What common issues do you have with your job?

[BrianL]

Honestly, almost nothing. My job is great!

 

[VandVsmama]

Every place I have ever worked, there is always at least one person who is what I refer to as a barnacle - an employee who sits there and does as little work as possible in order to get a paycheck. Just like the barnacles in tide pools and on the sides of ships - the tide comes in and the barnacle puts out its feelers to get fed (i.e., pay day) and then goes into "sit and wait" mode until the next pay day wave occurs.

I also call such employees "house plants." Because house plants just sit there and wait to bed watered & fed. Any sort of response from the house plant employee requires a lot of poking & prodding.

 

[Moliphino]

Co workers not answering emails.

My God, yes. I love email (you get an exact record of the conversation to refer back to, I can take the time to compile all relevant info, and I don't feel like I'm interrupting or bothering someone like a phone call or in person), but my coworkers just don't seem to read them 90% of the time. It drives me insane.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I dumped water on my work laptop last week. I mean, it's not a common problem, at least In my department. New laptop should be here in the next two hours.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Honestly, almost nothing. My job is great!

Same for me! I feel so blessed to have found such an amazing position. I had started to lose hope in my field last year and thought about changing careers (would have been insanely expensive), but this job has brought all the joy back in what I do.

 

[AndreaDM]

My job is mostly great, biggest issue right now is supply chain delays. I am a Project Manager and our sales reps are selling things that are backordered with no eta, it's frustrating for everyone, but nothing we can do about it.

 

[ronandannette]

I only ever thought I had workplace problems until Covid hit. It’s been far and away the hardest 20 months of my 33 year career. There hasn’t been a day since last March - not a single day - that I’ve had a full staff due initially to lay-offs, then due to various on-going quarantine and isolation rules. Labour shortage gets exponentially worse when you factor in our sub-trades, all of whom are dealing with the same situation. It’s practically impossible to make and keep appointments when either the worker or the customer ends up being unavailable at the last minute for some health-related reason.

Then there’s the ever worsening supply-chain issues that destroy our ability to deliver timely services and which are completely beyond our control. Doesn’t matter to the customers though; under their own stresses, they are meaner and more demanding than anything I’ve ever seen.

 

[Tink-osophy]

Honestly, almost nothing. My job is great!

Same for me! I feel so blessed to have found such an amazing position. I had started to lose hope in my field last year and thought about changing careers (would have been insanely expensive), but this job has brought all the joy back in what I do.

That's a real blessing - to love your job, which is such a big part of your lives.

Now, I'm wondering what you each do -- I'm looking for some inspiration!

 

[luv2cheer92]

That's a real blessing - to love your job, which is such a big part of your lives.

Now, I'm wondering what you each do -- I'm looking for some inspiration!

I'm a physical therapist. Though not an easy career to just switch to since its a Doctorate degree. I do have some gripes with the profession as a whole, but my current position is wonderful.

 

[Tink-osophy]

I'm a physical therapist. Though not an easy career to just switch to since its a Doctorate degree. I do have some gripes with the profession as a whole, but my current position is wonderful.

Sometimes, the right position within the right company/organization can make up for the problems within the profession as a whole, can't it?!

I'm always really pleased for anyone who loves their job. Even if I don't know you!!

 

[nene0182]

Being taken advantage of for being an “overachiever” while others that are the same level get away with doing far less. I also feel like I’m tasked with being their baby sitter and cleaning up their messes. I typically love my job but this week has been a struggle.

Also, what is with the meetings?!?! There are some days I spend 5+ hours in meetings. Most of them could have been an email…

 

[dclpluto]

Co workers not answering emails.

maybe they are too busy working and not enough time to be checking emails.

 

[spiders]

Every job has it's moments (good and bad). At the end of the day, I think it's all the same stuff...some employees slack, some bosses are idiots, there's always a "process" that doesn't make any sense but everyone does it anyway because that's how it's done.

My big goal is to leave work at work. No matter what happens -- the day will end. They can make me stay an extra 2 hours but that's the most they can do until I time out and they have to let me go. After that, I go to my car and I watch the place get smaller in my rearview mirror. There is no briefcase to take home and I don't answer any phone calls. The schedule can be brutal and nobody ever wants to work Christmas but at the end of the day, it pays well and affords me a good lifestyle.

 

[MrsPete]

Supervisors who have never done your job and want to change the "work flow" until they realize there is a reason the work flow is the way it is.

My job is changing quickly, so I'll add this: Administrators who've been out of the classroom 5+ years and don't realize that things have changed.

Some of us, especially older loyal employees, are underpaid to the point of insult.

Yes, they keep giving younger teachers raises, but they know we older teachers will stay because we're so close to finishing out our pensions -- yet the news media reports that teachers received "an average" of 5% increase, which sounds pretty good to the public. They don't mention that older teachers got nothing.

Co workers not answering emails.

Or supervisors not answering emails. I'm not asking a question just for fun -- I need an answer. I fully understand it may not be the answer I want, but I need a response.

Teacher: Not being able to find enough substitute teachers.

So true.

maybe they are too busy working and not enough time to be checking emails.

Communicating with your coworkers is part of your job.

My big goal is to leave work at work.

That's one of the big negatives of my job. I'm always "on duty".

 

[tvguy]

My job is changing quickly, so I'll add this: Administrators who've been out of the classroom 5+ years and don't realize that things have changed.

Probably specific to my industry, but we have the opposite issue. Administrators and co-workers that think what they learned in the classroom is reality. It isn't. In the real world staffing will be limited, and equipment not state of the art. Some equipment may be older than you are. The corporation that owned my former employer hires trainees right out of college and place them at one of their 64 locations for 2 years to learn. I hear one of the two trainees that started my last week is about to wash out. She insists everything is being done incorrectly, by what she learned in college and she refuses to learn how things are done in the real world.

 

[Boopuff]

Working in a school now , the ever changing “protocols “, parents that never, ever have masks for their kids, parents chronically late every....single....day... The incredibly sad state of education, no subs, teachers walking off the job...

 

[lyeag]

Being bashed daily in the news and online. I am in education, and it is truly demoralizing.

 

[MrsPete]

Probably specific to my industry, but we have the opposite issue. Administrators and co-workers that think what they learned in the classroom is reality. It isn't ...

Yes, I understand what you're saying -- and it isn't new. When I was in college in the 80s, our professors told us that students don't do their work because they don't know what to do /they aren't given clear, concise instructions. At that point I thought, "That's not true", and when I entered the classroom I found out I was right.
The "washing out" part is realistic too. A few years ago the numbers for teachers were dire: 3 out of 5 new teachers left the profession in their first five years. Today fewer and fewer are entering the profession at all; we are on the cusp of another very real teacher shortage.

Being bashed daily in the news and online. I am in education, and it is truly demoralizing.

Yes, when I entered the teaching profession in 1991, the general public considered teachers to be good, caring people -- but not particularly smart. Today that perception has altered, and it seems that the general public rather dislikes teachers and the concept of school in general.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Yes, they keep giving younger teachers raises, but they know we older teachers will stay because we're so close to finishing out our pensions

Y'all don't have unions and salary ladders in your state?

 

[MrsPete]

Y'all don't have unions and salary ladders in your state?

No. Outside the Northeast, most teachers are not union members.