Does your job define you?

asim

asim

asim

Soldato
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8-10 hours a day. 5 days a week. Usually thats the kind of thing most people are doing. Some work less, others more. But the majority of everyone's time is spent working. Unless ofcourse they are filthy rich or don't require the money.

8-10 hours working. 8 hours sleeping. 1-2 hours in travel time. 4-6 hours of free time.

Some people must feel like all they do is work and sleep. In saying that, does your job define who you are?

If you work in IT, is it because thats your interests?
Do you feel happy waking up in the morning and knowing you are going to work? I'm talking about job satisfication. Its not about the money, but whether you enjoy the job.

Or does the rest of your life define who you are? Is work just a way to support everything else that you do?

Career or life orientated?

Just some questions I've been asking myself while trying to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life. Whether I want to be focused on my career or outside interests like hobbies, family and socialising.
 
I'm career focused at the minute but I'm very lucky in that I have a career which doesn't demand a lot of my time. I get a hell of a lot of time off and my shift pattern means that I always have time to do pretty much whatever I want.
Before I got this job though I was working as a computer techie for 8am-6pm and spent from 6pm until about 10pm most nights doing 'homers'. It really did take its toll on me, especially driving around the country most of the day for little reward. The money was OK but money isn't everything.

So in short, my job does define me. It's a damn big part of my life since I left my home country which I loved, to come to a country which I don't like as much (no offence). I've made a lot of sacrafices to pursue my career and continue to do so but it's beginning to reap the rewards so it's all worth it :)

Everyone is different. It depends on the person and the job as well as how much effort the person is willing to put into furthering their career. I don't mean to profile people but take for example a street sweeper, he isn't going to live and breathe street sweeping whereas a doctor or a business owner is going to live their life around their job as those careers require a lot more input and dedication.
 
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I just recently became employed from self-employed and my free time went from about 4 days a week to just a couple of hours. Life/reality sucks. Fact :(

Please enjoy it while you have it.
 
My job defines me, I would say very well. I clean for a living (I clean empty apartments for a company that owns LOTS of property), plus other related things. Since I am a very detail oriented person as well as extremely organized, punctual and neat and clean, yeah...it defines me quite well.
I have to say that I do enjoy my job very much. I will admit that there are days where I hate it, but I think most people would own up to that, as everyone has a bad day.
Although my job may define me, and although I do enjoy it, I also am glad to see Friday come and to have some time of my own...I keep a neat and clean apartment, and I cannot stand clutter.
 
as a professional footballer who also records his own music and makes money from being in p0rn, I would say yes !!

only kidding ;)
 
I define my job.

Ok well not exactly, I don't even have a job right now. But I have a specific job I want, so if I can get that then really I define my job rather than it defining me. Since I already had the interest in it in the first place, having that job is just realising who I've been the whole time. Subtle difference really but I think it's worth noting.
 
yup :)

both me and mrs are self employed in our own buisiness :)

work is a joy knowing that every bit of effort you put in directly benefits you :)
 
A point to consider is with a high paying job which takes a lot of your time, you will never have much chance to reape the benefits since you'll always be working. The best scenario is a job with good pay which you enjoy, but I wouldn't have money as a defining point in any job I took. I'd consider hours of work and job satisfaction over it (not to a total degree of course). I honestly couldn't say which job I would enjoy most overall, I simply don't know myself. Doubt i'll find/get it whatever it is anyhow.
 
My ideal job would be helping other people in organizing their home and time.
I wouldn't mind taking a course in learning professional organizer skills...I would really enjoy doing that. :)
 
I got interested in IT when i was working as a landscaper/tree surgeon, always got home and switched on the PC, took it to bits and cleaned it, upgraded it etc and always said i would never have a garden just a load of flag stones out back for low maintenance.

Quit gardening and eventually ended up in IT, now i don't have a fancy PC, spend most of my internet time which is down to a few hours per week on either here or another forum, don't play Unreal etc like i used to, but i have a fantastic garden and spend quite a bit of time out there keeping it nice and tidy!

With me, i work to live, as soon as it is 5pm the work brain is switched off and the fun brain is engaged, dont do any work outside of the 37.5hrs i am paid to do. At present i am quite a senior manager in the organisation (2 steps from Director, have been Acting Asst Director a couple of times when the position was vacant) and my outlook on the job differs from all the other managers who leave work, go home, say hi to the familly and then go into their office and start working again until the early hours. Not for me. Though i am very organised with my work time (you won't catch me very often chin-wagging like some of them, time is money when i'm at work) and manage to hit the targets set for me quite easily wihout all the extra input.
 
asim said:
Just some questions I've been asking myself while trying to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life. Whether I want to be focused on my career or outside interests like hobbies, family and socialising.
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You have to seek your spiritual fulfilment, then ask whether your job offers that. Merely accepting obedience and conformity of the working environment will rarely get you any further - if someone does this I believe it is usually because they dont know what else to do or think

My job has no effect on who I am, but my study will do and my hobbies certainly do
 
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I hope my job doesnt define me as I hate every second of it and thus do just enough to get by.

I am a civil servant working for the CSA. It is low paid and there is no job satisfaction due to even though we do get a bad view in the press we do get some good results and help people. But even with all the good storys as well we get no thanks and just get slagged off.

Gareth
 
cleanbluesky said:
You have to seek your spiritual fulfilment, then ask whether your job offers that. Merely accepting obedience and conformity of the working environment will rarely get you any further - if someone does this I believe it is usually because they dont know what else to do or think
Click to expand...

I did a degree and professional cert in IT then tried it out for a few months and had known before even doing any of it that it just wasnt for me. Made me terribly unhappy. Only reason I did any of it was my dad pushed me that way since I was a young teen. Money was the only thing keeping me going and now it doesnt seem worthwhile to be unhappy for a bit of cash in the pocket.

I know what I want my life to be about, but I'm not quite sure how my career fits into that yet.
 
Sadly, in my last job I'd work, normally, 12 hours a day 6 days a week. I was compensated very well for it but I had no social life.

Now I'm in a normal 9-5 job, with little responsibility, and I hate it.
 
asim said:
I did a degree and professional cert in IT then tried it out for a few months and had known before even doing any of it that it just wasnt for me. Made me terribly unhappy. Only reason I did any of it was my dad pushed me that way since I was a young teen. Money was the only thing keeping me going and now it doesnt seem worthwhile to be unhappy for a bit of cash in the pocket.

I know what I want my life to be about, but I'm not quite sure how my career fits into that yet.
Click to expand...

After coming out of uni I have not known what career to take for 3-4 years. That's a long time and whilst I have been doing other things in that time, I would have liked to have had direction quicker.

Don't waste time doing what is expected of you if your heart isn't in it...
 
I can't stand my job. I work in IT and I hate computers. I left IT to go to uni to do History. Finished my degree and realised that I had very little prospects of getting a more preferable job with my degree, so VERY reluctantly went back into IT.

I have to pay bills and IT pays well. That's why I do it. My plan has always been to leave the country. That should happen in the next 1 - 2 years. I figure IT is a good industry to work in to enable me to move away: wanted all over the world and pays well.

I don't plan on doing it for the rest of my life though. I work long hours doing the most mundane of jobs. I despise every dull second I am in work.

Does it define me? Probably to most of the people I see throughout the day (funnily enough... work collegues). To people who know me outside of work... no, not at all.
 
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