Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel these two are somewhat contradictory or inconsistent: > They have figured out that the majority of their work, to their surprise is not actually that important or necessary. > They have figured out that they are never going to get payed the true value of their work If their work is not that important or necessary, isn't its true value also not too high?
also in many companies >80% of profits(before payments) go into payments, so not that much exploitation there.
People start hating their jobs at 35
241–247 of 247 posts
Re: People start hating their jobs at 35
#242I think its because through experience people have figured out a lot of unspoken things about what its really like being an employee. They have figured out that its much more about connections and office politics than hard work. They have figured out that there is really no job security, and they could be one layoff wave away from unemployment. They have figured out that its much more about face time and spending lon…
Funny, round about the time I turned 35 I stumbled upon Erik Dietrich's Defining The Corporate Hierarchy [1] blog. It cynically divides corporate workers into sociopaths at the top who step on other people to get where they are, idealists in the middle who don't realize they're being stepped on and think they'll eventually get to the top through hard work, and then pragmatists at the bottom who come in in the morning…
Re: People start hating their jobs at 35
#243I think its because through experience people have figured out a lot of unspoken things about what its really like being an employee. They have figured out that its much more about connections and office politics than hard work. They have figured out that there is really no job security, and they could be one layoff wave away from unemployment. They have figured out that its much more about face time and spending lon…
> They have figured out that its much more about connections and office politics than hard work. Maintaining relationships with different kinds of people is work. It's hard and meaningful work. > They have figured out that there is really no job security, and they could be one layoff wave away from unemployment. There most definitely is job security. Some people have lots of it, some have very little. There is no 100…
Totally agree on that one, but I would rather that social environment is not overlapping with all sorts of economic power dynamics. I would much rather hang out at cafes and public places and spend time outside economic contexts based on shared interests such as literature, art, music etc.
Re: People start hating their jobs at 35
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of consulting if you don't mind me asking?
A lot of what I do is contracting, basically just short-term software engineering. But I have done some consulting on development processes and tooling (for god's sake use a standard build system), and have done some small amounts around embedded systems SDKs. Most of the contracts bring me in as a 'consultant' but the work is software engineering.
Re: People start hating their jobs at 35
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and then pragmatists at the bottom who come in in the morning, do their work, and find meaning in their lives elsewhere, like family or hobbies. How do those pragmatists deal with the fact that, summing job, commute and sleep, over 2/3 of their lives is not part of the purpose?
Like others have said, the purpose is to make money to enjoy the other 1/3. Bear in mind that different people will find meaning in different ways. If you find meaning in participating in the rat race, then by all means go for it. For me personally, I thought I _had_ to participate in the rat race, but this was a lie. I saw this scenario play out at my last corporate job: At that company it was typical for some manag…
What do you do now instead? How do you view your work?
Re: People start hating their jobs at 35
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and then pragmatists at the bottom who come in in the morning, do their work, and find meaning in their lives elsewhere, like family or hobbies. How do those pragmatists deal with the fact that, summing job, commute and sleep, over 2/3 of their lives is not part of the purpose?
I consider myself in the pragmatist group. - Commute: I work from home, doesn't apply - Sleep: This is part of life, so is an irrelevant metric So, that narrows your question to, how do I deal with the fact that I spend 40hrs / week programming. The way I look at it is that the deepest source of meaning in my life comes from my spiritual practice and my family. The job fits into both of these buckets: - Spiritual: A…
Re: People start hating their jobs at 35
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
Like others have said, the purpose is to make money to enjoy the other 1/3. Bear in mind that different people will find meaning in different ways. If you find meaning in participating in the rat race, then by all means go for it. For me personally, I thought I _had_ to participate in the rat race, but this was a lie. I saw this scenario play out at my last corporate job: At that company it was typical for some manag…
> For me personally, I thought I _had_ to participate in the rat race, but this was a lie. What do you do now instead? How do you view your work?
I realized that I didn't have to be promoted into management. In fact, I think I wouldn't be as happy in my job if I had to do management instead of coding.
I also read a lot about stoicism at the time. I think a lot of young people think success is measured by how much money they have, but I came to the conclusion that I'm happy at this moment.
Burning yourself out at work to earn money has diminishing returns; I'll need to earn a lot more money to be a fraction happier than I am at the moment.
I'm now working at a smaller company. We still have corporate clients, but there is not a lot of politics going on.