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
The opening statement [in Joe Humphrey’s article “We work fewer hours”] is not my experience. Fewer people employed to deal with the same amount or more of work has increased workloads and driven up stress in places that I frequently visit. I also observe a real fear of further job losses, and more people are getting in earlier and staying later in the hope that it will help somehow.
The reality – for those looking for a job and those in a job – is often quite brutal, and there are employers (and workplace bullies) who are quite okay with that. TomBob
I love my job. Things change every day – new patients, new tests, further advances in medicine – and we have to constantly improve our knowledge. I also work a longer day for less money, but such is life. CiaraNíMhurchú
I think that if we are truly doing what we were “born” to do, we will find joy in our work and we can handle any of the trials that come our way. But many of us are trapped in jobs that are not ideal, and the risk involved in starting over to find the thing that really brings us joy is a detriment to the willingness involved to take that step.
Overcoming the disappointment of going to a job that doesn’t fire us up takes a significant amount of inner strength. How will we provide for our families? How will we pay the bills? It takes great courage to do it.
I stepped out of the corporate world to raise my two children. I felt it was the best way to bring stability to our family. It was the right decision, but do I “like” my work? Not always. I don’t get paid, I’m on call 24/7, and holidays aren’t really holidays, because I’m minding the same people during holiday time as I mind every day.
Fortunately for me, I can take the time when my kids are at school to tap into those moments when I'm doing the thing that I was "born to do", and I find extreme joy in doing it, so that when I'm doing the less dramatic tasks of laundry, dinner and homework I can look forward to those rare times when I can be creative and expressive as my own person. Bottom line . . . we won't like our work 100 per cent of the time. But we can overcome anything if we set our mind to it, and we can have a quality of life that will bring happiness if we pursue it. TerriKruschke
Work is a means of putting food on the table and keeping a roof over my head. Our labour keeps our employers in a wealthy lifestyle. I regard it as a terrible waste of life. NollaigLonergan
I dreamed of having a career that I loved. The problem was that I was never fully sure what that career should be and still am not. I can't see a job simply as a way to put food on the table. When you spend the majority of your week doing your work, I think you should enjoy it. I try to say not I hate my job but rather I hate aspects of it, and feel that I have more to offer than my job asks of me. I acknowledge I am very lucky to have a job, but that doesn't seem to make my job any more enjoyable. Helen_B27
I work in a multinational where there is a sincere effort to help people enjoy our work, for the simple reason that people who enjoy their jobs are more productive and creative. It’s been pretty successful.
A lot of the focus has been on collaboration, friendliness and respect for each other. You’d think you can’t force these, but when you consciously promote managers who display these traits and get rid of those who don’t, you end up with a genuinely collaborative culture. To give a bland example, we recently had a discussion about saying “thank you” appropriately. How many people feel that their work is unappreciated because they get no thanks? You would be amazed how much of a difference it makes if you do it right. For example, after a meeting, you go up to the person who helped you with the logistics and say, “Thank you; everything was just what we needed!”
One of the secrets of being happy in your work is doing something you’re interested in, so that the reward is in the job itself and not just in the remuneration. If you’re not in that situation, it sounds like a crazy pipe dream. But many people are.
Obvious examples are professional athletes: they work hard but would not change what they do for the world. But you also see teachers, nurses, soldiers, writers, journalists, doctors, farmers and others who just love what they do so much that they would keep working even if they were offered their salary without having to work.
I work in research and development, and for many of us the job feels more like a well-paid PhD project. It’s not “fun fun fun” every minute of the day, but what is? Sometimes there is pressure to deliver something urgent, but there is a lot of satisfaction in doing cutting-edge science and having the resources to get the best equipment, attend conferences, read and write technical papers and so on.
I encourage anyone who has a passion for science to study science or engineering – not because you'll necessarily get rich but because you'll give yourself the best chance of finding a job that will challenge and interest you. usosined
