Do you enjoy your job?

I am a master electrician. There are days I love my job and days when the stress is tremendous. The stress usually comes from the failures of others. They expect that poor planning on their part constitutes an emergency on my part. I am surrounded by people with less experience, knowledge, and license than I have constantly assuming that they know more. To make matters worse, my boss has given their opinion more importance than mine, which is actually against the code compliance. That is, I, as master for the company, am supposed to be in charge of code compliance. But some guy with less than half of my experience and less license and far less education can have an equal or more valued opinion. That's what causes the stress. The physical part of the job is okay and there is nothing I can't do. I am underpaid.

My only solution is to start my own company. There is no scale in the south for my position because we don't have a strong union here. Most masters down here run their own company and as such, draw whatever salary their budget can afford. So, as an employee of a company, I am making what I was making as a journeyman in 2003, with the addition of a company truck and gas card. And that's with me being the qualifier for the company. What that means is that my license qualifies this company to be an electrical contractor.

What stops me from being my own contractor is having the cash free to afford a minimum of $300,000 of insurance up to a $1,00,000 of insurance, depending on the scale of the job and number of employees. There's a wholeside  to the business that I haven't had time to learn, but I will. I enjoy the work itself, I am certainly qualified for it. There's something satisfying about energizing the service and turning lights on. 98 percent of our work is hidden and we never get the credit. The general construction management and the architect get all the glory. Never mind us, we're just the slobs working 8 to 12 hours a day, 5 to 7 days a week to accomplish what the "managers" couldn't accomplish.

I've studied some small business manuals and have a good idea where to start. What I lack is all the business contacts to get into business. It's one thing to have 34 years of electrical study and more than 20 years in the trade with a big, fat license but none of that gets you the jobs. It's who you know and what your business structure is that does that.

My boss only has about 3 years of hands-on experience but he has a lifetime of sweet-talking himself into positions of authority and contact. He will tell his job is BS. He's a salesman, so to speak. He makes the promises that we have to keep. He's a people person, whereas I'm more of a field engineer. And I've had to do plenty of engineering on this job, with all the changes, but without the engineer's salary.

I didn't mean to sound long-winded or negative. It's just that there are parts of this job I enjoy and parts that I don't enjoy. OTOH, I can get away with long hair.

I get stupid phone calls at the restaurant all the time!  Friday i got a call that flustered me a bit, i dont know if the person was stupid, but he was VERY rude, and called back after i had left, upsetting one of my waitresses.
 
Me: " *** Restaurant, how can i help you?"
Person: "I'd like to make reservations"
Me: "Im sorry, we dont take reservations sir"
Person: " Why not?"
Me: "We just don;t sir, you'll need to come and wait in line for a table sir"
Person: "We'll that is just stupid, i should be able to reserve a damn table"
Me: "Im sorry, but you can't, if you would like a table, you'll need to wait in line sir"
Person: "That is the stupidest thing i have ever heard, Why can't you be like other restaurants!?"
(By this part i was just getting tired of this guy)
Me: "Well, SIR, we're a unique restaurant"
Person: "Your a bunch of ***holes, ill go somewhere else if you dont care about your customers"
Me:"Have a nice day"
 
Then i hung up because i had a feeling he'd go on and on trying to insult me.  Now, after he called and the waitress picked up and he treated her like that, i was really angry.  I wrote down his phone number and im going to see if we can get the phone company to block it or something.  For the time being, i told the staff to ignore that number on caller ID.

I like my job.. some days better than others, but I guess all jobs are like that. Unfortunately my job doesn't seem to be very stable right now and it has me worried. It's a family owned business, and times are hard, business is slow... so I'm looking for something more reliable. I'll hate to leave but I have a family to take care of and being layed off again isn't an option.

Ron, I just osted on another thread how you are so similar to my DH with your electrical background and affinity for wolves.  Now your post here is another similarity.  He's expressed many of the complaints you listed.  He's no longer doing actual wiring (he did for over 10 years) - now he's bidding jobs, scheduling 35-40 guys/gals, trouble-shooting billing issues, permit stuff, etc.  He's glad his middle-aged body is not so beat up at the end of the day, but the mental stress makes him crazy.  It's EXACTLY what you said - someone else's lack of planning makes for HIS emergency.  And as for dumb people calling him -- he hears it all the time.  The most recent thing was a guy calling to complain about a bill he got for some repair work.  He wanted the labor charge to be reduced by the number of minutes the electrician used the bathroom during the day!  My DH was like, "Sir, the port-o-potty discount is built into the fee."  []
 
Luckily, I don't deal with the public in my job (I handle the accounting for a family company of developers, builders, & property managers).  I hate to be a downer for everyone here, but I've never had a job I really enjoyed - I've just had a couple that I've disliked less than others.  Sadly, I chose a major based on it's promise of good job opportunities and because I have a natural ability for it, not because I love doing it.  When I read what so many of you have posted here, it makes me feel even worse than I already do about not having true joy in my work life.  I try to appreciate the good things about my current job - it's a small office, I can wear jeans, I work mostly independently, few interruptions, and the family I work for are good people who truly appreciate me.  But do I look forward to getting up each day to do something I think is valuable or meaningful?  Not exactly.
 
If I could turn back the hands of time, I'd do things differently.  But, I also realize I'm very lucky to have a job at all, and I have skills that allow me to work just about anywhere, which is much more than a lot of folks have these days, so I shouldn't complain!

I am a stay at home mom. My youngest is going into the 6th grade so I just finished a medical assistant course and will be looking for a part time job at the end of the summer. I want to find a job that I can have summers off.

I just quit my job last week. I worked for the most arrogant, awful couple that I could possibly work for, and I don't know what I was thinking when I started there the day after Easter.  I do computerized embroidery. Was at one place for 22 years,,,but business was way down,,,,wayyyyyyyyyyyyy down.  My hours were getting less and less and worse then that, the owner was pretty stressed trying to keep us busy. I found another job doing the same thing, a company that also did silk screening. I was the embroiderer and busy as can be,,,working more hours then I really wanted... but in November I was on vacation and got a phone call saying that they were closing. You see it was owned my two guys and one wanted out and the other couldnt' come up with enough money to buy him out and pay off the bills....the screening part of the business was very slow and they were  paying 2 screeners, a graphic artist, a sales type girl and the owners on mostly my embroidery work. I know I didn't sew enough to pay all those employees,,,and they just hung it up. I was on unemployment until finding this job at another embroider shop about 30 minutes from my house. I should have NEVER taken it, but it was only 20 hours a week,,,but from 10 until 2...might as well have been there making money the whole day. BUT I think the husband thought I was a good idea, the wife did not. Unfortunately, I worked more with her because he was just a sales person and handled the money end of the business. She used to do the embroidery. It was obvious that she didn't want me there from the start,,,and made it very tough. One day telling me this and next day telling me opposite. Everything I knew about embroidering all those years was not something she cared about,,,she kept saying " forget the places you used to work at, forget what you knew!"  So they expected good work out of me but everything was total opposite from everything I always did. She wouldn't let me work the way I work best,,,telling me WHERE TO STAND, HOW TO STAND etc etc.  AND THEN she would change her instructions from one day to the next,,,to make sure I was always doing something wrong.  I did this for 8 or 9 weeks,,,and she was sarcastic as could be...finally I called and said "I'm not coming in, you don't want an experienced embroiderer, you want a puppet!"    So now I'm stuck,,,embroidery is the only thing I know and there are not many around...believe me I checked.   I quit my job so I can't finish collecting unemployment, I had about another 5 or 6 weeks before taking that stupid job. This weekend I started doing pet sitting for a company in the next town,,,but it won't be enough money so I will have to keep looking for something.  This is a very  low part of my life but pet sitting is fun, just wish they had more customers or less employees.

I used to like my job, up until a couple days ago. There's a new groomer at the shop who thinks she knows everything under the sun. She critiques everybody's work and redos things that shouldn't be done. She also speaks down to people like they are retarded... Not even a week she's there and she is taking over! It's crazy madness!

ORIGINAL: dyan

I just quit my job last week. I worked for the most arrogant, awful couple that I could possibly work for, and I don't know what I was thinking when I started there the day after Easter.  I do computerized embroidery. Was at one place for 22 years,,,but business was way down,,,,wayyyyyyyyyyyyy down.  My hours were getting less and less and worse then that, the owner was pretty stressed trying to keep us busy. I found another job doing the same thing, a company that also did silk screening. I was the embroiderer and busy as can be,,,working more hours then I really wanted... but in November I was on vacation and got a phone call saying that they were closing. You see it was owned my two guys and one wanted out and the other couldnt' come up with enough money to buy him out and pay off the bills....the screening part of the business was very slow and they were  paying 2 screeners, a graphic artist, a sales type girl and the owners on mostly my embroidery work. I know I didn't sew enough to pay all those employees,,,and they just hung it up. I was on unemployment until finding this job at another embroider shop about 30 minutes from my house. I should have NEVER taken it, but it was only 20 hours a week,,,but from 10 until 2...might as well have been there making money the whole day. BUT I think the husband thought I was a good idea, the wife did not. Unfortunately, I worked more with her because he was just a sales person and handled the money end of the business. She used to do the embroidery. It was obvious that she didn't want me there from the start,,,and made it very tough. One day telling me this and next day telling me opposite. Everything I knew about embroidering all those years was not something she cared about,,,she kept saying " forget the places you used to work at, forget what you knew!"  So they expected good work out of me but everything was total opposite from everything I always did. She wouldn't let me work the way I work best,,,telling me WHERE TO STAND, HOW TO STAND etc etc.  AND THEN she would change her instructions from one day to the next,,,to make sure I was always doing something wrong.  I did this for 8 or 9 weeks,,,and she was sarcastic as could be...finally I called and said "I'm not coming in, you don't want an experienced embroiderer, you want a puppet!"    So now I'm stuck,,,embroidery is the only thing I know and there are not many around...believe me I checked.   I quit my job so I can't finish collecting unemployment, I had about another 5 or 6 weeks before taking that stupid job. This weekend I started doing pet sitting for a company in the next town,,,but it won't be enough money so I will have to keep looking for something.  This is a very  low part of my life but pet sitting is fun, just wish they had more customers or less employees.

do you have enough contacts to start your own embroidery company? this is how many small businesses get started, employee cant stand working for a company and when they quit it is either start your own business or find a new line of work. there arent many screen printing/embroidery places here either, but the ones that are stay quite busy. my boss orders shirts with the company logo (some embroidered and some screen printed) quite often and we usually have to wait quite a while for the order to be filled.

i know how tough it is to be out of work. i was out of work for many months when i quit my last job. the way i see it, quitting a job is opening new doors for the future. for a while i regretted quitting my last job even though i felt un-respected, unappreciated, and under paid there. once i found the job i have now, i couldnt be happier and would have never found this job if i wouldnt have left the last place. keep your head up because things will turn around []

I am the admin. asst. (but the president calls me the Executive Sales Assistant) for an office wholesale lumber company. We're simply an office though, no wood here. Basically what we do is buy lumber in large qty's (in tractor trailer flatbed qty's) and have it shipped directly to job-sites where apartments are being built. I do a little bit of everything here, including handling the president's calls when he is out (and sometimes even when he is in) as he is also a salesman.

Most days I like my job OK. I actually have a BA in Psychology, and would like to go back and get my MSW - but unfortunately the good programs in my area are day programs, and we cannot afford for me to not work full time.

The people that I work with are for the most part pretty fun. It is an interesting place to work, and I actually like the people I work with (ordinary annoyances aside). The guys (the Salesmen) have these ridiculous little Nerf TM dart guns, and they run around shooting each other with them. This past Christmas the CEO (a female) put her 5 y/o son's battery powered scooter together and left it here to charge. That afternoon the salesmen stole it and took it for a joy ride around the office. []

Hey, I get to fart around on here with you guys, right? I could do a WHOLE LOT worse I suppose.

I am a school psychologist for a large (amount of land) rural school district in OH.  I am a radical behaviorist (that branch of behavioral psychology, cognitive behavior therapy).  I run a private educational consulting business on the side. My current passion is teaching of reading.  And I am commonly referred to in the region as the Data Diva.

For the most part I love the kids and the problem solving challenges.  Parents and teachers (in past districts the administration) are my biggest annoyances.  As to bad parenting, and boy do I see alot, I laughingly refer to it as job security.

is that like accounting?

 
Accounts payable involves paying the bills for the company I work for.  We own a number of fast food restaurants.  I do a lot of data entry, but also have other responsibilites (typing memos, setting up training classes, etc.).  I deal with Store Managers who are at the restaurant locations mostly via phone or email.  I work directly with 5 other people, 3 guys, 2 gals.  The atmosphere is relaxed, we don't have to dress up, and if things come up, the boss is flexible.  I never take advantage of it, though.  I always cover my time.  My main complaint is lack of communication, but overall, it's not a bad place to work.

do you have enough contacts to start your own embroidery company? this is how many small businesses get started, employee cant stand working for a company and when they quit it is either start your own business or find a new line of work. there arent many screen printing/embroidery places here either, but the ones that are stay quite busy. my boss orders shirts with the company logo (some embroidered and some screen printed) quite often and we usually have to wait quite a while for the order to be filled.

Shew,,,,embroidery machines cost thousands of dollars...and its a doggy-dog (what a place to say that...lol) business,,,,cut throat you might say. There are businesses out there that will give a job away to take it from another company. Then there are all the people with embroidery machines in their basement that also almost work for nothing. I ran a 12 headed machine for years then went down to a 6 and 4 when the 12 was replaced.  I HATE looking for a job, I HATE interviewing and I HATE thinking of starting a new one where I know nothing.  Hhhmmm,,,looks like I better change my attitude!

Wow, how interesting. I have a million questions for some of you, when/if I get time! Namely, Griffine and MRV The behaviorist....

I work for our police department and yes, I love my job. Every day I'm grateful for stability, 'cause every day I see so much instability........ helps with perspective.

ORIGINAL: dyan

Shew,,,,embroidery machines cost thousands of dollars...and its a doggy-dog (what a place to say that...lol) business,,,,cut throat you might say. There are businesses out there that will give a job away to take it from another company. Then there are all the people with embroidery machines in their basement that also almost work for nothing. I ran a 12 headed machine for years then went down to a 6 and 4 when the 12 was replaced.  I HATE looking for a job, I HATE interviewing and I HATE thinking of starting a new one where I know nothing.  Hhhmmm,,,looks like I better change my attitude!

i didnt mean to get you down. i was just trying to offer some creative ideas for finding or creating work and some encouragement. []

i love the kind of work i do, and had almost given up on finding a decent job in this town. that was when the job i have now came along. you never know when a good thing is going to fall into your lap.

Oh thank you so much for the encouragement,,,I really do appreciate it a lot.  You sure did NOT get me down,,,  honest.  I am kind of down because my life is all stressed right now and just a few months ago I was floating around kind of stress free.  Thought I was set for the rest of my working days,,,but that sure changed in a heartbeat.