What do (or did) you like/dislike about your job?

Lavender Room
1

Having seen a few good people move on in recent years, it’s got my wondering what other professions are like, and whether it’s the job / industry, or other environmental factors, that influence people to stay or go.

If you stay, what makes it rewarding? Is it fulfilling or particularly interesting work? Does it benefit the broader community; do you see the fruits of your labour? Is it just good money? Is your company an outlier for those, or are those good parts more broadly recognised within the industry? Perhaps your office is really conveniently located, has a great ambience, the people are really good. Maybe you just settle because you have no idea what else you would do?

If you tend to move on, is it because the work was not stimulating. The conditions are not commensurate with the toll it takes. Highly stressful. The office or the people were horrible?

I work in engineering (civil) for a medium-sized, multidiscipline consultancy. In the civil/structural space our clients are largely govt departments and the work tends to be major public infrastructure. It’s nice to work in an industry where your projects are frequently making the news, generally for the right reasons, and you can show it to family. But it seems like everyone I’ve worked with is stressed and/or grizzling about conditions. I’m a discipline lead in a field where people drop out regularly and there isn’t much good help about. Consequently a lot of work lands on few people and it’s often not fun. There tends to be a lot more grey area in the theory, so it’s more difficult to be confident in solutions and makes it more challenging to find a compromise between a safe design and something the contractor is willing to pay for.

I’m not interested in being a team lead, so I’m about as close to capping out as I think I can go. Colleagues don’t have a lot of faith that management truly cares about it’s staff. But the office is amazing. We are on the top floors of a new building that has great natural light, amazing views, great end of trip facilities and is a 15 min bike ride away. The pay is ok, but I suppose everyone can get more if they look around. The reality is I’m not sure what else I would do, though plenty of former colleagues have tried luring me away.

2

I have a 4-P’s checklist… Applies to taking a job, staying at a job, and therefore deciding to leave a job.

P’s:

Projects – the work has to be stuff I like doing.

Place - the company (brand, reputation, etc.) as well as the location (i.e. cool city, place, etc.) Remote options makes this less of an issue these days.

Pay - self explanatory. Needs to be enough. What enough means can be a whole topic. Commensurate with industry, sufficient to not worry about supporting a lifestyle of meeting needs, funding hobbies, and socking away enough to for later retirement years and/or kid inheritances.

People - Even if all of the above are checked… bad people (especially a boss) can make things not worthwhile. And great people can make it worthwhile even if the above are lacking a bit.

to add - company culture and trust/respect for senior leadership are under the Place/People buckets.

3

I can answer that question a few different ways.

I’m a lawyer.

From a general, ‘being a lawyer’ point of view: It’s more intellectually engaging than a lot of other jobs. You can interact with a variety of interesting people. With some planning and luck, you can ‘make a difference’ (lots of ways to define what that means). The money can range from decent to making bucketloads. Despite the whole genre of lawyer jokes and myriad examples of bad lawyer behavior, it still tends to be a profession that gets some respect in the world.

In terms of my specific career path, I can divide it into 3 basic chapters (so far):

Big Law: I started at a couple big-ish law firms in a big-ish city.

Likes: I got to work with very smart people on interesting, complex transactions. I learned a lot about how the business world works. I got paid more than any 20-something really should get paid, which set me up with some financial leeway/freedom as I moved into mid-career and midlife.

Dislikes: I worked too much. I lost relationships because of that. I was frustrated by a certain lack of agency over my own career arc. I worked some transactions that made me feel like I was part of a net negative effect on the world.

In-House: I left my big firm about a year before I was up for partner, to go see about a girl (now my wife). I left millions of dollars on the table with that decision. While my now-wife was in grad school, I worked as an in-house lawyer at a company.

Likes: Better hours. More detailed knowledge of the client I was representing. A very useful perspective of being a cost center where my job was to facilitate the running of the business, rather than the practice of law being the profit center and the entirety of the business. Inside perspective of how businesses are run.

Dislikes: Got pigeonholed on certain kinds of transactions. No escape from some toxic personalities within the company. Much less money. Barriers to advancement unless someone died/retired/moved on. And not the fault of the job, but I didn’t like the geographic location where I lived/worked.

Co-Owner of Small Law Firm: I co-founded a small law firm with my former boss from my big firm where I started.

Likes: Much more control over my schedule, what clients/matters I want to work on, and direction of the firm. Pride in the tiny business we’ve created and slowly grown.

Dislikes: I can never really be ‘off’. I’m the grownup now, and I often don’t feel up to the challenge. I do more administrative stuff than practicing law than I’d like - sometimes I miss just going in, doing my job and going home. The money is fine but I could easily go back to a big firm, make 1.5-2x right away, and more than that if I stuck it out for a few years and climbed back onto the ladder.

4

I work in the same/similar industry to you, a multidisciplinary environmental consulting/engineering firm. My area of expertise is environmental, health and safety regulatory compliance. I’ve been here 27 years. I like my job because of the variety of what I do. A lot of the work is routine and repetitive but I still after all this time have projects that come up that are new and innovative. I also have a very diverse set of clients including large manufacturing, government agencies, colleges/universities, small mom and pop companies, etc. My company is also very diverse and spread out across the US so I get to work on projects that are equally diverse and spread out. All of that really helps to keep the work from getting stale.

I also like the people I work with and the culture of the company. We are a private company, employee owned, and I think that has been very beneficial to how we operate, how we grow, and the values we operate under.

Things I don’t like are that consulting can be challenging and frustrating at times. Having clients that seem to go out of their way to ignore your advice and almost look for ways to get themselves in trouble, and then wondering why they get in trouble can be very frustrating. Living in a “chargeable hours” type of world can be stressful too but overall I really enjoy what I do.

5

People move because:

  • They dislike the job or profession
  • They dislike the working environment
  • They do not feel appreciated
  • They are climbing the professional ladder and have run out of rungs

I fit the last. Retired from the Navy because I was done advancing. Moved from position to position until moving up was no longer an option, then I moved on. If I had stayed at the company I started in after I got out of the Navy I would probably be a department manager. By moving on I’m now a General Manager. I never would have gotten close in the original place - the option was never going to materialize.

6

I feel very fortunate with my career.

Love what I do. It comes easy to me and its fulfilling because it serves the community. My office has a lot of natural light in a gym that’s 4 mile from home.

I’m an independent contractor so I have freedom in my schedule and a good deal of cintrol. I like my coworkers. However my industry does require late nights at times so I work till 7 or later a few nights a week and events regularly on weekends during our busy seasons.

My profession itself frustrates me especially as the price and degree requirements are unnecessary to me and we set new grads up for failure. Modern health and fitness is also wrought with misinformation and it’s difficult to get through to people with pre-conceived notions. So that’s frustrating when you see potential dwindle due to that. Student loans are also an issue.

Social media also has been a detriment. Although some job security as people continue to follow influencers and get hurt making poor decisions. Or their poor decisions come from the ever-present need to post their stats and they’re too fixated on posting impressive numbers when they should be taking it easy.

Overall I love what I do and I’m fulfilled. Very lucky to have been given this opportunity by my friend and that my wife was patient during the early years building up the practice.

7

Sun synchronous orbits. To get the satellite into one the orbital insertion is at noon, with a launch about 11:20 AM local time. Which means we need to step into mission control at around 2 AM. I love the work very much but when my Apple alarm says ‘good evening’ instead of good morning, or the Uber driver wishes me a good night when it’s in fact my morning? Rough.

8

Well 33yrs same company same department (kind of same group). Engineer, Large automotive company (okay GM)
#1) reason I stayed so long, job flexibility I lived 20 min from home and at most 20 min to their schools (elementary was at our house, all the rest where between work and home so shorter drivers. Mid day school performance I would pop out go to it, (only or 1 of 2 dads most times) then pop back to work, after school performance or sports, leave work early. Could make up time as needed. For a few years I went formally to 4 10 hr days so I could watch kid as Wife was writing.

#2) It was a fun place to work, but that was an ever decreasing experience. When I started the Lab was filled with VERY bright people, and I very much felt like the village idiot (pretty much everyone had phd or at least a masters in N&V). The place as much research lab as car N&V lab. people were there working all hours of the night. about 5yrs in that changed, corporate fired our director and said this changes now. Over time less and less Phd’s hired and more left to go to research places. For me work was still fun as different problems all the time, and others were responsible for implementation, so solve the problem and move to the next. My kind of work.

#3) the people, far more friendly, nice and interesting people. When I hired in a years after, we use to talk about what a 6 sigma place it was. (and when someone was way out there, we would call them the 6 sigma of the 6 sigma) Just lots of very smart,

on money) I didn’t care to much about promotions or money. I made enough money to support the family, we are thrifty, most years not happy with my pay, but 1, and 2 trumped that. No promotion in last 27yrs as I had basically peaked without moving up into management, and all those opportunities were locked up, so I would need to leave the lab. (GM’s promotion system was bad when I hired in the changed after me so you didnt get to my position as quickly, as it is the final spot for most people)

So why did I retire at 56. Cause It was not much fun anymore, 99% of workers probably didn’t even take a N&V class in college or took 1 (explain dB math to people over and over gets tedious). GM is going away from physical testing so the work was drying up. Management was bleeding anything fun or employee enjoyment out of the place.

9

I tried working as a lawyer two different times. I am not cut out for it as I am completely unable to separate myself from the stress. The last major thing I did was a federal trademark trial as the lead attorney and we demolished them. But halfway through I looked at the guy I was working with and asked if he knew a way to trigger a heart attack so I could go home. The entire time the jury was out I felt like I was on the verge of a stroke. There was no thrill for me, just crushing stress. The first time I was in practice with my wife. We knew it was time to get out when the debate was whether it was better to go to the roof and jump or keep working. There is a reason many lawyers seem very cold and unfeeling towards their clients. If you are like me and internalize the stress of every client you can’t make it.

I’ve been doing software engineering when I’m not a lawyer for over 25 years. I wouldn’t say I love it but I have an aptitude for it.
Pros - I don’t work all that hard and I get paid pretty well. Any stress on a day to day basis is self-induced. I can’t remember the last time I even hit 40 hours in a week, normally I work about 9 - 4. Since the plague hit I have been working from home and I like that an awful lot more than I ever thought I would. I always thought having a private bathroom and office to myself with a great view would be fantastic and I was very right. I have a pretty healthy pension to go along with my 401(k) so I have that going for me.

Cons - it isn’t very exciting and can get a little boring and tedious. I also work for a giant unfeeling insurance company that will lay people off every now and then.

10

I work in local law enforcement. May will mark my 24th year on the job. It’s been a roller coaster.

I could provide a list a mile long detailing what I like and I what I don’t but I will distill it to two major categories:

Like: It feels like it matters … you save lives, you impart justice, you help people in their time of need.

Dislikes … the culture and politics of it all. I hate what the culture of my profession has become as of late. But also, the wider cultural and political BS that swirls around policing. I could write a dissertation on it. I’m not sure there is a more culturally dissected profession than LE.

11

At this point, 20+ years into career, its less about the $$ than the people and culture being a fit.
Middle management, business development, business process for a medium sized, privately held manufacturer. Will move out to PNW, have wanted to get out there for many years. As an aeronautical engineering undergrad, that was my goal 20 years back. Ended up in IA, MI, WI, and IL.

Left last job due to culture and politics. I have earned the luxury of being able to choose the team I play for/with, the folks I wish to collaborate with to some extent. Its less about $$$ at this point.

Location of new place offers 4 season outdoor recreation opportunities. People seem reasonable so far.

12

Commercial construction for me.
Like you, I have a big structure left to memorialize my efforts.

After 30+ years, I’m suffering burnout. It seems the norm is to skimp on staff and just work more.
It’s an aspect of the millennials I’m really beginning to appreciate. I only have so many 60 hour weeks left in me.

13

I am in general family practice. For the first 18 years we had our own office. Me and a partner. We both are similar in practice so it was great. Then gov’t offered us essentially a 30-40 percent raise to work in the new group practices they were setting up.

Pro: I no longer do payroll or any human resources stuff. Basically turnkey operation and more money for less work.

Con: I constantly have to fight other docs in the group who are trying to use more and more resources because they need more help because their jobs are “so hard” So recently for instance we have had the secretaries in our office doing clerical work for doctors in another site. The docs took on a number of more pts. But they are doing stupid stuff. They are receiving old charts from pts previous doctor which are between 300 and 1000 pages long. A sensible thing would be to scroll through identify useful stuff and have secretaries scan that in. That is what our site does. But no they are “too busy” so they have the secretaries transfer in the entire record with all sorts of useless info including 20 year old blood work instructions for colonoscopies etc. Secretaries have to do this page by page and catagorize as they go. It is painful to watch how stupid this is.

Other con is docs not meeting commitments for after hours care. if the gov’t audits this they could de certify our entire group and we would have to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars for not meeting our contract.

14

Likes - Small-ish company (140 people) with a great culture. I have an impact in how we do what we do. In that I feel a responsibility to make sure the people in my area have meaningful work/careers and that makes it feels like my work matters. I’m in marketing with a focus in automotive and motorsports so I spend a decent amount of time around cool race cars doing race car things.

Dislikes - I travel a fair amount. I actually enjoy the travel, but don’t enjoy being away from home if that makes sense.

I’ve been working professionally for 35 years and this is easily the most fun I’ve had. Cool work. Good people. A sense of accomplishment. A company that cares.

15

I’ve been in my law firm job for 34 years (as of April 30). Not a lawyer, but the firm is Big Law (per Wimsey’s response). I went through a similar pros/cons exercise in late 2011 when they relocated my group from San Francisco to Nashville.

Following 40-tude’s 4-Ps:

Projects: I work within the general counsel’s office and one thing I like is that it is ever changing. Yes, it follows a certain yearly rhythm, but even within the same project year after year, it’s different due to different people/issues/etc. And, I’ve gotten to do some actual pro bono case work which was extremely interesting.

Place: Very well respected law firm and the culture is great. My actual place - moving to Tennessee puts it on the major dislike side of the list, but I am now back to getting to travel so that makes being stuck in Tennessee somewhat tolerable.

Pay: They pay me San Francisco money in Tennessee. Excellent benefits. In 34 years, I’ve never not received a raise and bonus.

People: I really like the people with whom I work closely. My director is very hands off and lets us do our thing. Hobbies and PTO around hobbies is highly encouraged. Major flexibility in work hours and time off. I’ve worked with some of the same people for 20+ years. I remember when I got moved to her group. The first thing she said was, “I don’t care what time you come in or leave as long as the work gets done. This isn’t kindergarten.”

16

Worked in pharma drug development for a big pharma for 25 years. Stayed because had lots of opportunity for career development, the pay and benefits were very good and didn’t want to disrupt family with relocation to different job.

Liked: plenty of opportunity for international travel, intellectually stimulating for the most part, worked with some fantastic people on various development teams, and had plenty of opportunity for growth including leading study teams and presenting at international conferences. Onsite fitness center.

Disliked: some of the usual corporate bs like meaningless meetings, office politics, and at times tedious hours spent on the computer.

The teams I worked on got several meds approved in US and RoW so cost aside these meds provide benefits to many patients.

I feel fortunate to have found this line of work because after grad school and a post doc I figured out academia was not a good fit for me.

17

Physio in a hospital. Like that patients come with a thick file and before I see them I can read, think about ti, consult with colleagues, nurses etc or call the surgeon. Mostly deal with joint replacements and fractures but there are other things too. My, call it, superpower is to work with patients who are very anxious, scared or panicky so these are almost always assigned to me. I somehow calm them down, take my time, establish a good rapport and little by little they are able to mobilize. Those are the priceless moments when they realize that the world has not ended and they can live life pretty much as usual. The word team is also super, hours are good and the bosses are mostly not here.
What I dislike are the entitled jerks, assholes, people who see me as their servant rather then a therapist, those who don’t speak a word of English and yell at me for not speaking their language. Also people who did their own research and know what I should do because they read it on the internet, because a friend had the same conditions, a friend said that they should do this or that…I do tell them that they are free to take therapy from dr. google or their friend but then sue them if things go wrong.

18

Physio in a hospital. Like that patients come with a thick file and before I see them I can read, think about ti, consult with colleagues, nurses etc or call the surgeon. Mostly deal with joint replacements and fractures but there are other things too. My, call it, superpower is to work with patients who are very anxious, scared or panicky so these are almost always assigned to me. I somehow calm them down, take my time, establish a good rapport and little by little they are able to mobilize. Those are the priceless moments when they realize that the world has not ended and they can live life pretty much as usual. The word team is also super, hours are good and the bosses are mostly not here.
What I dislike are the entitled jerks, assholes, people who see me as their servant rather then a therapist, those who don’t speak a word of English and yell at me for not speaking their language. Also people who did their own research and know what I should do because they read it on the internet, because a friend had the same conditions, a friend said that they should do this or that…I do tell them that they are free to take therapy from dr. google or their friend but then sue them if things go wrong.

We all like to be respected for what we do. I’d be happy for you to be my PT

19

Physician - vitreoretinal surgeon

Pro - I actually make a difference in restoring vision to many people who suffer vision loss; intellectually stimulating; great colleagues and employees; surgery is fun and challenging; I am compensated very well; some of the patients are wonderful and can be so kind despite everything they are going through

Cons - a lot of patients have vision problems that cannot be fixed and they get mad at me when I can’t fix them (ie, diabetes, retinal detachments, etc…); insurance companies directing which meds we can use (or not use); electronic medical records; the stress of worrying about making a surgical mistake and ruining someone’s vision; being on call; feeling like an imposter (Imposter Syndrome) when I am surrounded by so many other very smart people; an ever increasing volume of patients and the complaints from patients about long waits; Dr Google
.

20

Many times I have wondered why people would want to be in LE then I quickly tell myself that I am so thankful enough people think differently to me and take on the challenge.

Long before BLM and even half a world away, there was always the portrayal of police as revenue raisers or some other negative aspect. So many hypocrites that despise, until a time of crisis.

So from one stranger to another, thank you for doing what you do.