Workplace

Work is good as God gave Adam a job and God doesn't give bad things.

However, workplaces can be problematic. And you want to gripe about coworkers, the way the boss treats you or your pay....well the lack thereof. (They only pretend to pay you so you only pretend to work)

Or you can't find a job....

Whatever it is....let's discuss.

Workplaces vary. I worked somewhere where coworkers were literally complaining about each other in the team/group meetings on a regular basis (i.e., "don't blame me, that's her job", "he's always late," etc.). It was a toxic environment because everyone was basically competing with each other and shifting blame. The upper manager was also viewed as a god so we were all trying to get name recognition. Outside of this example, my other work environments have been fairly normal and typical. More important than workplace is finding work that you like.

A job's a job.

I have found two mantras that take out 97% of the stress in my job.

"It's not my fault."
"I still get paid."

Whatever he said about her, that's not my fault. Whatever he forgot to do, I'm still getting paid. As long as I keep MY focus on doing MY job, I'll be fine.

If the boss completely mismanages the whole operation and the place goes out of business, that's still not my fault and I'll find a job somewhere else. People are always looking for a willing worker.

As for the other 3% stress, that's if I make a mistake. That occasionally happens. But I'll keep doing the best I can to do my job and clean up the mistake.

It's not my job to run the train,
The whistle I don't blow.
It's not my job to say how far
The train's supposed to go.
I'm not allowed to pull the brake,
Or even ring the bell.
But let the damn thing leave the track
And see who catches hell!

Ah yes. "Work".
When i look at the definition of work it says this : "activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result. "

How can you even call it "work" when some people don't even put a mental or physical effort to achieve a goal?

There.... I fixed it for you....

Not my style.

Almost everyday I'm the one cleaning up a mess somebody else tried to hide.

No work has ever occurred in this building.



Massachusetts State House

Work certainly can be stressful, mostly if we let it.
I work for a company with really inept managers.... managers over the planning, parts ordering, personnel, and work environment... the list is endless.... as is the "ineptness"... The "Peter Principle" really applies here...

All my life, I have been of the "company man' mentality. Gung ho, do whatever I can to improve the company, and make it successful. I've tried to offer suggestions, based on my experience, and to be satisfied with whatever the management decides.

At this company, I've had to really "re-wire" my outlook. I have found that our management does not want employees to think for themselves, or to offer suggestions. They want deaf and dumb worker bees.... "yes" men.

Since that goes against my whole nature, I've had to develop what I call the "Jimmy crack corn" attitude. I come to work, put in my 10 hours each day, and go home. Whatever happens, good or bad, with the company... I just don't care.

I firmly believe that with many large companies, it's the caring about what happens that causes the unnecessary stress.

This right here describes my condition at work too. Exactly the same!
I had to let go of a lot of things about 10 years ago because it was like you said, causing unnecessary stress for myself, because others don't care, they're happy in bliss and they have a lot of money because if they didn't, we wouldn't have this problem.
This type of atmosphere happens in pretty much all companies which involve some type of office work. Middle level managers do absolutely nothing, get paid doing nothing and they're there to screw up a process sometimes which is why i don't involve them in a lot of details because they'd just screw it up. So not only they're no help, but if you involve them, they will screw up any good thing or process.
Now couple that with the fact that i also do some work for the state (which is why i showed a pic of the state house), the government managers in general are completely useless in every aspect.
They might do things like:
* Let's hire a million dollar company to tell us what we already know.
* Or, You want some actual work done? What is this work you speak of? We will hire a contractor to do the actual work, who will then sub-contract to 5 other companies before we even see anybody doing any actual work.
Politicians and managers are very very busy thinking about work in their dreams, but when it comes time to put boots on the ground ...that's not their job or anybody else's job.
You just call a private company to do the work.
This type of mindset is not very prevalent with people who do non-office related work, like constructions, engineering, electrician, pluming, car mechanics etc.
But anything involving office-related work is essentially filled with bureaucrats, more so on the government sector as opposed to private.
Any industries involving insurance companies, lawyers, IT, anything involving money such as financial advisors, stocks and anything else that i might have missed.
This is why i have a lot of respect for Musk who fights this exact attitude in the States. Anything involving useless positions and especially DEI positions.
So yeah, take things one day at a time and enjoy things one day at a time.
Thank God we are blessed with being Believers and followers of Christ because nothing makes sense in the world and only He will fix it in due time.

So, you started work when you were, what, about 5?

There is usually a lot of politics in play in the workplace.

One thing that I learned is to treat your associates that you meet with respect on your way up the ladder of success because, in all likelihood, you will meet them again on your way down. I have also learned that everyone is expendable.

I have been in many team/group meetings in the past. Your observations have to be astute in ascertaining who the players are and what they are about. If you have nothing good to say it is best to hold your tongue. Got to choose your battles wisely.

CYA.

I believe that the Peter Principle states that everyone will rise to their level of incompetence.

Something like that. Women's work started at an early age for us girls. By the time I was eight years old
I was sick of the never-ending nature of housework, and so volunteered to work with my dad and brothers.
I had no idea what they were doing, except it was not housework! Lucky for me my dad valued my desire to
help, because my mother was of a different opinion. Plus, the girls outnumbered the boys by more than double.
So there was that, also .. My dad took me on against the wishes of my mother, so I escaped the drudgery of
housework at the age of eight, and worked with my dad and brothers for ten years before flying the coop.
Although I still had to do dishes on the other days of the week, either washing, or drying, or clearing the table
etc (we never had to do the same chore twice in the same day, and there was always much to do in a family of 13).
My dad was a bit of a photographer himself and kept very good records of our family life. I do believe that played
some role in my interest in it as an art form. I fell in love with darkroom work during my year of college. I turned
20 in college and decided photo work was the only thing I wanted to do. I was hired and started at my first lab
job on the day I turned 21 and always considered it a gift from the Spirit of the universe (I was not a believer then).
In all these years of being employed, I have only worked at three different labs. I started my current job in 1982.

I feel so blessed!!!

You are a blessing to others as well.

Office related jobs are all about politics. Common sense and logic doesn't apply.
But if you are good at your profession, you should speak up. I did, but nobody cares.
If you are good at what you do and love what you do, you should have no problem finding another job right away.
But a lot of people are there for a paycheck not because they love what they do. And the other thing is, if you love what you do, it's not really work. It's just joy and pleasure for you and you get paid.
When i had a re-org at my job about 10 years ago and crazy non-professional and non-expert managers showed up, i was ready to go and do something else, like open a coffee shop or a pizza shop.
But after praying and talking to my wife about it, we realized that it's not the job that i didn't like, but some managers there tried to ruin my passion for my job.
So i had to forgive them all and then continue to try to help people as best i can, and sometimes navigating against job protocols.