Is ANYONE happy at their job?

I teach 7th grade and I am absolutely miserable. Teaching has become a thankless occupation with everyone drawing bulleyes on our backs. The children are lazy, self-entitled, rude, and stupid. I dread the future--these kids are going to be worse than the current crop of workers out there. I work with many people who are crazy, the parents are even crazier, and the administrators are not fit to work in fast-food restaurants. I am thouroughly depressed and feel trapped. Is there anyone who is happy at his/her job?

• yes op...children are vile....

• I'm happy with my job as a librarian.

• The pay is kind of low but I love my boss (me).

• I'm happy with my career as a serial killer, although sometimes the screaming from the basement causes me insomnia.

• Yup. Nurse. Love it. Demanding, challenging, always learning, feel like I'm making a difference every day, pays very well, appreciated and respected. It's not for everyone.

• I used to be happy and I knew it was a good situation. Our company was bought, I was turfed out, and have been doing freelance ever since. I miss a job I liked and belonging somewhere.

• Yes, I love my life and my jobs. I'm 63 and have what others would consider 3 full time jobs and I love them all. I love being my own boss and the flexibility I have. Teaching college, teaching professionals, and full time law practice are a great mix.

• For a while there I was unfulfilled because of lack of recognition but earlier this year things got much better. I was declared the best in my field (again) while my enemy and my cleaning lady both were forced to watch.

  M

• I thought of a second career as a nurse, R5. But the thought of going back to school and getting even MORE student loans has turned me off. I have such respect for nurses, especially after seeing what they did the past two years with my father--he was in and out of hospitals and rehabs.

  OP

• I feel a deep hatred towards r7

• I feel for you OP. My neighbor is a school teacher. She says she has aged 100 years in the last decade. They find 8 and 9 th graders boning in the rec room and bathroom stalls. My favorite story is when she interrupted a couple and the young snot looked up, mid-thrust and yell "Fuck you. I'm not finished yet". I laughed at that.

• Did she take pictures, R11?

• That's hilarious, R11. The nerve of some of these children...

• I know, have many teacher friends. The teachers are always a target of someone. The principle, you piss off a parent etc. Sorry

• [R2} I work as a library assistant and I love it! I would love to get my MLS but I cannot afford to at the moment. I feel like I've discovered this oasis of wonder every day and feel like books have literally saved my life many times in my life in a number of ways.

• There are more nurses than jobs, like teachers and attorneys. I think Canada may need nurses though.

• Love my job. Hate the person I work for (who is going to be retiring in a year, so I'll deal with it)

• My my.....some of you sound so working class. No wonder the level of wit has gone down down down on DL.

  www.goop.com

• Love my job.

• Archivist/Special Collections librarian. Even when I had difficult bosses in the past, I still loved what I did. And, fortunately, in my current job I've always had great bosses. Believe me, I know how lucky I am. OP, I feel for you. My sister is a teacher and she feels she's at the end of her tether. And everyone I knew in college who trained to be a teacher is doing something else now and has no regrets.

• University professor here. Small liberal arts college. Love my colleagues, all of whom work very hard and are good at what they do. Students get worse, the older they get. HUGE sense of entitlement, and they arrive at young adulthood with the conviction that everything is negotiable. Astonished that the concept of "extra credit" doesn't exist in the workaday world. If they are an indication, we will be a third world country by 2025. Students who work hard and are hungry to learn have my devotion, and they know it. Amazingly, 35% of our grads have jobs in their fields within 6 months of graduation. And it's a tough market.... theatre. And yet, I love my job. I'm paid well to teach three days a week, 4 months off with pay in the summer. Very supportive administration, I'm completely out, even to my students, and it's not been a problem. Large gay contingent in the faculty, which is refreshing. I remind myself on a daily basis how lucky I am. Even with all this, I DO love my job.

  bookmaven404

• I get you, OP. I'm another teacher. The last 2 years of my job I was off both years on stress leave. This year my teaching position was changed (2 people are now doing my old job!). I teach 7 grade levels this year (K-6) science. It is all new to me so the planning time is insane. Plus, I'm on a cart from class to class since they had to get rid of the science room for space reasons. I also teach a grade 2/3 class math (daily) on top of that. I'm determined to hang in this year. I generally like my job despite the demands. My principal though tends to play favourites and I'm not one of hers. While most parents are decent, the ones who aren't can make life hell. I don't think anything is perfect nowadays. Well, 99% of jobs. Good luck, OP.

• I sell stuff I find dumpster diving. I love it. I am my own boss,I get to be outside lots, I save things from being wasted (talk about being green!) and I save people lots of money. They get great bargins. It is sick what stores throw out, new in package, perfectly good stuff. Sad.

• Can the people who love their job please state what it is they do?

• Thanks Honey Boo Boo (aka R23)

• Legal secretary. Hate my job. Been there five years and just trying to make it to my next anniversary so that I'll be fully vested in the 401(k), then I'm going to try to get out.

• It's good that it's not for everyone, R5. If everyone was in one profession, we'd be in big trouble.

• Another university professor here, albeit one at a large, relatively high-ranked school. I absolutely love my job. Right after undergrad I went into management consulting and DETESTED it - horrible people, horrible hours, utterly pointless assignments, and upwards of six months spent in some of the most depressing shitholes in America (including Huntsville, Texas, home to Prisoner Execution Central). Living out of a motel five days a week with people routinely being put to death down the street is unsettling, to put it mildly. Finally I said fuck it, accepted that I was only doing the job out of some perverse "duty" I felt I owed my parents to be financially successful in my career, and went back to school for my MA and Ph.D. I won't say in what field, because it's a small enough niche that you bitches could identify me, but I got a full-ride scholarship at the top university in the field for my entire graduate studies. Subsequently I managed to land a job at my top choice of universities, and I was granted tenure earlier this year. I agree with R21 about the entitlement issues undergraduates in particular have these days, but luckily I mostly teach small classes for grad students and upperclassmen. That said, I'm generally stuck teaching one large freshman seminar every other year, and many of those students HATE me. Among other things, I ended up banning laptops in my large lecture classes because so many students were using them to fuck around on Facebook and Gchat, and I routinely dismiss students who text in class. Overall, though, I can't complain. I'm actually making less *now* than I was in management consulting 15 years ago, but I certainly make enough to pay my mortgage and all my other bills, and still stash a decent amount in my 401(k). The university has given me a wide berth in terms of research vs. teaching; I prefer the former and have always been granted a semester-long "sabbatical" from teaching if I'm working on an important paper. I've won several grants in the past couple of years for research studies on given topics, and also several prestigious awards for my work, one of which landed me a comped ticket to Stockholm for the ceremony. OP, if you dislike teaching middle school but still think you like academia in general, I'd seriously consider going back to grad school. Trust me that teaching in a college setting is an entirely different animal than public grade school! (and not just due to tenure - there's bureaucracy, sure, but the hiring standards are much higher across the board) Also, you're pretty much guaranteed a full grad-school ride *somewhere*, even if you can't get it at your first-choice school; in my case I earned it by working for two years at a think tank of sorts in my field, prior to applying to grad school. (Well, technically I took a few classes at a local university before transferring to my final graduate program.)

• Well, I'm happy the librarians haven't complained (so far). I'm headed back for my MLS next month.

• too long to read r28....you sound like that douchebag who said told someone to go to a school in TEXAS instead of Boston....I bet your students hate you.....chatty kathy!!!

• I was thouroughly depressed with my teaching job too, so I quit. The kids were so dumm.

• Clearly, I should have gone to library school.

• Last month, I read an essay about an MLIS who couldn't find a job and was now at an online university trying to get qualified as a medical transcriber. In the mid-2000s, schools churned out too many MLIS degrees.

• I get the feeling library management is a female dominated area these days. No pussywhipping and male discrimination?

• So sorry to disappoint you, r25, but no Honey Boo Boo involved here. Just a genuine dumpster diver/junk dealer here. Why the mention of HBB?

• I tried office jobs and retailing,too. Ha! What a joke. Talk about favoritism of women by women!

• I am happy to have a second career as a nurse. Unfortunately I am working in one of the worst hospitals in NYC and hate it. I've just completed the requisite 2 years of experience and am sending resumes out. It is very true that there are more nurses than positions here, but Texas is always posting listings for RNs and LPNs and states with large elderly populations (FL, AZ) also seem to be in need of nurses.

• I am an attorney and I am happy in my job. I work at a large law firm, so I make good money. I think what makes me happiest is that I surprised the firm and asked to be made counsel rather than stay on the partner track. Boy they tried to talk me out of it, but I just knew if I went down that road I'd be miserable. And talking to my friends who went down the partner track, I was right. I think a lot of happiness in a job is knowing what you can or cannot deal with. I'm not someone who thinks money and accumulation of things makes you happy. I also despise the firm administration aspects of being a lawyer, which substantially increase if you make partner. Other than making more money, or the prestige of making partner, I couldn't see what the reward was for pursuing that goal. Now I get to do what I like--building up cases, court hearings, briefing--rather than spend my time worrying about firm administration, and I make good money doing it. Win-win for me.

• r36 - Female-dominated offices are dangerous places for men to be if they want job security. Women (most, not all) will turn on you on a dime and try to get you fired if you do something that offends their ego. Once they make up their mind they don't like you, there is no going back and your ass WILL be on the street. Women office employees I've found take an all or nothing view of a person's potential. They either have it or they don't, and no amount of training or further education or experience will ever be enough. There is also a higher probability that less qualified women will be promoted over you. If you are attractive, you might fare better as handsome men (and women) are always desired to be "the faces" of companies and organizations. If you're homely or socially awkward or disinterested in playing office games, you're out of luck. Now is the time to experience what the "Old Boy's network" was like back in Mad Men times. However, female-on-female office infighting and career sabotage is rampant so no one really wins, men or women. Men need to continually develop their skills and find additional ways of generating income in this type of economy and job market. Know as many people as possible and don't become too friendly with your co-workers. Being attractive is also a way to protect yourself in the market - workout, take care of your skin, have good hair or shave it, and always wear clothes and continuously update your wardrobe so it doesn't seem like you're wearing the same thing over and over. I was able to survive in an office by using what I learned above and play the games until I earned enough outside my job to make it feasible to work at home, but saw time and time again the same thing happen over and over.

  Former%20office%20slave%20%28now%20self-employed%20and%20loving%20it%29

• I work for the federal government, and while I consider myself very fortunate to have a well-paying job, I'm neither personally nor professionally fulfilled with what I do. Sometimes I'm in tears just dragging myself out of bed to face the day.

• I work in higher ed administration and manage a small office (10 staff). I like my job, but am beginning to detest the people management aspects of the position. We're all adults, why can't we just act like it. Unfortunatly the pay and benefits are great. What I really need is a management level position without direct reports. Of course I realize those types of jobs are pretty rare.

• I'm self-employed. I love it. I have three steady contracts that pay fairly well, and I make my own hours. I do not rake in the dough, but I do well enough and I'm pretty much my own boss. I worked in cubeland for a few years and HATED IT. I felt like I was a cog in a machine. Depressing. This is much better.

• Sommelier/wine consultant. Yes, quite happy.

• I'd be happy too if I got to be drunk off my gourd at work!

• [quote] Been there five years and just trying to make it to my next anniversary so that I'll be fully vested in the 401(k), then I'm going to try to get out. Wow that sucks that you have to wait 10 years to be fully vested.

• Errr..I didn't really mean 10 years, since you never said that, I just assumed. But it sucks that after 5 years you aren't fully vested.

• Software development manager at a major e-commerce company and yeah, I like what I do, I have a great team, and I'm paid well. And yes, I know just how lucky I am.

• r39 picked on a female coworker at the office and now he's playing victim. I guess he expects women to lay back and take it. No one's buying it.

• Interesting how the people who get to tell others what to do while making major $$$$ seem to enjoy their jobs! I wonder what their secret is.

• [quote]Women office employees I've found take an all or nothing view of a person's potential. They either have it or they don't, and no amount of training or further education or experience will ever be enough. So very true r39. I have observed that very, very few women in leadership positions have the ability to fully realize or bring out the full potential of their employees, male and female. The ones that can usually are extremely successful and end up at the top of their fields. This is one major reason why men get an edge over the women in leadership roles. They try get more from their subordinates because they usually dont feel as threatened by their workers developing and advancing themselves. I have no idea why women, of all people base their entire opinion of someone based on very minuscule and unimportant things, when they are constantly the ones claiming they discriminated against for those very same actions. Thanks for all the good advice r39.

• [quote]They try get more from their subordinates because they usually dont feel as threatened by their workers developing and advancing themselves. You are delusional or a straight up liar if you truly believe this. This is business. Nearly everyone is out for themselves only, male or female. What do you think happens when someone can do your job better than you can at a lower salary? You're out on your ass. I've seen men sabotage people they see as a threat countless times. In fact, men are even more ruthless, because they depend on work even more than women. The only ones who don't do this are the ones not invested in their jobs for whatever reason.

• I havent been really happy in years

• R39-You speak the truth.

• wow OP no wonder the kids act the way they do with a teacher like you. People should teach because they love kids and love to teach and inspire. You're obviously in the WRONG profession. Move on.

• OP, you are a saint. I cannot think of any tougher stage in life than the middle school years. Remember, at this point in time most of them don't even like themselves, they are not going to listen to an adult.

  anonymous

• Remember that a lot of these parents are reconciling with the fact that their little darling who made them cards and said I love you ten times idea just a few years ago are ignoring them (if they are lucky), cussing them out, and telling them every day what horrible parents they are. The parents' frustration often has little to do with you, but because most of them won't scream or punish their child they save it for you.

  yikes

• R56 here- I mean to type they said I love ten times a day

  anonymous

• I'm very happy with what I do. I went to college to study advertising. Worked in the field in NYC for a few years and HATED IT. I hated office work, the fact that my personality (or the fact that I have one) never seemed to mesh with the Office Space culture which prizes mindless drones before all else, and the very fact that advertising exists to sell people shit they DO NOT NEED. I took a BIG chance, scraped some $$ together and decided to write a book. I sold my book (publish in January of 2014) and got a lot of freelance writing gigs and lecture work off the strength of the topic. I decided to connect with what I'm truly interested in and decided to study theatre and do some acting. I just did my first off-off-broadway show and first short film within the past 6 months. I get very steady and well-paid lecture work, am venturing into doing more acting stuff, and my publisher is very excited about an idea I have for a potential book series. Though the money isn't amazing (yet), my career is on the upswing and I've gotten very, very smart about budgeting. I enjoy every second of every project I'm working on whether it be the writing or the acting or the lecture work, I make my own hours, and best of all I know how lucky I am to be able to make this all work without the soul crushing drudgery of a 9-5 job. I'm smart enough to know that I'm most likely not going to be the next big superstar or whatever in any of these areas but my work makes me so happy I'm more than content with just being a working artist. This is the life I've wanted for a long time. I honestly do hope to be doing everything that I'm doing now for the rest of my life.

• R45/46, it's six years to be fully vested at my firm and thankfully I have just another 5 months to go. Once I get past that, I'll start job hunting.

  R26

• R39, you depress me. I am a sane woman and the people I work with and manage seem to like me a lot.

• Did the office thing for 12 years and hated it--depression beyond belief, deeply in debt and loathing of my job and co-workers. For more money and ZERO bullshit, got a blue-collar union job with a courier company 8 years ago through my sister-in-law and have never been happier. Zero debt, $ in the bank, love my job and co-workers and couldn't care less if any of these 'upscale' DL Marys scoff at my profession of choice. Blue-collar straight guys and tough biker chicks are the easiest people to get along with in a work setting and won't backstab or give you any BS (yes I've always been out to all of them).

• I'm a psychotherapist and really love it. There are parts that aren't great (dealing with insurance companies primarily) but I really like the work I do and it's really rewarding to see clients making real progress. Working for myself has worked out a lot better than I thought it would and I'm also happy to be in a field where will gradually be able to transition out when I'm ready to move towards retirement.

• Another happy librarian here. Though I was an unhappy library manager for 2 decades, then decided to take a little cut in pay to become a reference librarian. I've been very happy since I became a "real librarian" and not a manager. I was a successful manager but it was all hellacious cat herding and dealing with silly board members and politicians. I felt like a baby-sitter. Sometimes you have to find the best place for you within a profession. I now arrive at work at least an hour early every day, anxious to jump into the day.

• I have worked in Child Protective Services for the last 8 years. I am miserable and can't wait to leave. The office politics and policies have driven me mad. Most of the co-workers I have known have left the agency but I have stayed which makes me feel like a failure. To the outside public, we are encouraged to be the friendly and engaging agency but inside it is cut-throat, do as I say, office culture at its worst. I have been bullied, harassed, looked over for promotions, treated poorly by management, and had my job threatened. I am constantly working late and have no semblance of a life anymore. I am constantly depressed and cry almost every day( and contemplate suicide). I have went on a few interviews and hope they pan out soon because I can no longer handle being in this high-anxiety type of environment.

• R54=Chris Christie. R54, you have no clue what kind of teacher I am. So fuck off, asshole.

  OP

• I am sorry to hear that, R64.

• Bump

• Hang in there, R64. 2013 holds better things for you.