[Closed] Do you need job satisfaction?

I have little to no job satisfaction. I do have a wife and two young kids though and I’m the sole earner at present. I also believe I would struggle to find a job that pays the same as this one. I still work to the best of my ability though.

Personally yes. I spent a long time in a job where I was just getting beaten down every day, staying because I needed the money, and after that decided I actually wanted to feel good about what I did.

Money is, sadly, a means to an end.

Yes, but at the same time it can be frustrating, always playing catch up and dealing with silly mistakes from higher grade people that don't have to deal with the fallout and delays for customers.

I don't look forward to work but equally, the only reason I don't want to go is having other stuff to do at home!!!

Live to work <--------------------------------> Work to live

everyone's on that continuum somewhere.

For me it's not possible to do something you hate doing (or in my case for someone you hate) - that made me ill. And it definitely helps if you enjoy what you do - you're doing it a long time. But in the end it's a means to an end, and no-one ever lay on their death bed wishing they'd spent more time at work / no pockets ina coffin / etc. So - tolerable with bits I do enjoy, will do for me.

I love my job, I hate my boss and the 55-60 hour working week that comes with it. I’m exhausted, stressed and it keeps me awake at night so constantly tired.

I can’t take holiday when I would like as there is never any cover, I can’t attend training courses or lab visits because there isn’t any cover. I am often lone working for 10 hours at a time and have had 3 lunch breaks in 8 months.

I could go on, but it’s depressing. I’m lying in bed absolutely dreading going in!

Thankfully my days of being money motivated are behind me, so I have the relative luxury of doing any job regardless of the pay, I am looking for something else but it’s a very slow job market out there and I am heavily overqualified for most things I apply for, which seems to scare recruiters ☹️.

Do I need job satisfaction? To a certain extent, if my boss said thank you for everything you do once in a while, it would give me what I need.

My job is (for pharma) is decent money, easy work and has very little actual responsibility or people breathing down my neck - 4 on 4 off as well.

It's giving me time to change career - although I'm not following the whole work to live mantra. All jobs are pretty hard no matter the pay or industry, I figure I need to re qualify and specialize in a poorly understood role that is hard to recruit for (in this case Data Science/Statistics) so that I can become indispensable to a company and essentially set my own terms of employment one day - getting to that point is going to require a fair bit of blood, sweat and tears.

Thankfully my days of being money motivated are behind me, so I have the relative luxury of doing any job regardless of the pay, I am looking for something else but it’s a very slow job market out there and I am heavily overqualified for most things I apply for, which seems to scare recruiters

Where are you? Got any Quality/GMP/Steriles experience?

I love my work (rope access) but I don’t love having to work, if that makes sense?
It’s often hard physically and mentally and I have weeks when I’m so knackered from work that I just don’t want to do anything else but sleep, I guess that’s an age thing as much as anything else but if I didn’t enjoy it I don’t think I could keep doing it. Being motivated to get up and out every morning knowing I was likely to be beasting myself for 8 hours would be very difficult indeed.
We tend to have a lot of down time around this time of year, both planned and unplanned (like the last few weeks of horrendous weather) and I do like the time at home, pottering around, walking the dogs etc... and I can see reducing my working week happening in a few years when the mortgage is paid off.

Where are you? Got any Quality/GMP/Steriles experience?

Im in Perthshire, and the only Pharma experience I have was being a pharmacy manager so not really!

Pharma here too, I work with good people, the hours are good (always home for 1630, 1430 on a friday and after 16 years on shift, normal hours are brilliant) and mostly the work is pretty interesting, and my employer is good in terms of allowing me to pick which training courses etc I'd like to do.

Kinda fell into engineering too, by doing an Mod apprenticeship, as most of my mates went to uni.

I see my job as the whole package, hours, nice pedal distance away, not just my actual role tbh.

So yes, fairly satisfied. 😊

I had a job which paid really well but as it became apparent it was the money keeping me there, as my boss was an utter tool with zero communication skills other than what was essentially oneupmanship and bullying with his god awful sidekick who was so two faced it was obvious, but the boss hung on his every word.

I then got made redundant, which initially seemed like it was going to mess things up, as in "I won't get that mind of money again" way. Turns out it was a fantastic thing to happen.

A year and 2 jobs (first one was far better than the last one in all aspects, but much less pay) later, I now earn more, have a far better working environment, less hours and enjoy being there and enjoy what I do; so in that respect I suppose I have job satisfaction.

I can’t take holiday when I would like as there is never any cover, I can’t attend training courses or lab visits because there isn’t any cover. I am often lone working for 10 hours at a time and have had 3 lunch breaks in 8 months.

Why do you put up with that crap?

It's just a job, a lack of cover isn't your problem. The Working Time Directive exists. Are they paying you for all those extra hours?

Our current system (as in last couple of hundred years) is pretty good a reducing people to mere economic entities. It is difficult for people to find meaning or express themselves without doing that through "their job" or buying consumer goods. In our system, having a job you like, allows some kind of expression and enough money to buy lots of distracting things is pretty essential for most people IMO. Escaping this takes some pretty radical action - you could follow a religion, do drugs (including alcohol) or just drop out into a very alternative lifestyle (crime, homelessness etc).

The very fact we ask kids "What do you want to be when you grow up?" expecting them to answer with an occupation is really odd. Even more odd is that adults answer the question "What do you do?" with "I'm an engineer/lawyer/fireman/plumber etc."

I’m very much like the op, yet my moods go with the ups and downs of my job (Sales). Things are a little frustrating at the moment as the company is negotiating change through acquisition, and my current manager is very much wanting to move up the chain rather than get his hands dirty with the team type of chap which I find distasteful.

However, I often sit back and look at the flexibility of my own diary, different challenges and end to end business / people I have to pseudo manage inside and outside our own organisation and think I’m quite lucky have that mixture rather than 9-5 at the same desk, or down a coal mine*

My frustrations with the Sales ups and downs are often upset by the positive success I’ve achieved and what that’s done to help my family situation to be a little more comfortable than average, plus some of the rewards and flexibility I get.

My biggest concern is that I’m at a point where I probably need to decide whether to go for a more senior role or stay as I am (I’ve posted about that before), and I often find myself in frustration as yet another peer employee gets promoted and my ego reacts.   Yet, just yesterday I spoke to two people who came to me because they’d accepted greater global coverage - managing teams in the US and Aus - without formal contract or time agreements and were finding the expectation to bleed UK hours into US and Aus hours were impacting their lives.

i wouldn’t say I go to work because I love it though, yet wouldn’t know what else to do.  Yet, I’m able to work smarter rather than harder - I do work 50hrs a week on average but don’t work to midnight or at the weekend like some of my peers - for my own and my employers benefit, which I don’t think is a bad thing at all.

*This is something I constantly have to remind myself when I get pissed off.

Would say I actually get any satisfaction but I don't mind doing what I do and am fairly good at it and have enough autonomy to allow me to be flexible in how I do things.
I also earn too much money for what I do so am very happy with that.

I don't think there are many jobs in the world where I would really be any happier after doing the job for a year or so as it just becomes a job. I love cycling but I wouldn't want to do it for 8 hours a day five days a week...

I hate my job. Hate it.

Left full time NHS employment for 30 hours a week zero hour agency work.
Was in low end management in nursing, now back on the floor as a punch bag.
Make 9k more a year than if I was in the NHS full time on the same pay scale but have no sick pay etc.
I get to pick my own hours and can take time off whenever I want (no holiday pay though).
Only perk for me is less time in the building.

Hate it because I believe I suffer with compassion fatigue (look it up), I feel nothing most days other than anger when spoken to like a piece of turd.

Two days ago for example: confused man sits on other patient's bed. Man in bed goes nuts. Tries to hit him. Staff intervene and tell him to back off. I hear commotion walk in to see confused man now wound up and wrestling with a colleague (slight woman) while man in bed is threatening legal action against my colleague for not controlling the dementia chap.
Speaks to colleague like a piece of turd. I remind him not to be so vile, I get threatened with legal action, get told to **** off and get asked the usual "who do you think you are?!" Rubbish.
The man with dementia is wound up by it all, spends the night with the bed by the nurses station with security wrestling him as he can sense tension but has no idea what's what so is hitting and throwing stationary around.

Solicitor man still wants to go forward with legal action as far as I'm aware. "You best be ready" he told us.

You could pay me all the money in the world but I'd still hate my job.
Unfortunately I've mortgage, loan, two kids, life to pay for.

Saw a nice training post for welsh water. 18k a year to train and work as an field engineer on their pumps etc. Up to 40k when trained.
Didnt get through screening as in 1999 I got a C for GCSE maths not a B. Got A levels, Degree, half a masters but that's irrelevant.

Seems to re train as an adult

I fell into my career by accident and have been through a few jobs. What is important to me isn’t so much job satisfaction per de rather than working for a company that respects you and looks after you.

I’ve done the big corporate thing for, at times a very good wage, but now work for my old boss from a few years ago for around half the market rate but going to work every day to be with a team I’ve known 20 years and to work for a boss who sees us as family as much as staff.

Those of you remember the issues I went through with Mrs Danny a couple of years ago - I wouldn’t have got through it without the support and flexibility my boss gave me.

And day to day - no stress, no pressure, no sales targets. Just left to get on with my job in my way. You can’t put a price on that.

I keep getting job agencies call me with much more lucrative positions but whilst ever I can afford to work for what I’m on I ain’t going anywhere.

I'm in engineering too, employer is first class. Agile working, encouraged diagonal moves within company for variety, decent pension but slightly lower wages than elsewhere in industry.

My job spec, on paper is quite good too - interesting issues to solve which lesd to a net benefit for society. The reality of the role is that I'm expected to manage too many discrete projects concurrently with little / no support leads to quite a lot of stress to keep the plates spinning, yet it's never, ever enough.

But, as per kryton above, I could be crawling in a cave too low to stand up in, mining a coal seam in the pitch dark down the pit with risk of explosions (FiL was a miner and telling me stories on sunday night as it happens)

Interesting responses so far, thanks. Some pretty horrendous sounding jobs there.

Back to me again... I have had good and bad periods. Sometimes new bosses come in and make the job hell. Becoming self-employed during a recession had its 'challenges' - I spent two years commuting on a weekly basis to Paris just to earn some money. In both cases I didn't quit though, just put up with it until it changed (e.g. the boss moved on, or the project came to an end).

I guess there is a difference between job and career satisfaction. Job satisfaction for me goes up and down. Career satisfaction has remained pretty stable at 70%.

I find the responsibility of being a husband and parent to be my main focus. I do find it difficult to understand why people in similar positions to me (I'm thinking of a couple of people I know) will just flit from one job/profession/career seemingly without much consideration for their responsibilities.

P.S. I should mention I currently enjoy my job (in case my boss is listening). I moved to Australia 6 months ago and now work for a fantastic company in a place where I have always wanted to live. The family is settling down and we live 5 minutes from the beach. No mountain biking to speak of though - just road cycling and windsurfing.

I do find it difficult to understand why people in similar positions to me (I’m thinking of a couple of people I know) will just flit from one job/profession/career seemingly without much consideration for their responsibilities.

I would see them as the lucky ones

It would be nice but as another accidental specialist engineering type, I'm no better or worse than an adult pleasure operative working in a bordello. Take the money and go home.
Tbh , the job used to be interesting , now it's consumed by audits,investigations & ill thought out training, which is always rolled out after a mess up.
Add to the mix ,5 yearly contract renewals = 3 tupies in 15 years=low moral & interest.They always promise a smooth transition ,Ha.
Thing is, I think I'm a bit institutionalised now and as the commute & terms are ok & the hours suit my childcare requirements ,I'll stay.

I would see them as the lucky ones

Their wives beg to differ. Always living on the breadline because they never stick with anything long enough to work up the ladder.

I decided to but only at the end of my career. The company was decent, had always been decent to its employees and due to circumstances i ended up doing nothing, I decided to stay and sit it out. I ended doing nothing for about 5 years. Not as much fun as you think, partly as I actually used to enjoy my work and liked doing it, partly as my mates still had to work hard and partly as we went thru about 7 redundancy phases before our predicted fate was sealed. But decent benefits, true 35 hours, easy commute, home at 5 and a likely end of career redundancy carrot was imho worthwhile. It turned out ok, went on a lot longer than I wanted but they helped by giving me 3 month summer sabbaticals then they let me go part time and then they paid me off.

As the lead singer of the popular beat combo, the Rolling Stones, it’s been a struggle over the years, if I’m entirely honest.

but, I try.

Yes to the question. Without it my job as a nurse becomes awful

However after 40 years I am done. compassion fatigue is a real thing and I am fed up with stupid management decisions and change for the sake of change. 4 times I have taken a post because I like the charge nurse and within 6 months they have left to be replaced by an idiot. I still love the job and get a lot out of it but my resilience has gone. I am now hanging on till I retire in a year and may give up before that.

We all need job satisfaction, whether we think so or not.

My job role is reasonably satisfying - and would be more so if it wasn't for the company being a bit shit and a terrible hiring decision in my sphere.

Ironically it's basically about communicating aspects of wellbeing - including job satisfaction and work/life balance.

Why do you put up with that crap?

It’s just a job, a lack of cover isn’t your problem. The Working Time Directive exists. Are they paying you for all those extra hours?

Because I have a strong personal connection to the company I work for. It’s the only thing keeping me going, but even that is wearing thin.

I get paid for 37.5 hours regardless of the circumstances, I don’t even get paid to cover others I get TOIL, which I can never claim back!

Because I have a strong personal connection to the company I work for. It’s the only thing keeping me going, but even that is wearing thin.

I get paid for 37.5 hours regardless of the circumstances, I don’t even get paid to cover others I get TOIL, which I can never claim back!

Unless you have an ownership stake .......I don't know how to break this to you but the company doesn't give a single shit about you.

If you got wiped out by a bus tomorrow, they'd shrug and find some other mug to fulfill your duties.

On a personal level,You owe them nothing other than an obligation to show up  and fulfill the minimum terms  of your contract.

My career path was set when I got my first job, then mortgage and kids meant that I obediently stick to it for the benefit of my whole family (wife & three kids). I have had three actual employers in my life, all lasting 6 years each (one of the stints was self-employed).

Despite me not having a passion for my discipline, being an engineer has meant I have traveled the world – which is a passion of mine.

At the point I had a family this was no longer fun... now I go to places and can barely be bothered to break the airport-hotel-office-airport cycle. At any point, I don't know where I'll be next week or how long for.

pik n mix - you are breaking the law, the company is abusing you and breaking the law. You are allowing yourself to be abused

Seriously have a good think about it. They are getting tens of thousands of pounds worth of work out of you for free and as long as you let them get away with it they will.

At a very minimum get paid for every hour you work. I'd be tempted to go after them for all those unpaid wages

I fell into my job (corporate IT-ish shizzle).

It's pretty easy, it's well paid, I'm good at it (at least people seem to think so), but 80% of the time it's really, really boring.

I'd love to do something else more interesting but a) I don't know what, b) the things I suspect I'd like to do would be a massive (like 60%+) drop in income.

the company doesn’t give a single shit about you.

I'm fully aware of this, I’m still waiting for my return to work 4 months later after a work induced injury!

its very difficult to explain why I do it without dragging the company name through the mud, which I don’t want to do as they are vital for so many peoples future.

As I say, I’m looking for another job, but it’s not as easy as just jumping ship.

All jobs need to, to a certain degree, make sense to the people doing them.

I'm primarily a chippy. Fell into the event and exhibition side of things a few years back.

The job itself is almost demoralising. I'll spend weeks putting together a display, scenery or stand only to come along days or even hours later to dismantle it and bin the lot. I'm lucky if I remember to take a picture. Back in the UK I can walk around pointing to various jobs I've done in town.

The end customer isn't always a reputable company that you want to work for (lots of work for a tobacco company, auto industry, banks, etc). The flip side is that I get to build some interesting pieces and end up in locations I otherwise wouldn't.

I'll often be in the workshop for 10-12 hours a day, sometimes away from home for a few weeks at a time. To be honest, I like the workshop, especially if I'm on my own and can waltz about listening to classic fm.

However, the guys I work with are my mates. We've a good clique of decent boys who are there for each other, whether that be work or private.

I get to choose - to a certain extent - when I work and when I go away. It allows me some freedom. Although, being self employed it means there's a certain amount of insecurity, too.

On the whole, I like it. Would I still do it if I didn't have to? Yes and no. I would miss spending time with friends. I like building things, too.

Do I still want to be doing it in ten years time? No.

@IHN Same here!

It's very boring, but it pays OK. I go through periods where I get very down/depressed with the situation - don't know what elese to do/need the salary to support family so can't just leave and try something entirely new. Cliché but stuck in a rut.

But I get other times when I'm working on a new project and I'm actually enjoying it. I get far more enjoyment out of the creative side of things, as in a creating systems/work flows etc. I guess it's enjoyment as I'm engaged

I'd love to try a new career at some point, I'm approaching 40! Still time

kid.a and I could be the same person. Except he's six years younger then me.

@alpin

I’m primarily a chippy. Fell into the event and exhibition side of things a few years back.

If you ever venture up to Paris look up a mate of mine. He's primarily an artist but... was lead making and moving sets for lots of really interesting stuff from Evita world tour to making Dinosaur casts and reconstructions ... fine art handling (he's 'held' (gloved) amongst others the Mona Lisa)

It's all crappy gig work but might be interesting to chat?

Their wives beg to differ. Always living on the breadline because they never stick with anything long enough to work up the ladder.

What’s it like over there in the 1960’s? Some people simply have no interest in a career or climbing the ladder. What does their spouse have to do with this? If you’re married to someone that doesn’t understand this then you’re both married to the wrong person.

I was going to write a nuanced response about job satisfaction and the O&G industry, but I like my paycheck.

I have little to no job satisfaction. I do have a wife and two young kids though and I’m the sole earner at present. I also believe I would struggle to find a job that pays the same as this one. I still work to the best of my ability though.

Pretty much sums me up but with an extra kid.
Fell into the industry and slowly worked my way up and whilst there's still moves I could make they don't appeal.
However, whilst I don't really get any satisfaction from the job I do appreciate the fact that it affords me plenty of family time and when I finish my shift that's that, I take nothing home with me.

Because I have a strong personal connection to the company I work for.

And they're taking advantage of that.

I don’t want to do as they are vital for so many peoples future.

As I say, I’m looking for another job

These two statements are at odds. You consider yourself so vital to the people you work with that you're giving them 150-200% of your salaried time every week, yet you're quite happy to move to giving them 0%? If they can cope without you then they can absolutely cope with you working regular hours.

As long as you continue to do the work of two people the company will never hire extra bodies, they're laughing up their sleeves at all the free work they're getting. It feels like the third time I've said this in the last couple of days now, but an organisation's lack of resourcing is not your problem.

I hear so many people complaining that they're killing themselves for an employer because "there's no-one else to do it." So what, **** it, it doesn't get done then does it.

but it’s not as easy as just jumping ship.

Sure it is. Your contracted notice period should reflect how long it would take for the company to replace you. There are surely other people within an hour's commute either with your skillset or the ability to learn it, and if there isn't and you are genuinely irreplaceable then you should be absolutely nailing them to the mast for salary and overtime payments.

Company loyalty is laudable. Sadly, in most cases it's also misplaced. You reckon they'd have the same personal attachment if they decided they wanted rid of you?

You consider yourself so vital to the people you work with that you’re giving them 150-200% of your salaried time every week

This is the complication, I don’t do it for my company, or who I work with. I do it for the people my company look after, that’s my personal connection.

I’m kinda derailing this thread, sorry OP. I know I need to sort something as it’s making me ill.

Job satisfaction, we worked to a price. Good and bad times, as long a you can enjoy your free time and not have to worry about the money. Getting the fair rate for the work was interesting, If it was this is whats allocated money wise, you had to say we are off and its not finishing end of week or month its today. Amazing how they always found the extra money,they knew our work was always up to standard.

I need some form of job satisfaction, other wise I just wouldn't go.

I couldn't work for tossers, or work for a company that treats people like shit. I couldn't work in a job or an industry where I would have to lie to people or rip them off.

I need to feel that I am, at least trying, to do something worthwhile.

If this means I don't earn huge sums of money then so be it. I'm doing ok and have recently move to a less stressful job and something I consider more meaningful.

This is the complication, I don’t do it for my company, or who I work with. I do it for the people my company look after, that’s my personal connection.

Yeah, I figured it was something like that. And in something like the care industry or hospitals or suchlike it must be easy to become emotionally invested and difficult to walk away. But at the end of the day, it's a job and you're almost certainly replaceable.

I know I need to sort something as it’s making me ill.

And as someone I used to be a carer for once said to me, "if you fall over then you're no help to me." You've got to look after yourself first and foremost.

Like a lot of people, the UK education system made me make a decision about my future before I was really ready to make it, but I was relatively fortunate. I chose a subject because I like science and I like being outdoors. However, although the pay is good I now sit behind a computer and attend meetings.

I still like my primary specialist area, and I like my boss and my colleagues, but day to day work bores me senseless, so I am wondering if I should jack it in, or if motivation will reappear!!

I do it for the people my company look after,

You are supposed to be one of the people your company looks after

Right... 🙂 I've worked for many years in average to bad jobs - my background's low-level IT support, did some incident management years ago which was interesting, role got TUPE'd to Wales so I went to work for a family-run firm, people I knew beforehand, just doing general admin stuff, which was a mistake - nice people, horrible to work for. I was there for five depressing years before I managed to escape into an IT support role, much happier there but a big 90 mile round trip commute (although it did open my eyes as to what I wanted to do - went out with a trainer the first week, came back thinking "I could do that, and better than him..."). That wasn't a bad job but the company got bought and there was little or no prospect of career progression, stuck there for four years then escaped to a local, family owned business. Thought I'd landed on my feet, but they turned out to be genuinely horrible people to work for - like, really, really horrible. Stuck there for three years, had actually applied for what would be come my next job when the gits made me redundant, so that all worked out ok. The next job for a software supplier was my first training job (seven years after deciding that's what I wanted to do) and it's all been onwards and upwards from there - trained on GP software for 14 months, took an internal move to train on legal software but both roles involved tons of travelling, moved last November to work directly for a law firm and it's by a massive margin the best job I've ever had, I really enjoy training, I'm in London every other week for a few days, I can cycle to the Birmingham office (so I've gone from driving 30k a year to almost nothing - bliss!) and the company could not be any more accommodating or supportive to work for. It's not super mega money but it's loads more than I've earned before (and it should go up a chunk when I'm fully up to speed 🙂 ).

TL:DR - Don't give up, it can come good even if it takes a while.

i have a specialised role in a large manufacturing firm. It's interesting, but not my life's ambition. As a specialist I get paid quite well (more than my boss...), but I have no responsibility. This is deliberate. I've turned down manager roles (inc the one my boss is now in); it's hard enough showing interest in my well being, so there's no way I can do it with others! Obviously I do my best in the office, and modesty aside, I'm very good at it. They couldn't cope without me. I could get twice as much if I went back to London, and was more dedicated.

As an aside, I used to work with a very specialist financial law package; in at the start when it arrived in this country. I wrote a load of scripts, and shared them around. One of my colleagues used them and set up a firm using them (and to be fair asked me to join him). He sold out 4 years later for a lot of money. Am I jealous; not in the slightest. I have enough money. He has the balls to get up there and sell it, and working all hours.

basically, i get paid well, turn up, go home. Bliss

Work to live, not live to work. It's not satisfaction, but I'm satisfied with it.

My wife is the complete opposite. She's admitted she'd hate to work with me

47 year old project manager in Engineering/Manufacturing here.
I do like my job, it is interesting and varied with good job satisfaction when something is completed and accepted by our customers.
I get to travel a bit (two weeks in Canada last month, regular trips to France/Holland/etc)
We build hi-end refrigeration and cooling systems for Navy Ships and Submarines, i like the feeling that my job does make a real difference to somebody.
I largely get left alone to manage my own workload which is good.
I work for a big organisation who at corporate level couldn't give 2 sh*ts about me, but locally i work with a great team, some of who i really like.
Yesterday i got an achievement award (£100 Amazon voucher) for mentoring new/younger colleagues which meant a lot.

I need to get some job satisfaction, i've got decent qualifications and a lot of experience now so would quickly get bored putting things in boxes or pushing spreadsheets all day.

I've got 2 kids and a huge mortgage so am in it for the long ride.

I left school and did an apprenticeship in a job that I ended up hating. So I jacked it all in and when back to college to study what I always wanted to do, design and illustration.

It's taken a while and a lot of effort to get where I am now but I love my job so much I feel like a bit of a fraud actually referring to it as work.

Last week I finished a commission for somebody as a present for one of their friends. It was an illustration of the family stood together in their favourite place, including their 4 year old daughter who recently died of cancer. They gave it to the family yesterday. I got a lovely message last night from them, thanking me and saying how they'd all cried when they saw it and they thought it was a beautiful thing to have up in the house that would always make them smile and remember her. When I read the message things may have got a bit dusty at this end too.

I had a similar reaction earlier on in the week from someone who also burst into tears when I delivered her the finished, framed artwork she'd commissioned (for the right reasons, I hope).

Job satisfaction really doesn't get much more satisfying than that. Every day I feel honoured, humbled and more than a little bit bemused that people trust a dickhead like me with these things that are so personal to them. I'm a reet jammy (though trying not to be too smug) bastard! 😀

For my part,

I've kinda landed on my feet, finally. I spent years in and around varying levels of computer support. Internal and external, from budget PCs in the 90s to server estates running to hundreds of thousands of pounds. I've never really had much career direction, I've bent whichever way the wind blows depending on the demands of a given role. It got to a point a few years ago where my career expectations were "god knows" because they'd run out of superlatives to add on to my job title.

A few years back, I had a sideways move to being a "technical manager." This wasn't people management (though I ended up mentoring apprentices), rather my mandate was "this department is utterly ****ed, fix it." My primary skill is really "fixing things" so that's what I did.

Then maybe 12-18 months ago I was purloined to a newly-formed security team. I am now, in layman's terms, a hacker. And I've suddenly realised that after spending my entire working life with no clear end goals or any real direction, this is what I've wanted to do since I was 12.

I'm afforded a lot of slack. I work from home, which is the best commute ever, my boss is basically me only ten years older. I don't work 9-5 but rather when I want so long as the work gets done, my performance is measured by results rather than the clock. If an 8-hour job takes me 4 hours (cos I'm [color=red]awesome[/color]😁) then I get half a day off; conversely if it takes me 12 hours then I take that hit. This works well for me and for the role, it simply isn't a 9-5 job. I deal with people in different time zones, and incidents can happen at any time. The bad guys don't take weekends off. Today I started work at 10am, yesterday I started at 6.

The one sticking point really is salary. I'm paid maybe half what the going rate is for my position. But honestly I don't mind for now as I'm spending most of my time learning stuff. When I get a qualification or two under my belt though we'll be having a very different conversation, and I've had the CTO of a 1700-employee company attempting to head-hunt me for the best part of a year now so I've always got that in my pocket. (He's a mate of mine I've known for 30 years, but I won't be mentioning that part...)

funkmasterp

I have little to no job satisfaction. I do have a wife and two young kids though and I’m the sole earner at present. I also believe I would struggle to find a job that pays the same as this one. I still work to the best of my ability though.

^^^Same here.
Would dearly love to jack it in and do something different - reading the [u]quit your job come and work with pushbikes instead[/u] from the front page hasn't really helped....

Yes,life's too short to be miserable.
Follow your heart,there is always a way.

@cougar

I've started to get into the security side of things too, after finally finding some tutorials with the basics it seems very logical to me. Just a evening play thing at the moment but already finding out t useful as my work moves more towards an embedded role.

@TheBrick > Keep an eye on these two sites:

https://academy.ehacking.net/

https://www.cybrary.it/

They follow the DFS pricing model of stupid prices with hefty offers. I got lifetime access to pretty much everything on EH Academy for like $50 or something. The course material is variable in quality but some of it is very very good indeed.

I’m self employed and always have been. I wouldn’t do a job i hated or that bored me senseless.
lucky to do a job that most of the time doesn’t feel like work and is well paid so i’m very fortunate in that respect. downsides are no job security (that’s something thats declining in salaried positions) sometimes odd hours and weekend work.

i also realise i’m unemployable outside of what i do. i came to this conclusion mostly from reading threads on STW about you salaried people and the complete and utter bellendary that goes on in the average workplace/office.
i would be fired within the first week for telling people what i thought about them/their product/their idea/their job.

I didn't fall into a job - I actively pursued one - and then politics went a bit mad and now my job satisfaction hinges on what Boris's crack team have planned 😀

i also realise i’m unemployable outside of what i do. i came to this conclusion mostly from reading threads on STW about you salaried people and the complete and utter bellendary that goes on in the average workplace/office.

I would be fired within the first week for telling people what i thought about them/their product/their idea/their job.

My sentiments exactly. I've been self-employed most of my career. The last full time job I had ended with me telling people what i thought about them/their product/their idea/their job in fairly unambiguous terms

Theres no way on earth I'd put up with the kind of bollocks I hear about the office politics of salaried jobs. Sod that! I was told by a recruitment consultant that theres no way on earth an employer would even consider giving me a job anyway, as after decades of self-employment "they'd view you as being essentially feral"

They'd be about right. I took that as a compliment 😀

I was told by a recruitment consultant that theres no way on earth an employer would even consider giving me a job anyway

I for one am totally shocked.

(-:

And to be honest, I'm old enough and grumpy enough to not play that game either. A previous boss used to roll his eyes at me and go "ever the f'in diplomat" on like a weekly basis. I'm very much of the opinion that rules exist for people who need rules.

Years ago, I did the "lunch with an astronaut" thing at KSC. The guest speaker was a chap by the name of Story Musgrave, and he was an absolute legend. Up until Buzz going back up relatively recently he held the record of being the oldest guy in space. He regaled a story of how on his last Shuttle mission, during reentry he figured this was his last opportunity so against all orders he unfastened his seat belt and wandered over to the window to take some photos. Anyone else would've been in serious bother, maybe court-marshalled or something I don't know, but the crew and NASA were like "yeah, that's just Story, let him get on with it." And I had a bit of an epiphany and thought, that's exactly where I want to be.

I find that when I'm driving in my car, and the man come on the radio. He's telling me more and more about some useless information, supposed to fire my imagination. You get the idea. Could also have quoted the lyrics from ""Geting away with it".

Do you need job satisfaction?

No, I just need the money but somehow I can do the job better than others even when I don't like it.

The only job satisfaction I can imagine is from running own business.

I with Binners and Mr Smith. In a vocational sense. In fact I’ve bought stuff of both of them and they are both lovely fellas.

Job satisfaction is kind of a wooly metric really. Depends what you get motivated by. It was never money for me. I just wanted to run my own business. And when I did, I was really REALLY crap at it. Mainly as what I liked was working for customers not running a business.

Now it’s just me. I traded off working as a fairly senior consultant for one of the big 4. Got me through the door in a few places. I only work in HigherEd and Charity sectors. I’m bored of travelling after nearly 25 years of it, but I love visiting universities (especially when the students are there)  and doing even tiny things to make them better.

My steady slide into retirement is going really badly. I can’t say no to anyone and I hate asking people for money. It’s not a great business model but I ride my bikes in the summer and work hard when I have too.

Compared to many on this thread, I feel pretty blessed frankly.

I like teaching, I got a lot of job satisfaction so its weird that I struggle to keep doing it, its just too hard to do whats expected of a teacher. I'm a good teacher but so many of the "outstanding" teachers I've known have left teaching as they cant keep it up. I struggle to be told how I could do it it better by people who cant do it any better than me anyway...I guess thats the same in any job.

Holidays are great though 😁😁😁😁😁😁

I get to design, execute and analyse the first early trials for potential new medicines. Some of which have eventually led to release. I have a patent for a new medicine that I invented for multiple sclerosis, and it’s just been filed with the FDA. In a year’s time I’ll be able to say “I invented that”.

Yes job satisfaction is high on my list. I’m at the cutting edge of therapeutic medicine and I get to do science every day. And they pay me to do it.

Of course my side line on working on doping sport is a loss leader, but securing the acquittal of Chris Froome using the skills I acquired as part of my work, and being given 25% of my work time to do this as an academic exercise means a lot to me too.

I’m an academic at heart, but the past 20 years has taught me that you need a team of all the talents to really deliver things. I have one or two talents. Delivery to timelines isn’t one of them 😉

Not really, a string of bad decisions stemming from immaturity, poor parenting and very low self esteem led me to a completely useless degree. I somehow got a job from it but the financial crisis put and end to that. I found another job but it was poorly paid so eventually left to work in the print industry. That was not the brightest move as you are very much just a number. The people are nice enough to talk to but the job brain rottingly easy. I'd like to move on but I'm not sure retraining is really an option at 35 and I just believe nobody would take a chance. I also live in one of the most expensive areas of the uk and will be renting as £23k doesn't really cut it anywhere in the Uk anymore.

Left a job with 70 days holiday owing, unlimited roll over. Never got any financial compo for that. As for people who say no one is vital to a business, I left another job and they fell apart pretty instantly, employed a few chances but the end result was closure after 9mths and 5 people out of a job
I should get very high job satisfaction but I am not exactly a Ray of sunshine but I do enjoy what I do.
Very lucky to have pensions and saving /equity which would allow me the luxery of only needing £1k a month to live on so a brain dead job is an option
Zero qualifications, only took this carrer to piss off my old man via the y t s slave scheme.
Would like to do something different but unsure what, but the more I go through life the more I see dumb, lazy people who get on by sheer luck and manipulation rather t than putting in constant directed affort

Thanks for this thread it's making an interesting read.

I personally think it's really important to feel valued and useful in what you do. You derive your satisfaction from that.

People rarely leave jobs, they leave bad managers as the adage goes, but in my experience this is largely true. I have left jobs partly through location, management or lack thereof.

I am also lucky in that I do a job I derive value from, I work with people and helping them make their process easier, it challenges me, I get feedback from people on how the things I have done have worked and how they could be improved. I work with a good team of peers to learn from and to support each other and I work in AI software, so we are finding challenges we both know how to face based on experience and some we have no idea where to start with as they are new. I have a buzzword job title 'Agile coach', but I don;t take this as gospel and what I do varies a lot. I have a laid back line manager who lets me decide what I think it good to do and I don't take myself too seriously so I try to make things fun. It's also a start-up I work for, so I'm aware that by the end of the year I could be looking for new work, but I just see this as part of the environment of start-ups.

I realise I'm lucky, the only things I see as missing are a) being able to do this while living by the beach or mountains (currently in the flatlands of Cambridge) and b) spending enough time working from home to have a dog. But those are compromises I can live with for now and they don't cause mental anguish.

I've never once dreaded going to work where I work. So I'm quite happy.

@Cougar - You state that the OP is being exploited because he's working 150% of his salaried rate, but as your work is results driven, don't you also have the potential for this to happen?

Like you, my work is results driven, but whilst I do get handed work to do, I also get to direct a lot of my own research and projects. This, coupled with my magpie mentality and a sense of optimism that borders on the unrealistic, often means that I work more than I should to get the parts of my job done that give the most satisfaction.

Also, I simply can't (and won't) do work that I don't believe in merits of. I'm quite willing to have someone explain the merits if I don't understand them, but if I do and it's bollocks, I'm not doing it.

To answer the OP's question - Yes! Absolutely! I turned down a job last year with a 30% salary increase (I could really do with the money) to keep doing what I'm doing.

@tails at 35 loads of time to retrain, but don't just think of courses also think of DIY education. I dropped out of a PhD after more or less finishing it and have learnt more via the DIY education route.

Job in industry doing whatever you want and keep changing jobs. One of the good thing about not earning much at the moment means you can get a job paying similar easier than if you were on £50k and had loads of outgoings. You can be flexible and try stuff. Go for it. Experiment with jobs.

For me yes. I left uni 15 years ago with a plan to move out of science and not go back. Did a stint as a graduate trainee but left what was a good job/potential career to be with my partner.

Moved to the other end of the country and fell back on my degree and went into science. 12 years ago! Has been an interesting ride. Dodged a few redundancies, been moved around a bit but stayed as a bench chemist. It has gone a bit wrong in the last few years. Despite 30 days holiday, home by 5pm, 4 day week, enough money, it's just not right. To the point where I dreaded coming in. So I've got 3 weeks and 2 days left here before starting a new job. Going from big corporation to small business. More money, less holiday, 5 days but I was mostly interested in the culture change.

I knew I wasn't happy but it feels like I've lost a huge weight I've been carrying around for 2 years.

My wife was made redundant just before Xmas. Starts work in 2 weeks. She's moved from IT consultancy to in-house IT. She was looking to move anyway and is going into something she is passionate about. Loads of travel (commuting to London from Newcastle each week) to walking 2 miles. Thankfully both on good wages with few outgoings so can survive comfortably off one salary so don't feel the pressure to take the secure stable options.

I hate my job, really hate it. The problem with it is that I'm so bored and I like having things to do. I feel I was misold at interview and I'm looking at getting out. I think I just have no passion for what I do so I'm looking to retrain and have 2 interviews for what I'm interested in. However, the field I want to train in is very competitive so I'm looking for other jobs as a contingency plan. I may have lots of holiday in this job I'm in but I'd rather come home feeling I've done a good day's work and made a difference rather than being bored out of my brain days on end. Life's too short to hate work and you do spend a lot of your life working.

My job is out there. Rope access and geotechnical engineering/ground improvements. I fell into it. Trained mechanical engineer, however 10 years of life on the road sort of brought me here by accident. I get to see some cool stuff. I get to do some cool stuff. However the job involves many hazardous conditions daily as well as working in all weather. I don't know if I love my job but it can be very satisfying. Though the projects I work on and the amount of diesel/aeronautical fuel they get through actually makes me feel pretty guilty/sad and worried for the state of the planet.

Cougar – You state that the OP is being exploited because he’s working 150% of his salaried rate, but as your work is results driven, don’t you also have the potential for this to happen?

Potential, yes of course. But in practice it doesn't happen. Ostensibly the difference between my situation and Pik n Mix is that I'm in control of it, if it were to swing too far in the wrong direction then I'd nix it.

I've chosen to opt out of the Working Time Directive. I figured, this benefits me if I want to do a load of overtime, and I trust my employer not to abuse this. I've worked at previous places where I absolutely would not do this.

I've routinely had email conversations with my boss at 2am. But again, this is my decision, there is no onus on me to do so and if there was then I'd want paying for it and be saying no. The counterpoint to this is I don't get angry phone calls if I'm showing as offline at 10am.

Like you, my work is results driven, but whilst I do get handed work to do, I also get to direct a lot of my own research and projects. This, coupled with my magpie mentality and a sense of optimism that borders on the unrealistic, often means that I work more than I should to get the parts of my job done that give the most satisfaction.

Also, I simply can’t (and won’t) do work that I don’t believe in merits of. I’m quite willing to have someone explain the merits if I don’t understand them, but if I do and it’s bollocks, I’m not doing it.

Yeah, I'm exactly the same. I get asked to do nonsense all the time, and I either kick it back or ignore it until it goes away. For instance, "can you create 20 user accounts for us?" Hell no, but I can write you a script to do it.

There's a management cliché, "come to me with solutions not problems" and in the tech sphere it's bollocks. Don't come to me with your own half-baked answers, you're a cretin, tell me what you're trying to achieve and I'll come up with the solution. As a slightly absurd example, someone asks for an iPhone. Do you give them one, or do you ask "why do you want an iPhone?" and discover that they want one to knock nails in so give them a hammer instead? This crops up All The Time on STW tech help request threads and it drives me spare. Many people are far to quick to give answers when they don't fully understand the question.

In a very bizarre twist of irony, I got offered a promotion today, more money, less hours.

Without meaning to sound patronising Pik n Mix, do you believe it? I.e. will it not just be more of the same with a new title, or is it for a new boss with a better track record?

I’m obviously sceptical, but it’s in a different area, with a completely different senior management team and every one I have spoken to that are under them sing their praises.

Its a tough one, I’m 50:50 as to what to do.

I could write an essay about this, but will attempt to be brief(ish)

I struggle with a few things in my job at multi-national engineering company. First is I can't motivate myself to put any effort into anything unless I find it very challenging. Secondly I find it hard to toe the line, especially if it's essentially pointless (stupid meetings, getting in on time, dressing properly, talking in business-speak etc).  I refuse to partake in company politics or blatant self-promotion (and conversely the denigration of others for my benefit). Money is not that important to me, even though I'd obviously like more. And ultimately I want to be useful.

In relation to the above, my work is generally very easy (ie boring), my bosses don't give a shit where I am or what I'm doing (I could literally not turn up for a week and no one would notice), I'm paid fairly well, it's sometimes insanely political, quite frankly my colleague can at times be utter c**** and are also cowards who refuse to be honest with bosses about anything that might impact their career.

The problem is I'm bored stupid and know I could earn more money elsewhere, and probably be in a less poisonous environment. Also as I get older I'm becoming much less tolerant at the wasting of time. But because I'm paid well and it's easy and very flexible, and I'd have to work a lot harder in a new job, I'm failing to make the leap of faith. Bloody annoying, although I'm sure some would think I'm the luckiest sod alive.

Great thread, really interesting experiences. Made me realise I cannot do anything I think is making the world a worse place. Back when I was choosing a degree I couldn’t get my head round potential compromises of that principle if I went into engineering or physics. Looking back that wasn’t a particularly optimistic view. I ended up going from science A levels to a philosophy degree.

In London I worked in the voluntary sector then when I moved north there were no similar jobs so I set up a sustainable fashion company and was mainly broke. Had to get a proper job and was unbelievably lucky - moving into sustainable transport. After three years I was made redundant.

Now I research, write and advise on future transport and how to make it accessible and sustainable. I love it. Being self employed is more annoying as running yourself as a business is pretty weird and I hate never being able to say no to work (it may dry up!) and chasing payment. However I get to do research and think about making things better. Which is ace.

There are other things I want to do though - I love painting and riding my bike (and would love to do more guiding and getting people riding) and there just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day. But no, I’d find it pretty hard to do something I didn’t believe was a net positive.