Is your work fulfilling or not

[topcat2014]

Are you bored with work?

By bored, I don't mean having nothing to do - as that happens sometimes.
Conversely, you could be very busy but also bored.

I'm interested in the proportion of people who, whilst filling their time with the tasks on hand, are fundamentally bored of the whole concept of work.

Do we tell our DC (as a country) that the world of work is amazing and there are so many opportunities - perhaps too much?

I'm 55, have broadly done the same work - (management accountant) in various settings at various levels. I think I've just stopped caring how well or otherwise that someone else's business performs or not.

I have never found work as intellectually challenging as I assumed I would.

Personally yes I am.

I work in a school for pupils with severe learning difficulties as pastoral support and love the difference I make.

It’s not a highly paid job (37k FTE) but full filling and allows me a work life balance and to also care for my (now adult) DS who also has a disability.

don’t get me wrong - some days flouncing from education would be easy. But after 19 years so being in the same school I am not bored!

Some jobs are fulfilling in themselves.

Some jobs pay the bills so that you can find fulfilment outside of work.

I’m 54 and approaching the end of a career that I’ve found, at times, enjoyable, hateful, stressful, rewarding - on balance fulfilling and I know I’ll leave a legacy to my profession. If you’d asked me a month ago I’d say I hated it that week.

I’m fulfilled by my work - I work in a specialised area of healthcare, and I enjoy helping patients.

Totally bored with my work, but I’m absolutely passionate about my hobby and get a huge sense of achievement from it (when it goes well). It would be very hard to find another job with the same level of pay that allows such flexibility and permanent home working, which is what allows me to pursue my hobby to the extent that I do, so I’m happy with my situation overall. I’m also grateful that I rarely find my job stressful.

Yes, I love mine. It’s busy, but full of challenges to solve and I find it really fulfilling.

I've still not found 'what I want to do when I grow up'. So far my experience has been; early jobs after graduating, working fulltime in call centre sales were utterly soul destroying.

I've spent the last 15 years working part time for my DH in a business which is related to his hobby. Although it's not something which really interests me, I've enjoyed the community aspect to it and getting to know people on a personal level, which was definitely something that was lacking in my previous jobs. In my spare time, I've had plenty of opportunity to work on my own hobbies

We've made decent money from the business and are now looking to sell it on and move to a bigger house further away from the city. We'll do my DH's business online, but I'm also spotting a gap in the market in the town we're thinking of moving to which would potentially allow me to start a business related to my own interests.

I enjoy my job yes. I work as a lettings assistant for a housing association. It’s nice when we sort out things eg a new cooker if needed for a property (often cheaper than repairing it but there you go) and seeing tenants enjoying living in a property, one woman on a property inspection report recently proudly showed me an area at the side of her house/garden where she was growing vegetables and I thought that’s great.

I recently sorted out a huge bill from an energy company which was estimated (only a few meter readings so no one resident there otherwise). Tried to charge us £200 for a day’s electricity! After a few phone calls got a £1,600 bill written off and a £10 refund to us.

We are also growing our service (we’re a 4-5 years new company within the association) and it’s great to see that landlords and tenants will be able to make use of our services. Most of our landlords are very good btw.

My job is pretty boring whether I'm quiet or busy. I had to leave my previous job when I had my ds4 as I worked permanent nights, the job I'm now at was the only one i could find with hours that would allow me to do school pick up/drop off and the plan was to just do that until something better came along.

I'm really craving moving to a more fulfilling career and would love to get into a career working with children/disabled people etc as i love helping people but my problem is im in such a lovely company that i dont want to leave, its a small family run business and they allow flexible working so I never miss school events (infact the director insists I go to school plays etc and they will pay me whilst I'm gone) I've been able to adjust my start/finish times multiple times to work with nursery then school & I still get paid if I'm off with my son if he is sick

I’m a hospital doctor, though currently off on maternity leave.

I think the nature of the work means that it inherently has some meaning. I think it’s important to do a good job by people, and that’s always a motivating factor. Financially, I would have been better off using my grades to chase a career in law or finance but I thought that if I was going to work hard, I needed to have a good reason to keep it up.

The flip side is that I’m finding it really difficult to balance work with family life as the hours aren’t well contained and I struggle to switch off.

It’s sort of fulfilling. It’s technical and difficult and the training is very tough indeed. Two years in and I’ve only just calmed down and started to feel confident that I know the basics.

Rarely get bored and if I did have a spare half hour, there’s always so much more to learn. It’s in a very niche area, which I like (and we also get to tell solicitors what to do 😂)!

It should be - but sometimes I feel like whatever I do, it’s just not good enough

Yes, I gain a lot of personal fulfilment from work. And I’m rarely bored.

I can imagine that changing as I go into 50s though.

I do feel like I've had enough of working overall. I've worked for over 40 years. However I do really like my latest job and feel it is really worthwhile and makes a huge difference to the lives of people I'm trying to help. I do get a sense of fulfillment.

I have always enjoyed work and found it fulfilling. After losing a leadership role where I set up my own function and reported to the CEO, I took a role a level down and now don’t have a team. I am a bit bored at times now tbh but enjoying having a bit more time and headspace to focus on teenagers. I simply y can’t do a big job now with kids this age and thst’s ok.

My job is a typical vocation - very fulfilling but it also takes a lot out of me, there are massive highs and lows. I haven’t ever regretted my career choice, but since having kids, I do feel that me doing the job I am passionate about comes at quite a cost (both for me and my family) and that life would be simpler if I took a more boring job allowing me to prioritise money / wfh / flexibility. I’m not sure my personality would allow me to do that though.

When I talk to my kids about work, I explain exactly that - and that it’s totally valid if they choose a boring job because it lets them better prioritise other parts of their life.

I love my job - I work in digital safeguarding for students

When people have been asking lately how my job is going, I’ve been saying it manages to be both boring AND stressful, which is quite an achievement.

I don’t feel fulfilled by it any more, but I don’t know if that’s because I’ve changed with age and I’m now much more cynical about almost everything.

Nope. Not fulfilling now, never has been. I've worked in Admin, warehouse, lecturing, management accounting, project management. Never been fulfilled or really enjoyed a job for very long. I occasionally enjoyed a job for the first 12 months but that's the extent of it. I'm 8 months into a new job & I'm over it already. Too much politics and backstabbing.

Unfortunately I like getting paid a decent wage, so can't just quit and find something I like. I know from experience that I won't like it for long, so if I'm going to do a job that doesn't fulfill me then I might as well be well paid for it.

Thanks for all taking the time to reply! Nice bit of variety.

No, not in the slightest. My job is similar to yours, OP. Lots of numbers, spreadsheets, graphs etc. It’s just a means to an end ; a method of earning a decent living which happens to be A, straightforward & B, convenient because I WFH. I would retire tomorrow if I could afford to, but until that day comes I will carry on keeping my head down, getting on with my work & doing the minimum I can get away with.

It's rarely too boring and does have fulfilling moments as I can make a difference to people's lives.