I was a police officer for 30 years and mostly enjoyed it. If anyone tells you they went into police work to help people, they quickly got their dreams smashed and reality set in. Most people can't be helped, they have to want to help them selves. My last couple of years I really started to resent people and their petty problems that they brought on themselves. I stayed till I was 54 despite being able to retire at 50. Physically I could have stayed longer, mentally I chose to leave before I developed an 'attitude' and ruined my good reputation. I earned several awards and the boss still asks me to come back. Luckily in all those years of carrying a gun, I never had to use it.

People don't quit jobs, they quit bosses. Work is not what most people dislike, but the personnel interactions usually with those in leadership roles take a daily toll on emotional health and physical is usually not far behind.

On top of that, I hear that most common killer of the elderly is boredom. When your friends pass away and your kids build their own lives and your close loved ones are gone, work keeps a lot of people going. Always have something to keep you occupied and with purpose.

Find what you love and then get the training, education, and skills to get someone to pay you for doing what you love.
Great jobs are out there.

I spent my career in academia, a professor then a part time administrator, before I retired. It was well known on our campus that virtually all the women were on antidepressants. Speaking to women at other schools, they also had that experience. College professor is always listed as a 'low stress' job, but having to deal with increasingly unprepared and uninterested students, cutting of funds, and hostility from the general public takes its toll. One issue is the false notion that professors make a lot of money. There is a billboard outside my town recruiting long haul truckers. The STARTING salary is almost $10,000 higher than my salary when I retired and I was at the top of the chain of promotions and also got some additional money for being department chair. So we don't make nearly as much as people think. (I'm speaking of a state university in the Midwest.)

It really depends on the company and the people with whom you work. For me, I spent way too much time in big corporate life. It is an unnatural environment that is stressful. Some people thrive in it though. Some people put up with it for the monetary rewards. I think the best thing is to never make work your life unless you are fortunate enough to love the work you do.

I think society has evolved to allow less opportunity for an individual to pursue a happy career. I have much more to say but too lazy to type.

Going to work is the best part of my day.

I am retired now, but worked as a nurse in labor and delivery for 15 years, then as a nurse midwife for 20 years. The work was long hours, emotional, happy, sad, and the most amazing, and magnificent work I can imagine. I cared for women who were immigrants,(illegal and legal), homeless, addicted, abused, prostitution, malnurished, refugees, speaking a multitude of languages. They had been through, unimaginable experiences in refugee camps, raped, beaten, deaths of family members and children. These women were unbelievably resilient and strong, often doing whatever they had to do to stay alive. The honor of caring for them, of sitting with them as they labored, of sometimes telling them that their baby's heart isn't beating, or their baby has severe birth defects, of being the first hands a child was born into, never got old. I retired after delivering over a thousand babies. I love retirement, but I cherish the memories of my profession. I worked until I was nearly 68, and was ready to stop, but, I definitely miss some parts. I certainly live retirement though.

When I was a groomer I loved my job. It was calming and good for my mental health.

After my accident I struggled finding employment with my disability.

Then I started at the hospital.

I love working there, but it does negatively affect my mental health. I'm tired and it can be really stressful at times. Visitors and doctors get angry easy and sometimes I have people yelling at me while I'm taking dozens of calls and dealing with emergencies like strokes or traumas or code blues. It can get really stressful and I get burnt out.

I'm also dealing with my personal problems like my hands failing and that adds on.

This month I took an extra day off a week and realized that I felt 100 times better. I felt calmer and less stressed and I was able to do more productivity.

I'm filing for disability by the end of the year, so I can work part time instead of full time. This experience reinforced my thought that part time would be healthier for me than full.

Unfortunately lack of money is also a stresser

It wasn't so much hating the job, but for the most part, I really hated management.

Depends on the company culture. I've experienced both extremes.
Best advice I ever got while in school about working was: "it's up to you to control your work environment."

I could write a freaking encyclopedia... Suffice to say I have always loved what I do. First job lasted 31 years until lay off. Had a great ride and lots of good memories. I have been on the new job for a year, re-invent myself and having a blast...... Perhaps I will be the exception by saying on my death bed that I wish I had spent more time at work

I bail when I feel like my job is contributing negatively to my overall happiness and try to find something that won't make me feel crappy about life.
Easier to change your job than friends/family and often is all I ever require.

I worked all my life till my AML, Acute Myloid Leukemia Diagnosis 6 years ago. I was a successful Sales Representative/Manager for many well known companies. I won national sales awards and was highly respected. Sometimes you have a personality conflict with a manager, sometimes a company goes through a reorganization and you are laid off, sometimes your personality doesn't fit with the Company philosophy. My employer decided to put me on Long Term Disability. I haven't work since. I'm a Cancer Survivor and Chronic Heart Failure Survivor and I live each day to the fullest on Agnostic.com. Ive met the last love of my life right here and Dan and I are living together in harmony. I dream of working all the time and the nice thing is I am retired.

Mine isn't a typical situation. Work has been essentially sleep deprivation torture for me, as my narcolepsy often resists treatment. I can't remember a job I enjoyed, as I either felt horrifically unwell most of the time or had terrible people as co-workers or both. Nowadays, of course, I wouldn't be able to get employment if I had a gun held to my head. We're nothing more than objects to them and when a thing has been off the market for too long no-one wants to buy it. Part of me is glad of that, though, because I'm sick of being used and thrown away and ground to paste.

Retired... I learned to Love My Job if I didn't Loved My Job. If I lacked drinking money I got me a part time for my drinking money. As a Working Man I did not allowed Greed to Sour my Days. So as a Retired... if I can Not Live Happy with My Retirement. There is something Wrong with me but is not going to be Money... Never finished college. In the Real World started as an Illustrator, Commercial Artist and Paste Up Man before computers... Joined the Navy for 20 years, Saw half the World, living in 3 European Countries. Allowing me to meet many women in their land or in another land not mine... Mediterranean Playgrounds. Was a Radioman/Information Systems Technician. Top Secret Clearance. CMS Custodian my most Responsible job, a Clerical Error can put me in Jail, After Navy retirement was a government contractor, Database Administrator, Apple portables support, Comcast Cable and Internet Installer, Internet Support over the phone, Health Insurance Comm Center, Credit Card Support. I wore many hats, got paid extra for being bilingual. Made it to Retirement at 62. I get bored, lonely, lazy but I am Not Working Again. Never been Healthier! My Final Answer: Retired.

I have both good and bad days, but I do enjoy (for the most part) what I do so in a way it's not like working a job one hates.

Graveyard at walmart. Working myself to death barely holding off going crazy. Not so much anymore used to see shadow people stocking or shopping. Same with everyone of my coworkers. Joke is they are fallen workers. Yeah everyone sees them. Well the ones that weren't crazy before. No life no time to work out too drained to anyway. 8 hours a night on my feet barely making it. Sleep for 30 minutes in the car after work just so I can make it 15 minutes to the house there 12 hrs of sleep there. Wake up freezing but temp sat at 85. 5 years here feels like 20. Co workers get high on the clock actually work faster. Least it shuts them up. Only ones that want to work graveyard are nutjobs. Seen more then one guy sleep work. Did it myself apparently according to my co-worker. Made a guy mad 2 years ago he clocked out and bought a gun. Nothing happened. No vacation in 4 years. Tried for a 1 day vacation for a doctors appointment got denied. Called in. My only missed day in 5 years. They jacking the point system up so much. Currently 9 days but theres talk of dropping it to 6 and have 2 points per a call in so only 3 days. Better not get sick. Building leaks everywhere. When I started there were about 8 leaks in the whole store now theres at least 3 per an aisle. Some out of light fixtures. Some in the back it is like there is no roof. Its bad and getting worst.

I have spend 20 plus years nursing . The most selfish " job " ever . U get to meet humans at their best and the worst , and u get to be a part of their most private and intimate thoughts and moments . No book can't teach u that or ways to handle it , let aside ways to handle all this AND help them . My job is the type of job that makes u cry a lot . U need either a bottle , either drugs to go through . I had the wisdom through out the years to not be a friend of either . I had friends and I had pen and paper . Funny enough , replaced w note sections on iPhone . Yet still the same , keeping random notes of impressive human moments . Nursing is selfish . U get the illusion that people need u , the satisfaction that doing something good . If I had a child and if asked to give employment advice , career advice , I am not sure if promoting nursing to it . The pain and the tears are more than the joy . The are great if u know how to navigate your career , but is not everything in life . Nursing is for people who can sit by the terminal ill , the one that just got the news at ED of what his nausea and abdominal pain for 4 days really means , and be able to keep mouth shut and just hold that humans hand for awhile or as long as it takes . While at room 3,5,7 whatever , rest of critters waiting and screaming for their pain meds / bedpan / test results / name it . I am at point of my career that kissing behinds is not required and I belong to nobody . I make my own schedule , and I chose how much or how minimum to work . 12 nights a month is what I can average happily do on these days , and I make a point to not make my schedule until 2 hrs b4 I have to decide if I want to work that night ?This way , I only work when I really feel up and ready to help and interact w humans . To me , this is priceless on nowadays .

I work as a teacher in the south, so everything we do, even departmental meetings, are led off with a prayer. We even had a Muslim in our department last year and she was expected to hold hands and pray. Personally I just look skyward and try not to make my eye rolls audible. But this to be expected in the south. I am not vocal with my co-workers about my feelings, nor with my students. However, I am honest if asked. Most of my students know and are curious. I constantly tell them that I am not going to say too much as to influence them, after all I teach them how to think, not what to think.

I have worked at schools that are almost exclusively black and have had to prove that I am not overly racist. I am honest with them that everyone is racist to a degree, but it is those that actively work to decrease that degree that are allies. Most of the schools I have worked have a very bad reputation, but I have found that to be unwarranted and often more of an excuse for the district to ignore the real problems of unequal treatment and opportunity. Last year the district refused to fix the air in my room which is in the basement without windows. Even when it was over 90 degrees outside we still had the heat on. It was over a 100 in the classroom. Because we are a "black" school our air is controlled by the district. I kept telling them if they did not fix the air I was going to have a heart attack. This went on from August to March when I had a heart attack in the classroom. This after twice almost having heat stroke in the room and having to be taken out by ambulance. All of a sudden they could fix the air.

So despite having Social Anxiety Disorder, it is the bureaucracy that causes me stress.

You are experiencing what Marx described as alienation. You have described it perfectly. Hopefully, you haven't had to suffer through too many "employee-engagement" programs.

Most people don't like their jobs. For me I can only do a limited amount of work, and that lets me pay the bills. I'm certified to do a lot of things, but I have a 20# weight restriction on my back. Not a lot of jobs out there that allow me to work. Plus I get anxiety. My income and jobs fluctuate a lot. I need to find more stable work. I went through VR, and they couldn't help me find anything. Best bet is to try and find some sort of legit work from home job. No I'm not going to do telemarketing. There was one advertised in the paper. I really didn't want to do it. Plus it was barely above min wage, and I had to use my phone. I couldn't stand being yelled at all the time. Also the guy I talked to on the phone asked if I was disabled. Legally they can NOT ask you that. I think their endgame was to make a script saying I was, and use that to make a sale.

I quite enjoy my work but don't love it, it's a means to paying the bills. It's the best place for me to be due to pension etc.

I don't bring work home either physically or mentally, I leave it all there and so my time is free time and fortunately my mental health is in pretty good nick.

If I won the lottery I'd quit tomorrow and do what I would like to do with the winnings

i am old and disabled but i worked my whole adult life, and i have had some stinkers of jobs as well as some really great ones. one of the stinkiest was with an ad agency whose sole client was singapore airlines. the bosses of our local office were a man and a woman, neither of them particularly nice people, and the atmosphere in that place was somewhere between oppressive and paranoia-inducing. their favorite ploy was to hand a secretary a huge spreadsheet to type up, 15 minutes before closing time, and insist it was needed right away. there was no overtime pay, of course. they had employees spying on one another; i made a casual remark to someone at lunchtime once and was called on it by the bosses some time later, and the remark was none of their business, had nothing to do with the business, and as far as i was concerned was quite innocent anyway. the pay wasn't enough to live on, either, but i'd had a hard time finding a job until i got that one -- i kept encountering the "o" word. that would be OVERQUALIFIED. all i wanted was a job that paid enough for me to stay sheltered, fed, able to feed the cats and dog, and to gas up the car, with a little extra to go to the movies on weekends and indulge my book- and record-store habits. that's not so bad, is it? this job didn't fit the bill. so i found myself one day applying for food stamps for the first time in my life. back then, they actually were stamps, too! when i explained why i needed them, they send me to a counselor (on site). as i described the job, the counselor kept saying, "but... but... they can't do that! that's illegal!" that gave me an idea.

the next work day, i didn't go in to work and i didn't call in sick either. when they finally called me, i said "oh, i'm sick." the next day i did the same thing. the day after that they said they wanted to see me. the day after that was friday and i went in to work and met with my two bosses in the man's office.

they told me the job just wasn't working out and they would like me to resign.

i told them the job was impairing my mental health, and about my meeting with the counselor. their faces went ashen. every time i quoted the counselor, i told them i'd said to the counselor, "but all i want to do is get well!" i said this several times and they lost a bit more facial color every time i did. finally, they said, "wouldn't you like to resign?"

i said "wouldn't it be cheaper for you to pay my unemployment than to pay my workman's comp?"

they looked at each other again and then asked, "when would you like us to fire you?"

"i'd like to be paid for today."

they complied.

of course i had no health insurance from them anyway, so that wasn't a consideration.

g

I worked designing communication graphics - a job I loved - for 8 years until I got "downsized" after a massive shake-up in management. The new manager who came from a different department entirely gave my position to a guy she knew personally and had worked with previously. That was bullshit of the highest order. I had literally created the job from nothing over the course of 8 years and this bitch gave it to a friend of hers.

The job I have now pays the bills and provides good insurance but that's it. Zero job satisfaction just sitting at a computer all day doing work that neither challenges nor inspires me. The only good thing to come from it is that it compelled me to start writing books to fill the creative void.

God, I miss that graphics job.