nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

1 Down 1999 To Go

NegativeCreep

Last year I graduated from college and since then I've had 2 jobs and have hated both of them (currently still doing the second one although I don't know for how much longer.)

It's not even that I hate the jobs that much, it's just that I hate the fact that I have no free time, someone is constantly on my back piling more and more work on me. I have a 2 hour commute into work and a 2.5 hour commute home from work (travelling within Dublin on public transport which in itself is a joke) which leaves me with about 4 hours at home in the evening but I'm too wrecked to do anything then. There are weekends but that's only 2 days and they go far too quickly.

I get paid peanuts, can't afford a car or to move out of my parents house. I have no time to spend with my boyfriend as he is in the same position.

I suppose the question is; when will I get used to this? Or will I ever get used to it?
I estimate that I have about 2000 weeks of this ahead of me assuming I retire at 65. Do I have to wait until I'm 65 to do the things I want to do? to be free? Is this what adult life is? Work for very little in the hopes that by the time I'm retired I'll still be of sound enough mind and body to do the things I want to do?

I suppose I'm thinking about this now as it is Sunday night and I (and I assume most of you) are facing into another week of work and I am dreading it. 1 down 1999 to go.

What do you do to take your mind off these things? How do you forget about the capitalist slog to old age?

I know I'll be called a whiny millennial and that's ok because I am a whiny millennial and there's not much I can do about that.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

Dohnjoe

NegativeCreep wrote: »

It's not even that I hate the jobs that much, it's just that I hate the fact that I have no free time, someone is constantly on my back piling more and more work on me. I have a 2 hour commute into work and a 2.5 hour commute home from work (travelling within Dublin on public transport which in itself is a joke) which leaves me with about 4 hours at home in the evening but I'm too wrecked to do anything then. There are weekends but that's only 2 days and they go far too quickly.

Live closer to work, or work closer to home. Also, if you are smart, keep your options and eyes open, study and put effort into it - you can find work with less hours. You can also find work that allows 4/5's time or 1/2 time (with corresponding reduction in pay)

I get paid peanuts, can't afford a car or to move out of my parents house. I have no time to spend with my boyfriend as he is in the same position.

I suppose the question is; when will I get used to this? Or will I ever get used to it?

Straight out of uni the first few years can generally be less well paid. As you gain more work/life experience (and depending on your attitude) you can expect this situation to improve

I estimate that I have about 2000 weeks of this ahead of me assuming I retire at 65. Do I have to wait until I'm 65 to do the things I want to do? to be free? Is this what adult life is? Work for very little in the hopes that by the time I'm retired I'll still be of sound enough mind and body to do the things I want to do?

Previously we had to work in order not to starve to death and put a roof over our heads. Thankfully these days you can get the social welfare if unable to find work, not to mention free courses, free online courses, a good jobs market, being in the EU (the ability to travel/work in Europe)

Basically more options/choices than at any point in history

I know I'll be called a whiny millennial and that's ok because I am a whiny millennial and there's not much I can do about that.

Many people dislike working, so they study/keep searching for work/job that they hate less or even enjoy

An open mind and positive attitude is beneficial for this, also a perspective on how good we have it here and now compared to other countries and the past

Other posters will chime in about how they have degrees, masters, phDs, experience, etc, etc yet repeatedly can't find solid work - in my experience of these cases (and I've worked with a lot of these people) - the single biggest hurdle to these people is almost always their negative/entitled attitude toward life and work

josip

OP, have you considered George's Marvelous Medicine #4?

Glenster

BrianD3 wrote: »

It's over 17 years since I finished my first degree (degree is in a well regarded "STEM" field) and I clearly remember how difficult it was to get a job. Any job. I kept copies of many of the letters, CVs and applications that I sent to employers. Also, I kept all the email correspondence that I had with my college mates at the time who were in a similar boat.

The OP mentions working in a lab so let's presume that she is a chemist/biologist/scientist. A poor career choice in my experience - yet we are regularly bombarded with hype about STEM, how it leads to an interesting career and how there is a shortage of graduates. Stories about developing cures for cancer and about space travel to Mars are often thrown in to ramp up the hype :rolleyes:

17 years after my first graduation I have two more degrees and have an "OK" job and good savings. But much of this was down to luck. Plenty of my peers are still struggling.

Degree
Can't get a job
MSc
Can't get a job
PhD
Short term postdoc contract
Get a job
Treated like a piece of sh*t
Let go
Back to academia
Unsuccessfully trying to gain tenure
Now pushing 40, crippled by rent prices, hasn't saved the deposit for a house and wouldn't get a mortgage anyway.

The above is REALITY for many hard working, intelligent people. My own career is only OK and I am allegedly smarter than the average person.
Leaving Cert points - 97th percentile
IQ - 99th percentile
University exam results compared to classmates - 85th to 100th percentile

Yet I needed luck to have a half decent stable career.

I have saved like a f*cker over the years and have considerable savings now. Many others who made better career choices squandered the money that they earned and could have saved to give them a level of financial independence and free them from wage slavery. "You're a slave to the money then you die". My advice to anyone starting out would be to lower your expectations as to what lifestyle you can afford and save what you can, if you can.

Tell me more about your IQ...

[Deleted User]

BrianD3 wrote: »

It's over 17 years since I finished my first degree (degree is in a well regarded "STEM" field) and I clearly remember how difficult it was to get a job. Any job. I kept copies of many of the letters, CVs and applications that I sent to employers. Also, I kept all the email correspondence that I had with my college mates at the time who were in a similar boat.

The OP mentions working in a lab so let's presume that she is a chemist/biologist/scientist. A poor career choice in my experience - yet we are regularly bombarded with hype about STEM, how it leads to an interesting career and how there is a shortage of graduates. Stories about developing cures for cancer and about space travel to Mars are often thrown in to ramp up the hype :rolleyes:

17 years after my first graduation I have two more degrees and have an "OK" job and good savings. But much of this was down to luck. Plenty of my peers are still struggling.

Degree
Can't get a job
MSc
Can't get a job
PhD
Short term postdoc contract
Get a job
Treated like a piece of sh*t
Let go
Back to academia
Unsuccessfully trying to gain tenure
Now pushing 40, crippled by rent prices, hasn't saved the deposit for a house and wouldn't get a mortgage anyway.

The above is REALITY for many hard working, intelligent people. My own career is only OK and I am allegedly smarter than the average person.
Leaving Cert points - 97th percentile
IQ - 99th percentile
University exam results compared to classmates - 85th to 100th percentile

Yet I needed luck to have a half decent stable career.

I have saved like a f*cker over the years and have considerable savings now. Many others who made better career choices squandered the money that they earned and could have saved to give them a level of financial independence and free them from wage slavery. "You're a slave to the money then you die". My advice to anyone starting out would be to lower your expectations as to what lifestyle you can afford and save what you can, if you can.

Suppose there is this person from eastern europe or a former Russian state with a top notch degree science/ engineering or something along those lines they can't get a job in science/engineering so they end up in Ireland working in a call centre or the services industry have they failed at having a career.

BrianD3

It's over 17 years since I finished my first degree (degree is in a well regarded "STEM" field) and I clearly remember how difficult it was to get a job. Any job. I kept copies of many of the letters, CVs and applications that I sent to employers. Also, I kept all the email correspondence that I had with my college mates at the time who were in a similar boat.

The OP mentions working in a lab so let's presume that she is a chemist/biologist/scientist. A poor career choice in my experience - yet we are regularly bombarded with hype about STEM, how it leads to an interesting career and how there is a shortage of graduates. Stories about developing cures for cancer and about space travel to Mars are often thrown in to ramp up the hype :rolleyes:

17 years after my first graduation I have two more degrees and have an "OK" job and good savings. But much of this was down to luck. Plenty of my peers are still struggling.

Degree
Can't get a job
MSc
Can't get a job
PhD
Short term postdoc contract
Get a job
Treated like a piece of sh*t
Let go
Back to academia
Unsuccessfully trying to gain tenure
Now pushing 40, crippled by rent prices, hasn't saved the deposit for a house and wouldn't get a mortgage anyway.

The above is REALITY for many hard working, intelligent people. My own career is only OK and I am allegedly smarter than the average person.
Leaving Cert points - 97th percentile
IQ - 99th percentile
University exam results compared to classmates - 85th to 100th percentile

Yet I needed luck to have a half decent stable career.

I have saved like a f*cker over the years and have considerable savings now. Many others who made better career choices squandered the money that they earned and could have saved to give them a level of financial independence and free them from wage slavery. "You're a slave to the money then you die". My advice to anyone starting out would be to lower your expectations as to what lifestyle you can afford and save what you can, if you can.

neonsofa

mariaalice wrote: »

Consider two people pondering this issue.

One is inclined towards being negative and dissatisfied ( personality trait ) and or has metal health issue every careers/job/ life situation always has something wrong with it, but they don't have the insight in to themselves to understand that its not the job/career/ in and off its self that is the problem its the way they view the situations.

The other person is not sure if they are happy with their working situation/career choice but understand they have some control over their situation( not total control over their situation) The also have a more realistic and optimistic view of their life and the potential to be contented with life.

I love my job and am happy in my circumstances generally, I am very positive and I worked really hard to get to where I am but at the end of the day I know I am mainly just very very lucky and I know that if I hadn't been as lucky I'd have no option but to go back to the ****ty jobs that I didn't enjoy. There is optimism and then there is just doing what you have to do. But I do agree that remaining positive where possible is important.

[Deleted User]

Consider two people pondering this issue.

One is inclined towards being negative and dissatisfied ( personality trait ) and or has metal health issue every careers/job/ life situation always has something wrong with it, but they don't have the insight in to themselves to understand that its not the job/career/ in and off its self that is the problem its the way they view the situations.

The other person is not sure if they are happy with their working situation/career choice but understand they have some control over their situation( not total control over their situation) The also have a more realistic and optimistic view of their life and the potential to be contented with life.

[Deleted User]

There's a load of miserable people here. Needlessly miserable, too.

conorhal

neonsofa wrote: »

I love how you think your generation is the first to ponder the meaning of life and why we are here :pac:

Every generation has asked that but the fact has always remained that you need money to live/exist so tough **** if you don't enjoy it, it's a bonus if you do though. People absolutely should aim for a career they'll enjoy where possible but it's not a God given right and people shouldn't act like it is. And you can work your ass off to try get that job and still fail and again, tough ****, it's luck of the draw, you'll still need an income.

Indeed, what the poster is describing however isn't a personal philosophy, it's what Durkheim described in the 1890's a 'anomie', "the malady of the infinite", and because desire without limit which can never be fulfilled, it leads to a vague dissatisfaction with life that is often produced as "condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals", ....or as I might put it, a banging sense of entitlement born out of an enflated ego and an 'I want and I want it now' culture.
Perhaps it hasn't occurred to the poster that many a mediocre life is lived because the person living it is, well, pretty mediocre. Anomie is best expressed these days by the moron 'hopefuls' you see queuing up each year for the X-Factor auditions.

neonsofa

chrissb8 wrote: »

I think Millennials have it right. All they're asking is what's the bloody point of it all? To just come into the world, exist in a tandem state of mediocrity and struggling. These are essential things for changing the human mindset to a better place. Of course you get the usual nonsense that it's childish they're lazy etc. That's fine who cares. I care about me and my experience of life and don't give a s**t what you think about how I go about it<<<general mindset of most millennia's I'd imagine or at least what I experience among friends and others my age. That's pretty brave in my opinion. To look at your world and say this ain't right and it isn't.

I think it's actually pretty immature to not ask yourself the questions am I happy? Is this what I want my life to be? That's a fully formed human mind with great self awareness. Unfortunately others like to pretend otherwise that "hey that's just life you get on with it". No. No you really don't. You'll die and whatever about an afterlife this could just be it. So just leave whatever it is you hate because hey here's a little secret. You don't have to do, be anything, be anywhere you don't want to.

I'm not slandering or bumping my generation up anymore than others. Every generation has it's merits and pitfalls. The constant obsession with fame and good looks would be traits I despise in mine. On the other hand my Dad's (64) generation ushered in a generation of equality and understanding.

I love how you think your generation is the first to ponder the meaning of life and why we are here :pac:

Every generation has asked that but the fact has always remained that you need money to live/exist so tough **** if you don't enjoy it, it's a bonus if you do though. People absolutely should aim for a career they'll enjoy where possible but it's not a God given right and people shouldn't act like it is. And you can work your ass off to try get that job and still fail and again, tough ****, it's luck of the draw, you'll still need an income.

chrissb8

I think Millennials have it right. All they're asking is what's the bloody point of it all? To just come into the world, exist in a tandem state of mediocrity and struggling. These are essential things for changing the human mindset to a better place. Of course you get the usual nonsense that it's childish they're lazy etc. That's fine who cares. I care about me and my experience of life and don't give a s**t what you think about how I go about it<<<general mindset of most millennia's I'd imagine or at least what I experience among friends and others my age. That's pretty brave in my opinion. To look at your world and say this ain't right and it isn't.

I think it's actually pretty immature to not ask yourself the questions am I happy? Is this what I want my life to be? That's a fully formed human mind with great self awareness. Unfortunately others like to pretend otherwise that "hey that's just life you get on with it". No. No you really don't. You'll die and whatever about an afterlife this could just be it. So just leave whatever it is you hate because hey here's a little secret. You don't have to do, be anything, be anywhere you don't want to.

I'm not slandering or bumping my generation up anymore than others. Every generation has it's merits and pitfalls. The constant obsession with fame and good looks would be traits I despise in mine. On the other hand my Dad's (64) generation ushered in a generation of equality and understanding.

jimgoose

pilly wrote: »

My commute door to door is 20 minutes, non-stop no traffic lights, view of the Galtee mountains so no annoyance here.

So there you are. Like me, thousands would kill to swap for your version of commuting!

jimgoose

NegativeCreep wrote: »

I dont understand that. Nice cars being sold cheap? An insurance company would laugh at me if I asked to be insured on one of them

That's another thing that gets better as you trundle along. Ye shall have faith, yea, and walk upon the waters.

jimgoose

pilly wrote: »

...Doesn't help at all to post, "well I have all this and my life is awesome". OP doesn't have it handy at the moment...

<sigh> First up, that isn't what I was saying at all. Secondly, we are quite aware that the OP "doesn't have it handy at the moment". The trouble is said OP seemed to be worried that this tedious drag-arse life, not atypical for young people getting to grips with life, inclulding this Marine as a youngfella I might add, is all there is until retirement and death. Some of us are trying to point out that it generally gets a lot better, surprisingly quickly in many cases.

robbiezero

Glenster wrote: »

Really? You would describe the eight hours you spend in work every day as "awesome"?

Making dinner in the evening. Awesome?

Commuting to/from work. Awesome?

Getting up in the morning. Awesome?

Don't get me wrong, my life isn't comparably worse that most people's, its probably a lot better than most people I know, but I'm realistic enough not to describe my daily tedium as "awesome".

CramCycle

Glenster wrote: »

Really? You would describe the eight hours you spend in work every day as "awesome"?

Pretty damn enjoyable, there is the odd down day but I am involved in something I enjoy and happen to be reasonably good at. People give me money to do what i enjoy. i wish they gave me more but, yeah, pretty damn good.

Making dinner in the evening. Awesome?

I love cooking, I love eating even more.

Commuting to/from work. Awesome?

Pretty damn epic, I love it, great people, bit of fresh air, generally quite enjoyable. I understand that many people don't have as enjoyable commutes as me though.

Getting up in the morning. Awesome?

I get woken most mornings by my partner or my kids, so yes, awesome. When they weren't on the scene, I used to wake at my leisure, also awesome. I love tea or coffee and breakfast.

Don't get me wrong, my life isn't comparably worse that most people's, its probably a lot better than most people I know, but I'm realistic enough not to describe my daily tedium as "awesome".

If I thought my daily life was tedium, I wouldn't call it awesome either. The day I don't learn something new, I will probably follow your line of thinking but thankfully has not happened yet.

ibarelycare

pilly wrote: »

Not at all bitter and begrudging. I've an awful lot more in my life than the average joe soap but I can still acknowledge that for the vast majority life is tough.

Doesn't help at all to post, "well I have all this and my life is awesome". OP doesn't have it handy at the moment.

I agree with a lot of people here that you have to look at the long term and it won't always be like that but it's easy for us with the benefit of hindsight.

He wasn't replying to the OP in that post though, he was replying to Glenster.

pilly

jimgoose wrote: »

Ah, she's alright - some people have an awful time of it trying to get to and from work on time. My commuting setup annoys a lot of people! :pac:

My commute door to door is 20 minutes, non-stop no traffic lights, view of the Galtee mountains so no annoyance here.

eamonnq

NegativeCreep wrote: »

I dont understand that. Nice cars being sold cheap? An insurance company would laugh at me if I asked to be insured on one of them

Nice cars being sold for what people can get for them.

High tax is usually enough to put people off.

NegativeCreep

eamonnq wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056966169

Luxobarges..............well worth a look.

I dont understand that. Nice cars being sold cheap? An insurance company would laugh at me if I asked to be insured on one of them

pilly

ibarelycare wrote: »

Your posts are saying a lot more about you than Jimgoose's post said about him. He was pointing out what makes him happy in everyday life. You're coming across as bitter and begrudging.

Not at all bitter and begrudging. I've an awful lot more in my life than the average joe soap but I can still acknowledge that for the vast majority life is tough.

Doesn't help at all to post, "well I have all this and my life is awesome". OP doesn't have it handy at the moment.

I agree with a lot of people here that you have to look at the long term and it won't always be like that but it's easy for us with the benefit of hindsight.

eamonnq

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056966169

Luxobarges..............well worth a look.

jimgoose

pilly wrote: »

Apologies so, I obviously don't hang around boards enough.

You're alright. A couple of my mates drive Mercs that cost north of €100k, if they ever start posting to boards you can murder them instead!

jimgoose

ibarelycare wrote: »

Your posts are saying a lot more about you than Jimgoose's post said about him. He was pointing out what makes him happy in everyday life. You're coming across as bitter and begrudging.

Ah, she's alright - some people have an awful time of it trying to get to and from work on time. My commuting setup annoys a lot of people! :pac:

pilly

jimgoose wrote:

Someone who likes owning/driving/servicing/messing with big, comfy, luxurious old cars that are worth ****-all and have a motor-tax bill the size of the GDP of Guatemala.

Apologies so, I obviously don't hang around boards enough.

Surreptitious

Leave Jim alone ffs, ye would argue over a fly on the wall, some of ye.

NegativeCreep

Harambe wrote: »

Wait til you have a kid OP, that's when the fun starts.

I'm gay so I'll never be able to afford one :pac:

jimgoose

pilly wrote: »

No idea what this means?

Someone who likes owning/driving/servicing/messing with big, comfy, luxurious old cars that are worth fuck-all and have a motor-tax bill the size of the GDP of Guatemala.

ibarelycare

pilly wrote: »

Not offended at all, merely slightly irritated at such blatant bragging. You needed to tell us you have a jaguar to make the point? Okay so. Says more about you.

Your posts are saying a lot more about you than Jimgoose's post said about him. He was pointing out what makes him happy in everyday life. You're coming across as bitter and begrudging.

pilly

Glenster wrote: »

?????

Bit harsh....

Sorry Glen.