Do you love what you do? If not, how do you deal with career apathy?

[Disneybuckeye]

Give it time. Seek out new challenges at work. There have got be ways to find that adrenaline rush you need.

I know money is not the be all end all, but it does help make life easier. Do your job well and look for volunteer activities to help with kids on the spectrum to keep you involved is way to get you the fulfillment you crave.

As a single mom, a job that keeps you safer and has less stress really is a good thing for now.

 

[DisneyOma]

Is there a way to change your job description at work? Are there more challenging situations there you are not involved in but could be if you asked?

I love working with special needs students as well, and right now I'm actually thinking about retiring soon. But that's because of the pandemic and the fact that we just can't help the kids the way they need to be helped right now, due to state guidelines. We're doing our best, but we're losing kids like crazy (by losing I mean they are not showing up to school, not doing any work, etc) If we were not in the middle of a pandemic, it would be a different scenario - those kids would not be able to tune me out

 

[mrs. magoo]

So I have been at the same school for 26 years. I have had years where I hate my job and really think about transferring but then I have a great year. This school year is not the year to make any decisions on. It has been such a strange year and things will be different next year. I too teach children on the spectrum - mine are high functioning high schoolers but I love to teach them. I have 5 years until I am eligible for retirement and I hope that I get to teach these guys for the rest of my career.

 

[GreatLakes]

I like my job most days, some days are a little crazy, but it is challenging and I develop more as a leader every day.

I don't feel a calling or anything but I don't need to. My job affords me the the opportunity to persuade my hobbies and do fun things with my family and those things I do love.

I also know the job I have now isn't what I'll retire doing. When the time comes I'll move to a new company.

 

[tvguy]

I love what I do, which is saying something since I have been doing it over 40 years. Many times I do not like how my bosses expect me to do it. None have ever done my job, and none were even born yet when I started doing it. They always want to reinvent the wheel.. Leave the wheel alone, and focus your attention on building a better car to attach the wheel to.

 

[dismoose23]

Coming out of college and graduate school I thought I had a plan. I wanted to work in the history/museum field. Did a couple of internships and landed a few positions throughout the years (2 of them in AmeriCorps) and came to find out that history is more of a hobby for me than a career path. After that I looked into the educational system and here I am today working in school administration. Overall I would say that I am content with my current work. The pay is ok, benefits are decent and I do like the people I work with. I do not plan on staying in my position till retirement. There is no room for growth and there are caps on how much you can make. I feel with still being relatively young there are opportunities out there for me to grow and make more money. Not sure what those are, but that is on me to find out. Also, I would love a change of scenery, I have lived in Ohio all my life and want to move somewhere warmer with no snow. Not sure if I can convince DW to move since our families are in Ohio, but if tomorrow she said she is ready to move to Florida, my bags would already be packed.

 

[chi_disfan]

I worked in education/publishing for almost 10 years and felt like I was just spinning around and going nowhere. I decided to take a leap and I quit my job and went to culinary school to pursue my passion. At the time, I felt pretty secure financially so I felt ok taking a pretty big risk.

When I finished school, I got my dream job as a culinary instructor and I felt like all was right with the world. However, I quickly found that it was still work. There were still good days and bad days. Plus, I was getting paid so little compared to my previous job, I kind of questioned if it was worth it. The recent Pixar movie "Soul" really felt like my life story, lol. Then, the pandemic hit and my I lost my job and the food industry as a whole has been set back so far I don't know what I'll get back to what I used to do. Luckily, I kept in contact with my old job and still freelance doing some publishing stuff to make ends meet.

I guess my point is that jobs are jobs and work is work even if you love what you do. There are good days and bad days and people you love and people you can't stand. I feel like you just have to appreciate the things you love, acknowledge the things you don't, and always keep an open mind to new paths that might open up.

 

[neverlandsky]

Work to live, don’t live for work. If you find yourself unhappy where it’s a struggle to just work, it’s time for a change and new direction. You don’t want to self-sabotage yourself in a job/career that you longer see yourself in or even like. Have yet to meet anyone on their deathbed that wished they worked more. Life is too short to live it unhappily especially when it comes to work.

 

[disneyseniors]

Corabubbles:
To me, no amount of money can take the place of something you love so much. Life is too short to be miserable in your job.
If you loved working with autistic children, then that's what you should do. Heaven knows there are not enough good, caring professionals to fill that need.
Good luck to you. I think, in your heart, you know what you want to do.

 

[DLgal]

Does your school not have autistic kids who need support that are NOT violent? Both my sons are autistic and neither has "behaviors" or has ever been violent, but they both receive instruction in a special classroom with many aides to help out. Each has a case manager that is a teacher for the special ed kids who are higher functioning intellectually, like one of my sons, and they teach Directed Language Arts and Directed Math to primarily autistic students at the high school. Is this not something you could pivot to? Do you have a teaching credential? If not, maybe pursue that so you can be a special education teacher. We also live in an affluent district, and my kids have never had violent kids in their classes (not sure what happens to those kids, honestly), but they have always had several wonderful teaching assistants over the years.

 

[MamaLema]

Deleted

 

[RamblingMad]

When I was at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the guy working at the store for the campground was a retired banker. Sometime your second calling is a more humble job with better views. This is where my head has been for a while now.

 

[LuvOrlando]

I wonder why you left your first job, was the stress getting to you? Something made you leave & maybe you are forgetting that part.

 

[NotUrsula]

I'm puzzled. You refer to your employer as a district, which implies public schools, yet you say that they "don't keep" kids with behavior issues. How exactly is that possible in public schools now?

 

[DLgal]

I'm puzzled. You refer to your employer as a district, which implies public schools, yet you say that they "don't keep" kids with behavior issues. How exactly is that possible in public schools now?

They might send those kids to one specific school. Or, they get sent to private schools/institutions that the district pays for.

 

[fla4fun]

There was a period in my life where I loved my work, and I specifically took time every so often to appreciate it. Unfortunately the owners retired, sold the business, and I landed somewhere that I don’t particularly like because it doesn’t make the best use of my skills. Not an issue anymore as that company is shutting down permanently this Friday due to Covid. What got me through was just work ethic. I knew the job had to be done and I take my responsibilities seriously. But there were days that I really struggled. Fortunately I had a great manager and that makes a big difference.

So now I will be searching for a new job, and I am unsure what direction I want to go in. I could probably get a job eventually that is pretty much a carbon copy of what I had, but I am not sure I want to do that. Due to the fact that there were four rounds of layoffs before getting to this point, I put away every spare penny I could last year, and if I am careful I can afford to take the time to find the right fit instead of panicking and taking whatever I can get. I am not against going to school if I need to. I really miss the feeling of wanting to be at work so much that I didn’t want to take a day off or a vacation. I want to find that again.

OP, sorry you are struggling. I agree with checking to see if you can find a way to include some of the tasks you love in your current position. I also agree you could do volunteer work that fulfills the need you are lacking. Sometimes you end up in a certain place at a certain time for a reason that isn’t apparent right at the start. I hope you find a way to make it work, or a better position elsewhere.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I work in loan servicing. I don't love what I do, but I don't dislike what I do. If I only did my own job it would be fine, but we are short-handed waaaaay too often... that is when I start getting upset. To me the worst thing about work is the getting up and having to go spend all day there. There are sooooo many things I would rather be doing.

When I was teaching, I absolutely hated it, at least the last few years. I don't think I really think I had a way of dealing with it besides keeping my eye on the prize of the time off. I remember days thinking, wow if I get struck by lightning at least I won't have to go in today. I got out after 20 years, the whole thing wasn't bad but the last few years of dealing with a new administration and a bad home life at the same time.

 

[wildride]

I love what I do but in todays climate, it is just not worth it anymore.

I retire as of 4/29, and right ahead of me are about 50 who put in their papers.

 

[MIGrandma]

I loved my waitressing job 95% of the time. I worked in a mom and pop style 100- seat diner for 12 years (had previously been a part time video store clerk and then a church secretary, after our kids were both in school). Most customers were great, and I had many regulars that I really liked. But. Those few rotten customers made the job less enjoyable sometimes. I’m retired now, don’t miss those few awful customers of course but at times I do miss the job and the wonderful customers, think of them sometimes and wonder how they are. And I miss the $$$. It paid well

 

[clutter]

When I was at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the guy working at the store for the campground was a retired banker. Sometime your second calling is a more humble job with better views. This is where my head has been for a while now.

I'm going to agree with this. I'm getting close to retirement, and am thinking along these lines. Maybe not a job with a view, but a job that I can leave at the end of the day and leave at the end of the day.

My current job is a mix of things that occasionally give my brain a little exercise, regularly gives me busy enough times to keep me engaged, and has periods that I should be working on my back-burner stuff, which is really really boring and tough to get engaged with. There is some stress, but the pay is good, the benefits are excellent, and, for the most part, my co-workers are good to work with (although I like them a LOT more now that we're all working remotely, lol).

So my recommendation is to find the things that you can enjoy about your new job and focus on them. A fun co-worker. Money in the bank. The times that you are engaged. And as for your time off - maybe take up skydiving?