I thought being able to keep a job was a *good* thing....

[blas]

Oh, people mock me all the time for being at the factory for almost 7 years now. People that I WORK WITH tell me I need to get out and go to school before I end up their age and still there. My own family is always bitching at me to go back to school. Yeah, on whose dime? With what insurance if I drop to part time at work with no bennies? Derpa derp derp.

[earl colby pottinger]

Happiness

That is the strange part about this critics. Sit down with over drinks and all they can tell you is how much woes they have.

I have had the same happen to me after I left(push out) of my job as a computer tech.

But! My house is paid for, my Condo in Florida is paid for, my Cabin up North is paid for.

I plan to enjoy my life and not work, work, work for more stuff than I need, not upgrade my properties to have a mortgage hanging over my head, nor try to impress people that once you pay attention to what they really say - you realize are a bunch of idiots.

These people are trying to make themselves feel important, because in the great grand scheme of things they are NOT! And worse in a hundred and fifty years we are all dust anyway.

Enjoy life and just laugh at their desperate attempts to be meaningful.

[MoonCat]

People are idiots.

I've been at my job for 34 years. It isn't what I initially wanted to do with my life, but that's my own fault for not planning better. My job has enabled me to buy a house, lets me pay my bills, and I get (mostly) paid health insurance and a pension. No one knows what the future will bring, but I'd be stupid to not to appreciate what I have now.

These days, the usual thing is to move along after 3 to 5 years at a company. It's hard for some people to believe it wasn't always done that way.

[Sapphire Silk]

I've been a nurse for 28 years. I love what I do . . . now. There was a point in time when I was burned out and hated it. So I quit and took a job delivering pizzas. And I loved it. We had a good crew, the work was easy, and I got to spend all day cruising in my car listening to music. What was not to like?

Things changed when I was forced to go back to nursing . . . and ended up falling in love with it all over again.

In the meantime, over the meandering course of my pursuit of my various degrees, I've worked a lot of jobs:

1. fast food cook (Roy Rogers). I hated that job. But I learned great things from it. How to punch a time clock, be on time, work hard, get along with co-workers, work in a team, and deal with sucky managers and sucky customers. It was not a waste of my time.

2. Library assistant/archive assistant. Did this one a lot. Learned a lot about organization, research, and customer service. Learned how to conserve and repair historical documents.

3. Reporter. Had a paid job at the university newspaper. Learned how to talk to strange people, how to write better, how to think, how to cut through BS, how to tell a good story.

4. Security. I had a job with campus police doing traffic control on campus. I learned how to deal with BS, how to keep my cool with sucky customers, how to communicate.

Here's the bottom line: it doesn't matter what you're doing to earn a living as long as you do the best job you can at what you do, and take pride in your work. I've taken pride in every job I've ever had, even the ones I hated (and I've hated some of my nursing jobs with an intense passion).

My best friend in high school got a job in education and taught for a few years. She hated it. The problem wasn't the kids. It was the parents and the administration. She quit and took a job as a cashier at a grocery store. She worked her way through a number of jobs and has been doing it for at least 20 years or so now. She likes getting up and going to work, she makes good money and supports her family.

I think that is far better than clawing ones way up the corporate ladder to make gobs of money and either die young or wind up in prison for securities fraud.

[mikoyan29]

What's funny is that if you stick out with some of those service jobs, you can make some pretty good cash as you move up in the ladder.

A couple of years ago, the Washington Post had an article about people that ended up becoming plumbers and what not after they decided they didn't like the stuff they would have done if they stayed with the job they studied in college for. They ended up coming out ahead of many of the people that were mocking them.

[Racket_Man]

To add one more story. My GF (we live together) worked as a red roof pizza place cook for 27 years and topped out at the wage ceiling more than a few years ago.

Workiing that job full time and working another job at a grocery store part time allowed her to

buy a house, several cars (not all at once of course), put a little back for later, do some semi-expensive house repairs (new roof kinda thing).

Unfortuenately she has developed a terminal brain disease and can no longer work but she worked at something she got good at and for whatever reason decided to stay.

[EricKei]

My own family is always bitching at me to go back to school. Yeah, on whose dime?

Simply respond, "Okay! I hear Harvard is nice this time of year. Lemme make sure I have your address right to make sure you get the bill!"

Giving others advice on something is easy - the advice-giver is not the one who has to deal with the headaches involved.

I've had a few crap jobs, from which I learned a lot, and a few cool ones...from which I still learned.

-- grocery guy for three years at a place where I was one of the most consistently-accurate cashiers, but almost never got shifts on-register, explicitly because I was a guy (and still am, last I checked...>_> ... hmm. Yup! Still am!).

-- Pizza dude at three different places (left one to work at family's store, loved the first, hated the family one, where I was expected to take orders from a guy who I never trusted, and who eventually robbed the place)

-- Little computer repair shop (low pay but I got all the used computer parts I could ever want and was allowed to play MMO's right alongside the owner when it was slow, as long as I took care of customers)

-- Later -- Actually used one of my degrees (!) and worked for an accounting firm doing tech support for six years....I chose a small place in order to avoid getting screwed over and treated like a number at some faceless corporation. Result: I got treated like a number and screwed over, then canned in favor of someone willing to work for half my rate.

-- After all that -- a different pizza joint. While it was short-lived, it was one of the most enjoyable work-type experiences I've ever had, second only to the comp shop.

-- Wrangling drivers at a newspaper delivery service, which, alas, collapsed due to competition and Hurricane Isaac. Got rear-ended on a delivery shift, fooking up my back and neck. Still fun aside from that.

-- Now -- Helping my brother out at a small-town newspaper, copyediting, helping out in the office, web stuff, etc (using the other degree ^_^)

[smileyeagle1021]

I'm going through this right now... there is a position open for an assistant manager at work (which I know that I really don't have much of a chance for, I'm pretty sure I already know who's going to get it, they've been grooming him for it for a while now... since before I even started) that I'm considering going for... my family is telling me not to go for it because it is not what I studied for and I can get much better in my field of study.
Well, to be blunt, if I could do much better in my field of study, I wouldn't be working at barely above minimum wage on the graveyard shift.

[Food Lady]

My job doesn't pay my bills, actually, not all of them. As respected and catered to as I am there, the district will never let any hourly employees work 40 hours a week. I will say that the minute I mention to HR or my boss that I'm not getting enough hours, my hours magically double the next pay period.

And I'm still there because I'm good at what I do and always change what I'm corrected on, even if begrudgingly at first. I have problems physically doing what I could normally do from time to time, and other companies would find a way to fire me (I've seen it happen and had it happen), but my managers say "no problem" when I call in or say "I can't physically handle this part of my job right now." Last year it was 3 months of that, and they accomodated me. So the thought that it's sad that I'm still there is a totally skewed perspective. If I weren't a valued employee I'd be like my naysayer, who couldn't make it past the holiday season herself.

I'm ok with my intelligence and creativity being expressed outside of my job. Those things aren't any less valid because I don't have a "career". As far as jobs go, I judge them by the perspective once uttered by a spiritually-minded friend: "In light of eternity, what does it matter?"

[blas]

I've been on the bottom of the totem pole at work pretty much by choice, though I was promoted to trainer at one time then demoted myself. In recent years, I've been told by one of the engineers that I should go to school for engineering in manufacturing and intern with him (or one of the other engineers at work, we do have paid internships that do turn into full time positions) because even though I'm not the most experienced or best on my shift, I'm the easiest to get along with and the best at explaining the things I know.

I'm just thinking....me in an engineering field? That's almost like when Elle Woods first got to Harvard. Stuck out like a sore thumb. Just picture me in my pink halter top and high heels walking into engineering classes. LOL!!!

[technopoptart]

I have two BA degrees, 100k in loan debt that i cant pay, been 3500 miles from home and school for 4 years years now and and a month away from my 3rd year at MC Donald's.

Pay sucks, but with the turnover i am one of the more senior people there, so at least i get a full paycheck and the hours i want which are the overnights, just 4 people but I like them so the job isnt that bad. AND my resume is neat and tidy with 3 years at this job, 5 months at HR block before that then the rest is 8 years employed with my university, going from student jobs to two full staff postions.

I dont have anything to "explain" and if someone wants to stick their nose at being 33 years old and at mc donalds for 3 years then they can suck it. They couldn't do what i do, McDonalds overnights is a very skilled job requiring time management, and independence.

Its one cook, one manager/Drive thru, one 2nd lane order taker and food hand out-er, and first booth cash and order taker. Thats it, four people for two lanes and now adding lobby across the nation over the next year ( we are a month away).

You have to make food, clean, get ready for breakfast change over between 3 and 4 am, and have the place pretty ready to really start the day at 5/6 am when the early crowd/ old people come in and the salary manager takes over at 6 am.

A 4 millon gross store like ours averages out to about $400-$650 on over night for just drive thru, after we start lobby and full 24/7 operation that will rise. This last fri-sat and sat-sun just the drive thru did over a grand between 11pm and 2 am. Go ahead and look down at me. You wouldn't last a week at my store.

[downforit2008]

Oh, people mock me all the time for being at the factory for almost 7 years now. People that I WORK WITH tell me I need to get out and go to school before I end up their age and still there. My own family is always bitching at me to go back to school. Yeah, on whose dime? With what insurance if I drop to part time at work with no bennies? Derpa derp derp.

Believe me, I get the same shit from current coworkers too! And also from past jobs, which made my blood boil.
"You should go to college!" they say. But they don't understand SHIT about my personal situations. I work two jobs, which make just enough to pay my bills, and there's just enough time in between jobs to sleep and change into fresh clothes for another shift at another job! If I have a day off at one job, I definitely won't on the other! So in the words of THESE people, who leech off their parents and have a part-time job just so they can "buy nice things" and don't have ONE bill to pay because they refuse to contribute for the costs of their lazy asses, I should quit one or BOTH of my jobs, move out of my apartment because I'll no longer be able to afford to live there, and then move into my older sister's house and have HER take care of me and my needs so I can sit in some school and get tens of thousands in debt in the hopes of landing a job that pays LESS on starting pay than what I make right now. These idiots will NEVER seem to understand what it's like to have to balance a budget so at the end of the month, you can have money to pay your rent AND buy some food that doesn't come from the Ramen shelves. I like my two jobs, my current situation, and my place. I have to work hard and don't have much free time(I mean, this is my FIRST time on here in weeks!), but right now, I just feel glad to have SOMETHING going for me and that I'm continuing to move forward while these clueless morons don't even have their engine turned on...because they're too stupid to even know how to start it.

[Food Lady]

I'm just thinking....me in an engineering field? That's almost like when Elle Woods first got to Harvard. Stuck out like a sore thumb. Just picture me in my pink halter top and high heels walking into engineering classes. LOL!!!

For some reason, I can totally picture that.

Go ahead and look down at me. You wouldn't last a week at my store.

Exactly.

so I can sit in some school and get tens of thousands in debt in the hopes of landing a job that pays LESS on starting pay than what I make right now.

I have been saying this for years, and only now is the general population starting to get the point.

[Halo_miles]

I get this a lot too. "Well, why don't you go into a REAL job?" I thought that's what this is? I sacrificed my education and scholarship to buy a house. I'm well educated, well spoken, and I graduated with honours. I love my job, my bosses, and my life. It drives me crazy that people seem to think that these jobs aren't legitimate. You take what you can get, people. I'm not an ignorant individual, I'm just someone who enjoys what they do.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Woe betide anyone who says something like "why don't you get a real job?!" to a retail worker around me. I HATE that attitude. When I finally got my IT job, Mom was so happy that I'd "finally found a real job." I immediately told her in no uncertain terms that just because someone doesn't sit behind a desk all day doesn't mean that they don't have a "real job" and if the job pays in real money, then it's a "real job." She very meekly apologized about it and made sure to warn Dad not to use that same phrase about my retail work around me.