Nearly half of Australians unhappy at work, new survey finds
So that prompts me to ask the OzB community, are you happy with your job?
Personally, yes, I am happy with my job. There are some long and annoying days, but overall, I do love my job. It offers lots of flexibility, is WFH, and always provides a sense of achievement when seeing good results.
well you never really know do you until you try
Hmm fair point
Link?
And I don’t have the feet for only fans
Maybe ogrefans or hobbitfans might be an option.
And I don’t have the feet for only fans.
Let me be the judge of that!
There's an App called Only Feets.
What a time to be alive.
Time to sail on two boats at once
In this economy might be the go mate
I don’t have the feet
Costanza was a hand-model
The first 3 options are basically the same no? They're all basically "Meh, it's ok."
I have a great job that most people would love to have, but it doesn't give me any personal satisfaction. Just very high paying and few hours to do.
[…] it doesn't give me any personal satisfaction. Just very high paying and few hours to do.
I take it it gives your clients personal satisfaction, then?
Can i ask what the job is?
Gigolo?
.
LOL would most people want that job though?
I experience all those poll options throughout the week lol
are you asking whether we are happy in the sense that we mostly don't mind or even enjoy the work that it pays the bills and allow us time off to spend with family/go on holidays, or whether we are truly passionate that if we won the lotto we'd still be keeping to the same hours and same job as we are now? because I suspect when people say they are happy they mostly mean the former
My job is pretty well paid, is wfh and flexible hours. The work is interesting, challenging, and isn't making the world a worse place.
My colleagues are smart, and there is no bullying or other unprofessional behaviors.
I have made several friends through this work.
It is close to the ideal employment situation for my needs.
But i'd drop it in a heartbeat if my bills were getting paid - I've got plenty of other things I'd like to do with my time.
But i'd drop it in a heartbeat if my bills were getting paid
So will that happen when super kicks in or some time before that? I realise some jobs are all or nothing; hard to do say 1.5 days work a week, for example, and enjoy the benefits of the 5 day job.
Yeah, my work probably doesn’t lend itself to a day or two a week. And when I have enough super to not need to work, I dare say I would be ready for a change.
Wave if you see me selling artisanal sour dough at the markets on a Saturday, or taking on an NDIS client for a weekly outing.
But neither of those jobs would be good for me if I had to do them 40 hours per week. Which is, I think, why people are often unhappy at work.
To earn good money almost every job requires a full time commitment, and lots of people get burnt out from doing the same thing at high intensity for 40 hours, 48 weeks per year.
If money is not a factor then it's a hobby which means you can drop it and pick something else to be overrated in on a whim.
Honestly if i had a mortgage paid and knew i had enough in super and only had bills to pay, i would find a job that is more fulfilling even if it pays less.
My job is meh but it pays the bills. I reckon I need to work for about another 10 years and at that point I'll have enough in super and investments that will allow me to work part time closer to home without having to worry too much about how much salary I am getting paid.
Same position. Another 10 years of full time (in a neh job) and that should be enough to work part time on something that i don't need to sweat on salary.
What is your investment strategy?
Nothing fancy, I DCA into VGS/VAS.
Work sucks, I know.
She left me roses by the stairs
Surprises let me know she cares.
It's crazy that i still know these lyrics off by heart from listening to that song when i was like 10.
I hear it at work every day because we listen to gold 104
I do actually like my normal day job :)
I hate night shifts, which I've been doing this week.
No, I don't have the option not to do night shifts (is this modern slavery?). The penalty rates I receive do no cover the absence of life for the entire week and the sleep disruption that takes at least another week to go back to normal. I do have to take medications to fall asleep during the day, which I don't normally need.
30 min driving
13h working (usually non-stop, except for maybe two brief breaks to have some snacks, extremely stressful, risky, rarely enjoyable)
30 min driving back home like a zombie
~2h to have a shower, breakfast, walk the dog and do something nice so I don't feel like life is completely worthless and pointless
sleep induced by medication for ~6h (I usually sleep 8h, but medication doesn't make me sleep for that long and I can't just switch the sleep button even if I am completely exhausted)
wake up
1h to have a kind of dinner, walk the equally unhappy dog again
And repeat…
No, I do not enjoy life when I'm doing night shifts.
No, I do not get days off after that, just the normal weekend if there is a weekend, although we often call in sick to recover if we are feeling completely crap.
Should have created one of those AMA threads instead of writing this lol
i've done night shifts in my youth and no amount of penalty rates will make up for the sleep disruption and adverse health effects.. not to mention the near-accidents on the drive home in the morning. one of my friends had a car vs tree.. thankfully walked away from it
I used to do night shifts with a 2hr commute home on unlit single-lane highways.
I would sometimes see a truck in front of me, lose focus, then see it behind me and have no recollection whatsoever of overtaking it.
Scary.
Yeah, it's pretty bad… One of my friends also crashed the car after the night shift.
We health workers often do the opposite of what we recommend patients to do, and the "system" just accepts that as a problem without solution, and no one cares or empathise really.
Not sure how "they" believe it's reasonable and safe to treat patients continuosuly for 13 hours on an inverted shift…
Anyway, I'm just starting another shift now
A relative used to work as a nurse doing night shifts. Her colleagues told her stories of driving home after a shift and having no memory of the drive. Scary.
like to see what scotty votes :)
If this is his work then he must love it, we are all delightful.
9 years and going strong. Not considering moving elsewhere even I receives almost over 25k$ offer from other company. I can work and watch youtube/NBA at the same time. And never been asked to work on a weekend. I can drop and pick-up my kids from school/daycare from Monday to Friday. Happy days. So the flexibility is more important at this stage that extra $$$. Enough to pay the bills and to have family holiday at least twice per year.
Are You Happy at Work?
of course no. its work. the name is indicate working.
i will be happy at holiday.
I dunno why you have a negative connotation with "work", I like the feeling of accomplishing something. I "work" in the garden too, I don't get paid for it but I'm still happy doing it.
Personally, if I won the lotto I'd take 6 months off then start a company doing what I already do. I just don't have the funds nor the ability to pay people to do the startup bits I don't want to do at the moment.
"Work work" and "hobby work" is different. With gardening I can choose to only plant daisies if that's all I want to do. "Work work" means you have to inevitably juggle with business and other people's demands. Even a sole trader is going to have to deal with customers.
I prefer talking to the daisies over the cretins at work
Once people are happy at work they are unhappy at bills or find some other problem.
It is human nature.
The joneses are forcing a lot of people work…
also bills, rent/mortgage, food etc but yeah people should just quit working.
There's a bloke living by the railway tracks who pays no rent or bills. He survives without working.
There's a bloke living by the railway tracks who pays no rent or bills. He survives without working.
He must have some training to live like that or at least he's gotta have the motive, loco.
@rompastompa: I'd say he ran off the rails at some point, at least he's not stuck on the 9-5 train wreck. Guess he switched tracks before things derailed completely!
I quit my job 7 weeks ago. They were shocked that I left to do… well nothing. CEO, COO, CFO and general counsel all tried to convince me to stay. They even put on a catered event for my last day and about 200 people showed up.
I haven't applied for any jobs yet, and really don't feel compelled to either. I just spend my day exercising, watching movies, doing stuff around the house, travel. I don't miss it at all.
I'm enjoying the shareprice.
I've got a really good workplace, and I don't think I could be happier tbh.
I'm self-employed. The first few years were really tough - much harder than I'd ever had it as an employee- building a practice, learning technical skills, getting used to having sole responsibility for everything. But now it's a lot better. I can work as much or as little as I like and I've nearly quadrupled my employee wage, though it's taken 8 years and a lot of sweat.
You get out what you put in. When I was an employee, I was just chronically bored. And dissatisfied with the pay. I never understood why I as a solicitor should bill $1m for my firm but get paid less than 1/8 of that.
Hey mate! Curious to hear more if you're willing to share! What area of law are you in? What tier firm were you working at before going out on your own? What's your PQE?
I'm always wondering if Ive missed the boat to do this…
I'm in litigation
I was in a large mid-tier
I now am at the Bar
I am 12 years PQE now and was 4 years PQE when I went to the Bar
I don't think you've missed the boat - I know people who started their own firms/went to the Bar in their 30s and 40s.
Cheers mate, appreciate the response and insight.
I never understood why I as a solicitor should bill $1m for my firm but get paid less than 1/8 of that.
Now the boot is on the other foot, are you closer to an explanation? Is the cost of training the junior? Are there huge risks and expenses to cover? The value of pre-existing customers? Or just supply, demand and profiteering?
FTE Government employee with fantastic pay and 12 mins from home, the vareity of work is ok and a mix of office and out and about at different depots and isnt too bad considering they're 36.25 hour weeks
define "happy"
Nearly half of Australians unhappy at work
No sh*t Einstein. If the median person is neutral, nearly 50% will be above neutral and "happy" and nearly 50% will be below neutral and "unhappy".
Why does the median person have to be neutral?
Neutral = half happy and half unhappy.
So if 60% said they were happy and 40% unhappy with their jobs, what happens?
What a strange thing to say. It sound like you're implying that happy is the neutral point between ecstatic and suicidal??
No, I'm saying people's response are, rather than their actual state.
Lol you have some seriously flawed logic there.
Neutral = neither happy nor unhappy
Median = midpoint of a frequency distribution.
Why do you assume the median is neutral?
No, I'm saying people's response are, rather than their actual state.
I'm much happier now that I am self employed working outside. I was overweight, tired, miserable and stressed when I was freelancing stuck at a desk all day. I don't think I would last long in a 'normal' 9 to 5, I need my freedom and autonomy so I work enough to get by and that's it. Who can honestly be happy having to work? It occupies too much time and there is always stress and worries no matter what job you have. We are living in very strange times where everyone feels depressed and anxious 24/7, and time seems to be passing by quicker than ever. I don't let work/money rule my life and never will, life is too short and we need to focus on the things that really matter like enjoying hobbies and spending time with other people and out amongst nature.
Being active outside, even just for the weekends, is one of the best “medicines” for being stuck at a desk job.
I'm very close to walking away from the day job and doing stuff I enjoy even if I don't get paid for it. I'm just waiting for the next blowup with the boss. But in the meantime, I get satisfaction from watching the debt get paid off.
I’ve done it before, sometimes you need to recalibrate your direction in life. No point suffering; it’s just a job.
I like my career (Software Engineer), but not my current job/workplace.
But there are better workplaces in the industry, just have to find a good one. Glad to read the comments of others loving their jobs, though.
Same. I love the things I should be doing in my career (software and cyber security), but don't do any of that in my current role - I don't do anything worthwhile and feel totally worthless, but love that it's paying off the debt. Though paid 1/2 what I used to… but in regional area with options few and far between.
I love the core elements of my role, and I love the 2 days in office / 3 days out aspect but recently the nature of my role changed slightly, and I now have more of the boring aspects to contend with, and less time to get into the really interesting part. Hopefully that will change back soon and I can go back to loving my job.
I enjoy my job for the most part but people doing the same job as me in QLD,SA, WA, VIC are making 30-40% more with a significantly lower cost of living.
It's easy to see why more and more doctors are leaving NSW Health for other states, leaving our NSW hospitals understaffed
grass much greener for health care workers in other capital cities than sydney, when you have plenty of jobs to go around and significantly cheaper housing elsewhere it's tempting but it's a leap
I'm love my current job, but considering leaving. It requires 3 days in the office, and after working remotely for 10 years, I can't get used to that. I've been here for two years now; still not used to it.
My Job 'itself' is not bad the management in my job are terrible i have been building a business on the side now for 3 years if i can get it to a point where the business can 'become' my full time job then i will leave my job as i got no interest in moving up the ladder in what is a incredbly toxic culture
Swapping one toxic terrible manager for another seems like a lateral move
I only go to work so I can get paid. When I took this job I made the decision to not worry about the BS that I don't get paid for. That's why the bosses get the big bucks. I come to work, go hard at my job, and go home. Like most of the world - if we weren't getting paid we wouldn't bother working.
each day I feel like drowning myself in the toilet
as a retired person I can suggest those who might say they wouldn't work if they didn't need the money, might not realise the social and psychological values of work
getting in the zone, facing and rising to a challenge, a feeling of achievement, accomplishing a project, working in a team, communicating with colleagues towards a goal, having regular chats with people you like, learning to deal with those you can barely stand, teaching others a skill that you've built up over time, passing on those skills, leaving a legacy, improving a workplace with your creative ideas, making other people's lives better in some way
are all healthy activities that can make life feel productive and meaningful
compared to unemployed homeless folks whose life is a daily round of seeking free meals and finding somewhere to get a free hot shower and somewhere safe to sleep
if you're a narcissist supervisor, calling meetings so you can make your subordinates listen to the gems of wisdom dropping from your mouth while they try to hide their loathing of your selfish behaviour - I'll leave that for you to work out what you are … ;-)
getting in the zone, facing and rising to a challenge, a feeling of achievement, accomplishing a project, working in a team, communicating with colleagues towards a goal, having regular chats with people you like, learning to deal with those you can barely stand, teaching others a skill that you've built up over time, passing on those skills, leaving a legacy, improving a workplace with your creative ideas, making other people's lives better in some way
You can do all of this and more with actual hobbies too though.
You're describing the perfect workplace - not many of us have that.
I don't know whether it's true, but I understand that homeless people wouldn't give up thier lives for fulltime work either.
So it seems the preference rankings might be:
* Doing your own thing
* Homeless
* Working
Most jobs bore me sooner or later, so I feel pretty content to have something that forces me to learn continuously and just keeps piling it on year after year.
Sure I'd rather not work at all, but given my tendencies it's just fine.
Did you say your job forces you to learn?
That's what I need in a job, either that or let me use my current skills to achieve great things.
I need to supplement my day job with studies, hobbies etc to try to get some satisfaction.
Yeah, I have to do things I've never done before then be professional at it, pretty often. That's the nature of IT though. If you work in tech you keep up or drop out.
I still wish for something else somehow though. I suspect that's a me problem though. Really I need to work for myself. It's the only thing that will solve the issue. Risks and benefits though, you know what I mean.
I work from home almost all the time which really helps (once a fortnight in the office). Manage my own workload and with minimal interference from managers who are pretty decent and trust me to get the work done. The broader company has had a rough few years though with many restructures.
I've never loved the jobs that ive had but am of the belief you work hard to support your family.
Ultimately im hoping that hard work will pay off with getting me to a position i can retire early.
Where's the 'I absolutely fkn hated my job' option? If it wasn't the pay, I'd left ages ago.
The spending grew with my income, so that's a bit of a trap/handcuff.
The only thing stopping me from leaving is the knowledge that the equivalent role at my competitors is being advertised for a 10% pay reduction.
So much for "wage growth". I've been receiving yearly increases but it seems this hasn't transferred into the job market.
Was contacted by a recruiter yesterday asking for me to apply for a more senior job as it would be a great growth opportunity, only for her to offer the exact same as what i was on whilst downgrading from permanent to a 12-month contract.
Immigration really has smashed us, cost of living going up, wage growth effectively going backwards…
I love my job, but it's the work I hate
I did love my job, but the nature of it has changed dramatically and now I hate it, it's not a good fit. I like the flexibility. I like the pay. I like the people I work with. I wouldn't want to work somewhere else. There is some hope it will go back to being similar to how it was, that's the plan, just waiting to see if that will happen.
To me 'love your job' = would do it for fun.
Those financially free people who choose to work would all presumably fall into this category. Billionaires like Elon Musk for example.
I hate my job but I love my salary and the cool life it has allowed me to live so I made my peace with the job.
What can I say, it pays the bills.
And I don’t have the feet for only fans.