I haven’t worked since pre-covid.

I worked approximately 40 jobs over a 30 year period. Now that I have been able to view them through the lens of time, I can see which ones I truly loved and which ones were gaslighting me into thinking i loved them and which ones were critically bad for my mental and/or physical health.

Younger me thought working in a library was the dream job and settled for working in a few bookstores, all chain stores, not local. I for one am glad that many brick and mortar book store chains are shuttering. Being forced to upsell predatory magazine subscriptions to the elderly, ripping covers off overstock returns, daily mobs of Karens sharing their opinions on romance novel lasciviousness and countless other things, made me not even want to read for a few years after the place closed.

One of the best, most fun and least paying jobs was a Taco Bell. Note I say ‘a’ Taco Bell, meaning a specific flocation. I have worked at 3 total but that one particular location was just a blast. I had fun with coworkers, got free food, made my own hours mostly, could walk to work, it was just the best. Not the most glamorous and I mentioned low pay but that’s to be expected from TB.

At my last job I trained new employees for a call center. It was a very toxic workplace, high stress, low pay to the point it broke minimum wage laws multiple times, a ‘we are like family here’ company but also management extorted sex from employees, mandatory christmas and thanksgiving parties actually on the holiday, coupons for customers that we couldn’t use which were better than our lauughably small employee discount, that kind of nightmare kind of place. By this point, I stopped caring about what any company wanted from me and did what I wanted and naturally that led to my repeated promotions into the trainer role. I said the same thing to every trainee, about 250 people overall:

“Never let a company decide if you can have fun. If you hate your job, leave and don’t look back. If you make plans with friends but your job refuses to give you the day off, which would you rather remember doing? If your life flashes before your eyes when you die, what will you see?” I’ve run into some of those trainees since. Two of them said it was the best job advice they ever got. Another told me it saved them from going through with a planned suicide.

I hope these stories help your perspective. I should add that I have never made a lot of money, don’t have a degree and by societies standards, most would consider me an absolute failure, which makes me find it hilariously ironic that I’m pretty happy with my life so far. Not working for 5+ years will do that.

All the fun has been sucked out of my industry and im there for a paycheck now. Sucks because i used to love it, but AI has made it a shitshow and completely unfun.

There are jobs i like, but I cant afford to work those jobs.

Affording a job… what a joke of a economic system.

I have the benefit to currently beeing paid to do what I love. My dream is to find a job that continous that, but with my experience in the job market, options look bleek.

But, different people have different experiences and perceive the world different. Maybe your coworker honestly likes the job, good for them. Maybe they are just braindead with a working body, able to persue tasks, who cares. You do you and as long no one bothers you keep doing as you like. Your perspective is as valid as mine. And If I end up in a simmiliar scenario, I prolly have the same thought.

Every job I have ever had is some % I don’t like and some % I enjoy. I am very fortunate that for a long time the % I don’t like is significantly less than the % I enjoy. The ratio has been 5/95.

Yes I enjoy my job.

Would I rather sit on the Bay, go out for a jet ski and not work, absolutely. I don’t want to sacrifice my life style to do that so I continue to work.

Are you exaggerating about your work place being a cult? I have no idea where you work but I suspect you are.

If every place is like this, I should stick with the devil I know.

That doesn’t make any sense. Why is this such a big deal to you. So what if your co-workers enjoy their work. That has nothing to do with you. As long as they are handling their work and not dumping shit on you than keep doing your work.

I like my job in general, although I’d like if I had to spend less time working.

I love my job. It’s stressful, it’s horrendously unevenly paced, but it brings joy and stuff to people.

Also, I have the nicest office :

Your coworker isn’t wrong if she can afford a choose in her job - yeah, you better like it, it’s so many hours of your time, so much mental space and energy.

I probably wouldn’t do my job as a hobby during my free time, but in general I like what I do for a living.

I’ve hated all my jobs except for my current job. I moved back in with family and work at an animal shelter. Turns out it feels good to do something you passionate about. Unfortunately passion doesn’t usually pay well

I’m privileged enough to love my job. I love it so much, that I do it as a hobby at home. If I made a billion dollars tomorrow, I’d tell a few people to fuck off, but I’d volunteer to do something similar for a non-profit.

I haven’t loved all my jobs. There are plenty that I hated. My experience is that most people don’t love their jobs. It was a combo of hard work, focus, and immense amounts of luck that allowed me to get here.

Work sucks, that’s why they have to pay you to do it

With that said, I currently have the best job I’ve ever had. Job security (niche career I fell into by applying for a retiring coworker’s position), the work is meaningful and helps society, it’s not that hard, and it pays $80k/yr

Liking your work, or at least not hating it, is rational. We’re forced to do this for most of the waking hours of most of our lifes. Kudos to your colleague for having a positive mindset.

I enjoy my job but i hate my boss and the system of wage labor that compels me to work to begin with. But my job is fucking around in a kitchen for 7 hours feeding about 50-60 vegans in a generally low stress environment where i can do literally whatever i want with the food as long as it tastes good and nobody is like “what the fuck is this slop” and i like that and i get compliments on my food all the time and the satisfaction that the president of the college loves my food.

Wage labor under capitalism sucks and i should be paid 3x what i make but i enjoy my job

If I had infinite money and didn’t have to work, I still would, just less and with some different direction. I don’t think anyone thinks liking one’s job is required, but it’s obviously nice to not actively dislike a 3rd of your life if at all possible.