Job trend 'resenteeism' has employees coasting through workdays and hanging on, rather than quitting

[HoughMade]

Some people will never be happy, no matter what their job. Happy is on the inside. Some things bring you joy, but true happiness you generate for yourself. Regardless of the job.

I agree 100%

Sometimes I enjoy my job. Sometimes its unpleasant and I just enjoy the things it allows me to do....like own a home, raise a family, etc. Don't think that the younger generation delaying marriage, delaying or not having kids is completely separate from the job dissatisfaction issue. There is overlap. It's easier to do a hard job when you are building something real.

Anyhoo, there's this crazy thing that people do from time to time when their job doesn't meet their needs- they get a different job.

I had a few "career level" employers since I left college (I don't count part time and summers). I was a used car salesman from '92-'95. My wife and I knew that was not a long term thing, so I left and went to law school and she worked to provide for our living expenses while I scholarshipped and student loaned my way through. Then, I got my first law job. I left after 7 total months, 3 months after I became a real lawyer because the place was horribly managed and it was soul draining. I worked at another firm for about 17 years (the same one my wife found soul draining as a secretary while I was in school) and I loved it for a long time and made the best friends I have. But the $$$ became unsatisfactory, so I left (as did several others) and went to where I am now (8+ years).

Three "I lefts" the younguns have to learn to have a little gumption and LEAVE the job if its that soul crushing. Or do what it takes to get the skills to do a different kind of work. It really is up to them. They need to stop playing victim. Don't be "that guy" who essentially steals from the employer and brings everyone around them down.

 

[patience0830]

Everyone is different equal, some are just more different equal than others...

FTFY "Animal Farm"

 

[Brandon]

The IT job I had for about 4 years I absolutely hated once I went full time.

Micromanaged, was always set up for failure.

At the time one of my good friends from highschool was the VP and had asked me several times to step away from driving the bus. Finally I agreed to go full time and went to Ivy Tech to help bring me upto speed and be more useful.

About the time I realized it wasn't for me and was debating on what my next move was we were kindly told we were being laid off.

Never got to tell my old friend the huge favor he did for me. Guess he thought I was mad.

 

[Hoosierdood]

I was just discussing tonight with my family that I am thinking about a career change. At 45 years old, I'm thinking about getting into the electrical trade. I enjoy working with my hands, building things, and I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to figuring out how individual parts of a system make it all work.

I absolutely HATE my job, but it is good money, so I tolerate it and stay. They have eliminated all management, and delegated those duties to the remaining employees. Of course, there was no added compensation for the increased workload. Now in the absence of any management, cliques have formed, completely breaking the team environment. Gossip, backstabbing, and bullying are commonplace. There is no accountability for poor performance, so those of us that actually work are stuck carrying the weight of those who milk the clock. My co-worker took an additional 120 hours of personal time off last year, in addition to his 80 hours of PTO with zero consequences. This was in his FIRST full year with the company, when I was responsible for training him with no support from corporate. Corporate executives don't actually know what we do, but come up with genius ideas about how I can do my job better. Issues are brought up to corporate, but nobody actually cares beyond the P&L statement.

There comes a point where the money isn't worth it anymore. I'd be willing to take a significant pay cut to work for a good company that treats me well.

 

[Flingarrows]

I climbed for higher positions and better pay most of my life, and as recently as 4 years ago.

I make more money that I feel I deserve, but do work hard, even on the tasks that I don’t enjoy- just to get them out of the way.

I no longer look to climb, I just want to do a decent job at everything I do, and make money.

In the end, I work to live, not live to work.

 

[xwing]

Just wait until AI 'learns to code'

A rude awakening for some

It's well on the way. Ever used GitHub Copilot? Ever typed a coding question into Bing?

 

[wtburnette]

I climbed for higher positions and better pay most of my life, and as recently as 4 years ago.

I make more money that I feel I deserve, but do work hard, even on the tasks that I don’t enjoy- just to get them out of the way.

I no longer look to climb, I just want to do a decent job at everything I do, and make money.

In the end, I work to live, not live to work.

That's my motto. I managed to work 16 years in IT and not do very much OT, which is unheard of. I did a very good job during my 40 hours of work each week but considered anything over 40 hours my time and would only rarely give it to the company I worked for. Once I transitioned to Information Security, OT isn't as necessary (thank goodness).

Biggest thing to remember is that life is full of compromises. My not working OT limited me for promotions, so I had to change jobs more often in order to keep my salary reasonable. Now that I'm working what I consider my dream job, I have a great boss, I work 20 - 35 hours a week and have great flexibility, while working a job that I still find enjoyable. The compromise for that is that while I make a decent salary, I'm making ~25% less than I could be making if I worked a job working 50 - 60 hours a week sitting in meetings most of my day. I love the flexible schedule I have now enough to give up the extra money I could easily be making.

 

[bobzilla]

That's my motto. I managed to work 16 years in IT and not do very much OT, which is unheard of. I did a very good job during my 40 hours of work each week but considered anything over 40 hours my time and would only rarely give it to the company I worked for. Once I transitioned to Information Security, OT isn't as necessary (thank goodness).

Biggest thing to remember is that life is full of compromises. My not working OT limited me for promotions, so I had to change jobs more often in order to keep my salary reasonable. Now that I'm working what I consider my dream job, I have a great boss, I work 20 - 35 hours a week and have great flexibility, while working a job that I still find enjoyable. The compromise for that is that while I make a decent salary, I'm making ~25% less than I could be making if I worked a job working 50 - 60 hours a week sitting in meetings most of my day. I love the flexible schedule I have now enough to give up the extra money I could easily be making.

I'd love to work part time and whenever the hell I felt like it. But the vast majority of people don't get that option.

 

[wtburnette]

I'd love to work part time and whenever the hell I felt like it. But the vast majority of people don't get that option.

Yep, I understand. My job is ostensibly a full time job, but I can get my work done in much less time than most. My boss is one of those rare people who expect work done instead of hours put in to define our work. That's the main reason I consider this my dream job. I get that most people don't have an option like this, which is sad to me. I think the way most companies do things is wrong and could be done much better, at least for certain positions.

 

[DadSmith]

Some companies have these now.
They are nap pods. They get paid to take a nap while at work. Those long 9 hours days at the office are more productive when your Gen Z gets his/her mid-day rest.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

View attachment 346147
Some companies have these now.
They are nap pods. They get paid to take a nap while at work. Those long 9 hours days at the office are more productive when your Gen Z gets his/her mid-day rest.

Oh man, that looks a lot more comfortable than the restroom stall that I have to use when I'm in the office!

 

[rhamersley]

Yep, I understand. My job is ostensibly a full time job, but I can get my work done in much less time than most. My boss is one of those rare people who expect work done instead of hours put in to define our work. That's the main reason I consider this my dream job. I get that most people don't have an option like this, which is sad to me. I think the way most companies do things is wrong and could be done much better, at least for certain positions.

You won't get any change in the "if you're not here, you're not working" thing until a whole ton of 60+ managers age out. It was just how they were brought up to be. I work with a guy who thinks the "good ole days" were working 16 hours a day 7 days a week back in the 70's and 80's. They'll never change...

 

[smokingman]

View attachment 346147
Some companies have these now.
They are nap pods. They get paid to take a nap while at work. Those long 9 hours days at the office are more productive when your Gen Z gets his/her mid-day rest.

Ask a gen z person what they actually are. If they are honest 99% will call it a hang over pod. A place my daughter worked at had one, and that is pretty much all it was ever used for(to recover from a night of bing drinking)

 

[Ark]

View attachment 346147
Some companies have these now.
They are nap pods. They get paid to take a nap while at work. Those long 9 hours days at the office are more productive when your Gen Z gets his/her mid-day rest.

Eh... maybe not so much this year.

Dunno if you caught the TikTok trend a year or two ago of spoiled young women posting their "day in the life at Google/Facebook/Etc" videos, where they roll in late and spend most of the day chowing on free food and playing games in the rec room and slurping free drinks. It was very obnoxious. Then, all the sudden starting around six months ago, all those same women started posting videos about getting laid off. There have been some deep cuts in tech lately and a lot of these useless people got shown the door.

 

[wtburnette]

You won't get any change in the "if you're not here, you're not working" thing until a whole ton of 60+ managers age out. It was just how they were brought up to be. I work with a guy who thinks the "good ole days" were working 16 hours a day 7 days a week back in the 70's and 80's. They'll never change...

Yep, butts in seats managers. They are a bane of my existence...

"I have to see you to make sure you're productive" is a very outdated mode of managing in an office environment. May still be relevant to a production floor in a factory, but unless you're standing over the shoulder of someone in an office, you have no idea what they're doing.

The best way to see if someone is doing their job is to measure their productivity with realistic metrics, but that's beyond the capacity of most managers.

 

[Creedmoor]

Seems appropriate right now.

 

[HoughMade]

Seems appropriate right now.

As Gen Z is entering into the workforce, Millenials are turning into the grumpy "old" men and are already spouting about "kids these days". We all knew this would happen.