If You Are Employed Has Your Job Become A Treadmill Sprint From Hell?.

[TheMastersNemesis]

Even is someone has a job it probably is hardly any picnic. Politics, long hours, short hours, crazy policies, whiplash changes, impossible assignments, constant justification of your very existence, low or inadequate pay & benefits,etc seem to make working more like a gauntlet than a job. Thankfully I have been retired for a long time. Things may look norma but I suspect they are worse than I know.

[Newsjock]

1. Every day when I swipe my badge and it lets me in the door again ...

... I breathe a sigh of relief that a faceless suit 3,000 miles away hasn't suddenly decided that I'm too old, too expensive, too whiny, too ugly, or too anything else. And then I begin to think it's actually a sigh of anguish. Life is just too short for all this bullshit.

[CFLDem]

2. I enjoy my job.

I just wish they would let me have some overtime and maybe some time in the field.

[Efilroft Sul]

3. Absolutely.

I'm one of those people who works in the belly of the beast, an advertising and marketing agency (and, yes, I wish most people who treat this field seriously would heed Bill Hicks' advice). The last two months have been excruciating and exhausting. There have been nights that I have come home and fell asleep on my living room's hardwood floor. Today, I worked an 11-hour day and created four print ads from scratch and made major revisions to three others, all for one client. I should be flat on my can, but I can't get myself to slow down yet.

Surprisingly, the client I dealt with today is not my worst.

My worst client made my life, my family's life, and my closest co-workers' lives absolute misery this recent holiday season. It was during this period that I was able to make the distinction between clients who are Assholes and Fucking Assholes.

An Asshole Client is known for wanting everything done in the days before Christmas, because said client is going to be jetting to Tahiti and just has to close the book on the year with one more marketing assignment checked off his to-do list. Never mind that the stuff doesn't have to be printed or aired until sweeps in February, the client wants it done now, and by the way, Merry effin' Christmas. Note that you should never confuse any extensions of holiday cheer by Asshole Clients to be genuine; it's just them going through the motions by feigning humanity.

A Fucking Asshole Client, in contrast, sits on a major project for eight months and goes silent the entire time. Out of the blue in mid November, the Fucking Asshole communicates that he wants 16,000 web presentations to go live by the end of business New Year's Eve. That means you're expected to work through Christmas, holiday vacations get canceled, and the kids' excitement about Santa's arrival is blunted by yet another one of papa's departures to work. Such Fucking Asshole Client also wants 10-hour shifts in full swing right up to the deadline and makes sure the direction he provides is either counter-intuitive, nebulous, or contradictory. Sometimes you hit the sphincter trifecta.

It's a grind, I tells ya.

[spinbaby]

4. Unfortunately...

...this has become SOP.

[B2G]

7. I guess I'm lucky

I love what I do, I work from home 5 days a week so I have tremendous flexability, I am very well compensated, have wonderful benefits and a great boss.

So no, not everyone is completely miserable.

[Efilroft Sul]

16. I'm glad for you. Seriously.

[rucky]

8. Do we know each other?

I work on the asshole client side, and am seriously considering following Bill Hicks' advice.

[Efilroft Sul]

17. I don't think one DUer would be an asshole in the workplace to another.

So, no, I don't think we know each other! I used to work side by side with spinbaby, though.

[JaneyVee]

5. I actually enjoy my job, the only thing is

We have a set start time of 7am but no set end time, just a minimum of 8 hr days. A typical day is between 8-10 hrs but I've actually worked 30 straight hours without going home. The only reason I can't complain is because the wages are very good and I'm unionized. Besides, sometimes work and my co-workers seem like the only social life I have. We're all very close and good friends, which makes the work day more enjoyable.

ETA: but don't get me wrong, it has its hellish days as well.

[loli phabay]

6. in a similar situation, start at three pm, never know when i will get home, but its at least twelve

but i love my job and the people i work with, also love the autonomy i have. my day can be as busy or as laid back as i want so its a big win in that regard. also love working four and off four, means its like a long weekend every week.

[JaneyVee]

10. I only work Mon-Fri, minimum 40 hrs, usually closer to 50-55.

[loli phabay]

11. my shifts mean my days working change every week, always four on, sometimes xtra days

during the recent snows i dont even try to get home, just sleep at the office. in winter its a pain being outdoors and freezing but rest of the year its awesome.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. I count my blessings every day.

I have two jobs and love them both.

The pay mostly sucks, but it's enough, and I was put on this earth to be more than an income stream.

[mokawanis]

12. Thanks to Scott Walker, my job has changed a lot

Gov. Wanker said Act 10 was all about economics, because Wisconsin was broke, but since that legislation was passed the work rules have changed considerably. Shorter breaks, more forced overtime, forced to work on scheduled off-days, no time-and-a-half for overtime if you used vacation time that pay-period, "merit pay" increases instead of across-the-board increases for everyone.

The worst think Wanker did was he succeeded in pitting working-class people against each other. I could retire now, but I'm going to hang in there for 5 more years. Fuck Walker.

[davidthegnome]

13. Yep.

I actually made a couple posts about this recently, right here in GD. What really got to me was that there are so many people who feel the same way I do - and people who have it even worse. One person with a master's degree, making NINE dollars an hour, after all that work, all that borrowing... having to take out payday loans just to survive another week.

I expect that, over the next few generations (provided climate change, nuclear war/disaster, or something unforeseen doesn't wipe us all out) America will become a Nation in which three or four generations of family are forced to live together in smaller homes for the sake of survival. We are already well on our way. My parents had three children together. I am twenty nine and make... oh, less than ten thousand a year - can't work full time due to medical issues, and the part time job I do have takes everything I've got. My sister, the eldest, is 31 and works probably 100 hours a week or so, to make roughly thirty thousand a year. Another sister, living with her fiancé and a young child... they can't afford to pay heating and rent and still buy groceries, so they frequently need help, too - in the end, they may be forced to move up here with us.

My parents do quite well, but have been in the game for decades, working ridiculous hours and shifts - and have to keep pushing back their retirement so they can help their children. We are all very tired - not a single one of us actually likes our job/s. We have to keep going though, because if one of us falls apart, it increases the burden on everyone else.

So much depression, anger, exhaustion, frustration, hardship. I can't really put it all into words that do it justice. We're one of the lucky ones, our whole family... because we have each other, but there are so many out there who have no one, nothing to fall back on. Meanwhile, these despicable human beings we call politicians are so very eager to rip apart what remains of the social safety net.

There must be a point at which enough Americans will say "Enough" and join together to do something about the inequality and injustice in this society... but I do not think that time has come yet.

[Populist_Prole]

14. On paper I shouldn't have too much to complain about but it's getting to be a PIA lately

Company has been making more money than in their corporate history but has been stonewalling us on a raise on a contract that's been overdue for nearly 2 years, one where we took concessions. seems like a definite "speedup" is in the works and management from top to bottom is tripping over themselves trying to make themselves look good with "good numbers". The workload is increasing, straining department's ability to handle it and the actual needs filled to lip-service ratio is about 1 to 4.

But the worst thing is the micromanagement on a scale I've never seen before. They have no idea how disruptive and counterproductive ( and infernally annoying ) their meddling is.

[MindPilot]

15. Since Monday, 16 hours of OT and a shouting match with my boss's boss.

Rough week. I'm in IT.

At least I have a job, I live in a place where the rule is time & a half over 8, my really good healthcare is $53 a month, I have a pension and a 401k, and I get to work among some of the smartest scientists and engineers on the planet.

So it could be worse, but yes, there has been a remarkably sudden increase in workload and it seems like everyone is on edge over it.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

18. Healthcare is being run like Ford's production line. For Profit.

I am forced daily to do too much, for too many, and with less time, care, concern and the materials necessary to do the job correctly.

If you divided the patient/direct care staff by the minutes of my shift you would KNOW that if you ever have to place a loved one in a long term care facility you better be willing to spend some amount of time DAILY with your loved one.

Become an aware and alert advocate.