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What makes it worth it?

18:59 / 15.04.02

Thinking about this earlier today... for those of you who, like many, have no real interest in what they do all day, apart from it paying the bills, and spend the time from getting to work to leaving work becoming increasingly stressed... what are the things that make you think "this makes it all worthwhile"? What counteracts the misery gained from everyday life?

(Is thinking of life as a series of mandatory bads balanced by optional goods a dubious concept, anyway? Sometimes I think this as well, that there is a basic lie being told that you should spend your week getting increasingly unhappy and work it all off in the weekend and evenings.)

19:59 / 15.04.02

What makes it worthwhile? Sometimes I wonder. I was thinking about this today as well probably because I have settled into a bit of a slump at work. I've been here 6 months, just negotiated a nice fat payrise and commitment is sinking fast. Much better than my first job, more interesting, foreign assignments, big bucks...still I'm starting to get bored again. I reckon I am putting in about 20% effort at the moment and getting by just dandy. The thing is putting in more effort would just be depressing because I really don't care about what I'm doing. I don't mean that in a oh pity me way, just telling it like it is.
So, after that self-indulgence, what makes it worthwhile? Well, I'm saving large amounts of cash - that in itself opens up lots of opportunities. The travel is nice. Business class is an eye opener. Not in a good way.
Other than that, at the moment, the stuff I am doing outside work is the big redeemer. Tonight I was making a personalised client for the blogger API with XML-RPC. Which rocks and is the kind of thing I wish I was doing at work. Its coming though, the future is bright. Not where I've been, where I'm going baby.
My girlfriend as well. She makes it worthwhile. Twee as that sounds.

Anyway, why the meaningful questions Fridge...hard day at work?

20:00 / 15.04.02

Mostly the fact that I can breathe (sometimes).

20:04 / 15.04.02

hard day at work?

You betcha, and it's not getting any better... but I've been thinking recently that I've lost sight of all the ways that I can enjoy life. Don't seem to get anything out of my time off any more, apart from not being at work. I was hoping to get some ideas from other people, in the hope that they might jog some memories.

Maybe I'll carry on reading that big fat XML book that I bought.

20:07 / 15.04.02

are you talking about dayjobs? or life in general?

i was working, for a worthy cause (ish! my view of that has been rather tempered over time), at a teaching union full time for years, and it wasn't worth it. i wasn't getting to do the casework i was supposed to have been hired for, the staff were never listened to or consulted. so i went part time. i need to work to pay my bills, but now i spend the majority of the week *not* working. financially i just about keep my head above water, i have a 'no frills' lifestyle, but the things that are really important to me i get to do.

i hear people talking about how stressful their working lives are and how they work ridiculously long hours. they must think it's worth it, for the lifestyle they get (but presumably don't have time to enjoy). i'm talking about managerial types, not people who are struggling to make ends meet.

i do find the notion that workers can 'let their hair down' on a friday and saturday night only, incredibly depressing. go mad on two nights so you can bear the rest of the week. is that living? the guinness adverts i saw for this year's st patrick's day - a sunday - were all about how you could drink guinness to celebrate st patrick's day EVE, i.e. the saturday night. don't want the drones turning up hungover or late on monday, huh? my father was made redundant after working at a job he hated for years, my mother a few years later walked out of her job because she was tired of it. the both of them have never been happier.

20:11 / 15.04.02

the ability to learn; being able to see and prepare for future transitions; developing a "unique" point of view, meeting someone who either shares it (making it unique no more) or debunks it and allows the whole process to start over again.

20:14 / 15.04.02

You are so right about Friday and Saturday nights SFD. I can't stand going out at the weekend to most places. Works nights out. Ewww. The only things I hate more are saturdays in a shopping centre. Couples walking around in designer clothes spending money on essentially worthless things. Why work just to drink expensive drinks at the weekend and buy tat out of shopping centres? Although if people truly enjoy it good luck to them...not for me though...

20:20 / 15.04.02

I was hoping to get some ideas from other people, in the hope that they might jog some memories.

Well, I'll go for some practical stuff. Get back into studying. If your a geek that might be getting some books and delving in to some technical stuff. What about getting into an opensource project over at sourceforge.net. I'm doing a part-time degree through distance learning - just for fun really. Its cool, coming home from a hard day at work and getting stuck into some learning, something that feels truly worthwhile.
Exercise is always good as well. Gym? Weights bench? Bit of running? If you have never done it much before give it a try can add a lot to your life.
If the job is really getting you down the look at long term alternatives. Saving, learning new skills, getting a better job, etc...

wembley can change in 28 days

04:29 / 16.04.02

Good music has always brought out the best in my tortured little soul. Dancing on saturday nights.

And at the risk of sounding like I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, I made a deal with myself to go whole hog into a profession that pays next to nothing but satisfies the inner flame immensely, and I've not regret that decision yet (even after a long winter living on apples and tuna). I quite remember the day I was coding yet another http:="wakka wakka" target="your soul" in HTML-land, and realised I was getting absolutely nothing out of the work except money and a sore bum from sitting all day. I push this code around, someone else surfs it, and then what? Who really cares about what happens on the Internet? I could use the money to go and see theatre and concerts and yadda yadda, but that wasn't enough. I missed being involved in the creation of something, of being present in that moment. So. Travelling is one way to beat that bug (and a brilliant thing it is, even if your destination is only 100 miles away; as long as no-one knows or cares who you are, you can be an observer). I have no money and I live in a hovel. But I'm pretty darn pleased with myself. I'm with sfd on this one - do what you want to do. No really. Do it.

08:03 / 16.04.02

Is it worthwhile? Shark don't ask. Don't care if you're up or down. Shark just swims along, under the surface. He eats, he swims, he eats, he swims. Shark got none of yer worries. He's a shark. That's it.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:13 / 16.04.02

Personally, I've got a pretty good deal- I work seven nights on, seven nights off.
Only thing is (and thanks for this thread, cos it's something I've been thinking about a lot recently) I tend to spend my week off worrying about, thinking about, and getting pissed to celebrate not being at work. When really I should be using the time more productively (the main reason I took this job, and I haven't doen anything remotely approaching productive in the two years I've been there). Don't get me wrong- I actually LIKE my job (insofar as jobs go... if you REALLY enjoyed 'em they wouldn't have to pay you to turn up, would they?) but it does seem like we're all putting in a lot of effort just to exist. I know we're a fuck of a lot better off than some other people, but shouldn't we be aiming higher? (For everyone, not just those of us fortunate enough to have homes/jobs/literacy etc.) Not sure what saying all that actually accomplished, but it's nice to have a chance to say it.

13:23 / 16.04.02

tend to spend my week off worrying about, thinking about, and getting pissed to celebrate not being at work.

This is what I'm definitely finding.

I suppose the concept being promoted by the "work hard play hard" promoters is an inherently consumerist one, and goes something like - you get "bad life points" by doing things that you hate, but you make money. Things which get you "good life points" (to wipe out the bad ones and send you over the other side) cost you money. Therefore you'll never get an overall balance of "good life points", i.e. a happy life, unless you do stuff you hate.

Under this system, my bad life points are definitely not being balanced by my good life points. In fact I'm building up increasing life point overdraft. So it's either increase the production of good life points, or reject the paradigm entirely, develop some sort of more holistic one, where the elements of your life are not fighting it out with each other, and see where that takes you.

17:14 / 16.04.02

Nothing I can think right now. But apparently I didn't cease to have hope.