Poll of the Day > What % of people do you think actually enjoy what they do for a living?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I always hear the old "If you dont love what you're doing you'll be stressed, burned-out, and then be flat out miserable".

I enjoy my job even if I would rather be doing something else, does that count or are you only talking about dream job situations?

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I would guess around 30-40%

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Muscles posted...

I enjoy my job even if I would rather be doing something else, does that count or are you only talking about dream job situations?

I think that's a fair answer. I doubt many people work their dream jobs but as long as they enjoy the job they work that's probably the most important factor.

I actually enjoy what I do

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Depends. Like dream job, probably really low. Maybe 10%-20%. And 20% feels like a stretch. Just enjoy is. Maybe like 30%-40%. I think most tolerate or hate their job. Based on what I hear, at least
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Probably not most, I'm lucky that I do

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Actually "love" their job to the point that "it doesn't even feel like work"?
Maybe 5%, tops.

The amount who don't hate their job and it's not too stressful, but they'd still rather have the free time than working said job if it was an option? Probably another 20%.

Working sucks, people do it b/c they have to. Republicans and feminists seem to think working is a privilege, that there's "dignity in work". But most of it is drudgery at best and physically taxing and soul crushing at worst that ends up shortening your lifespan by years.

Hopefully the unemployment boost proved that once and for all. People will gladly not work if it's an option, or even take a pay cut to not work instead of work, as long as it's enough to survive on.

teddy241 posted...

I always hear the old "If you dont love what you're doing you'll be stressed, burned-out, and then be flat out miserable".

This is true.

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streamofthesky posted...

People will gladly not work if it's an option

Lots of people on this board disagreed with me when I said that

That said, it may not be a choice soon. Lots of jobs are being taken away
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LinkPizza posted...

Lots of people on this board disagreed with me when I said that

That said, it may not be a choice soon. Lots of jobs are being taken away

Well you werent wrong and neither is he. The problem with letting socialism get out of control is it creates laziness. Lots of work to go around right now, but nobody wants to do it because they already get their cheques for free.

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i think it's about matter of degrees, my work gives me unique problems to solve that i'd never be able to do anywhere else which gives me satisfaction.

i've had extended holidays working on my own projects and it's not nearly been as satisfying (this is true for me, prob diff for you). but even things i love can stress and burn me out if i work and focus on it too long

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I imagine a lot of people enjoy their work for at least part of the time, however even a dream job likely has some things people don't like (unless it's an unrealistic dream job >_>)

I'd say probably 10-20% are doing something they love, another 20-40% are doing something they enjoy, 5-10% are miserable shits who won't be happy no matter what they do, and the rest are unhappy in their current job. And honestly, a lot of people who are unhappy in their current job don't really know what they'd want to do anyway.

teddy241 posted... I always hear the old "If you dont love what you're doing you'll be stressed, burned-out, and then be flat out miserable".

I've literally never heard anybody claim that, and I'm not sure anybody would believe that. Lots of people work average and boring jobs that don't stress them out (and how could they?) let alone make them miserable.

streamofthesky posted...

Working sucks, people do it b/c they have to.

Sounds like those people need different jobs.

streamofthesky posted...

Republicans and feminists seem to think working is a privilege, that there's "dignity in work". But most of it is drudgery at best and physically taxing and soul crushing at worst that ends up shortening your lifespan by years.

People who work tend to live longer. When you lose purpose and regular activity, it's just a fucking death spiral.

And although there are terrible jobs, a lot of those are being lost to automation. Even shit like driving freight is eventually going to go away once self-driving technology improves. We're unlikely to be able to automate everything, but the worst jobs tend to be repetitive labor (although some people enjoy those) and those are the easiest to automate.

streamofthesky posted...

Hopefully the unemployment boost proved that once and for all. People will gladly not work if it's an option, or even take a pay cut to not work instead of work, as long as it's enough to survive on.

If you train people to be lazy, they'll want to be lazy. But we knew that from when LBJ introduced his Not-So-Great Society and the welfare state, which is where America's real decline began.

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20% seems about right to me.

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Zeus posted...

People who work tend to live longer. When you lose purpose and regular activity, it's just a fucking death spiral.

You can fill the gap with purpose with a "constructive" hobby, like gardening or painting.

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5%

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While the job itself can factor in, enjoying your job is more dependent on you, than the job.

I have enjoyed many jobs that most people consider horrid. I enjoyed working at Carl's Jnr (fast food) for instance when I was 19 and going to vocational school to be an electronic tech. I loved cooking in the back, pushing myself to do it as fast as possible etc, it was a blast. I enjoy customer service, interacting with lots of different people in a positive way and making their day slightly better.

There are some jobs I could not enjoy, like when I worked at Sears in Vancouver WA in Sales (TVs) and nobody would every shop there due to there being no sales tax right across the bridge. I can't STAND just standing there (and I can't enjoy that at all).

Some people have GREAT jobs but still hate them, and others have jobs almost nobody would want, but still find ways to have fun at work, be challenged and have the time fly by.

As I have gotten older I find it's harder to enjoy many jobs, I have a hard time standing all day now, I get tired easier (so have less energy which makes it harder to push myself and keep time moving fast) and most importantly I'm just burnt out/have done so many things etc, that it's hard to find new skills to improve or things to master. That always kept me entertained/busy/interested in the work I did when younger but now A: I am already good at so many things and B: I'm less interested in learning new things since there are so many skills I have already forgotten, so it's not as worthwhile to master something anymore.

Mostly I look for work where I am directly helping people as much as possible (Such as being a caregiver right now) since there is a direct feeling of accomplishment and the knowledge you made someones life a bit better after doing your job. I don't think I could be happy working many jobs anymore both due to health reasons, and because I just would be bored out of my mind at this point, but I can't really learn as fast as I used to, have bad eyesight/memory etc.

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Less than 1% if we're talking worldwide.

Zareth posted...

You can fill the gap with purpose with a "constructive" hobby, like gardening or painting.

While certain hobbies can occupy a person's time in a meaningful way, it's just not quite the same because you don't have the same sense of responsibility and people counting on you.

wolfy42 posted...

While the job itself can factor in, enjoying your job is more dependent on you, than the job.

I also 100% agree with this. There are a lot of people who, for whatever reason, just never learned to be happy. And even worse, they don't like it when others are happy. You have people on this board who argue if you like *any* job -- even if you work for yourself -- that you're a "slave to a capitalist machine and corporate overlords."

Granted, it's easier to be happy at some jobs more than others, and some amount of discontent is justifiable. However, if you try to make the best of a situation, you can often make that situation better.

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Enjoy what they do? Is a pretty low threshold.

Id guess probably 30-40% of people actually enjoy their jobs.

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Only person that matters is me and I enjoy it, and I would rather work somewhere I enjoy than I don't so that's all that matters.

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I fucking love what I do.
I get to help people get their life saving procedures/medical equipment. My command is very competent and trustworthy, which is almost unheard of.

I get to meet people from all walks of life. I've met senators, generals, admirals, military heroes, NFL, MLB and NBA players and some actors.

There's an amazing feeling to help people in their darkest hour, to see people have hope again after beating cancer or whatever horrible affliction brings them to our clinic.

But, a lot of people don't make it and even though it's not our fault, it's sad to see people you've become very acquainted with die so often. It's a really taxing to see it happen alot.


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I like my job but don't love it. I have great bosses and coworkers.
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streamofthesky posted...

Hopefully the unemployment boost proved that once and for all. People will gladly not work if it's an option, or even take a pay cut to not work instead of work, as long as it's enough to survive on.

In pretty much every minimum income/UBI experiment that's been conducted, it's been found that people do ultimately end up working, they just use the breathing room provided by the guaranteed subsistence income to pursue the training they need to get jobs they actually want (instead of spending all their time working terrible low-paying jobs that don't leave them with enough time or money to improve their skills), even if those jobs don't pay enough to live off of. That hasn't happened with the Covid unemployment boost, but that's also a temporary thing (and therefore not something to plan a career around), plus the nature of the pandemic has made changing jobs a pretty risky idea.

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probably not that many people in all honesty. But there are two camps here, I think

People that enjoy what they do for a living, and those who would if not for management/sales. Sometimes management drags down an otherwise enjoyable job, and sometimes the person likes what they do in theory but trying to make money off of it kills it.

I love my job

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adjl posted...

In pretty much every minimum income/UBI experiment that's been conducted, it's been found that people do ultimately end up working, they just use the breathing room provided by the guaranteed subsistence income to pursue the training they need to get jobs they actually want (instead of spending all their time working terrible low-paying jobs that don't leave them with enough time or money to improve their skills), even if those jobs don't pay enough to live off of. That hasn't happened with the Covid unemployment boost, but that's also a temporary thing (and therefore not something to plan a career around), plus the nature of the pandemic has made changing jobs a pretty risky idea.

The problem is, there aren't enough "good jobs" for everyone, or even close to it.
No one seems to want to face that reality, but there simply aren't that many skilled jobs and/or jobs that are enjoyable/rewarding.
You can't just have everyone "learn to code" and things will be fine. Heck, I'm an engineer and I remember graduating into the recession and was told by people in IEEE that the unemployment rate for engineers was 8% (usually it was 1%), and struggling to get into a career. Even really high skill jobs or jobs that require advanced degrees can be overrun if there's a glut of applicants (the recession was the opposite, a lack of demand from companies, but it works the same either way if the supply of workers increases).

Ultimately, people like working. Having purpose, routine, and direction are generally good things for people's mental health and sense of self-worth. This is why so may retirees pick up jobs after being retired for a few years. What people don't like is working miserable jobs where they're routinely mistreated, purely because the alternative is starving on the streets (and even then, the pay only barely staves that off). Given a choice between that and being able to survive just as well (if not better) without working at all, it's only natural people would choose the latter.

As has been mentioned, you don't need a (paid) job to have purpose in your life. A lot of retired people also do volunteering, they can have hobbies, etc...
But yeah, if people don't NEED to work, they're not going to take the crappy jobs that nevertheless society needs. For some jobs like sanitation worker, they can pay an inflated salary to entice people, but that's not going to be a feasible model for stuff like groceries store cashiers or burger flippers at a fast food place, where they operate on thin margins. Eventually automation will kill most/all of those jobs, but until then we're in the awkward transition period. Which is why I say that we aren't ready for UBI today, but we should be setting things up for a smooth transition into it later on.
Heavily tax corporate profits at the point of sale, remove all corporate tax breaks and replace them w/ breaks for employing legal U.S. residents (and get rid of stuff like payroll taxes that punish companies for hiring people). Then as automation replaces jobs and corporate profits stay the same or even increase, the government becomes flush w/ money to pay for UBI so all the displaced workers aren't homeless and starving. The future is massive corporate profits off of an almost entirely AI "workforce", so we'd be smart to align our tax structure for that sooner than later.

only at my job because of the pay. $18 an hour (not counting shift differential) and it's going up to $19.25 in a couple months
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3% of people would keep doing the job they are doing if they could just get the check (and bennifits) instead.

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streamofthesky posted...

The problem is, there aren't enough "good jobs" for everyone, or even close to it.

There will never be enough for everyone, no, but there could be more than there are. A major reason many jobs continue to be miserable is because owners and managers have no incentive to improve conditions so long as people will put up with them because it's better than being homeless. Take away that threat, and you're left with either improving the conditions or providing more compensation (or both), otherwise nobody will work for you. The hidden third option is to remove the need for people altogether, meaning such a shift drives innovation and development in the automation field, but that isn't an overnight solution.

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2%
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streamofthesky posted...

The problem is, there aren't enough "good jobs" for everyone, or even close to it.
No one seems to want to face that reality, but there simply aren't that many skilled jobs and/or jobs that are enjoyable/rewarding.
You can't just have everyone "learn to code" and things will be fine. Heck, I'm an engineer and I remember graduating into the recession and was told by people in IEEE that the unemployment rate for engineers was 8% (usually it was 1%), and struggling to get into a career. Even really high skill jobs or jobs that require advanced degrees can be overrun if there's a glut of applicants (the recession was the opposite, a lack of demand from companies, but it works the same either way if the supply of workers increases).

Two things:

First, while there are always going to be some lower-end jobs, those can be performed by people just entering the workforce and/or by people who enjoy that kind of work (particularly in that many of those jobs tend to customer-facing; in other cases, certain individuals enjoy monotonous tasks). The idea that only "skilled labor" has value or is enjoyable is glaringly wrong. I'd known plenty of people who left high-skilled white collar professions (the kind requiring a masters degree) to work pink collar professions (including some that don't require a degree at all) because they wound up not liking that white collar job.

Second, and more importantly, you're looking at both the *current* labor market and discounting entrepreneurship. Just a few hundred years ago, somebody repeating your same claim would have been referring to a labor market with absurdly fewer opportunities. And if you go back even further, those opportunities shrink more. And a lot of the reason why the labor market looks like it does is because public education tends to discourage independent thought and punishes people for challenging norms. These are systems more concerned with teaching orthodoxy than anything else.

streamofthesky posted...

But yeah, if people don't NEED to work, they're not going to take the crappy jobs that nevertheless society needs. For some jobs like sanitation worker, they can pay an inflated salary to entice people, but that's not going to be a feasible model for stuff like groceries store cashiers or burger flippers at a fast food place, where they operate on thin margins. Eventually automation will kill most/all of those jobs, but until then we're in the awkward transition period. Which is why I say that we aren't ready for UBI today, but we should be setting things up for a smooth transition into it later on.

You've overlooking that there are people who enjoy those low-end jobs. There are many retailers in my area where employees could have chosen to retire years ago, but wanted to stay on. (And, for higher-level jobs, people tend to seek overly long tenures -- many professors have to be kicked out the door before they'll leave, for instance.)

adjl posted...

There will never be enough for everyone, no, but there could be more than there are. A major reason many jobs continue to be miserable is because owners and managers have no incentive to improve conditions

I think stream's point there was still in reference to his idea of a "good" job (ie, skilled labor), not so much a job with just good working conditions and pay. There are plenty of jobs where even if the work was made more tolerable, a lot of people might not enjoy it.

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0% do not let anyone tell you otherwise

adjl posted...

In pretty much every minimum income/UBI experiment that's been conducted, it's been found that people do ultimately end up working, they just use the breathing room provided by the guaranteed subsistence income to pursue the training they need to get jobs they actually want (instead of spending all their time working terrible low-paying jobs that don't leave them with enough time or money to improve their skills), even if those jobs don't pay enough to live off of.

Thats the problem. People literally cant quit their jobs. Like when I said they people would quit their jobs if they had enough to live off, that means that any experiment conducted where people make UBI thats no enough to live off wont prove anything against my point. Also, AFAIK, those experiments only last for a certain amount of time. So, if they quit, theyd be out of luck when the experiment was over

streamofthesky posted...

Eventually automation will kill most/all of those jobs, but until then we're in the awkward transition period. Which is why I say that we aren't ready for UBI today, but we should be setting things up for a smooth transition into it later on.

Thats another problem. No one seems to care about the transition period. And they probably wont until it becomes a problem. Id be perfectly fine without automation. And Im honestly against. Unpopular opinion, but still

streamofthesky posted...

The future is massive corporate profits off of an almost entirely AI "workforce", so we'd be smart to align our tax structure for that sooner than later.

There is at least one person here who thinks when most things are automated, everything will be free, so
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Sycophant posted...

0% do not let anyone tell you otherwise

you think there aren't any athletes who like what they do?

just one example
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

you think there aren't any athletes who like what they do?

Maybe they dont I wouldnt know
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More or less. Never had a passion for anything but had a slight sense of duty cause my family is military through and through. I'm the first male in probably 20 generations or better to not join. But I still serve my state in some compacity as a correctional officer. So that satisfies that sense of duty.

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Sycophant posted...

0% do not let anyone tell you otherwise

Don't deflect your unhappiness on me.

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EvilMegas posted...

NBA

im not gonna ask you who but

yknow

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Sycophant posted...

0% do not let anyone tell you otherwise

Dude I fucking love my job.
I get paid to sit in front of a computer all day answering questions and writing code.
not only is it a computer, it's my computer, in my living space.

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FatalAccident posted...

im not gonna ask you who but

yknow

I met Derrick Rose like 2 years ago, he's chill as hell.

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Krazy_Kirby posted...

you think there aren't any athletes who like what they do?

just one example

Why do people engage? >_>

User Info: Sycophant
New User User Since: Jul 2021Karma: 6Active Posts: 39

The AMP is over 6x the karma >_>

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Zeus posted...

The AMP is over 6x the karma >_>

Wouldnt that be normal for a new account?
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EvilMegas posted...

I met Derrick Rose like 2 years ago, he's chill as hell.

Oh shit nice

I can imagine him being cool

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LinkPizza posted...

Wouldnt that be normal for a new account?

On a day 1 or a day 2 maybe. Most new posters aren't all that active and, more importantly, most don't find their way to PotD. However, if I'm looking at their user information, that means I've already seen multiple red flags.

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Zeus posted...

Most new posters aren't all that active

Idk. When I made my first account, it was specifically to be able to post on the messages boards So, I was active as soon as I was able to be

Zeus posted...

most don't find their way to PotD.

And its not exactly hidden. I found this board pretty early just because I voted in the poll That said, everyone seemed kind mean, so I never really posted

Zeus posted...

I've already seen multiple red flags.

Again, Idk. I wasnt looking for any. Im just not sure those pieces on information mean much is all Well, by themselves. And since I havent been look for any other flags, I wouldnt have seen any
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Zeus posted...

Why do people engage? >_>

The AMP is over 6x the karma >_>

I don't check every single name
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Very few, maybe less than 10%. I think that many more are content with their job, but don't necessarily enjoy it.

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LinkPizza posted...

Idk. When I made my first account, it was specifically to be able to post on the messages boards So, I was active as soon as I was able to be

You made your account back in 2006, when the boards were a hotbed of activity. You aren't going to have many new people making an account in 2018 and the ones who do aren't likely to start on PotD.

LinkPizza posted...

Again, Idk. I wasnt looking for any.

You don't need to look for red flags, they're tihngs you just see.

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