16% of workers "enjoy what they do"

[scrabbler1]

That sounds pretty similar to my experience. I generally enjoyed my positions very much, but that commute to LA just plain sucked. I still have nightmares just thinking about it. Sometimes it added as much as five hours to my day. That's almost like a whole extra job in itself.

If we ever invent the bullet train to LA that gets me there in 15 minutes, I just may reconsider all of this.

I remember telling the HR flunkie who did my long exit interview that I was so burnt out from the commute that even if they offered me my old telecommute deal which included 1 day a week on the trains to NJ I would have turned it down. It was a non-starter because they had ended all open-ended telecommuting 5 years earlier. I would have considered a one-day-a-month going to NJ if they also let me buy into their group health plan, even at 100% of premiums (another non-starter from their side).

I once told some friends when I began the telecommute deal, "They can have my mind, but not my body!"

 

[Midpack]

I think it more likely that they are simply deceiving themselves and/or their interlocutors. The interviewer asks "Will you continue to work after retirement?*. You say "Yes, I will." The interviewer asks "why?" At that point a fairly large number will say "Because I'll need the money." But there are certainly still a substantial number (perhaps even 16%) who will be embarrassed to admit that they have not saved sufficiently and will need the money. So they say "Oh, I want to stay connected" or "I enjoy what I do." It's simple human nature.

* (yes, I am well aware of the non-sequitur)

I suspect there's some truth to that and it probably explains the 'enjoy spike' in the "sixties" group. But how would that explain "twenties", "thirties" even " forties?" Maybe you didn't notice the age groups...

 

[HFWR]

In other news, 16% of workers are full of crap.

84% of workers hate their jobs, and the rest are lying...

 

[youbet]

84% of workers hate their jobs, and the rest are lying...

Funny..... But sad too.

So many folks without the moxy to manage their most important asset, "time". We all have (had) to do what we have (had) to do to support ourselves and I certainly understand selling your life's "time" to meet responsibilities such as family. Been there, done that. But I tried to focus on the positives of my experiences earning a living and not be miserable while waiting for some point in the future when things would be better.

For those still working and feeling miserable, think about your alternatives, if you have any. Decades spent unhappy aren't reversible. What can you do to manage your situation?

 

[Chuckanut]

It is sad but probably true that only 1 out of 6 people enjoy their jobs. Why is that? I believe it is most likely because the modern work environment intrudes to much into other parts of the worker's life. Technology is part of that, since we are reachable on and off the job. But, employers now expect us to put work first, family second, with god and country coming out a distant third. We are expected sacrifice our families, health, and general well being for the good of the company. And, there is little loyalty in return.

Combine the above with policies and procedures that make doing the job, we supposedly were hired to do, very difficult. Another source of frustration.

Oh, in the USA add in the miserly vacation benefits as compared to the rest of the world.

Like many I enjoyed the basics of my job. It was the garbage that came with it, that was had to deal with.

 

[youbet]

It is sad but probably true that only 1 out of 6 people enjoy their jobs. Why is that? I believe it is most likely because the modern work environment intrudes to much into other parts of the worker's life. Technology is part of that, since we are reachable on and off the job. But, employers now expect us to put work first, family second, with god and country coming out a distant third. We are expected sacrifice our families, health, and general well being for the good of the company. And, there is little loyalty in return.

Combine the above with policies and procedures that make doing the job, we supposedly were hired to do, very difficult. Another source of frustration.

Oh, in the USA add in the miserly vacation benefits as compared to the rest of the world.

Like many I enjoyed the basics of my job. It was the garbage that came with it, that was had to deal with.

But if you go back a few generations, wasn't earning a living even more intrusive on your life? In an agricultural based society, you woke up every morning totally immersed in your job from dawn til dusk. Tradesmen, shopkeepers and industrial workers all had a much more day-to-day outlook and less ability to control their own fate, IMO. Are jobs more difficult/unpleasant today or are we just getting whimpier? Or is it just a matter of timing and relative comparison? Jobs today are frequently tougher/less pleasant than those of the Post WWII boom era but infinitely better than the early industrial revolution and before.

I can understand certain unhappy employment situations. A coal miner in Ky knows no other life and, growing up in impoverished circumstances, has little education. Tough, dangerous work turns into layoffs and worse. Hard roots to pull out of the ground and transplant. But my feeling is those cases are the exception in our country. For most, there are choices in employment and lifestyle. Standing still and whining doesn't solve employment unhappiness.

While I'm going to receive a modest DBP pension from MegaCorp, I'm kinda glad to see pensions, and other job handcuffs, disappear. Portable pensions, while likely less lucarative, give people the chance to pull themselves out of unhappy employment situations and get on with spending their precious lifetimes in more favorable circumstances.

 

[Midpack]

It's comical those who want to dispute that anyone "enjoys what they do." While I don't know if it's really 16% or 10-26%, of course there are people who enjoy what they do, though undoubtedly a minority.

I'd bet there isn't anyone here who has never known anyone who enjoys/enjoyed their work. 1 in 10, or 1 in 6, maybe. I certainly have, wish I could have been one of them longer...

 

[HFWR]

Out of 25 years at Megaconglomocorp, I "enjoyed" about half of them. The rest were riddled with management shenanigans, most decidedly not designed to enhance my enjoyment...

 

[jcretire77]

There are times I like my job. I like my co-workers. I like many of my responsibilities. But 29 years at an M-corp with many additions, consolidations, reorganizations and management that has removed most of the gravy (stock, bonuses) it's just not as fun.

Currently on my lunch break I am perusing this site and enjoying all of your comments, that's pretty fun.

 

[MRG]

But if you go back a few generations, wasn't earning a living even more intrusive on your life? In an agricultural based society, you woke up every morning totally immersed in your job from dawn til dusk. Tradesmen, shopkeepers and industrial workers all had a much more day-to-day outlook and less ability to control their own fate, IMO. Are jobs more difficult/unpleasant today or are we just getting whimpier? Or is it just a matter of timing and relative comparison? Jobs today are frequently tougher/less pleasant than those of the Post WWII boom era but infinitely better than the early industrial revolution and before.

I can understand certain unhappy employment situations. A coal miner in Ky knows no other life and, growing up in impoverished circumstances, has little education. Tough, dangerous work turns into layoffs and worse. Hard roots to pull out of the ground and transplant. But my feeling is those cases are the exception in our country. For most, there are choices in employment and lifestyle. Standing still and whining doesn't solve employment unhappiness.

While I'm going to receive a modest DBP pension from MegaCorp, I'm kinda glad to see pensions, and other job handcuffs, disappear. Portable pensions, while likely less lucarative, give people the chance to pull themselves out of unhappy employment situations and get on with spending their precious lifetimes in more favorable circumstances.

Your comments on going back a couple of generations really hit home. My fraternal grandfather was killed working on the railroad(brakeman) in 1929. Low bridge, guy ahead of him forget to yell duck. My maternal grandfather worked in coal mines, later as a janitor. Neither one had any retirement.

My DF worked in factories till after WWII. Later he sold insurance. He put in many hours to get ahead. He got 34 years of retirement benefits. All but the last 5 years were good to him.

I got to RE at 56. I enjoyed quite a few good years at Megacorp, and 5 crappy ones. However the workplace was different in my time. I know my DF worked long hours, but never worked a 100 hour week or 40 hours straight. He never was paged in the middle of the night.

So to your point, it's different, so many things have changed. Most for the better for sure. I don't think 50-100 years ago that survey would have been any better, perhaps much worse. So maybe we are a bunch of wingers.
MRG

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I remember telling the HR flunkie who did my long exit interview that I was so burnt out from the commute that even if they offered me my old telecommute deal which included 1 day a week on the trains to NJ I would have turned it down. It was a non-starter because they had ended all open-ended telecommuting 5 years earlier. I would have considered a one-day-a-month going to NJ if they also let me buy into their group health plan, even at 100% of premiums (another non-starter from their side).

I once told some friends when I began the telecommute deal, "They can have my mind, but not my body!"

Interesting point on commuting. I drove at least 40 miles to work for about 25 years. In the end, the effort to get to work was about as taxing as the job itself.

 

[Golden Mean]

Interesting point on commuting. I drove at least 40 miles to work for about 25 years. In the end, the effort to get to work was about as taxing as the job itself.

Serious question; why wouldn't someone move closer to work if this was the case. I've never worked far from work. Always moved closer if need be.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Serious question; why wouldn't someone move closer to work if this was the case. I've never worked far from work. Always moved closer if need be.

People live in the suburbs for good schools, lower cost housing, yards and parks. If you work in a downtown high rise, there often isn't any affordable housing close by with good public schools and places for the kids to play.

 

[harley]

I enjoyed the heck out of what I did (network security and computer forensics), to the extent that I still keep up with the topic 7 years after I retired. However, I didn't like the people I worked for/with, and the politics and BS made me happy to FIRE. I'd probably have FIREd anyway because even though I enjoyed the work and even if the politics and people hadn't been there, I enjoy retirement more. Just because you prefer one situation doesn't mean you didn't enjoy another one too, just not as much. I'm not sure where that would put me in the poll, but I enjoyed myself when it was just me and solving a problem. Sadly, it's never just that in a work situation.

 

[brewer12345]

Serious question; why wouldn't someone move closer to work if this was the case. I've never worked far from work. Always moved closer if need be.

I endured a punishing commute driving from central NJ to Greenwich, CT for 3 and a half years. I had the opportunity to learn a ton and make a truckload of money. Why didn't I move? First, I did not know how long the job would last. It was a risky leap for me that lasted longer than I expected, but ultimately came apart in a messy fashion. Second, it was in Greenwich. There was nowhere I could move within a 45 minute commute that would have cost less than 750k or so (and don't ask about real estate taxes). There was no way I was doing that.

 

[MRG]

Serious question; why wouldn't someone move closer to work if this was the case. I've never worked far from work. Always moved closer if need be.

I commuted 120 miles a day for 10 years. Why, because I could watch turkey, deer, bobcat, fox fight for mating rights in my 'front yard'. I had the privilege to hold hummingbirds, cardinals, screach owls, and hawks in bare hands.

I couldn't do that in a suburban yard. Was if worth the cost? It was to me. YMMV.
MRG

 

[hakuna matata]

I think I am a minority here in that I love being an Architect. Being an Architect is great--but the introduction of money changes the dynamics for me. When money is introduced it becomes work for me in certain situations.

About 3 years ago I opened my own office and it has been successful, but a lot of my work has been consulting for other firms. But I have had a fair number of projects I have done on my own and that portion of work I enjoy. A lot of my work is doing work for startup micro-breweries, I love beer and I love architecture, a great combination!

I am 'retiring' in about 180 days (not that I am counting) but I am retiring from feeling I have to bring a certain amount of income in. The project I am consulting on is a great project and it is a good firm and a good client, and they gave me a very generous hourly rate AND let me work from home and yet I am still looking forward to my retirement date. It is because I have to fit within their schedule and be creative within a time frame, etc.

But with my own work the creativity and 'when' I do the work is on my own time and somehow is very different. Plus I can choose to do the project or not, depending on my schedule or whim.

So while I won't be doing Architecture for free, I also won't be doing it for the money. I am designing a little garden shed/studio office for my backyard, and I love it. I like doing design work, it is the office politics, commute, etc I didn't enjoy.

So even though I am retiring I am also not retiring. I look at it more like a hobby, one that I am good at and can make money at. But if I don't make any money at it, I am totally fine with that.

 

[scrabbler1]

Serious question; why wouldn't someone move closer to work if this was the case. I've never worked far from work. Always moved closer if need be.

Maybe this is more of a NYC thing, but it is very difficult and costly to own a car in NYC with its traffic and parking challenges. I lived in Manhattan for a short time when I started working before moving to Long Island because I felt trapped in Manhattan. I wanted to be able to own a car and have some mobility. My friends and family were on LI, too.

If one is renting, it is easier to pack up and move somewhere else. But if you own your own place, it is not easy to simply sell it and move elsewhere.

And finally, one can have a reasonable commute to a place not far away but what if the company relocates? That for me was the final straw when its move from lower Manhattan to Jersey City, NJ, made an already barely tolerable commute into one which was even worse. And I was not going to sell my co-op just to move to Jersey City, an area I had no desire to live in. It was far more satisfying to ditch the job than ditch the apartment, which is why many of us are in this forum!

 

[clifp]

I found this article about loving working to be very thought provoking.

I really like her criticism of Job's commencement speech "do what you to love"

But by portraying Apple as a labor of his individual love, Jobs elided the labor of untold thousands in Apple’s factories, hidden from sight on the other side of the planet—the very labor that allowed Jobs to actualize his love. This erasure needs to be exposed. While DWYL seems harmless and precious, it is self-focused to the point of narcissism. Jobs’ formulation of DWYL is the depressing antithesis to Henry David Thoreau’s utopian vision of labor for all

That being said I have many people in real life and sure seen plenty on TV shows like Undercover Boss that loved their jobs even without been a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Two that stand out was waiter and a mechanic. My family meet the waiter 30 years ago. He was probably near 60 and had been Pullman car waiter, but he took such pride in his work at nice but not super fancy restaurant that when I and ask the question "Wow you an amazing waiter why not go work at the nicest place in Atlanta" he talked about how much he loved his coworker, the boss, and the customers.

The second person that I know loved his job was an airplane mechanic. Again he took great pride in fixing things at minimum cost.

 

[target2019]

Having a hard time separating out what is job and what is career. I really do love my career and my profession. A lot of what is associated with my job is very distracting, and comical at times.

In a few weeks I expect to be laid off again. There is another possible job, but twice as far. If I mentioned the distance, some of you with a real commute would certainly lol. The combination of longer drive and the boss over there has convinced me that unemployment payments will be quite fine for awhile.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I commuted 120 miles a day for 10 years. Why, because I could watch turkey, deer, bobcat, fox fight for mating rights in my 'front yard'. I had the privilege to hold hummingbirds, cardinals, screach owls, and hawks in bare hands.

I couldn't do that in a suburban yard. Was if worth the cost? It was to me. YMMV.
MRG

I'm in your camp, MRG. I'll try not to disturb the wildlife!

 

[fh2000]

I am working from home with no commute. I am getting paid 6 figure doing no more than 2-3 hours of work each day. Each morning, I boot up my company laptop along side my PC which is running one of my trading account platforms.

I watch news online. Listen to music. Visit message boards such as this one. Running errands throughout the day. No one from megacorp seem to be concerned as long as I attend the occasional meetings or respond emails quickly enough.

I am utilizing the technical skills that I picked up more than 20 years ago and it is more than enough to handle this job. I have not picked up a technical book, nor attend a training for years now.

DW said this is easy money. I think of it as my retirement job. So, I do not hate it, except I simply want a full retirement since my number looks good ever after hypothetical 10% market haircut. Well, if it goes down 20%, that will be a different story.

 

[Willers]

I'm a "16%'er".

I've spent my career working for "the man". Most of the time I've actually really enjoyed it. What has really mattered to me was the specific "man" or "woman" to whom I reported. I've been lucky enough to have been given lots of freedom to chart my own path and make decisions. I know I'm in the vast minority on that. Now I sort of am the man so I'm hoping never to have a sense that I have coworkers on this site discussing their tortured existence...

I think that there are some people that are asked "do you like your job?" and answer yes because they do like the work but do not like their boss. I hear some of the stories on here and I just can't imagine how managers get so out of touch. I still love developing people's skills, watching them take chances and seeing them succeed. I just now want a simpler life without the responsibility for others. One and a half more years and I'll have one final group ready to say "we don't need him anymore". My deadline for that is 7/1/15.

 

[CaliforniaMan]

Personally, I don't know why anyone would want to spend so much of their life in a j*b they don't enjoy doing.

Someone said that in order to say you enjoy your work, you would have to want to do it without getting paid. I say precisely! Starting out when microprocessors were first coming on the scene, I was obsessed with doing projects with them. Funny thing is that I started getting very well paying consulting jobs from people seeing my projects, and eventually went full time. I thought, wow they will pay me for this?

Later, I could have gotten w*ork an hour away from where I was and made a lot more money, but never even considered it. I see people now working miserable lives to get a few more things. I was recently at an associates extremely lavish home. I found myself feeling sorry for them rather than envious. It must be hard to want stuff so badly that you get deep in debt and will work like the devil.

I tell my kids that they should follow their passion, but pay for it themselves. Life is too short to do otherwise.

 

[RunningBum]

I am working from home with no commute. I am getting paid 6 figure doing no more than 2-3 hours of work each day. Each morning, I boot up my company laptop along side my PC which is running one of my trading account platforms.

I watch news online. Listen to music. Visit message boards such as this one. Running errands throughout the day. No one from megacorp seem to be concerned as long as I attend the occasional meetings or respond emails quickly enough.

I am utilizing the technical skills that I picked up more than 20 years ago and it is more than enough to handle this job. I have not picked up a technical book, nor attend a training for years now.

DW said this is easy money. I think of it as my retirement job. So, I do not hate it, except I simply want a full retirement since my number looks good ever after hypothetical 10% market haircut. Well, if it goes down 20%, that will be a different story.

That sounds very much like my last few years, only after awhile I cut back to half-pay and was only obligated to sit in front of the laptop 20 hours/week. Eventually the little bit of work slowed enough that they moved the work offshore and gave me the option of a different job which wouldn't be nearly as sweet, or an exit package. I took the latter.