09-08-2010, 10:52 AM | #1 |
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How do (did) you cope with your "good job" that is super boring?
I have what many would consider a good job. I make enough that my wife doesn't have to work (though she does) and when she finishes her residency, she will make at least twice as much as I do. Even now, we are easily able to pay the mortgage and two car payments.
I have one of these desk jobs in which I stare at a computer screen all day. The work is about 70% procedural and 30% technical. Even the technical part gets boring after a while. I have been doing it for 5 years now. For 8 years before that, I was a technician (instead of an engineer) and I much prefer that work. Walking around and physically DOING things. My wife is a career woman. We want to start having kids in the next few years. (we're 33 years old now) She absolutely doesn't want to stay at home with the kids. I'm so tired of my job that I think I'd rather change diapers, clean house, and do that sort of thing all day, but I don't think that feeling would last. The job I fantasize about is doing something in which I get to walk around in the wilderness all day. Hot or cold, dangerous or not, I don't care. I feel like I need to be DOING something, physically. I think I need to stay here a few more years, just to be responsible. After that, I don't know. Maybe go back to being a technician and take the 50% pay cut. What are your thoughts? Have you been through this before? Looking back on this post, I realize that my problems are trivial and thatI should be happy with my life. Others are struggling for basic things that I take for granted. Yet I can't help but think that the struggling people may be happier in a lot of ways. |
09-08-2010, 12:09 PM | #2 |
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How about being a househusband when the kids com along? It certainly doing something - absolutely knackering - only problem is, certainly when I did it, there were no other househusbands around and several hours a day of 0-5 year old conversation can turn your brain to mush. But, of course, I didn't have Mobileread to keep me stimulated in those days!
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09-08-2010, 12:44 PM | #3 |
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From your description, it sounds like the perfect job for you is.......
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09-08-2010, 01:07 PM | #4 |
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I've spent most of my professional career as a tech as well and occasionally been planted at a desk so I understand your frustration. in the last job my Kindle was the only thing that came close to saving my sanity.
anyway.... to answer your question... is it possible to go back and get a degree in forestry and work for the forest service? civil engineering and spend your time out surveying. some kind of a teaching certificate and go to work for one of these outfits that take troubled kids on packing trips. then there is always mucking out stables, herding goats... yeah I know quit being silly.... |
09-08-2010, 01:39 PM | #5 |
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Herding goats actually sounds GREAT! Outdoors, walking all the time, I could wear a robe, carry a staff and pretend I'm a mage...
But there's not much market for that around here. Ditto for forestry, and my wife doesn't want to move away from Chicago, though I'm working on her. (it is a shame) Forestry would be GREAT if there were anything more than tiny state parks here. Lumberjack would be fun, though I would feel guilty about cutting down trees. The mounties in the background... that would be fun. I have to wonder why they use horses and not ATVs or dirtbikes though... |
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09-08-2010, 01:58 PM | #6 | |
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bbut then again, kind of outside of Chicago |
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09-08-2010, 02:10 PM | #7 |
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If work was fun they wouldnt have to pay us to do it.
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09-08-2010, 03:24 PM | #8 |
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That's the idea! So it stands to reason, that if it is more fun, it pays less, right? There are gray areas. Horribly not fun = high pay. Horribly fun = volunteer. Middle fun = middle pay. I'd settle for something in the middle.
How much fun is your job, happy_terd, compared to your pay? |
09-08-2010, 03:34 PM | #9 | |
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09-08-2010, 03:40 PM | #10 |
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How do I cope with my good but boring job? I go online every once in a while and stir up some trouble. Couldn't do that in the wilderness.
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09-08-2010, 05:20 PM | #11 |
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I have the opposite problem. I would love my job...if I could just SIT DOWN to do it! I like the people I work with, and most of the time, I like my customers. But employers in retail seem to believe that if you are not standing and moving, you're not doing anything, and understandably, they don't like to pay you for not doing anything! That's part of why I'm in a Bachelor's degree program for Human Resources Management. Still people, probably still even a retail environment, but I can do it off my feet, behind a desk!
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