Have you ever hated a job and then learned to like it?

[seaglass]

I started a new job at the beginning of the year, actually I went through five weeks of training and just started the actual work two weeks ago.

I work 2nd shift. Every day when I wake up I feel sick to my stomach and I don't want to go. We need money. I am trying to tough it out and hoping that once I feel more confidence in my abilities I will at least feel neutral about the job.

Maybe because I'm in my 40s, have been in a leadership position in which I was trusted and respected I am too old to start at the bottom? Not that I don't think everyone no matter what position should be trusted and respected but I do understand on one level that they don't know me yet so I guess I should accept some of the judgmental feelings I'm getting.

Have you ever had a job that you hated but then learned to tolerate over time?

Or do you think I'm just being a whiner and I should be happy that at least I have a job?

[shesemsmom]

1. You will be fine

Nobody likes to work You probably have lots of things you'd rather be doing, but unemployment is a lot worse. Some days I go to work, same job 29 years and think crap... I'm leaving here and never coming back but I get over it when I think of the job market and know I can't do better. Besides I've done it so long I go there now from habit lol

[seaglass]

3. I was unemployed for 3 years - and other than the money issue

and the guilt, I liked it. I went back to college and spent a lot more time with my kids. Had a lifetime's worth of education in politics that I never would have had time for if I was working.

Maybe I've been lucky or spoiled. I've never stayed in a job that I didn't get something out of, when the job no longer challenged me I moved on (within the same company for 20 years).

[LynzM]

7. Consider yourself lucky

To have had the great experience of being able to move on when you were no longer challenged by or enjoying your job! As for learning to like a job you don't like, I'd say you learn to tolerate it for a while and continue to look for something you will like, when you can.

[skygazer]

15. It's not true that nobody likes to work

I DO like to work - I'd go stir crazy if I wasn't working. I've found something to enjoy in every job I ever had and believe me, in 30 years of working, I've not always had fun or interesting jobs. It's mostly a matter of making up your mind that you're going to find something to enjoy.

I make a competition out of my job - a competition against myself. I was a bagger at a grocery store at the age of 40 - how's that for pathetic? Still, I made up my mind that I'd be the best damn bagger that store ever had. And I was. And I managed to enjoy it because I refused to NOT enjoy it.

In my opinion, too many people worry about loving their job - it's a means to make a living and you can muddle along full of resentment and discontent or you can throw yourself into it and be the best at whatever it is that you can be. That creates enjoyment, a feeling of satisfaction at doing a good job. I've enjoyed jobs as diverse as bagging groceries, repairing snowmobiles and packing books in a bindery.

It's all mind over matter.

[seaglass]

16. I have in the past been able to make something out of

nothing - when I say the jobs I've had were interesting/challenging - in many cases I have made them so. I'm not easily bored.

But you could be right in that I'm looking forward instead of the place where I'm at. The problem being when I applied for the job, I was looking forward too, my mistake.

I don't actually have a problem dealing with customers, even the really angry ones if I know what I'm doing and I have some support. That's not the situation right now.

[WLKjr]

2. I liked a job and then learned to hate it

retail sucks. But I am young, so what do I know?

[seaglass]

4. Why does retail suck? Is it the cranky customers? n/t

[WLKjr]

5. well um YES! And let me tell you about them!

I hate hearing, "Do you work here?" I mean come on dude, I only wear a vest and a name badge that makes me stand out from others! DAMN


and then you have people wanting something for nothing, like a guy I sold a computer too that was missing the monitor for $700 (this computer retaild with a monitor 17"lcd for $1198) and bitched me out for no good reason and made a scene. I ended up telling him to his face I was done with him and wasn't going to waste my valuable time arguing with him.


Then there are the people that always like to act like they know something and they end up knowing nothing, you want to tell them, but you can't. Then there are the ones that are like I'll get my way or your going to lose your job blah blah blah ba.


Okay I am done with my rant on that one! :D

[seaglass]

6. Yeah, I'm dealing directly with customers and it's amazing

how many want something for nothing and are willing to browbeat you until they get it. I wouldn't have a problem holding firm if I felt that there were any consistent policies about how to deal with these people - some get their way, some don't.

Last night I had a guy on the phone who was flushing the toilet when he was talking to me, then I think there was a problem because it sounded like he was plunging it.:wtf:

He had me so flustered I accidentally slammed my head against the desk.

[WLKjr]

12. I had to help this one lady

try to program her tv for cable, she kept asking me the same thing over and over again "Why can't I get more than 15 channels? I can't get my tv to go any higher."

Finally she says she has cable vision and this TV has a auto find option. I told her to select auto find and it was only finding 15 of 15 channels. She kept getting more and more pissed at ME and finally I told her to contact her cable company and she said she already has and I told her, sorry I can't help you. and I hung up.


Then you get those who call and you can't understand a damn word they are saying.

[AngryOldDem]

8. I'm kind of in the same situation

Just started a job at a place that is in the line of work that I am studying to get into. So I consider it as my "foot in the door," an opportunity that I could not pass up given that I, too, am in my 40s. However, it's on weekends and holidays and the hours are 5:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. By the time Sunday night rolls around, I am plain exhausted. It's especially bad if I have something going on either Friday or Saturday night that keeps me up late. If that's the case, my ass is really dragging toward the end of my shift.

I know where you're coming from. I just keep telling myself that the short-term inconvenience will pay off in the end. Plus, I also need the money (pittance that it is), so that, more than anything, keeps my attitude relatively good.

No. You're not whining. Just hang in there!

[seaglass]

9. Yep, I took this job as a foot in the door but now I'm

questioning if what they told me in the interview, that I can change jobs after 6 mos is really true. From what little I have learned it is is somewhat difficult even getting a shift change. I fear that I'll spend 6 mos. in this job and I won't be able to move on. The opportunities at the location I am at are very limited and I'm not willing to commute far.

It does sound like we are in a very similar situation. I am actually working Fri and Sat night so if I did have a social life (other than my family) I wouldn't any longer.

I don't go into work with a bad attitude, it's more a cautious and stressed attitude than anything else.

Good luck to you, it sounds like you have the right attitude.

[datasuspect]

14. the one thing i learned about employers,

and i have had many, is that they get all gaga about a new employee and then about two or three months into it they get a sort of "buyer's remorse."

my advice/what i have learned: get whatever they offer on paper - otherwise it is straight-up stone bullshit.

[alarimer]

10. no, for me it is the opposite

I started out liking the job I have now a lot. Motly because it is the first permanent job in my field that I had. Now, almost 8 years later, I am bored out of my mind. I find there is no upward mobility- I am doing exacly the same thing I was wnen I started. I have applied for numerous other jobs within the agency, have gotten many interviews and have even been told that I was very impressive in the interview, yet I nver have been able to make the leap. They always, always hire from outside for more advanced jobs. So I am back in school part-time for a MS in my field, in hopes that it will help me land a better job (preferably with another organization now that I know how this one works).

[seaglass]

11. It definitely sounds like you're in the wrong organization if

they're hiring externally for the more advanced jobs - they're basically saying screw you to their own employees. Way to boost morale.

Good luck to you on your advancement, I think you're right in looking elsewhere.

[datasuspect]

13. screw the Man

i just did a two week gig at a major bank in the commercial lending department analyzing collateral instruments and whatnot.

B-O-R-I-N-G

it was weird to see the compliance/surveillance/punishment ethic so strong.

i described it to mother and she said it sounded like 1962 when you had to ask permission to use the toilet.

i'm telling ya, this poverty thing has some good aspects: you get to see what is important; you appreciate simpler things when you can afford them; and life becomes a strategy to seeking definitive methods to get the Man's foot out of your ass.

screw it.