For a lot of people boredom and lack of satisfaction in the job will kick in shortly after the new excitement wears off.
Jobs that have lots of idle time often lead to annoyance and frustration that you have to continue to be there without much to do. Everyone is different though, some people probably enjoy it.
This is exactly me. I spend most of my workday on my phone, doom scrolling. There might be an hour of actual work to do on a given day. It’s driving me insane and my neck is really starting to bother me from staring at my phone all day. I’m in the interviewing process for something different, so there’s a light at the end of the tunnel but it’s still pretty dark in here.
I feel your pain, and dealt with similar feelings when I worked a job that I didn’t find satisfying or challenging.
There are plenty of ways to turn the downtime at a boring job into an opportunity to learn something useful or find time for self improvement. Something like jotting down notes about a project you want to start or topic you want to learn more about can get you away from the phone, even if it’s only for a few moments.
I found it easy to break the doom scrolling habit by replacing it with reading books instead of garbage on the internet. I downloaded an e-reader app for my phone at first and used a free library membership to find some authors and topics to get me started. In my case I eventually got annoyed by the notifications and phone nonsense while I was trying to read and switched to a dedicated e-reader. YMMV.
Yeah I worked a job which security clearances were needed. Spent a lot of the week in the parking lot waiting for clearances to push through. Very boring and by the time you got in you didn’t feel like working anymore.
I worked a mailroom job with only about 3-4 hours of actual work a day. I was explicitly told I was free to spend any free time however I liked, so long as I stayed nearby.
I read books, gamed a bit, learned some programming and Linux server stuff… was pretty great actually. I only ever left that job because the offer was for twice as much pay. I often still miss the free time.
Yep I’m self employed now and still working my ass off but sometimes I day dream about just getting a job like you describe where you just have super low responsibility, simple tasks and lots of downtime. It’s a shame this usually means shitty pay, so I’m more focused on making my skills valuable enough that I can work only a few days a month.
I did the self-employed grind, lots of 12 hour days, lots of downtime with no work or money coming in. My wife hates instability to the point she refuses to let me invest our money anywhere (we use a managed mutual fund… ugh). This means it was get stable work or watch her hair fall out from stress, so I took what I thought would be a shit job but turned out to be a decent one.
Get this: after working that job for a bit she says “I’m worried you have no ambition”. No shit I gave up my dream to work a mailroom. Anyway ended up back in IT not long after getting certs in my work downtime.
I’ve been writing software professionally for almost 15 years. I’ve never hated writing software, it’s something I really enjoy. But I’ve gotten to the point where I vehemently hate the industry. It’s horribly cutthroat, driven by pure capitalism and there’s never any incentive to do something cool or novel unless it grows profits in a quarter. The problem now too is that participating in the open source community is wading into a den of toxicity. So many people are using or contributing to open source software with the pure goal of financial gain, and they are toxic parasites. Scroll through comments in GitHub issues on popular projects and they are everywhere. What started as a fun way to collaborate on projects where people would work together to build cool things has turned into a cesspool of bickering. I’m tired. Tired of the industry, and tired of the fact that software has just become an idea for “get rich quick” schemes for so many.
My dad was an executive for a large telecom company in the 90s and 2000s. A lot of the other executives would actually start a farm… like alpacas lol. The CFO of the company started a hydroponic farm (not a drug one)
I don’t think what you’re saying is all that silly, seriously.
I think when you have the money to start a farm it totally makes sense, and I probably would. As farms exist now, they have to basically scrape by to make it, constantly fighting pressure from big Ag to get acquired or get shut down so they can’t compete. At least that’s how it is in the US. It’s looking more like I should just figure out how to move out of the US lol, but the problems we have exist everywhere, and problem’s we’ve had are now rearing their heads. Perhaps at the end of the day I’ll try to buy a cabin in Alaska and die trying to start a fire to stay warm lol
Sounds like your problem is with the specific industry you’re in, not software in general. Move out of finance or startups or wherever it is that’s so cutthroat and find a long established company that’s not in danger of going out of business on one bad quarter. The industry might not be as interesting but the work will be, and the pay might not be as high but the quality of life will improve!
I’m at one of those companies and they’re just as greedy and cutthroat as anyone else. I really can’t imagine why you think that’s limited to fintech or startups.
Because everyone I know at companies like that has a pretty chill time most of the time. Clearly your millage has varied, but my point is that not every job is unpleasant, you just have to find somewhere relaxed, and that’s not an impossible feat.
I’d love to have this ‘wagecuck’ warehouse job, mine is just so soul draining day by day
Op is still on a high that comes with doing literally anything new. His soul won’t last, don’t worry.
His job sounds chill as fuck. If your soul can’t handle that sort of work then what can it even handle
For a lot of people boredom and lack of satisfaction in the job will kick in shortly after the new excitement wears off.
Jobs that have lots of idle time often lead to annoyance and frustration that you have to continue to be there without much to do. Everyone is different though, some people probably enjoy it.
Same people complaining about boredom would probably next complain about there beint too much to do.
This is exactly me. I spend most of my workday on my phone, doom scrolling. There might be an hour of actual work to do on a given day. It’s driving me insane and my neck is really starting to bother me from staring at my phone all day. I’m in the interviewing process for something different, so there’s a light at the end of the tunnel but it’s still pretty dark in here.
I feel your pain, and dealt with similar feelings when I worked a job that I didn’t find satisfying or challenging.
There are plenty of ways to turn the downtime at a boring job into an opportunity to learn something useful or find time for self improvement. Something like jotting down notes about a project you want to start or topic you want to learn more about can get you away from the phone, even if it’s only for a few moments.
I found it easy to break the doom scrolling habit by replacing it with reading books instead of garbage on the internet. I downloaded an e-reader app for my phone at first and used a free library membership to find some authors and topics to get me started. In my case I eventually got annoyed by the notifications and phone nonsense while I was trying to read and switched to a dedicated e-reader. YMMV.
Yeah I worked a job which security clearances were needed. Spent a lot of the week in the parking lot waiting for clearances to push through. Very boring and by the time you got in you didn’t feel like working anymore.
I worked a mailroom job with only about 3-4 hours of actual work a day. I was explicitly told I was free to spend any free time however I liked, so long as I stayed nearby.
I read books, gamed a bit, learned some programming and Linux server stuff… was pretty great actually. I only ever left that job because the offer was for twice as much pay. I often still miss the free time.
Yep I’m self employed now and still working my ass off but sometimes I day dream about just getting a job like you describe where you just have super low responsibility, simple tasks and lots of downtime. It’s a shame this usually means shitty pay, so I’m more focused on making my skills valuable enough that I can work only a few days a month.
I did the self-employed grind, lots of 12 hour days, lots of downtime with no work or money coming in. My wife hates instability to the point she refuses to let me invest our money anywhere (we use a managed mutual fund… ugh). This means it was get stable work or watch her hair fall out from stress, so I took what I thought would be a shit job but turned out to be a decent one.
Get this: after working that job for a bit she says “I’m worried you have no ambition”. No shit I gave up my dream to work a mailroom. Anyway ended up back in IT not long after getting certs in my work downtime.
Right? Mine involves sitting in front of a computer. I’m thinking of getting a part time job at a moving company just so I can get some excercise
I’ve been writing software professionally for almost 15 years. I’ve never hated writing software, it’s something I really enjoy. But I’ve gotten to the point where I vehemently hate the industry. It’s horribly cutthroat, driven by pure capitalism and there’s never any incentive to do something cool or novel unless it grows profits in a quarter. The problem now too is that participating in the open source community is wading into a den of toxicity. So many people are using or contributing to open source software with the pure goal of financial gain, and they are toxic parasites. Scroll through comments in GitHub issues on popular projects and they are everywhere. What started as a fun way to collaborate on projects where people would work together to build cool things has turned into a cesspool of bickering. I’m tired. Tired of the industry, and tired of the fact that software has just become an idea for “get rich quick” schemes for so many.
Wanna start a farm?
My dad was an executive for a large telecom company in the 90s and 2000s. A lot of the other executives would actually start a farm… like alpacas lol. The CFO of the company started a hydroponic farm (not a drug one)
I don’t think what you’re saying is all that silly, seriously.
I think when you have the money to start a farm it totally makes sense, and I probably would. As farms exist now, they have to basically scrape by to make it, constantly fighting pressure from big Ag to get acquired or get shut down so they can’t compete. At least that’s how it is in the US. It’s looking more like I should just figure out how to move out of the US lol, but the problems we have exist everywhere, and problem’s we’ve had are now rearing their heads. Perhaps at the end of the day I’ll try to buy a cabin in Alaska and die trying to start a fire to stay warm lol
Sounds like your problem is with the specific industry you’re in, not software in general. Move out of finance or startups or wherever it is that’s so cutthroat and find a long established company that’s not in danger of going out of business on one bad quarter. The industry might not be as interesting but the work will be, and the pay might not be as high but the quality of life will improve!
I’m at one of those companies and they’re just as greedy and cutthroat as anyone else. I really can’t imagine why you think that’s limited to fintech or startups.
Because everyone I know at companies like that has a pretty chill time most of the time. Clearly your millage has varied, but my point is that not every job is unpleasant, you just have to find somewhere relaxed, and that’s not an impossible feat.
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Ride a bicycle, it’s healthier than moving furniture
Who is going to pay them for that?
Get a treadmill desk.