Glad to hear you're having so much fun at your new job, littlewolf!

It's so important to like what you do everyday or it just sucks the life out of the rest of your life too...

I watched a friend of mine fall into a serious depression over the last year because of where he worked and what he did... Thankfully he started a new job at the beginning of this month and he's completely back to the way he was before, if not happier and bouncier.

I gave up a good fifteen thousand dollars a year to do what I do. And I don't regret it for a minute. Yeah, sometimes the finances are a little tight, but I make do because I walk into work every morning smiling and happy to be there.

Okay, so it might only last until the first person opens their mouth - but my entrance was brilliant!

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Exaggeration misleads the credulous and offends the perceptive. ~Eliza Cook

Honey - I hear ya!

Middle child of three daughters - all with university degrees.

My older sister is a lecturer with a masters in podiatry.

My younger sister is a phd in biomedical research, also working in a university.

I'm a full qualified teacher. Who works in a supermarket instead of a school.

Imagine the introductions my poor father has to do.

"Here's my eldest - university lecturer. My youngest - that's doctor to you. Oh and my middle child. She's, um, a checkout chick with a teaching degree and five years overseas experience..."

Which I'm not, but he can't see the difference between an office manager who is responsible for the payroll and finances of a supermarket and a checkout operator. Can't you just hear the muttered 'wasted, all that time and education, wasted...'?

And he didn't pay for any of it so personally I don't think he should have an opinion and I regularly tell him so.

But it took me a long time to get there.

The one thing that I have held onto for the last 18 years or so was that my older sister and I got the same marks in our final years of school. I could have got into the same course she did. It was about that time - probably something to do with the constant conversations of 'why can't you do what she did - there's more money in that' - the penny started to drop...

How I felt, what made me happy, didn't matter.

So I made it matter - to me. We still have the same conversations and the same arguments, but at the end of the day I'm happy and that is all that really matters.

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Exaggeration misleads the credulous and offends the perceptive. ~Eliza Cook

I agree with you guys that it's important to do something you enjoy. You can only last for so long at a job you loathe before you fall apart... either mentally or physically. I'm working at a job which pays well per hour, but the hours for which I am paid each week are low enough that overall it's an *okay* salary. But if gives me a lot of life flexibility, which is priceless, especially at this stage of my life, and when it comes to meeting the needs of my family.

I'm so happy that you've found something you truly love, LW!

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LW, I love to hear good news! That's terrific! I love my job, too...it's exhausting, but soooo rewarding! Especially at this time of year...one week left and I get summer vacation! WOOHOO!

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There is no problem that cannot be solved with time, patience, and a judicious amount of high explosives.

I'm so happy for you, Littlewolf!

And, I agree ... I'm one who thinks that it's important to be able to choose the job one is most attracted to! I'm already letting my young children make their own, tiny choices, even in insignificant cases, like, for example, choosing the colour they wish to wear. I want them to learn to think for themselves and not depend on our choices for them!

I'm the youngest of three, having two elder brothers who pursued a career in banking, and excelled in it. Nowadays, the eldest is one of the highest ranking heads of an international bank, and the other is managing his own, fruitful business as a marketing consultant with a doctorate. My parents pushed me to pursue the same career, unknowingly against my will ... I always loved languages and art and I so wished to have a job associated with such subjects. Only to have to leave everything behind when I had the fortune of having my kids! Funnily enough I ended up fulfilling my artistic love in the part-time job I now have the chance to do, even if it's rather challenging with everything going on in my life at the moment! Not that I have any regrets about my past job, and the certificates I've achieved in banking, but, when I look behind, I feel like I've somehow lost some precious time in doing what I didn't really wish to do, even if I always did my job well! I don't want the same to happen to my children ... life is short, and, when I thought that my father would not have been so much proud of me if I weren't to pursue what he had wished me to, I've surprisingly found that he's even prouder now!

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To be or not to be a gatchamaniac - that's the dilemma!

I'm thrilled for you littlewolf. It is the most iportant thing you can do to have a job that you love.

I must admit - I love my job, it's just not busy enough for me!

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"When I'm old, I don't want them to say of me, "She's so charming." I want them to say, "Be careful, I think she's armed." -G. Stoddart

Wish I could!! That's the problem when you're process driven - I have everything down to a fine art in my job and so what did take hours when I first started, now I have mostly automated!

It's why I was hoping to get the promotion - it would mean that I have some serious work that I could get into.

Oh well - they tell me some additional projects are about to start up and I could start doing their admin for them as well.

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"When I'm old, I don't want them to say of me, "She's so charming." I want them to say, "Be careful, I think she's armed." -G. Stoddart

I really love where I work and the people but the pay is woefully inadequate.

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Thanks Cep

Gatchamania.net Administrator

I like that one, Green. I may pass that along to a few people I know.

I loved my job when I first started two years ago. Then I went through a period where I hated it. I was stressed and felt like there was some double-standard stuff going on. Now, though, it's getting better again. Having our manager have to split his time between two departments gives us a lot more atonomy. We have just three of us and we work well together. Heck, our production supervisor's been gone more than he's been there the last few months, between his wife having twins and him taking a nine-day vacation, so most of the work has fallen to the designer and me. And we've been kickin' butt and takin' names. If it hadn't been for that huge snafu last week, I'd have been super-proud of the way she and I handled things. I'm glad the production manager was back for that one.

I just wish I had a job, even one that I hated right now would be preferable to not having any options or knowing how much longer unemployment will last. If you guys all think the US economy is in the tank you need to come out to California, the state economy is in worse shape.

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Perspective Alters Reality