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People Start Hating Their Jobs at Age 35

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Re: People Start Hating Their Jobs at Age 35

#31

Post by sjg007 »

sharkweek wrote: post #10

I started to notice this in my late 20s. It felt kind of like a "the emperor has no clothes" moment when I was working at a tech startup that pushed long hours/weekend work in order to fulfill some "mission" and "greater purpose" and that I should feel a part of this for the greater good. It kind of hit me that this was mostly just a fantastic way to extract more work out of young, impressionable 20somethings who did…

The only payoff is the IPO. Sad but true. You can work in a world changing place but you also want it to change your world.

Re: People Start Hating Their Jobs at Age 35

#32

Post by nostrademons »

dkersten wrote: post #7
damnfine wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasted my good years working and studying for the opprotunity to have this job I now just slighly less than hate. -everyone my age

Pretty much. I've been finding myself more and more dissatisfied with my work as I get older and regretting that I didn't do something crazy when I was younger instead. Its not too late for me to do some of those things luckily, but its very difficult to drop everything to do so (and its not clear that, for example, a years travelling will make me any less dissatisfied with my work, although at least it would help me…

> and its not clear that, for example, a years traveling will make me any less dissatisfied with my work, although at least it would help me refocus my life

I think this is the crux of the matter. I know a few people who spent their 20s traveling abroad and having great life experiences, and now that they're in their 30s, they're like "Shit, I have no career, I'm working at Whole Foods / living off my parents / flat broke and I'll never be able to afford the life milestones that I took for granted like getting married, having kids, or owning a house."

I think the root of the problem is that evolutionarily, our happiness emotion didn't evolve to make us happy. Rather, it evolved to force us to take actions which increase our chance of passing on our genes. There's pretty ample evidence for this (Google [hedonic treadmill], for example), and yet we keep wishing we were happier. I guess we're fated to do this, because people who didn't wish they were happier wouldn't be driven to take actions to pass on their genes.

FWIW, I don't regret working hard (at some startups, and also one big corp) during my 20s at all. It was what I wanted to do at the time, and it's given me some cushion to do other things I want to do. Plus I got to work on some really cool projects with some great other people, and had a lot of fun doing so.

Re: People Start Hating Their Jobs at Age 35

#33

Post by bigmanwalter »

KGIII wrote: post #23
tradersam wrote: post #17

What? I just turned 20 and I've hated every job I've had (after a while, of course).

Do you know the adage about finding a job doing what you love, and how it means you'll never work a day in your life? It is a lie. Lest you think self-employed is a better option, you'll never work harder than you work for yourself.

It sucks that this can't be freely admitted in today's culture.

It's possibly true for those who love control and find themselves in a position over others, but it's definitely not true for those who like working with their hands and minds.

Re: People Start Hating Their Jobs at Age 35

#34

Post by chaostheory »

sharkweek wrote: post #10

I started to notice this in my late 20s. It felt kind of like a "the emperor has no clothes" moment when I was working at a tech startup that pushed long hours/weekend work in order to fulfill some "mission" and "greater purpose" and that I should feel a part of this for the greater good. It kind of hit me that this was mostly just a fantastic way to extract more work out of young, impressionable 20somethings who did…

> no company wants to present its relationship with its workforce as entirely trasnactional

You may like working for big consulting firms then, where it's up or out.

Re: People Start Hating Their Jobs at Age 35

#36

Post by jondubois »

karllager wrote: post #6

I believe the tech sector is extremely prone to this: If you cannot climb out of a technical role, over time, you realize just how clueless most people are, especially those who imagine themselves of being "in control". Not just a bit uninformed, no: absolutely positively clueless[1]. If you go the management route, you often give up, what got you started with all this is the first place: curiosity and exploration, c…

When I was younger, I was learning non-stop. I kept changing companies/industries every year because I was relentless and very curious.

This actually kept me going for maybe 12 years - It's fun so long as you keep learning new stuff... But eventually there comes a point when the day-job doesn't teach you anything new anymore (at least anything non-tedious) - At that point, your only remaining avenues for learning are open source work or going back to university.

But even if you start doing challenging open source work (in order to keep satisfying your craving for learning), you still have to go back to your tedious job every day. Unfortunately, there aren't enough challenging jobs for engineers these days - It's like a lottery; if you don't happen to have the right social connections, you will be limited to tedious jobs regardless of how skilled you are.

If you're the kind of person who has an insatiable passion for solving difficult problems but you are forced to solve tedious problems every day; it's mental torture.

Re: People Start Hating Their Jobs at Age 35

#37

Post by randomdrake »

This "news" is an advertisement for a report from Robert Half that was released last year entitled: "It’s time we all work happy™: The secrets of the happiest companies and employees.[1]"

It was simply rehashed and presented as "new", by Robert Half[2], and is now hitting the press again.

The full report appears to be available for free on the web[3].

[1] - https://www.roberthalf.co.uk/its-time-we-all-work-happy/repo...

[2] - https://www.roberthalf.co.uk/press/research-finds-age-discon...

[3] - http://heart4happiness.nl/wp-content/upload_folders/heart4ha...

Re: People Start Hating Their Jobs at Age 35

#38

Post by Haul4ss »

I'm like the opposite of this. By my mid-to-late 20s I was disillusioned with my job and career choice. I also felt trapped in my situation because there weren't a lot of choices for developers where I used to live.

It took me a few years and one big (geographic) move, but I did manage to steer my career in a better direction. Through hard work and a big ol' dose of luck, I was in a job I enjoyed when I was 35. And I'm in an even better one now!

Re: People Start Hating Their Jobs at Age 35

#39

Post by leoc »

sharkweek wrote: post #10

I started to notice this in my late 20s. It felt kind of like a "the emperor has no clothes" moment when I was working at a tech startup that pushed long hours/weekend work in order to fulfill some "mission" and "greater purpose" and that I should feel a part of this for the greater good. It kind of hit me that this was mostly just a fantastic way to extract more work out of young, impressionable 20somethings who did…

The Soul of a New Machine gives a very good depiction of the moral ambiguities of that crusading spirit in the context of (most) computer-industry work.

Re: People Start Hating Their Jobs at Age 35

#40

Post by apeacox »

_ncxu wrote: post #9
karllager wrote: post #6

I believe the tech sector is extremely prone to this: If you cannot climb out of a technical role, over time, you realize just how clueless most people are, especially those who imagine themselves of being "in control". Not just a bit uninformed, no: absolutely positively clueless[1]. If you go the management route, you often give up, what got you started with all this is the first place: curiosity and exploration, c…

I'm only 31 and found out the hard way that 90% of the way successful people got to where they are is through charisma, lying, and cheating others.

I'm 40 and I've found out the hard way that 90% people under 35 adopt absolute statements for everything, as if they think they already know how the life, the world and the universe work. Good luck.
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