Late in my 25-year career at Megacorp, a peer of mine joked that he liked it better early on, when he didn't realize how screwed up everything was. I could definitely relate to that. Plus he and I had reached a level where the work was all-absorbing, with tons of travel. High stress was unavoidable and the corporate shenanigans and politics had become near-toxic to one's mental and physical health.
So it would be easy for me to jump on the negativity bandwagon that this thread seems to invite. But in my reflections about all this since retiring 6 years ago, I don't think any of that had anything to do with the job or the workplace becoming inherently "worse."
As far as the job, the problem was me... I chose the career path. I chose to think about work 24/7. I chose to check my email at midnight. I chose to be an over-achiever. As it turns out, the compensation for over-achievers was pretty good. I got large annual bonuses and stock options that steadily grew for about the last 15 years. Today, I have a DB pension and heavily-subsidized retiree health insurance.
Plus, I saw so many positive changes in the workplace that others have already mentioned, like flexibility to work from home and many more.
So on balance, I think my attitude is slightly more positive than any of the poll choices, which all sounded pretty negative to me, even the one that was apparently intended to be positive. So I answered 'Other.'
So it would be easy for me to jump on the negativity bandwagon that this thread seems to invite. But in my reflections about all this since retiring 6 years ago, I don't think any of that had anything to do with the job or the workplace becoming inherently "worse."
As far as the job, the problem was me... I chose the career path. I chose to think about work 24/7. I chose to check my email at midnight. I chose to be an over-achiever. As it turns out, the compensation for over-achievers was pretty good. I got large annual bonuses and stock options that steadily grew for about the last 15 years. Today, I have a DB pension and heavily-subsidized retiree health insurance.
Plus, I saw so many positive changes in the workplace that others have already mentioned, like flexibility to work from home and many more.
So on balance, I think my attitude is slightly more positive than any of the poll choices, which all sounded pretty negative to me, even the one that was apparently intended to be positive. So I answered 'Other.'