Life In 19x19

Do you like your job? If so, what are some things that you do to enjoy it? Why do you like it? If not, why don't you like it?

Kirby wrote:Do you like your job? If so, what are some things that you do to enjoy it? Why do you like it? If not, why don't you like it?

Which job? The one during the academic year which pays the bills or the one during the summer which provides our food and fuel for the year? Of the two I enjoy the summer job more.

Yes, I do like my day job. Sometimes it's more fun than others, but overall it's not a bad way to make a pretty decent living. If I were independently wealthy, would I keep working here? Probably not, but as jobs go it's still about the best I've ever had.

What I like: Interesting things to do. Needs thought. Coworkers who I enjoy working with.
What I don't like: Sometimes it's frustrating or boring.

wms wrote:...
What I don't like: Sometimes it's frustrating or boring.

What do you do when it's boring? Do you just try to focus on the things that you like?

wms wrote:Yes, I do like my day job. Sometimes it's more fun than others, but overall it's not a bad way to make a pretty decent living. If I were independently wealthy, would I keep working here? Probably not, but as jobs go it's still about the best I've ever had.

Same here. Mine is brick&mortar used and rare books, BTW.

What I like: Interesting customers, first pick of all the inventory, deductible expenses: computers, supplies, and especially travel.

What I hate: Government bureaucrats, and Amazon penny sellers.

Joaz Banbeck wrote:What I hate: [...] Amazon penny sellers.

Sorry to be off-topic, but I have to say, I hate those guys too. Great prices, until you see the S&H. And even if you order several things from the same company, you still get stuck with that ridiculous S&H per item. What a scam!

LocoRon wrote:Sorry to be off-topic, but I have to say, I hate those guys too. Great prices, until you see the S&H. And even if you order several things from the same company, you still get stuck with that ridiculous S&H per item. What a scam!

I have never had any complaint about Amazon shipping. $3.95 is common and shipping by media mail is around $2.50 (or more) depending on weight. A padded envelope is an extra cost. I got a book in the mail yesterday from Amazon marketplace and the postage cost was $3.25. When I have sold books my standard cost is $3 an sometimes I have been out of pocket on it.

Ooh, I win this thread. I have a Masters in Philosophy, and currently work in a shipping and receiving department (Yes, have your laughs..).

Good: work is often leisurely; I sometimes get to do interesting mechanical work; for a while, I was doing a lot of driving and listening to podcasts; I still find driving a forklift to be really amusing;

Bad: uhhhh, it's shipping and receiving...; there was that month where we were repeatedly digging four foot holes to repair broken pipe in 95-100 degree weather; we spent a week cleaning an incredibly nasty rubber/grease mixture off of tools; the boredom, it is growing; I can unpredictably get called in on the weekends or have to stay late at night.

Weird: contemplating learning perl to help with record keeping.

DrStraw wrote:

LocoRon wrote:Sorry to be off-topic, but I have to say, I hate those guys too. Great prices, until you see the S&H. And even if you order several things from the same company, you still get stuck with that ridiculous S&H per item. What a scam!

I have never had any complaint about Amazon shipping. $3.95 is common and shipping by media mail is around $2.50 (or more) depending on weight. A padded envelope is an extra cost. I got a book in the mail yesterday from Amazon marketplace and the postage cost was $3.25. When I have sold books my standard cost is $3 an sometimes I have been out of pocket on it.

Normally, I have no complaint with Amazon S&H. However, there are bad instances, which I was specifically thinking of; usually by companies or people that have their products listed for extremely low prices ($0.01, usually, but not always), but then charge exorbitant amounts for S&H. For example, I was recently looking to buy some pen refills, and found a good price so I was going to buy a few packs, all from the same company. Each item has a shipping weight listed as 0.8 ounces, and the packaging for pen refills isn't that large, so it should be relatively inexpensive to ship, however S&H was listed as being $20+ for five packs of two refills (because the charge from each individual item was stacked). Perhaps the company would've seen this and refunded my money, however, I didn't want to risk it (nor did I have the money), and I have also had other instances where I know for a fact that I was charged more for S&H than what it cost the company (but still felt like I came out ahead, due to lower price of the product).

I will admit, I've not shipped anything for a long time, so perhaps it is generally more expensive than I think, and perhaps there are behind-the-scene costs I'm not thinking of (buying the shipping package?).

All in all, it's not a big deal, just an aside I felt like posting.

Joaz Banbeck wrote:

wms wrote:Yes, I do like my day job. Sometimes it's more fun than others, but overall it's not a bad way to make a pretty decent living. If I were independently wealthy, would I keep working here? Probably not, but as jobs go it's still about the best I've ever had.

Same here. Mine is brick&mortar used and rare books, BTW.

What I like: Interesting customers, first pick of all the inventory, deductible expenses: computers, supplies, and especially travel.

What I hate: Government bureaucrats, and Amazon penny sellers.

Oh really? Where are you located? Do you not sell online? (Curious because I've been spending a lot of money at Abebooks lately...)

I'm very happy in my job. I work freelance, out of my home in a gorgeous area of the French Alps. I work my own hours, and my boss lets me play go during the day if I don't have too much work.

kirkmc wrote:I'm very happy in my job. I work freelance, out of my home in a gorgeous area of the French Alps. I work my own hours, and my boss lets me play go during the day if I don't have too much work.

Very nice wife you have there.

DrStraw wrote:

kirkmc wrote:I'm very happy in my job. I work freelance, out of my home in a gorgeous area of the French Alps. I work my own hours, and my boss lets me play go during the day if I don't have too much work.

Very nice wife you have there.

Har, har...

Kirby wrote:Do you like your job? If so, what are some things that you do to enjoy it? Why do you like it? If not, why don't you like it?

Almost always. I teach motorcycle safety classes and it's satisfying in the extreme to watch the progress the students make from never riding a motorcycle before on Saturday morning to being able to maneuver the motorcycle quite well on Sunday afternoon.

Then there's the fact that I'm giving people the knowledge and skills to avoid crashes. One student came to class on Sunday morning, shook my hand and told me that the stuff I taught on Saturday afternoon helped him avoid a crash on the way home that day.

The only time I don't enjoy it is when it's unbearably hot.

I don't particularly, and don't ever really expect to. I don't really have a dream job that I've always wanted, so I have two options, as I see it. I could do something that I like doing as a hobby, and burn myself out on the hobby forever, or I could do something that's easy and low-stress so I can focus on enjoying my free time. I do the latter. I'd love some amazing, rewarding, fun-to-work at job, but I just have no idea what I could do that would be like that.