February 18, 2008
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The Road Not Taken
I’m tired of the long hours I have to put in at work. What once was a passion has slowly developed into a chore. I get great feedback from my peers and from my team. While I still like my job and my company, there’s something missing. Financially, I can’t really complain. My bills get paid (unless I forget) and I live a relatively comfortable life. I harbor no desires to be a C level executive. I stumbled on to my first job and somehow parlayed it into a decent career. I don’t want the long hours anymore. Today’s a holiday and I’m doing some work from home (not the entire day). My Friday finished just before 11:30PM when the last conference call ended. Dinner was take out food in between the calls. There are many in my company that are in the same boat.
This of course is not the end of the world. I know I’m more fortunate than others who are looking for a decent job and others who have to deal with even worse. But right now, I hope to find the road that is less traveled and hope it’ll make a difference.
Comments (15)
generativity vs stagnation?
Hang in there, Matt! I agree with you that the paycheck is necessary and in time who knows what will happen.
RYC: I felt the people at the party were unable to uphold their side of any discussion. It is a pain and just a waste to chat with them.
Hard to respond without knowing more. There could be a lot of issues here that we’re not privvy to. One thing is sure, it’s not fun going to work if you don’t like your job. It sounds like you’re on top of it though. I wish you the best.
How nice that you guys have “Family Day” in Toronto. There’s no such day in Vancouver, but I am now in my reading break =P
Career is probably the most important thing one has to figure out. If one doesn’t enjoy his work, it becomes a chore like you said. Can’t really give much advice but just lots of good luck and positive thoughts. Hope you can figure out something that will make you happy.
Sorry that you feel that way about your job Matt. Be happy that you are not a physician, doing solo practice where you would be on call 24/7, and the only time you could take off would be when you are out of town.( Been there done that.) It seems like you need a break dear friend. Take a break, and head for the south. You probably need sunshine and warmth in more ways than one. Perhaps your dad would like to go with you. Just think how wonderful he would feel to go with you to , say Florida, or any place warmer than where you live. Even a week or ten days make a tremendous difference in recharging the neuronal battery in winter.
ugh… i hear you on the working long hours part. the past couple of weeks have been insanely busy at work, and it doesn’t help that i’m the only grad student working for my boss so i’m the only one he can shovel work onto. i can’t wait for this month to be over!
i’ll trade you for your long hours at work with a completely useless postdoc that i work with.
This generation has far more career mobility than the previous one. Job hopping is still frowned upon, but is far more acceptable than previously. We’ve gone from workers for life to the average person having around half a dozen jobs in their life.
Like Carey mentioned I don’t have enough information to give you specific advice, but I do hope you can find balance–whether that involves sticking around or finding something more rewarding, I’ll leave it up to you to figure out.
However, I do believe that the amount of profitable services and products has increased so much in just the past 20 years that it doesn’t make sense for you to be doing something that isn’t fulfilling. Do a little digging around and see if you can find something that can make you happier, allow you to satisfy your own needs for growth and development, and hopefully pay you better as well!
@gyjcwang - I thought about that, I think that has something to do with it.
There seems to be more and more people I know reaching our age (I’m assuming you’re in your thirties or thereabouts) who are finding the grind of the corporate life less and less worthwhile. Making good money but burning the proverbial candle at both ends.
There are always so many factors to consider, especially when there are other people involved.
When I encountered that point in my life twice before, I asked myself a question: “Does this job give me a sense of satisfcation and fulfillment?”
If the answer was “no”, I followed up with a second question: “Does this job give me the ability to get satisfaction and fulfillment from elsewhere in my life?”
In both cases, I found the answers were “no” and “no” and concluded that changes needed to be made.
Maybe those questions will work for you?
@ZSA_MD - I’m glad I’m not a doctor, I would be so stressed out about making a mistakes. My mistakes impact the bottom line but doesn’t cost lives.
wow, we both post about being unhappy with our current lifestyle.
i constantly think about changing, but i never try hard enough.
hope we both can get out of this rut.
I work long hours also, and kind of understand the feeling. What frustrates me most is not being appreciated by the boss. I have been on vacation this week, but I checked and followed up with emails. I was very closed to deadline on one item, so my boss complained. I told him I am on vacation, and he replied, at the level of my pay, I am supposed to work vacation, weekend and even when I am sick. NOT one word of thanks from him ever, just complains. What an A-hole, I thought to myself.
ryc: thanks for your comments.
wow…that’s really long hours!! Try to take it easy.