The bane of my existence

[H-hogluvr]

Hello H-Hogluver!  Since I assume you don't raise pigs,
you must be a biker, right?  Panhead will be interested
next time he checks in here  

JG

Actually, I am neither a pig farmer nor a biker. (although I wish I had a pet pig).

I love hedgehogs! I used to have four of them (a pair at a time) but about a year ago, the last one crossed the Rainbow Bridge. I miss them terribly. Now we are down to a turtle and a chinchilla. DH and I have always had multiple pets!

 

[JOhn Galt]

Thanks for enlightening me. I was seein' Harley's
there

I used to have chinchillas for lunch at my fav. Mexican place in Dallas, with some guacamole and sour cream.
Yummy!

JG

 

[Martha]

Beats cat.

 

[MJ]

Roast Rat anyone?

MJ :-/

 

[SDY888]

Chicken's Feet?
Monkey Brains?
Snake Blood? (seasonal)

All available at various local eateries!!!

 

[MJ]

My dear mother used to add chicken feet in the weekly chicken soup. I remember enjoying them but that was over forty years ago in a galaxy far far away.

Now monkey brains is a delicacy i'll have to discuss at another time.

MJ

 

[John Galt]

FYI........there is a huge surplus of monkey brains in Washington, DC.

JG

 

[MJ]

FYI........there is a huge surplus of monkey brains in Washington, DC.

Yeh JG, all those red state monkey brainiacs leaving all their doodoo for future gens to clean-up.

MJ

 

[naturegal]

I saw a place the other day with a sign adverstising rabbits and coons- not sure if they were live or fileted!

 

[polloloco]

If you saw the sign in TN, AL, MS or LA they are live on foot.

 

[unclemick]

The state has hired a chef to promote cooked Nutria - LA swamp has 'more than enough' as they say in the 9th ward.

 

[vicky]

A really persistent problem for me in my career thus far (coming up on 10 years) is boredom.  The corporate world seems to be happy leaving people in little boxes for years at a time, essentially doing the same thing.  At least for me, this gets old really quick.  I have been bored at my current gig for at least a year.  

I am just past the 10th year mark in my engineering career. Boredom is huge, although sometimes I don't know whether it is really boredom. I think it is a combination of that with an absolute disgust of the corporate BS, inefficiency, colleagues, lack of control over what I want and the drugdery of daily mandatory cubicle presence. My third anniversary with my current employer is coming up. This is the first time I stayed somewhere this long. I have done so many different things before. I did just about all of it from working in the mines down under to drilling for oil in the arctic and all sorts of stuff in between. Now I am in the high tech R&D.

And you know what? It is all the same at the end. It may be a challenge for a few weeks or a few months and then it becomes another job or daily chore (the monkey phase). The boss is also a big negative for me. I have also decided that I do not need another challenge at work since that usually translates into more hours. I am diligently sticking to my 40 hours a week which is not appreciated in my type of business (no dedication). I am actually completely out of it - no interest in it no more. The job is a nice cash cow and that is it. Every morning I have to remember what I did yesterday and what I am supposed to do that day. I am trying to turn the knob in my brain when I walk in in the morning and not let me think about what the heck I am actually doing there. That makes it a bit more bearable. I found that interesting in Terhorst's book that he could not explain to a kid what he actually really did during the day except for blabber on the phone and push some paper.

A job is a job, if I get satisfaction out of it: great! If not, too bad as long as I am still out of my cube on time. I thought about going back to school for another degree but there is nothing that I get really wild about. It would also mean losing pay for years, being entry level again and getting stuck in just another job. I am trying to hang on to my job as long as I can to pay the bills and stash it away for FIRE. The house is paid for, my investments are growing... just a matter of time.

 

[John Galt]

I got bored a few times, mostly early on. It was 3 years
and out, 3 years and out, 3 years and out. By then I was the BIG DOG. From there until the end I mostly ran the ship. I may have toughed it out longer (workin'
for a boss) except I had a taste of being in charge.
That pretty much spoiled me for anything else. I'm a
natural entreprenuer, just took some time to see it.

JG

 

[Otis]

The one big upside to my career is no boredom. There is always something new to do and new to learn.

The downside is the stress of it all.

Brewer, maybe the oportunity for working with the start up is just what you need. It likely won't be boring.

Right now I'm in the same boat as Martha. I've alternated between extreme boredom (waiting for project funding to arrive) and being the center of the madness (team lead) on several programs. Right now I think I prefer boredom to long hours and gray hair. Granted, I'm being compensated (mostly) for my pain, and those additional funds are going to be what makes an ER possible. So while the job is less than optimal right now, I know it's an investment (both mentally and financially) for some future point where I get to leave the desk behind and go frolic in the sun.

 

[Martha]

Otis, now that I am out of managment I am hoping the boredom level increases.

I am surprised at the number of people here who cite boredom and bad management as reasons they dislike(d) their work.

Martha

 

[vicky]

I take boredom over stress any time. At the end of the day, I want to go home on time and have enough energy for my real life. If you work too hard, it is not appreciated but expected from then on. My boss also noted in my recent review that he does not think I give 100%. If he expects that I will be there 80 hours a week, be pager accessible during weekends/vacation/evenings and attend every damn meeting there is, he is absolutely right.

I have seen my dad drudge along in his academic job for about 25 years. When things became almost unbearable (politics/people), he started for himself. First it was on the side, then he quit. He was in a niche market and he made it big in a year. He is getting sued left and right but he could not be happier having control over his own daily life.

Half of my family is an entrepeneur. I also want to go my own way. About half a year I started on the side an I am taking in a extra few thousand every month (all going into my and hubby's SEP IRA). However, I can't rely on this being very steady. I am also not ready to quit the daily drudgery job because of the good benefits. Guess I am too greedy. I will ride that gravy train until they walk me out. Since layoffs happen every few months, it is not a question of if but when.

I have always had a lot of interest in real estate. I just had an inspection done on a house that I want to buy. This is the second time I hired the same inspector in a short time. Again he asked whether he wanted to work with him. He was an engineer at a big company for 20 years until he could not stand it no more. I am considering it for the future and I am also looking for other opportunities. There is so much out there, it just requires a different mind set looking at things and actually some time to explore it as well.

 

[Eagle43]

I retired a year ago from a large corp, where I had lasted 22 years. Funny thing is, almost the day I walked in I noticed that a lot of the job was make work. You know, you initial this paper and pass it on. This was before the computer became ubiquitous. Today, PowerPoint allows managers to indefinitely prolong and increase banality.

I have seen meetings go on and on. It looks like a barrell full of monkeys. Nothing gets decided. And the next meeting turned into a scintillating discussion of what happened at the last one.

Now, I was in the Defense Industry, which is a quasi-government business. I stuck it out, but don't recommend that method if you have alternatives.

Question: Is the non-Defense business just as bad? If it is, how does anything get done? Are we all just players in a Dilbert strip??

 

[John Galt]

You ARE all just "players in a Dilbert strip", which proves that God has a sense of humor

JG

 

[parnass]

... Funny thing is, almost the day I walked in I noticed that a lot of the job was make work.
I have seen meetings go on and on. ... Nothing gets decided. And the next meeting turned into a scintillating discussion of what happened at the last one....

Question: Is the non-Defense business just as bad? If it is, how does anything get done? Are we all just players in a Dilbert strip??

I worked for 3 non-defense, technology companies since 1974 and the amount of nonsense was proportional to the size of the company. The largest company was just like you described.

There was little margin for error in the small (100 employee) company. Employees had to be productive or be gone within 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[John Galt]

Wow! "The amount of nonsense was proportional to the size of the company." I agree 100%

JG

 

[Otis]

Otis, now that I am out of managment I am hoping the boredom level increases.

I'm hopeful that I'll be able to do the same thing in 1-2 years. I need to "check the box," then either get the company to transfer me someplace nice, or take an internal lateral move out of management at my site. Last fall I took a promotion to middle management, and going in I knew my clock would be ticking. Hopefully then I can sit back and enjoy a 40 hour workweek.

 

[Nords]

I am hoping the boredom level increases.

I learned in the military that boredom is the best of the alternatives.

 

[vicky]

I like to be bored at work, not at home. The last thing I need is to get home exhausted.

I just talked to somebody who used to be very high up in a large chemical multinational. He said the higher up you are, the easier the job especially with large companies where all of it is fluff and BS. The most important part of the job is to ensure you are not seen in the office because a manager is supposed to be in important meetings. So a lot of these guys are hanging out in the mall, gym, golf course or whereever and then 'work late' at night to do at least something like reading email or so.

He walked out the minute he qualifited for medical retirement.

 

[John Galt]

I never worked for a large company but my experience
at the biggest I worked for confirms "all fluff and BS".
Compared to running my own business, it was a walk in the park. I recall working up a report on the state
of our EDP/software systems. The GM took one look and
wrote back "Bullshit and platitudes!" I had to agree.
Anyway, when I bailed out they practically begged me to stay. My heart wasn't in it though, and I knew it.

JG