Are there any jobs that aren't game-playing, team-playing, & cheerleading?

[StellaBlue]

Anybody have a job they like? What is it?

I want to do something that is not about profits; teamplay; negating one's soul to further the above; constant mental stress; spending the majority of your waking hours for 50 years trapped under the constant gaze of middle managers and flourescent lighting; etc.

Would it REALLY be better to be a self-employed tradesman?

Or a semi-retired drop-out, working odd waitressing and retail jobs?

(I have previously been a convenience store clerk, a tour guide, a record store worker, a wine store clerk, a waitress, a newspaper reporter, a bookseller, an academic, an office administrator, and in management in the construction industry. None of those are for me. :shrug: )

[koopie57]

1. it depends on if you need the money and how much

otherwise volunteer work, or working with the elderly, hospice volunteer, habitat for humanity, an animal shelter. Really lots of opportunities depending on how much money you need.

[unblock]

3. non-profits and volunteer jobs aren't exempt from scum

obviously, there are plenty of good people and indeed, saints doing volunteer work. however, i assure you, i've seem some unbelievably rotten people in volunteer work.

i suspect they do it to work out their inner demons and/or to give themselves a false sense of morality/moral superiority as part of their self-denial of their guilt.

[unblock]

2. there are honorable people and slimy people in virtually all jobs

there are hardworking waitstaff and there are those who spit in the food.

there are home construction workers that view their work as art and there are those who cut corners for a cheap buck.

there are stock brokers who disclose everything and advise clients to buy-and-hold and there are those who churn pensioners' accounts.

name a job and i can show you great people doing great things and i can also show you scummy people doing scummy work.


in short, it's not so much what your title is, it's what you do with it.

[wildhorses]

4. An artist or a writer?

:shrug:

[DrunkenMaster]

5. Teach

Get out into the community and teach. Even if it's just basic literacy skills for working adults, you will have made a vital difference in the world.

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. Simple fact is

if you don't like playing somebody else's game according to their rules then you either have to be able to retire from game playing or you have to successfully create you own game with your own rules.

However, you can expect it to be difficult to re-enter the traditional workforce if you choose either the self-employed tradesman or semi-retired drop-out route. Why? Those who make the hiring decision know that ultimately you are not financially dependent on them, you have the ability to think and make independent decisions, and you can do your own thing.

[MindPilot]

7. For me, the problems start anytime I *have* to do something.

There are many things I enjoy doing, but as soon as I do them on a schedule or a deadline, they cease to be fun.

Very few jobs actually involve life & death, but most of them seen to have stress levels like they do.

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. Be self employed. Do EBAY. Find something you're interested in

and sell it on EBAY from home. :)

[htuttle]

9. Get a job at a worker cooperative

Been at one for...(counting on fingers)...14 years now.

You still need to be a 'team player', and there is still stress, but it's all REAL stuff, not "proactive, forward-looking, buzzword-enhanced" middle management gobbledygook stress. And if you hate your boss, your coworkers can get together and fire them!

It's a nice balance between being the risks of being entirely self employed and working for the Borg.

[StellaBlue]

11. never heard of it

sounds very 1910s-ish. haha

What do you do/make?

[htuttle]

12. We do transportation

ie., Taxicabs and paratransit.

But there are worker coops doing about everything nowdays. Off the top of my head, I can think of worker coops manufacturing bicycles, messenger bags, sporting goods, etc.. There are worker coops (that I personally know of ) running engineering firms and other professional type businesses, too. Retail, too -- I know of a bookstore and a drug store/pharmacy that are worker cooperatives.

In Spain, the long, long running (and HUGE) Mondragon coop does almost everything a government would.

Here's one place to start looking (US national federation):
http://www.usworkercoop.org/EdResources/SPSHistory.html

Here's the global organization:
http://www.cicopa.coop/

And here's another interesting one:
http://www.geo.coop/

Finally, it's older than 1910. The Rochedale Principles (which sort of define a worker coop) were codified in 1844:

7 Co-operative Principles
•Voluntary and open membership
•Democratic member control
•Member economic participation
•Autonomy and independence
•Education, training and information
•Co-operation among co-operatives
•Concern for community

[dcfirefighter]

10. Yeah, mine.

Love it. But it's still work. Not very portable though.