excuse really. Still working on finding a better solution.

ChupaChups · 06/03/2011 22:43

Yes me.

I have done quite well but have had loads of jobs over the years.

Looking into setting up my own business as I fear I am just going to get to the stage where I am unemployable!

SeeJaneKick · 06/03/2011 22:47

OnEdge I am like you. I cannot abide any form of authority though..which is why I make a shit employee.

I've always been this way and like you, I am self employed. If I wasn't I would probably be some kind of homless wanderer.

belledechocchipcookie · 06/03/2011 22:47

Yup, me also. I work at home now writing childrens books and it's the best thing I've ever done. I get soo bored, I also hate having to be somewhere on time and having to ask to go to the toilet, I'm 33, not 3!

SeeJaneKick · 06/03/2011 22:48

Wow belle....what books have you written?

belledechocchipcookie · 06/03/2011 22:57

They are all with a publisher so have not been printed yet, I'm waiting to see if she wants them (they are all rewrites, she's seen the first version & liked them but wanted changes). So far she has 3 picture book texts and a novel for 9 year olds. I only left my job in September so it's not bad going I don't think

happybubblebrain · 06/03/2011 22:57

I like my job 90% of the time. I've been doing it for nine years. I think most people would find it monotonous and there is very little variety, but I find it very relaxing. I work with really nice, friendly people and I sometimes look forward to Monday morning. There is no opportunity for promotion and the pay is pretty rubbish, but I'll stay there as long as I can. Before this I moved jobs frequently and I was never happy with any of them.

happybubblebrain · 06/03/2011 23:01

I also did my dream job once and it was very well-paid but within a year I absolutely hated it and had to leave the country for six months to recover from the stress.

UnquietDad · 06/03/2011 23:16

I'm one of those people Ken Bruce makes fun of for "working at home", who de-fluff the dryer and make a 2nd cup of coffee in time for Popmaster. Some days I do still have to be places on time - like when I am doing a day in a school or tutoring my MA students.

But mostly I have the day free to work, around the two school runs... which are basically walks of 4 minutes. And I wouldn't want to change it.

belledechocchipcookie · 06/03/2011 23:19

Ahh, it's so lovely to do the school run without having to rush to work. It's also lovely to have a coffee when I want.

RedFlagHag · 07/03/2011 19:35

Me.

I worked in the same career for about 10 years, but that organisation frequently switched us around from role to role and department to department, which saved my sanity.

When I left that organisation I couldn't believe the mundanity of working in other organisations. I get bored after about 3 months, and am positively dying with boredom after about 6 mths. The only way I have been able to stay sane is by taking short contracts (which is handy, as in my area of work that seems to be all that is on offer at the moment!). I sacrifice benefits and 'security' for variety.

I am one month into a 6 month contract at the moment and am already fantasising about when this job will be over .

It's not my fault I am easily bored

Original poster

OnEdge · 07/03/2011 19:42

SeeJaneKick Actually, you have hit the nail on the head there, I have no respect for authority much either, it just feels like we are all playing a game of lets pretend. I get the urge to snigger at meetings and then I get the urge to run around the room sticking my fingers up shouting CUNTS CUNTS CUNTS

I think The Office was good for this, Ricky Gervais has clearly been there too.

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