Job situation (stress, new career, promotion, sacked, etc)

[Hagane]

boss cares about his business thriving while the worker only cares about his paycheck.

So the boss cares about making money and the worker cares about making money, huh.

[jonny5]

No job is ever worth your health. EVER.

Try saying that when the rent is due.

Employers who care about their employees are few and far between - the normal situation is that you will be worked to the bone, you are a slave to the man and absolutely at their mercy. When you burn out from increasing expectations and leave (or they get rid of you), they will replace you with someone who costs less and can't do the work, or costs more for the same work (despite the fact that they never gave you pay rises).

Find one that isn't as bad as the rest, and sell your soul to them.

Welcome to life.

Sadly, so very, very true. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Letter of resignation submitted. I'm a free and, at least for now, relaxed man! Damn that felt good.

Congrats! It's awesome to finally be able to say 'fuck you' and move on on your own terms.

[RGC]

Sounds like a CASHBACK situation all-around.

There will be quite a bit of this too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNDqzpgzdis

[Smraedis]

Letter of resignation submitted. I'm a free and, at least for now, relaxed man! Damn that felt good.

Good, and nice one!
I was made to leave my job in June, and now only have temporary work for now, but I feel much better still.

[DEL]

Congrats RGC,

A good move for your health.
The American company that I was working for has been up to more tricks recently. Its running a communist collectivist business model and of course the hire/fire rate is beyond horrendous. After firing me and the other 14 people hired at the same time as me, the US Boss & Shareholders promoted the European Director to a position in the USSA. He sold his house, moved his kids to Atlanta then they fired him under his new US contract to avoid paying him 100,000Euros+ in European severance pay that was due to him - sick!
The US Boss then swooped in on his European colleagues, firing the Marketing and Finance Directors and 19 worker drones in one day. They even fired the people who were doing the firing! I'm not kidding, they fired the HR staff at the end of that day as well.
The US Boss had 15 Monarch programmed fully brainwashed US workers ready in a hotel to replace the 19 Europeans.
Then he did some predictive programming and told the remaining European staff that he will be firing 12 more of them in the New Year.

Regs,

DEL

[RGC]

Jesus, DEL, that's quite a story. So where did this leave you, did you find something else?

Smraedis, glad to hear your situation has improved.

[xris]

Lol, yeah work stress...
Unfortunately, CHI is the one I understand in this thread. I work in a kitchen, your work load is very large, completely unpredictable, and needed to be done an hour ago. You have to jump to do the smallest thing. It's very fucking dangerous. Very. Most of your coworkers are degenerates. (So, society, you are really okay with a drug addicted drop out with poor hygiene making your food? Your rather expensive food? Yeah, you don't want to know how badly he mishandled it. Fuck you, I have to work with these people. Demand better.)
It's way more stressful than you could possibly imagine. On top of it, you do not get to sit down for around 9 hours. No break time, ever. I am not allowed to ever take even 15 minutes to sit down to eat. And when I do eat its mostly just scraps quickly stuffed in my mouth.
And my job is a good one! And it's still like that.
Really though, I do like my job, and am grateful to have it. There's some advantages, but it's still a very abusive job. You get used to it.
Ultimately, no. I do not let the stress of it touch me. Ever. It took time to learn how to keep it separate, but it is worth it. Leave it at work. Don't worry about shitty coworkers. Just do you, do it well. Be proud of what you do. Then go home and do it all again for yourself.
Edit- phone posting

[DEL]

RGC wrote;

Jesus, DEL, that's quite a story. So where did this leave you, did you find something else?

Yes and its a story that can only come from a mid to large sized American company.
Don't worry about me, I have ca$h coming in from 3 sources, plus I've still got the big severance money thanks to the employment Law here . If I had been working in their UK office I would have got nothing.
The American company is/was merely an interesting study on communism, ultra capitalism & what I would christen Exploitivism. Its strange how it really resembles The Hunger Games film
Wave of the American future perhaps...

xris wrote:

Lol, yeah work stress...
Unfortunately, CHI is the one I understand in this thread. I work in a kitchen, your work load is very large, completely unpredictable, and needed to be done an hour ago. You have to jump to do the smallest thing. It's very fucking dangerous. Very. Most of your coworkers are degenerates.

Yes I notice that many Chefs look older than their years...
I'm glad you enjoy it though and are able to separate work from home.

Personally I don't miss the technical sales stress from the American office-based company, not one bit.

[burgerkingdiamond]

RGC wrote;

Jesus, DEL, that's quite a story. So where did this leave you, did you find something else?

Yes and its a story that can only come from a mid to large sized American company.
Don't worry about me, I have ca$h coming in from 3 sources, plus I've still got the big severance money thanks to the employment Law here . If I had been working in their UK office I would have got nothing.
The American company is/was merely an interesting study on communism, ultra capitalism & what I would christen Exploitivism. Its strange how it really resembles The Hunger Games film
Wave of the American future perhaps...

xris wrote:

Lol, yeah work stress...
Unfortunately, CHI is the one I understand in this thread. I work in a kitchen, your work load is very large, completely unpredictable, and needed to be done an hour ago. You have to jump to do the smallest thing. It's very fucking dangerous. Very. Most of your coworkers are degenerates.

Yes I notice that many Chefs look older than their years...
I'm glad you enjoy it though and are able to separate work from home.

Personally I don't miss the technical sales stress from the American office-based company, not one bit.

what do you mean by communistic and ultra capitalistic at the same time? Isn't that a bit contradictory?

[BulletMagnet]

what do you mean by communistic and ultra capitalistic at the same time? Isn't that a bit contradictory?

Soon after the massive bank bailouts the phrase "capitalism for the poor, communism for the rich" (or some variation thereof) started making the rounds, and IMO summed up the situation (and still does) rather nicely: as I said in another thread, when things are going right management takes all of the credit and reaps nearly all of the benefits, but as soon as things start going downhill it's the workers who get their wages and benefits cut (if they're not canned outright), while the top floors keep those bonuses and exorbitant salaries flowing like water no matter how catastrophic their tenure (not to mention that whenever they DO leave they're pretty much guaranteed a generous severance package and a new cushy management position at some other company).

Long story short, he didn't misspeak.

[DEL]

burgerkingdiamond wrote;

what do you mean by communistic and ultra capitalistic at the same time? Isn't that a bit contradictory?

^Its a very good question and shows that you're having a little 'think' on it.
As BulletMagnet says, I wasn't too far off the mark. Both communism and ultra capitalism share one thing in common the exploitation of the poor/the workers.
Communism/collectivism was never an altruistic ideology to be fair to the population. It has much more to do with 'control' of the population and keeping them down. At depression times like these, it is easier for the larger companies to exploit the workforce. The American company I was working for didn't have middle management, just elites and slaves, plus the US equivalent salesmen in the US arm of the company didn't even have a wage , just commission only.
They get away with a lot of liberties.

[RGC]

So, I'm down to my last few days' notice with my current employer, and due to start my new job w/c 7th Jan. It's almost funny how my current boss is doing his best to screw me over in petty revenge (for leaving him in the lurch during a very demanding period), by making me work my remaining unclaimed leave, meaning I'll be here right up til xmas eve and back in for a few days in the first week of Jan. At least I'll get paid a little extra if I work my holiday days. And I use the word 'work' very loosely.

[DEL]

RGC wrote;

So, I'm down to my last few days' notice with my current employer, and due to start my new job w/c 7th Jan. It's almost funny how my current boss is doing his best to screw me over in petty revenge (for leaving him in the lurch during a very demanding period), by making me work my remaining unclaimed leave, meaning I'll be here right up til xmas eve and back in for a few days in the first week of Jan. At least I'll get paid a little extra if I work my holiday days. And I use the word 'work' very loosely.

As far as I understand, that company has worked you to death, stressing you out to the max and that's why you're leaving.
So yeah, Sod'em
Make sure you grin during every moment until your last day. Wind him up.

[Skykid]

And I use the word 'work' very loosely.

Don't do nuthin. What are they going to do, fire you?

[RGC]

Way ahead of you there. Time to watch some replays on youtube.

[jasoncslaughter]

No job is worth your health, but bills have to be paid. It's a rough spot, and unfortunately a lot of people are in it. My personal experience in higher education is not terribly uplifting. The current situation in the States seems to be getting worse every day. Older professors are hanging on to jobs well into their 70s because they lost their retirement in the crash, while people like myself can't find steady work because there is none. To top it off, when professors do retire, most schools replace them with adjuncts (the jobs I've been doing for some time) because they don't have to provide any sort of job security, health insurance, etc. Not to mention we make nothing compared to a tenured professor. And some of my superiors wonder why myself and several of my colleagues want to quit and open an arcade. Maybe one day.

[spadgy]

Just leave the work stress at work. Took me a long time to learn that, but I'm finally in a headspace where no matter how stressed I get at work with customers screaming at me and vendors/managers fucking me about, when I walk out the door, I forget it.

I'm getting there with this. It's an essential skill. I have a pretty stressful job with long hours, but take none of it home... apart from the bit that stops me sleeping.

I work at a great company that does look after staff and recognise how hard we work, but in the games industry (as with all creative industries I know) it's a given that the hours are long, working weekends is typical, and stress levels are high. On occasion I hate that, but the few non-stressful jobs I've had have left me feeling pretty empty. And I adore my current job, even if I hate it sometimes.

[trap15]

It's been a while coming, but I'm moving to Columbus, Ohio to start work as a Reverse Engineer at Battelle Memorial Institute. I'll be moving around the second week of January.

So, who's in the area?

[njiska]

This week I finally started a new job and despite the fact that it's a 55 mile commute in each direction, it's significantly better than my last one. Doing IT work now instead of phone support, so more hands on, more freedom, more fun. Hopefully the feeling will last.

[DragonInstall]

Still doing the same business for many years. A bit boring but what can you do. Pays the house cars and family.

Only thing stressful is the government trying to take as much money away from you.

California Government mentality.. "Hey we're raising taxes but we're getting less revenue since businesses are leaving California. Guess we have to raise more taxes on the ones that are still here so we can balance our budget."

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Decided to have some balls this year and ask for a 10% raise. Last year I got 4%, which considering what they pay me, it's a bag of peanuts. I'm sure they'll say no, but that's when I start looking elsewhere.

[Hagane]

Unemployed since the end of September. I had a nice job as a quality checker, doing lab work at a cosmetics company. I was doing very well, but as soon as things started to go bad economically my good performance didn't matter and got fired in a personnel reduction, since I was the newest at my area and the cheapest to lay off. At least I got a nice indemnification, but it's starting to run out and I still can't get a new job. Tough times.

[Domino]

Edit...

[EllertMichael]

Unemployed since the end of September. I had a nice job as a quality checker, doing lab work at a cosmetics company. I was doing very well, but as soon as things started to go bad economically my good performance didn't matter and got fired in a personnel reduction, since I was the newest at my area and the cheapest to lay off. At least I got a nice indemnification, but it's starting to run out and I still can't get a new job. Tough times.

I'm with you, man. Laid at off about the same time. I was dispatching at a small trucking company that blew one of their bigger accounts (no fault of mine) and I had a feeling they were gonna let me go. Last guy in, first guy out. (I left another job to go work for them, not knowing how truly unstable a company they were ) Currently collecting unemployment and on the job hunt, myself. Rough.

Best of luck to you, buddy.

No job is ever worth your health. EVER.

Try saying that when the rent is due.

Employers who care about their employees are few and far between - the normal situation is that you will be worked to the bone, you are a slave to the man and absolutely at their mercy. When you burn out from increasing expectations and leave (or they get rid of you), they will replace you with someone who costs less and can't do the work, or costs more for the same work (despite the fact that they never gave you pay rises).

Find one that isn't as bad as the rest, and sell your soul to them.

Welcome to life.

Sadly, so very, very true. Couldn't have said it better myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnK9KhH3ceI#t=5m

[jonny5]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnK9KhH3ceI#t=5m

I think it is the lucky(read: people who worked their asses off early) few who actually get to work in a field that falls within their interests, the rest of us get to simply find something that pays the bills and live with it. Sure it sucks to have a job you don't particularly enjoy, but if you don't identify yourself by what you do, it doesn't matter really. I work for a door hardware distribution company. I don't have any particular interest or affinity for doors or door related hardware, but it pays my bills and enables me to live a comfortable lifestyle and do the things I enjoy doing in my spare time. To me, what I do during the day at work isn't of much consequence; I simply view it as time away from what I'd rather be doing, but at the same time, without it, I wouldn't be able to afford to do many of the things I enjoy.

The company I work for is pretty tight knit and they tend to hold onto people, promoting from within, and generally explore any and all other options before they even consider letting people go. I like not being just a number and knowing I don't necessarily have to fear for my job everyday. Are there other things I'd like to do for a living? Sure, but at this point, it's not in the cards. The job I do may not be the most fulfilling, but I appreciate the company I work for; I've had lots of different jobs over the years, and quickly realized how big a difference it can make just by working for a reasonable employer who actually values it's employees.

For a lot of people, their job is just a means of supporting themselves/family, not an identifying characteristic of them as a person. My job is not who I am, it's simply a required revenue stream to live the life I want to live.

When I think back on my life, I don't think of work or the jobs I've had, I think about the things I actually enjoyed doing.

Certainly, an argument could be made for 'no job' being better than a job you don't enjoy, but that ship sinks fast when the funds run out.