A Gallup poll found that 85 percent of people hate their jobs.

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Sunday, February 2. 2020

A Gallup poll found that 85 percent of people hate their jobs.

Lots of people are not thrilled with their lives in general. At Quillette: Work—the Tragedy of Our Age

It's a provocative essay, and meant to be.

I have sometimes wondered whether today's welfare states were designed to recreate The Garden of Eden. It didn't work. That ship sailed.

Posted by The Barrister in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 12:18 | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0)

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Physicists and mathematicians have play for pay jobs. They're always in on weekends and holidays too. No social lives. Human contact once a year is plenty.

#1 rhhardin on 2020-02-02 12:41 (Reply)

We've shifted to a service economy. That means serving other people. Sure your "service" is only required to the extent you want to get paid, but have you met other people?

#2 JK Brown on 2020-02-02 13:03 (Reply)

"Work—the Tragedy of Our Age"

"Work is the curse of the drinking classes."–Oscar Wilde

#3 Esmerelda on 2020-02-02 13:21 (Reply)

A Gallup poll found that 85 percent of people hate their jobs.

Nothing new here. People have always had to do physical and/or soul crushing work to stay alive. Life is hard for everyone.

People who get paid or work they would gladly do for free are most fortunate. Never being able to find your niche in life is tough.

#4 feeblemind on 2020-02-02 13:29 (Reply)

As we say in the oil patch, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy; All play and no work makes Jack a welder."

#5 Aggie on 2020-02-02 13:37 (Reply)

I just don't believe that 85% number. I'm retired now but - with a couple of exceptions - I've always loved my jobs.

#6 snopercod on 2020-02-02 15:04 (Reply)

That was precisely my reaction. And I never got the impression that 85% of the people around me hated their jobs either--quite a few perhaps, but certainly not that big a majority.

I'd be interested to see the demographics of the Gallup poll. I'll bet that they skew quite young, which would explain the result. Young people (myself included when I was young) have unrealistic expectations of their jobs that make them unhappy.

#6.1 T Migratorious on 2020-02-03 07:22 (Reply)

Maybe that's why it's called "work".

#7 Zachingoff on 2020-02-02 16:10 (Reply)

I have to agree with snopercod.

85%!

That is insane, what's wrong with these people, find something you like...there has to be something out there you would enjoy...what a terrible way to go thru life.

America is still the land of opportunity, turn off that stupid phone and think / meditate for 1/2 hour each morning. We are living in the golden age of civilization.

#8 maddog (Link) on 2020-02-02 16:40 (Reply)

Jobs you hate; careers you love.

#9 Andrew Stanton on 2020-02-02 16:55 (Reply)

I was disappointed that I didn't do something remarkable enough to be interviewed on the Merv Griffin Show, which was my mother's plan for me. Making lots of money was her second plan.

I had some soul-crushing years, when I was treated badly at a medium-low-status but useful job. I came eventually to Luther's understanding: I have been baptised! and that the other parts of my life were more important. Church, children, wife, charities.

I am semi-retired now, working at a variation of that same job, but now being treated well and appreciated. Somehow, it is a good job now.

#10 Assistant Village Idiot on 2020-02-02 17:59 (Reply)

I don't have the impression that, historically, landed aristocrats who had no need to work had particularly happy or fulfilling lives, for the most part. There were exceptions of course, but a lot of them seemed to devote their time to gambling, hunting seducing and abandoning lower-class women etc.

Or the eventual French model of hanging around the King and playing status games.

#11 David Foster (Link) on 2020-02-02 19:58 (Reply)

To combine #10 and #11, the only thing more soul-crushing than work is idleness.

And it's not the work or idleness itself, but the fallen world in which we live that is destined to crush the soul. The idea that we can recreate a paradise on earth is literally the oldest deception in the Book: "And you will become like gods, knowing good and evil."

#12 Another guy Named Dan on 2020-02-03 07:17 (Reply)

M'eh - looks like the complaints of a youngun unhappy with the reality of the world.

Subsistence existence has been the lot of the majority of humans who have ever lived on the planet. Not starving to death (or freezing to death, etc) is a pretty good accomplishment. I'm not sure that Poe was more spiritually fulfilled dying young in poverty than he would have been writing ad copy.

Also, Nietzsche didn't kill God - he simply articulated something that many wanted to believe, and something that many believed throughout all ages of the world. There are plenty of us who still believe in God, despite Nietzsche's words.

Even those without a belief in God can find spiritual meaning in their lives outside the drudgery of "work." Do I hate my job? On some days, sure, but on its worst days it beats subsistence farming with the looming threat of barbarian hordes storming over the hill at any moment!

First World Problems indeed.

#13 Hamlet's Fool on 2020-02-03 08:33 (Reply)

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Sunday, February 2. 2020

A Gallup poll found that 85 percent of people hate their jobs.