Yesterday I received an e-mail from an office-mate thanking me for helping her out with some of her work. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a job where I’ve felt this buried!” she added, though in the e-mail she included a lot more exclamation points.
I hit the reply button and typed “You’re welcome! I wish I could say you’ll eventually get a break but…” I stopped and looked at what I had written and then pressed the backspace key until nothing remained but the first two words I had typed.
“You’re welcome!”
This woman, the one who sent me the e-mail, is a newer employee and reminds me of myself way back when I first started working for the university seven years ago. She’s pleasant, eager to learn and has a great sense of humor. She cares about the job, loves being constantly busy and has forged positive relationships with the people around her. Who am I to poop on her rainbows?
While I’m very happy to have a well-paying job, the truth of the matter is that I am bored. I’m no longer the person full of fresh ideas and a desire for change. There’s no discovery, no delight in the new and no content exhaustion at the end of the day. I miss that and I miss the person I was when I had that.
Working a job in which you’re not fulfilled is not unique to the few. Millions of us do it every day because it’s what we have to do to put food on the table. Our jobs and our passions, the things we’d love to be doing if we didn’t have to work, are all too often separate entities. I can’t think of anyone in my life who has successfully combined the two.
I know, right? Let me just pass you the vodka and vicodin so you can be done with it.
Sorry. I didn’t mean to poop on your rainbows either so what do you say we try to turn this thing around? It’s going to call for a little audience participation, but I’m game if you are.
To begin, tell me the first job you ever held in which you received a paycheck and if you liked that job.
Then tell me the worst job you ever had and the best job you’ve ever had and what made each job horrible/great.
Then tell me what your dream job would be if you had the time/energy/gumption to pursue it. What would you do for a living if you didn’t have to work for a living?
Finally, tell me why you aren’t doing it.
I’ll start.
The first job I held in which I received a paycheck was at an ice cream parlor the summer after my freshman year of high school. I loved it.
The worst job I’ve ever had has to be the one I held after the ice cream parlor. It was at a national fast food chain that required me to wear a burgundy polyester uniform. The managers there were tools and on more than one occasion I was sent home within a half hour of starting my shift because they were overstaffed. I was there for three months.
The best job I’ve ever had was the factory. The people there were great, my contribution was appreciated and I was actually viewed as an intelligent being who could handle additional responsibilities.
I would write if I didn’t have to pay off so much debt. I’d extend myself beyond this blog and finally start the freelance career I’ve been dreaming of for years.
And why am I not doing that? Because I’m chicken shit. And broke. That’s a bad combination, but I’m taking baby steps toward getting rid of the debt and the fear.
Now it’s your turn. Have some fun with it.
{ 9 comments }
First job – working at a Shaved Ice place. LOVED it! Best ever, we cranked up the music and had snowball fights in the middle of summer.
Worst job – working at the bank. My manager was horrible, the stress sucked, and the pay sucked even more. And I had to work Saturdays.
Best job – a toss between a coffehouse and the college. The coffeehouse was a blast and I got to hang out with people all day, but the pay wasn’t much. The college, worked with mostly great people (there’s always a bad apple somewhere) it was great pay and benefits and my ideas were taken seriously and I was constantly given more responsibility.
My dream job – I feel like I’m living it. Although I’d love to have more time for my photography and travel the world taking beautiful pics, I’ll settle for taking them of the cutest kid ever.
First job – newspaper carrier. it was okay. first job that I went to, sausage stand! I always smelled like grease.
Worst job – summer I was 18. worked in a lumber mill. had to get up at 4:30am (I am NOT a morning person) and also managed to smash the tips of 2 fingers the day before opening night of a show I was supposed to be playing in the pit orchestra for.
Best job – working in Yellowstone National Park. The job was okay, much better the second summer, but it was the location that made all the difference!
Dream job – some combination of photography and teaching. I’m not teaching now because I wanted to stay home with my son. I’m not doing photography… because I’m still learning, have little confidence in myself, and have the worlds slowest computer so editing takes hours I don’t have.
First job – working at an animal hospital cleaning out dirty cages, feeding the animals and walking them outside to do their bidness. Perk – got to have the radio on and sing along. Downside – was very, very smelly at the end of the day.
Worst job – previous job at college from hell. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me shudder. Policies changed every time you walked in the door, students got whatever they wanted because administrators were too afraid to say no, instructors just gave out A’s automatically, I was always blamed for things that weren’t my fault, etc. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
Best job – toss up between current job (much nicer college than last) and first higher ed job I had. Much less stress at current job and great hours. Love the students too. But at my first higher ed job, I worked with fantastic people and loved seeing them every day.
Dream job – I really don’t know! I always hate these questions because they force me to think outside the box. I like my box! Its comfortable and familiar! lol It would definitely involve setting my own hours and having a lot of flexibility. Maybe I could become a professional shopper! I definitely love doing that.
Great question!
First job – I worked as an assistant helping out at children’s birthday parties. It was great at first but I eventually got sick of dealing with screaming bratty children every weekend.
Worst job – Working the hotline at a bank. Not to toot my own horn, but I had the best statistics in the dept. (most calls answered, most calls made, shortest time on the phone) but my boss didn’t like me and gave me sh*t when I told her I wanted to take more college classes to finish my degree.
Best job – My unpaid internship my senior year of college…I worked in the detective division of my local police dept for four months. I got to do everything…went on an undercover drug buy, went on the execution of a search warrant, saw an autopsy…much cooler than all of my friends internships.
Dream job – I’d love to be a detective. Reading people and solving problems is what I’m good at. I’ve pretty much given up on this dream. I can’t run so I’ll never make it through a police academy. (My lungs are only 60% of the size they’re supposed to be so I get winded very easily. I’ve tried building up my endurance, but it isn’t improving.) I love the field of law enforcement so I’ll have to figure out something else to do in the field. Right now I’m a dispatcher.
My first paycheck job was delivering newspapers. I split a route with my sister, and other than really early Saturdays and Sundays, I liked it. Rainy days sucked too. But usually I got to spend a couple hours with myself walking around my neighborhood. It was nice.
The worst job I’ve had was in sales. It wasn’t clear that I’d be doing sales when I took the job, but it quickly dissolved into that. I hate selling.
My best job was as a pharmacy tech. It was a family-owned pharmacy, and everyone was so friendly and awesome. I miss that job.
My dream job is to travel and write. Actually no, my dream job is to somehow get paid to read. But I haven’t figured out what that means, so the next best thing is to travel and write.
I’m not doing that because I don’t have enough gumption or confidence. I don’t know how to make it happen, so I just don’t make it happen. Plus I’m afraid I’ll put all my energy into making it happen, then I won’t like it as much as I do in my fantasy.
Shannon-It sounds like you want to be an editor. That does sound like a wonderful gig.
Best job and first job were the same. I worked part-time at a newspaper in the classified ads department. The job was not awful or wonderful, but my co-workers were a mix of college friends all the way to retirees, and we had good times. On weekends and holidays, we college kids worked and gave everybody else time off, so that was usually interesting, with a mixture of hangovers and hijinks.
Worst job, just a blah office job, except that I had a boss who alternated between sickly sweet and raging. In retrospect, I believe she must have been menopausal and crazy. But it was hard to cope with, not knowing who she would be day by day.
Dream job is NO job. I am living the dream job. Sigh.
Although second place to the Dream Job would be “famous author.”
My first job was for a vet clinic the summer after I turned 16. I worked in the kennels, which meant I walked dogs, cleaned up shit and vomit, and did all the bloody surgery laundry. At that age I was too naiive to hate it and I love working for those people.
My worst job was for a different vet. He was broke and some weeks he couldn’t afford to pay us. His ethics were shifty and he was always putting me into situations I wasn’t comfortable with (pretending one vaccine was another because we were out of the it, doing his surgeries for him while he and one of the nurses had an affair together in the back, etc.). But I was broke and it (sometimes) paid the bills.
My best job was for the same vet I started working for when I was 16. I went back my senior year of high school and stayed there for many years. I was a veterinary technician and I learned so much. I love going to work and I loved my bosses. They believed in me and we were like a family.
My ideal situation? Finishing vet school and practicing animal medicine, like I started out doing. Why am I not doing it? Because my little girl came along and made me realize that I didn’t want to spend that much time away from my family.
You can tell what I love by the places I’ve worked. I’ve always been at vet clinics (even more than listed here!), save for a short stint in a gas station during my junior year of high school and my current gig at the tax prep place.
Comments on this entry are closed.