Am I Happy At Work? Analyzing my entire career • Hacker News Board

Re: Am I Happy At Work? Analyzing my entire career

#111

Post by jaegerpicker » Wed, Sep 19, 2018, 2:56 PM UTC

guhcampos wrote: post #10

I don't want to sound an asshole, but I will sound an assholle nevertheless. I was damn happy as one can be at 3.5 years in my career. 10 years in, I feel like my happiness and awesomeness has been slowly consumed by corporate politics, unfair promotions and layoffs, bad work ethics and the such. I still like my work. I really really enjoy it when it's productive, and I still feel amazed to see the green checkmark on…

I've had a similar experience. So much hype about each new place I've joined only to find the same levels of corporate political crap. What kills me is the lack of care about the quality of the product. "Good enough" is never actually good enough for me and when you are the only one (or at least in an extreme minority) in the entire company that cares about that, it's incredibly demotivating.

I've recently joined a very early stage startup at a pretty high level. I'm in charge of an entire class of product (mobile native apps) and it's been the best experience of my career so far. It's stressful and tough but I'm 100% in charge so I can care as deeply as I want and it's up to me to make it work. Very rewarding vs the typical Corporate slag.

Re: Am I Happy At Work? Analyzing my entire career

#112

Post by jackgolding » Wed, Sep 19, 2018, 2:59 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #97

geforce wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I feel the same way. What hurts is when you decide to switch to another company, which has good rep, and finally find out: it's the same. Everywhere. After the big bosses do stupid shit, they get promoted elsewhere, leaves you fix the broken plates, rince and repeat until a merger, bankruptcy, or major reorg. Meanwhile middle management gets bigger and everything gets slower. Good employees leave, bad one get p…

That's why I'm a private contractor.

I'm considering the same, but I recall reading something someone said while I was in uni - "Why would anyone want to be a consultant when you are mainly brought in for the 'gone to shit' situations?"

Any thoughts on this? Is there any difference?

Re: Am I Happy At Work? Analyzing my entire career

#113

Post by arkades » Wed, Sep 19, 2018, 3:06 PM UTC

jackgolding wrote: post #112

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I'm a private contractor.

I'm considering the same, but I recall reading something someone said while I was in uni - "Why would anyone want to be a consultant when you are mainly brought in for the 'gone to shit' situations?" Any thoughts on this? Is there any difference?

Getting a situation from 90% optimal to 91% is very difficult and produces an improvement few care about.

Getting a situation from 20% optimal to 50% is usually relatively easy; getting to 75% is a giant pain, and either result will get you hailed as a hero.

You also deal with the politics with the disengagement of an outsider, and you're gone before it can suck you in too deep.

Re: Am I Happy At Work? Analyzing my entire career

#114

Post by corpMaverick » Wed, Sep 19, 2018, 3:12 PM UTC

Let me change the word "happy" to "satisfied".

I don't believe I can feel happy all the time or even most of the time. But the feeling that I want to have at the end of the day is that I am being productive and that I feel satisfied at the end of every day.

Re: Am I Happy At Work? Analyzing my entire career

#115

Post by foobiekr » Wed, Sep 19, 2018, 3:35 PM UTC

He’s still very young. When I was his age and even for many years prior I loved working, genuinely enjoyed it and was eager to be there, in the milieu, in the flow, killing problems, etc.

Come back to me when you’ve been at it for 30 years. At year 5 or 6 of working FT professionally, which came after ten years of working through college, I started getting jaded, same thing, same stupid “mistakes” (choices really), etc. Towards the end of my sixth year, I ended up getting a full, unfiltered view of inequity and the brutal sausage making that is all sizable organizations.

30 years in you realize that sitting all day and killing it to 2am takes a huge toll on your body and even 8 hour stunts may not be all that good, standing desk or no.

By the time you lose your youthful bliss, it’s too late to start saving. You need to take it on faith that future you has seen more of the operational realities of the world and this has not improved their existence.

The whole FIRE thing is a way to package and sell stuff; the dominant bloggers In the community who are “retired” are doing between 40k and 500k a year in web ad revenue. They mostly do not actually live the life they are suggesting: they have not retired, they’ve changed to a higher risk career. (Exception: earlyretirementnow.com ).

That said, like sites dedicated to exercise or eating well, the basic message is a good one and not a new one (see The Richest Man In Babylon, Your Mobey Or Your Life, etc.). So in that sense, anything that sells the mindset is a net good.

Re: Am I Happy At Work? Analyzing my entire career

#116

Post by jcadam » Wed, Sep 19, 2018, 3:37 PM UTC

Nope. Not happy. I make enough money now that salary is no longer a major consideration when it comes to my job satisfaction. I move around every couple of years, hoping to get more challenging assignments, more responsibility, etc., which never materialize. It really is the same crap everywhere I go. Office politics, PHBs, incompetent coworkers, etc.

I've decided I'm not a "cultural fit" for corporate environments. But I've been working in corporate environments so long, everybody assumes I wouldn't be fit for anything else.

Re: Am I Happy At Work? Analyzing my entire career

#117

Post by AlwaysRock » Wed, Sep 19, 2018, 3:52 PM UTC

guhcampos wrote: post #10

I don't want to sound an asshole, but I will sound an assholle nevertheless. I was damn happy as one can be at 3.5 years in my career. 10 years in, I feel like my happiness and awesomeness has been slowly consumed by corporate politics, unfair promotions and layoffs, bad work ethics and the such. I still like my work. I really really enjoy it when it's productive, and I still feel amazed to see the green checkmark on…

Corporate and office politics are so frustrating the higher you climb the corporate ladder. I'd love to be able to show up to work and for everyone to do their job and leave emotions and what not out of it.

Re: Am I Happy At Work? Analyzing my entire career

#118

Post by Retra » Wed, Sep 19, 2018, 3:54 PM UTC

hndamien wrote: post #79

brokenmachine wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did the exact same thing. It was great. I don't understand these people who can't find things to keep them occupied outside work. I don't have enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do. Work is just 8 hours per day that I can't do those things.

Its not the hours that is lacking as much as the money.

Use your hours to make money? That's what you spend time at work for.

Re: Am I Happy At Work? Analyzing my entire career

#119

Post by lightstalker » Wed, Sep 19, 2018, 4:33 PM UTC

thomasahle wrote: post #12

zeus_hammer wrote: post #3

This is great! I wish I'd started doing something like this long ago. The closest thing I've found to this that I'm able to at least remind myself to use regularly is this, https://daylio.webflow.io/ It'd be interesting to leverage something like this to decide when I should take vacation... If my happiness is slowly decreasing and visualized like this, it'd serve as a nice reminder to schedule some vacation. I'd als…

I just tried this one, (and another one, Journal which both seems to be Google 'editors choice'), but I found that both only had 5 possible moods (basically: exstatic, good, meh, bad, terrible) , and I fear me data will just be 90% "good". Do you know if it can be configured to have more levels? Or if other apps have more specificity?

Daylio can be configured to have multiple mood levels, and multiple activities. There's a limit before you have to pay for the unlocked version.

Re: Am I Happy At Work? Analyzing my entire career

#120

Post by mancerayder » Wed, Sep 19, 2018, 5:42 PM UTC

kinkora wrote: post #68

mancerayder wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can relate but it's a treacherous, rocky path to follow the pot of gold. Sometimes it's a compass. And if you live in a very expensive part of the world, it can quickly land you in a pressure cooker environment. Now, the issue is that as you get older, you start to explore other paths. Ideally, rather than travel for six months like you do, laudable in itself, I try to use that money to invest in stuff for the futu…

I completely agree that some people pursuing FIRE can be too fanatical about chasing the pot of goal and only waiting until old age to "enjoy". I kind of skirt in the middle (i'm more of a FatFIRE) and think of FIRE more as a North Star. :) I should mention that I do live in an expensive part of the world (think SF but not SF) and the bank account was just the liquid assets bit of the portfolio. Been on the FIRE jour…

Listen, I totally agree and would do the same thing. However what you've not mentioned above in your 6-month-travel-til-cash-burnt-out story is the assets. I noticed the plural on properties. :-)