Remember, America isn’t a manufacturing economy anymore. Our jobs are more cerebral. It’s only natural that we should seek happiness working at a desk and using our minds to do the majority of work. Mental jobs are hard to leave at the office when you go home at day’s end.

Working on an assembly line is a physical job that starts when you get there and you leave it behind you when you go home. That kind of simplicity is likely to draw a lot less griping.

Generally speaking, I find that if I don’t want to give out information about me, the best thing to do is to ask people about themselves. I think most people love to talk about themselves, and think you’re a great conversationalist when you let them do so! =)

In the age-old tension between time and money, I initially valued money. The older I get, the more I value time. My job is okay; like most, it has good and bad aspects. But you can bet I’d love to stop working…or to have the CHOICE to choose work that is most rewarding, even if it pays less.

I thought that this was very interesting and that there are good and bad things about all jobs. Maybe we could reorganize our work culture to have more jobs that provided both experiences, but I will have to leave that up to smarter guys than me to figure out. In the mean time, I need to put my jacket on because the office AC still thinks its summer.

I make a point of keeping my personal life separate from my professional one. Many of the choices I make in my personal life are societally unpopular (read: I live an alternative lifestyle), and aside from gender I am not part of a protected class. Therefore, when everyone else is meeting up for a drink after work or to go to a party together, I don’t join them. Aside from concern over backlash and discrimination, I feel it’s unprofessional and inappropriate. I also generally make a point not to hire or work for friends–and not to “make friends” with my coworkers, employees, and bosses. I prefer to keep the professional relationships strictly that.

I think it’s getting me into trouble career-wise. I’m afraid that I limit my networking capabilities. All the good networkers I know are just friends with everyone–at least in part because they make people feel like they are not just meeting people to evaluate “how can you be of use to me?”

I want to maintain a professional decorum at work without my staff blasting my personal information around the crew, but I want to be warm and welcoming, because the best managers are the ones people like AS A PERSON. How do I find a balance?

If I had been more knowledgeable about all this in my younger years I would have planned better for my future so that I could afford to back off a little when I got overwhelmed (like when my son had one of his 16 surgeries) or to just change course without having to worry about the whole thing crashing down on me.

It’s that whole “balance” thing.

I’m glad to see young people here who have caught on to this so that maybe they have more options than I have provided for myself.

“Downward arc: Skilled jobs go unfilled: Welder shortage hampers firms”

……… Wells and his type are becoming more of a minority every day in the United States. The nation’s welder shortage is reaching a proportion that is slowing down projects and yet heating up salaries for those who choose the oft-neglected trade.

The American Welding Society estimates that the industry is losing thousands of skilled welders every year. The deficit could leave more than 400,000 potential jobs unfilled by 2014, the AWS reports.

“The younger generation doesn’t want to get dirty,” said Mickey McPhetridge, steel-shop supervisor at HydroHoist International Inc. “They’re all into computers and air conditioning.” ………

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?articleID=070607_238_E1_spanc12208

You say in your post that people want to ‘escape from cubicle nation’; this still sounds like running away. If so many people are unhappy, which they are, why do we continue to be treated this way in the work place? Companies treat their employers as they do because they can, and because they are often ignorant to exactly how their company runs. We as a workforce in general, have given up our power to our employers, allowing them to dictate the terms of employment. But without employees, these companies would be nowhere… so I ask the question, if so many people in a workplace feel the conditions are so bad, why are they not speaking up and communicating their needs/concerns to their employers? The bosses often don’t know how conditions are for the people doing the day to day running of a business as they never get to see it. They are often quite distant from the operations, either physically (management is in a seperate building etc) or psychologically (they are busy with their own jobs that they never go near or ignore the operations area). Employees should be asking or even demanding that their employers see first hand the operations from all areas so they can see for themselves how their company functions – the good, the bad and the ugly. It is hard for anyone to ignore issues if they are forced to face them head on. This appearance of ignorance from management stems from a lack of open communication and awareness, which makes employees feel resentment etc. If employees do not speak out though, I am not sure we should be feeling resentment, dislike etc, as we are allowing these working conditions to perpetuate by not speaking out about them.

War doesn’t solve anything – it just makes something/someone your enemy and you make judgement against it/them. Once you have done that, you have closed down any opportunity to resolve the problems you face. I feel that it is only when you look at something with openness and without judgement that you can start to see others points of view and start to communicate and begin the process of working things out for the betterment of the organisation as a whole (or any other situation you are in).

Lots of people out there who do not want to do the dirty jobs and will pay big money for it to be done.

I do think that many people would benefit from a mind shift. I know a lot of folks who *expect* to hate their jobs. And, glory be, they do! They go in with that attitude, and no matter how much fun they have with their work pals or how generous their boss is, it’s still “oh my job sucks.” I’ve done it myself.

People can build their whole persona around how much they want to be doing something else, but in their free time, what do they do? NOT work on projects that might lead them away from the hated job.

In my full-time job, which is mostly about analyzing companies, I have noticed that the richest business owners are the ones that are most busy. But mostly in a good way. They are full of ideas and eager to get on with the next big thing.

Even though this could be a generalization, I think that it shows that being financially free offer you possibilities to enjoy your life in a different way than if you have to fight for the money every month. And above all I think that the confidence of knowing that they will survive in all situations adds up to the well-being of these persons.

Somewhere in the middle is working and taking pride in that work. I really think that is what we’ve lost as a society. I get a certain satisfaction out of some aspects of work, not only at my day job, but doing other tasks like building furniture or even something as simple as mowing the lawn. I’d love to see America get that back, I think the positive effects would flow through to a lot of other problems we face.

EDIT – I identify a lot with comment #42 from Brenton. Maybe it’s the “grass is greener” syndrome creeping into my head, but I wish someone would have told me when I was 16, 17 that there were blue-collar jobs out there that paid that well. Like other commenters, I sometimes fantasize about working with my hands rather than sitting at a desk all day.

@Dink #86 I love your comment. I have read all the comments and I like yours the best!

It would finally be a reality show worth watching.

And just to show how we are all different…I normally like Tyler’s comments… He often shows “the other side” to popular opinion.

It is my opinion that he’s not a negative person. Hardly. He likes living where he does (not far from the beach in CA if I remember right) and he doesn’t mind his job and he makes a lot of money (I believe–at least as I define it). That much I’ve gleaned from his posts.

I’m fortunate enough to earn around the magic $75,000 per year that usually is enough to cover all of my needs and most of my wants and provide some savings for retirement.

It’s interesting that people fear work because my wife could “retire” right now and we could live off my salary. Instead she has chosen to work, partially for financial freedom (in case I was to lose my job,) but also for the fulfillment and positive experiences it can provide.

As far as retirement goes, I think it’s stated correctly that the financial goal is to be ABLE to retire. This, again, is about choices and freedom. When you’re free of debt and have a good (and growing) savings pool, you have the cash to do the things you want to do, be that travel, boating on the weekends, or whatever else you consider valuable in your free time.

Having enough money to retire is the ultimate in financial freedom. Once you have enough cash that you never NEED to work, you are in the enviable economic position of being able to spend your time doing whatever you want. At that point, if you are in a fulfilling job, then you keep doing it. The money then is gravy, and can also provide some freedom from worries that some stock market crash is going to destroy your savings.

If we don’t have something to work toward that is meaningful, the author says, then we don’t have a way of organizing our own consciousness, and fall into despair.

Great discussion, I’ve really enjoyed most of the comments, even the Tyler/Jamie interchange. That last paragraph on post 100 is negative in sentiment. Doesn’t bother me, I’ve felt that way before too. Except the person writing it is accusing another of negativity. And the apology? Another chance to take pot shots. I read “I sorry I critized you but sometimes you deserve it!” Whee!…projection is fun when you see it right there in print.

On a similar note, I have long been considering taking an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and believe I would enjoy working for a tree service much more than I enjoy working as an IT technician.

I agree that if work is fulfilling and productive (however one defines those terms), that I would be more likely to continue to want to work or “semi-retire.” Makes it seem a little more realistic to think that I might have some income in those years instead of having to have a huge wad of cash to last me for the rest of my life!

I’m sorry for snapping at you but I do wish you could see life isn’t all that bad. However judging from today’s post, I do think that you can be a positive person.

I don’t think you’re a bad person or anything like that, and I do think you do have the ability to be positive. I guess I wish I could see more of those type of posts coming from you. And judging from what you wrote today, it seems you have a lot to offer to people. So I think that’s why people liked your post today.

@Emma-most companies don’t care about their employees,that’s why many seek to retire early. People aren’t running from anything except thankless jobs. That’s why popular books like “escape from cubicle nation” get published. People are tired of being a cog in a machine.

Most people quit talking to you after you leave the company. Companies don’t care, we’re all replaceable. I don’t blame people who declare a war on work, etc. All that matters is the bottom line to corporate america.

Maybe is it time to look at why you are ‘fighting’ so hard to retire early. What it is about work (or working as you get closer to retirement age) that has you running so scared, or, what makes you think you are too good to continue working?