The things we love and hate about work

THE READERS:What you said on irishtimes.com this week

This is a selection of online responses to a question we posed during our week-long series The Way We Work Now: what do you love or hate about work?

Judging by people’s facial expressions on the way to work each morning, I would say most people are extremely unhappy going to work. Who would honestly choose to spend time cooped up in an office cubicle with bad air conditioning, or work out in harsh conditions, and share at least 40 hours per week with people you have little in common with? I think we’d all rather be doing something else. peterspolitics

If I could claim tax relief on my childcare fees I’d feel like my work was worth much more in the end. I love what I do, and have continued to do my job for that reason, but have very little profit at the end of the month due to the cost of childcare.

It’s high time the Government recognises that in order for parents to work they have to pay a lot of their income to childcare first. And yet this comes out of their taxed income. It makes no sense.

Working parents – let’s face it, usually mothers – feel unappreciated and constantly judged. We’re juggling multiple responsibilities, and usually things like after-school activities or summer camps aren’t targeted to us, as they take place at a time we cannot take our children. (Another reason that makes them wonder if they should just give up work.) We don’t get to take our children to and from school, yet we pay over half our income for this privilege.

I also think that as the recession has progressed an attitude is building that professionals can easily be replaced with free interns, and that’s not good for anyone – not the professionals, the interns or the companies. We need to appreciate and encourage employment and support hard-working, loyal employees. The fact that no one has any money also means that, after working long hours, they cannot afford the things that balance those stresses out – fitness classes or memberships, the odd meal or night out, etc. MegThompsonWalker

People think life is better if it’s easier. Not so. It depends what they’re used to. A person living in a hovel and working in a slave factory in China is unhappy. They move to a self-contained flat and the boss puts windows in the factory. Happiness. At the other extreme, a person in LA living in a million-dollar house and working in an air-conditioned office is not really happy. To be happy they would need to move to a penthouse and become the boss of the office.

There is no such thing as happiness. Contentment is the key. People who think they are happy are bound to be depressed as well, because happiness does not exist. JosephMorgan