Published on 12, July, 2020
I have recently retired from work. It was long awaited and I have not missed the job at all ( the people I worked with were nice, but the job itself had become a mixture of stressful and tedious)
I have never particularly enjoyed working. I have got some sense of satisfaction from doing a job well during certain periods of my working life, but in most jobs I had there were people - mostly managers - who I really did not enjoy spending my days with. I get bored quickly and so jobs became mundane in a short period of time, and if I put myself forward to do higher level tasks (that I was capable of) I was either refused the role or ended up doing the higher level stuff without getting the extra pay for it. And I've suffered burn out from time to time due to the stress of work making me exhausted.
I know that a lot of autistic people are unable to work but would like to, and that many people get a sense of self worth from working and a better lifestyle (due to having wages) But I feel that society may over value work in some ways, and that maybe it programmes us to think that not working is lazy or unproductive? However there are some wealthy people who do little to no work and nobody calls them lazy. I heard a saying somewhere that I like: "we're human beings, not human doings". Perhaps that's a good answer next time someone asks - "so, what do you do?"
I just wondered what everyone's views were about working?
If you currently work, would you give up working if you became financially independent?
If you do not work but would like to, or want a career change, what would your dream job be?
If you do not work and have no wish to, or are retired or cannot work due to health reasons, how do you structure your days?
It was me who said about being a human being not a human doing.
I think theres a lot of pressure not only to work, but to do the "right" work, its often dependent on class and the social expectations that go with it, education plays its role in this too. How much education is encouraged or not, there's still a lot of people who discourage education and others who over value it, especially when they can't except that they're chid isn't that accademic.
I would love to go back to hairdressing, I love being in a salon, the smells of the chemicals, all the equipment and the feeling of making people happy, I mis the creative and artistic side of it too.
I would love to go back to university, I miss the discipline of study and the access to resourses that I just can't get anywhere else.
I do structure my days, with dog walking, shopping, cooking, reading, tv watching done at certain times and not others, I think it's important to dave structure when you're not working, as otherwise I find people sort of drift into aimlessness and depression.
I hate being asked 'what do you do?' Having been someone who's had a career tangent rather than a path, people don't know how t pigeon hole me, even when I worked in a shop it wasn't a "normal" shop, it was a wholefood co-operative and I'd spend my evenings explaining the business model of a co-operative or talking about peoples food issues. As a hairdresser I had people either tell me about who bad all hairdressers were or asking me questions and for advice. When I was a counsellor, people would tell me all sorts of things I didn't want to know. When I was working at a B&B abd Retreat house, running retreats and looking after those taking them, people would either give me a funny look and go away, or they'd start asking me questions of the sort they thought they could bully me over, they didn't because I didn't give them the answers they needed to do so. Some people were really interested, especially busy Mums who liked the idea of spending a week in silence, not having to listen to the constant chatter of small children and having the space to listen to one of their own thoughts from one end to another without interuption.
Hi Cat Woman, I understand what you mean about people trying to pigeon hole you - I think they need to work out what your identity is, which to them includes occupation, so they can assess whether you are "their kind of person", whether they want you in their circle, and whether you are above or below them in status. We of course couldn't care less what someone does for a job - we just might be interested in what it involves or whether they enjoy it.
I also agree with you about structure. Now I'm retired I'm trying to get that in place. I'm thinking of doing some open learn free online study with the open university - have you tried that?
It's interesting being sort of status free because your job dosen't match people expectations. It was also something interesting about being on silent retreat when you know nothing about the people you're with, the only judgements you can make involve the style and quality of their clothes and their table manners. But it feels like you get to know them from the inside out rather than the outside in, if that makes any sense?
I have looked at the OU and it's not for me, the courses mostly run over the summer and I want to be out and doing in summer, whereas wiinter seems a much better time to burrow in and study. I can't afford the fee's and don't understand the tech side of it. I've looked at numerous short courses and none of them have appealed to me enough to feel worth the effort, there are also a lack of them in the areas I'm interested in.
I'm not very good at putting links into messages, but here's trying:
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/
If you can get it to open it should take you to the main open learn web page, then if you scroll down you'll see a section headed "Pick a subject and start learning"
If you then click on a subject, for example "History & The arts" then click the "free courses" tab that appears at the top.of the page, you should be able to see all the courses available in that section.