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jack
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Likes it here |
Location: England
Registered: September 2006
Messages: 304
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what do you expect to receive from a job.
job satisfaction
Make friends.
good money.
promotion.
or none of those things.
oh marc you dont need to comment. (you r too bright )
life is to enjoy.
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Job satisfaction - being challenged, overcoming obstacles, feeling that I'm doing something worthwhile ... I've always worked in the broad field of the Arts. I need to feel that I'm putting something back into the community - many people of course do it through voluntary work, but for me it works better as employment. Perhaps self-validation is a better description than "job satisfaction" here, thinking about it.
Money? nope: the Arts are ludicrously underpaid!
Make friends? Not really - lots of close acquaintances, but if I move 500 miles away I don't usually keep in touch for more than a year or so. Though I met a guy in one job with who I ended up having a relationship of a dozen years with ... he got another job very shortly after we got together 'cos we were both uncomfortable with private life interfering with the manager/employee thing.
Promotion? Nope - I've been as high as I care to go (ie the highest level at which one can still keep regular contact with customers and the front line of the business - in both cases the level below 'director / board'), in two separate careers, and I'm no longer capable of working, nor interested in working, regular 80+ hour weeks. Now working part-time in a job I hope to stay in indefinitely ... as one of only two staff working for a small charity.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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Money is obviously a factor, but I can't understand the guys who make it their sole objective. I've never wanted to rise on the social scale, because I dislike the very idea of a social scale. Our house is comfortable and welcoming, but essentially ordinary, and that's the way we like it. I've been lucky enough to earn enough to allow us to buy whatever we needed, but our wants have always been modest, so that didn't need a particularly high income. What I do resent is the way that senior management (even if I was among them) have pulled away from the core workers in terms of salary. In my experience, it reflects neither effort nor ability but simply the opportunity to exploit self-interest. If you treat your staff as unthinking automatons, that's what they become - and the customers don't like it.
Friends? Not really. I do have a handful of friends whom I first met through work but, to be honest, I always tried to keep my social life separate from my work. Mind you, I moved around a bit; it might have been different if I'd worked with the same people for long periods.
Promotion? This must be linked to money, and I viewed it in the same way. I declined promotion several times because it would have involved a move to London, and (especially after I had children) the rural North-East seemed a much better place to be.
So back to job satisfaction. I might be wildly eccentric, but not much in life has given me a greater kick than knowing that what I did today has made a difference - a GOOD difference - to someone else's life.
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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A challenging and creative job that makes you look forward to Monday. If you enjoy your job, it shows and the good things should follow.
I can't think of anything worse than spending a third or more of your life working at a job you hate, just for money.
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JimB
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Likes it here |
Registered: December 2006
Messages: 349
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I chose many years ago to forego promotion and the associated money for work that I truely enjoy. The creativity of my work fullfills a need within my person that has allowed me to be very happy. Neither power nor money can buy that.
Except for a brief period early in my career I have remained a technician for 35 years and no amount of money could get me to change. I feel very fortunate to realy love my work.
JimB
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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The question is:
Jack.....
What do you expect from your employment?
As regarding if and when I choose to comment; I believe I can make that decision without your advice....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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Something's got to pay the Malt bills.
Hugs
N
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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Job satisfaction, sure... but the term is too general to be useful.
What do I need for job satisfaction? I need to be valued, to know that I am making a contribution, to have people value my ideas, as well as my efforts.
Almost as important: I need to learn, to develop skills, to gain competency.
I am not good at directing the efforts of others; I would rather be a follower. On the other hand, I don't want my boss to micromanage.
Money is less important, as long as my needs and some wants are met.
peter
"Tu non altro che il canto avrai del figlio, o materna mia terra..."
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At seventeen, and being a senior in high school facing the decisions about which colleges to choose, where to go for college, thinking about possible majors and the rest of it, this question touched a nerve.
I've been brought up around boats, and have sailed all my life. I love boats and boating, and the wonderful (mostly) folks you meet on the water. This past summer I had my first "real" job at a local marina, working as a dockhand and most importantly as sort of apprentice shipwright restoring two wooden boats from the Fifties. I discovered something about myself in that I love working with my hands, restoring and creating, especially wirh wood. I started looking around for colleges and technical schools for a possible major in yacht design. I even posed a question on this Forum asking for advice on the topic. But over the interveening weeks, I realized that boating may be more of an avocation than a possible career.
The issue of course, as so often in life, came down to money. I had some long talks with my Father and Mother, with Eldon, with Debbie and with other people whose opinions matter to me. My father told me frankly what his income was from the practice of medicine, and added to the income from the family estate he holds in trust, it's an impressive figure. He likewise asked me frankly what of my current lifestyle was I willing to sacrifice to pursue an avocation, knowing that the income I would like might never be forthcoming? I thought about it, and the answer I had to give was "nothing."
Pursuing an avocation as a career in Dad's opinion can lead to disatisfaction in both. The avocation, the occupation that once gave so much pleasure can become tiresome and boring when done day in and day out to earn one's living; and as a career it fails to produce the income one desires. So I think marina and a boat building operation will be sidelines if pursued at all.
I know there are those who say "well, money isn't everything." I agree up to a point. Money isn't everything, but yet nothing can be had without it. The people who say money isn't everything always seem to be those who don't have any. Those who do have money, and who have had substantial money for several generations, positively know the value and power of money. Can mere money buy happiness? No, of course not. But with money, life is a whole hell of a lot happier. I've heard people say that "money is the root of all evil." But actually, isn't the proper quote, "the love of money is the root of all evil?" For me, in my opinion, money is the root of substantial (although not all) happiness.
For now, my plan is to pick a college with a good math program, and to major in math and minor in education. After college land a teaching position someplace and have my summers for boating. After a few years, invest some of the capital I will have by then in either an older marina that needs building back up, or a new marina, and boatbuilding / restoration / repair yard.
Of course, by then, both my career expectations and my avocations may have changed too, so nothing is cast in concrete. Eldon is going to be a gentleman farmer all his like the generations of his family before him. He'll stay here, and gosh knows where I'll end up. We talked about the possibility of gradually taking my family properties back into active family management from being tenented as they now are, but I just don't envision myself as a farmer, however gentlemanly. My Father and Grandfather didn't either, which is why they went into medicine.
So for me, the answer is money.
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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,,, as I discovered to my surprise when I grew older. In lots of ways, I feel much the same today as I did as a teenager - at least, that's the excuse I use when I'm accused of being irresponsible, which happens quite a lot! But the money focus is one thing that did change. I didn't grow up in a wealthy household, but the family had been wealthy - my grandfather was a successful property developer, but went gracefully bankrupt before I was born. (Not his fault, by the way - his legal advisor decamped with all his liquid assets, spent the fortune fairly quickly and committed suicide when the law caught up with him. Alas, that was in the days before professional indemnity insurance was compulsory!) But I clearly remember that at Jon's age I was determined to be the one to restore the 'family fortune'; at that stage I'd certainly have chosen money.
I guess that I was around 30 when my priorities changed. By that time I was married, and earning a good professional salary. Over a fairly short period I re-examined my thinking. I had enough money for the two of us to buy or do pretty much what we wanted, but I realised that we weren't particularly acquisitive or financially ambitious. We did have a superb quality of life, in a supportive but not intrusive community, with spectacular scenery on our doorstep. That was when I decided that I didn't - ever - want to be a London commuter, whatever the rewards, and I've never regretted that decision. It seems to be a heritable trait; both my kids have Master's degrees, but neither of them want to leave the North-East of England on anything other than a temporary basis.
But follow your instincts, Jonny; given the intelligence you so obviously possess, you'll always be in a position to exercise options.
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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There was a time when I made shedloads of money along with my Ricky....
We loved good, paid for the best schools that money could buy, enjoyed a lifestyle that was stellar to say the least....
We completed our degrees from even better graduate schools and each slipped into dream careers....
I have to agree with Jon, that money can make dreams come true....
I chose to give a great deal of it away as a method of closure to some things and issues I need closure with....
I hope it is appreciated, I know the children will not know about the source or reasons.... and that doesn't matter, I just want to distract them from their pain, if only for a moment....
When one id that ill, a moment can be an eternity....
Jon, you have a good grasp on what is important in life, never loose sight of that and always remember that a dream is most worthy of realism when there is some good at the end of the road....
I'm very sure you already know this.... Which is a very good thing indeed....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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you answered my questions.
You don't love someone because they are beautiful, they are beautiful because you love them.
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what do you expect to receive from a job. (A response to Jack's question.)
job satisfaction
Above all I think. But with luck you can find that AND an income that will allow you to live. [I was lucky: my first job was programming the first IBM computer that reached Europe. It was as much fun to me as if I had been allowed to play trains all day. It was also reasonably well paid.]
Make friends.
I'd expect to make friends everywhere I go, but that wouldn't be a reason to choose one job over another.
good money.
Yes. It's no good doing what you like if you can't live at a level that you can tolerate. There's a lot to be said for always having a surplus, but I wasn't able to manage that; when we first bought a house and had children we only had one income for ten years so it wasn't easy. We had no help from parents.
promotion.
Well a job that cannot offer promotion will soon be unsatisfying. There are traps in many places though; after fifteen years in computers and having been promoted into management I was made redundant (my company was taken over). I then discovered that my technical knowledge was out of date (computers change so rapidly) and that I was unable to persuade anyone that my management experience was so good that I could do a better job than someone five years younger (who would do it for half the pay). I was unemployed for several months.
or none of those things.
It's always all of them and more besides. If you are able to I'd go for one of the professions that are semi-independent such as a Doctor, Lawyer Architect and if not one of them a job which might offer you the opportunity to start your own business when you've learned the ins and outs - whether it's plumbing or house painting. If you can't be a professional and don't run your own business you will be lucky if you ever reach a comfortable income.
But beware that even the safest seeming business can be hit by a disaster; who would be a fifty year old automobile worker in Detroit? Who would have guessed ten years ago?
Anthony
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"Just a job" versus following an avocation 
