How stressful is your job?

[Buster]

Long hours isn't the same as high stress.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Long hours isn't the same as high stress.

I feel like that only holds true if the pay is ridiculously good. Otherwise I think it would be stressful knowing you are wasting so much of your life working and for not much reward.

[Buster]

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I feel like that only holds true if the pay is ridiculously good. Otherwise I think it would be stressful knowing you are wasting so much of your life working and for not much reward.

that stress would exist with a dead-end job with low hours, as well.

Feelings of self-worth might be stressful, but that's different than the job being stressful.

[civic_stylez]

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I'd say my job ramps to 3-4 for short bursts.....but I thrive off of it. When it hits the 1-2 waves I desperately look forward to shit hitting the fan

This is my job as well. My work is based off of seasonal rushes so if goes from being dead to pandemonium very quickly. But I enjoy it, having the slow downs after the craziness allows for a good work/life balance.

[tirebob]

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I've been listening to a lot of startup podcasts. A lot of them seem to favor the idea of seasonal businesses actually. With one of the biggest benefits being you do get that reset time of the year when it becomes less busy. Obviously the cash flow part is hard but it does give time for lessons learned and prep to try and grow more the next year. Definitely can see how it would take a mental toll when things slow down though.

There are most definitely some good to seasonal, and you tapped into the best one. I always am able to take time pretty much whenever I want for half the year and bust my ass the other half, but be careful if you are thinking of going down that road because not all seasonal businesses are easy to manage on season versus off season. If you are in a position where extra seasonal staff is needed in a temporary capacity it gets tricky, especially if the specific work requires some skill rather than just and empty shell of a body. That is a huge stress in my world. Also, if your seasonal business is dramatically affected by things outside of your control, such as weather in my world, you quickly are left behind the 8-ball trying to get through to the next busy season. As Buster pointed out, unless you are sitting on a cash cow, you will need to rely on an operating line of credit which is absolutely a life saver in situations, but it can quickly become a black hole as those LOC's take more profit from you in interest etc and just like personal finances, if you have low self control you can get in over your head quickly where you end up chasing your tale trying to get back to zero.

In the end, I would have a hard time ever working for somebody else as the freedom of self determination in business is much more fulfilling to me than just collecting a paycheque and going home.

[davidI]

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I feel like that only holds true if the pay is ridiculously good. Otherwise I think it would be stressful knowing you are wasting so much of your life working and for not much reward.

It doesn't have to be stressful just because you're at work (obviously depends on the type of work you do). When I was a FTE, I used to work on all sorts of side-hustles during office hours when things were slow (if anything, it just encouraged me to grind out the work first thing so I could do personal stuff).

Sitting at a screen and getting paid beats the hell out of sitting at home doing the same thing and not getting paid.

[89coupe]

It makes me wonder if some of these companies are not running their business efficiently if they have employees who don’t have work to do on a daily basis.

If you are working for the man, how do you have time to dick around on Beyond or the time to do side jobs during work hours.

Maybe you should be asking yourself the question, am I being efficient with my time and if I’m not, why?

[rx7boi]

Job stress is a fairly personalized thing that is tied more to job/environment fit.

I like juggling multiple items in a portfolio but I dislike working more than 10 hours in a day. I'll do it as required but longterm performance typically suffers may suffer as this is not a sustainable strategy for me.

Likewise, I have coworkers that can only focus on a couple of things at a time since that's all they can manage.

- - - Updated - - -

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It makes me wonder if some of these companies are not running their business efficiently if they have employees who don’t have work to do on a daily basis.

If you are working for the man, how do you have time to dick around on Beyond or the time to do side jobs during work hours.

Maybe you should be asking yourself the question, am I being efficient with my time and if I’m not, why?

Reminds me of the epic Harvey Specter quote:

"When I got here, I dominated. They thought I worked 100 hours a day. Now, no matter what time I get in, nobody questions my ability to get the job done."

[Mitsu3000gt]

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It doesn't have to be stressful just because you're at work (obviously depends on the type of work you do). When I was a FTE, I used to work on all sorts of side-hustles during office hours when things were slow (if anything, it just encouraged me to grind out the work first thing so I could do personal stuff).

Sitting at a screen and getting paid beats the hell out of sitting at home doing the same thing and not getting paid.

Fair point - if you are one of the lucky people to be working your dream job, long hours might be OK regardless of pay. I feel like 90% of us though like our jobs, but not so much that we would be rather working long hours than spending time with family or whatever.

[89coupe]

It’s like the guys and girls I see at my gym who chat more than they workout, they spend an hour or more a day at the gym wasting fucking time and they probably wonder why they are still out of shape.

Same goes for the guys and gals who work at a company for x amount of years and wonder why they aren’t getting promoted.

[davidI]

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Fair point - if you are one of the lucky people to be working your dream job, long hours might be OK regardless of pay. I feel like 90% of us though like our jobs, but not so much that we would be rather working long hours than spending time with family or whatever.

I don't think most jobs are dream jobs - but sometimes it's just this:

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Reminds me of the epic Harvey Specter quote:

"When I got here, I dominated. They thought I worked 100 hours a day. Now, no matter what time I get in, nobody questions my ability to get the job done."

Just because some people can smash through work 3x faster than the average employee doesn't mean you can skip out after 1/3 of the day in most offices. It's no secret if you look into productivity figures at how much time people waste at the office or how productivity can even increase when work hours are reduced. The whole 8 hour day / 40 hour work week is based on nothing but Union demands from many decades ago.

It's part of the reason I ended up consulting. The only problem with consulting is you get paid less for working more efficiently since the faster you work the less hours you bill (it's often difficult to negotiate a rate 3x higher than the next guy even if you'd do the job in 1/3 of the time and thus bill out the same while saving them time - though obviously if you can score lump sum projects it's a different story).

[killramos]

This kind of talk reeks of people who can’t see past their noses in terms of job scope versus what the business actually needs done.

There is more to being at work during core business hours than how many numbers got typed into the spreadsheet today.

[Disoblige]

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It’s like the guys and girls I see at my gym who chat more than they workout, they spend an hour or more a day at the gym wasting fucking time and they probably wonder why they are still out of shape.

Same goes for the guys and gals who work at a company for x amount of years and wonder why they aren’t getting promoted.

The thing is, this stuff only bothers you when you have something to make an excuse about (they're fat, lazy, etc.). If they were not out of shape, or they are an all-star performer at work even though it looks like they spend a lot of time doing other things, you have no pedestal to stand on.
Your issue is that you think high efficient performers always gotta be doing something that you define is productive.

[ercchry]

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This kind of talk reeks of people who can’t see past their noses in terms of job scope versus what the business actually needs done.

There is more to being at work during core business hours than how many numbers got typed into the spreadsheet today.

Yeah FaceTime is good for office politics (thus promotions) ...but most jobs can be done remotely and in a fraction of the hours, unless we’re talking actual face to face end client interactions.

The core thing is just being available all day, but sitting with your thumb up your ass isn’t necessarily the best solution. I personally run into this all the damn time. I’ve actually streamlined positions I‘be been in down to under 1hr a day... running out of work and no solution to it besides doing coworkers jobs with zero recognition, or waiting for sales to just do better and make things busier. If I don’t duck around and appear busy I’m more likely to get fired for not having a job that’s busy enough and turning it into a secondary task for someone else than actually rewarded for it... too many people need to die off at most corporations for any meaningful promotions... welcome to 2019, loyalty is never rewarded... just paid the resume and wait till you can move on.

Not being able to take something from start to finish due to different departments being involved is what usually creates these inefficiencies, due to pace of work never being aligned between coworkers, so everyone always ends up having to work at the pace of the most incompetent person. Piss poor management is usually to blame, but fuck it. When you’re an employee it’s a marathon not a sprint. Policies usually place hurdles in front of the more efficient people, removing any worthwhile rewards for outpacing coworkers by multiples. No ownership, no care, no stress... review well, collect maximum bonus... move on when you get a worthwhile offer

[89coupe]

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The thing is, this stuff only bothers you when you have something to make an excuse about (they're fat, lazy, etc.). If they were not out of shape, or they are an all-star performer at work even though it looks like they spend a lot of time doing other things, you have no pedestal to stand on.
Your issue is that you think high efficient performers always gotta be doing something that you define is productive.

Doesn’t bother me at all, I’m not the one paying their wages. I’m not the one who is feeling stressed.

I’m just saying people who are stressed might want to reflect on themselves. Life choices.

[Buster]

Hard work is over-rated. It is necessary but insufficient.

[blitz]

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I’m just saying people who are stressed might want to reflect on themselves. Life choices.

We can't all marry rich.

[vengie]

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Doesn’t bother me at all, I’m not the one paying their wages. I’m not the one who is feeling stressed.

I’m just saying people who are stressed might want to reflect on themselves. Life choices.

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We can't all marry rich.

OR have those $89 lunches for two on a daily basis.

[ExtraSlow]

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We can't all marry rich.

Zing!!!

[89coupe]

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We can't all marry rich.

Don’t believe the Beyond bullshit.