What job "should" you have in your 40s?

mollser

I've seen people so stressed in their jobs that they've taken heart attacks and died, one just over Christmas.

That has made me wonder about the whole thing. What was the fkn point of spending your whole life stressed out about a job? The man will be replaced in the morning and will be but a footnote in the history of the company, if even.and for what? What was the point?

I see very career driven fellas with young kids at home working 7am to 8pm with an hour drive either side, just find that so sad. Yes they've more money but at what cost?? That is time you are not getting back.

Now in my 40s with kids and realise there is so much more things important in life than work. Work to live and get the balance right is absolutely most important to me.

Oh, and don't spend time commuting if you can help it -greatest waste of time ever.

You're only here for a short time, enjoy it!

mookishboy

I worked in I.T until 2004 and got cheesed off with it and struck out on my own to work at a bit of building and a bit of IT contracting. Went back to college in 2011 and did a degree in Electrons and another in Cloud/netmanagment. Started working for a large multinational chip maker in 2015 and the job was ok for the first 6 months. Since then it is pure hell. Long commute to do 12hr shifts doing a job that has nothing to do with any thing I have done in college or in IT. Basic familiarity with a bloody mouse would allow anyone to carry out the tasks. I hate it so much it makes me physically ill before shift and have panic attacks during the day/night. Am off ill at the moment. So really Just do a job you are happy with. What really is the point of doing something you hate for a few bob.

Greentopia

There's no job you "should" have, only work that is fulfilling, that you have control over and makes you contented where you earn enough to live on. Having a big salary does not make you happy if your job sucks or you hate your bosses.

I generally hated working for others in my youth-I'm not interested in enriching someone else while I live as a wage slave, so I'm going to be self employed until I can no longer work.

I'm in my forties and just finished a two year course in horticulture last week. I absolutely loved it and have a passion for growing food so plan to set up my own business in this area.

I will grow my own food anyway so why not sell it also. Before this I worked in a small gallery as an assistant/curator. Loved that too but wanted to try something else and I've always been interested in horticulture and permaculture.

Besides this I have a small income from an online craft business. I have no mortgage or rent to pay and my outgoings are low so am lucky in that respect. Life is too short to settle for 9-5 jobs doing the same things every day stuck in an office IMO.

I like variety and like to do more than one thing so there is no chance to get bored. Marx had it right when in “The German Ideology" he described a communist society that “makes it possible for me to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner.”

That's the goal for me even if we don't live in a communist society-variety and fulfilment, and so far so good.

sbsquarepants

mookishboy wrote: »

. So really Just do a job you are happy with. What really is the point of doing something you hate for a few bob.

The few bob is the point surely?
If you lived to do the thing, they probably wouldn't have to pay you!

I'm 42, I've never been career minded, or particularly driven. I've just kind of stumbled into what I'm doing now. I don't love it, I don't hate it, I do it cos they pay me too. They pay me reasonably well, nobody stands over me or particularly hassles me, but then again that's because they don't have to - leave me to my own devices and I will get the job done, not gossip the day away or go missing.

I think a life dedicated to work is every bit as wasted as a life dedicated to drink or to heroin. You have to live in the present - the future may be radically different to what you think it will be, if it even comes at all. Get your bills paid - then do some living, fúck working yourself like a slave - for what? Money? "Success"?
What even is success? Happiness is success.
No one lies on their death bed and thinks, "I wish I'd spent more time working and less with my family!"

When I see most "highly successful" individuals I usually think, that's a life wasted. There are exceptions of course - but they're quite rare.

Bambi985

Batman

suicide_circus

Space Cowboy