which would you choose: enjoyable job or high pay?

[SallyMays]

My question is: which would you value most if you had a choice? Having a job where you like to be and where you are able to do what you like, yet receiving a significantly lower pay... or being in one where you're paid well, but dread going to it every day of the week? Would the high salary really justify the hassle? It's a hard and uncertain economy out there, after all... I know each case will obviously be unique for each person, but I'd like to know more about your reasons and possible regrets for each.

I'd go further and ask if it would be different if you had NO job, and were given the choice of one you dislike with ANY kind of pay, but that'd probably be a simpler decision... better being warm than toasted, I guess.

[granted]

Enjoyable.

My health is more valuable than $!

[SallyMays]

Originally Posted by granted

Enjoyable.

My health is more valuable than $!

Yes, when put that way, I'd agree in a heartbeat. But it still seems such a complicated decision...

I see so many people daily who literally drag themselves to a workplace they don't like (actually, it's the norm rather than the exception)... yet don't know if they're less healthy for it. There's no denying the extra stress, but they find hobbies to counter the anxiety. The harm may be there anyway, I guess.

[MattMacola]

Why choose? Lets have both... so I'm going for the third option... an enjoyable job with high pay.

[Lucidism]

Well, realistically, I'd choose both! High pay and enjoyment!

But the question is no fun if I don't stick to the choices, is it? In that case, I'd go with enjoyment. This is what I've always done and always will do, if at all possible.

One thing to note though -- happiness is not only found at work -- it's usually something you bring with you to work.

When people used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grow up, I used to say, "Happy. Details not included."

[Karanime]

Eh, high-paying job. I'll be quitting soon, however.

An enjoyable job will trap me into continuing with the job. I have a greater purpose and I know it, so it's much better to spend that dreadful 7-8 hours a weekday and have tons of cash to invest in my purpose and the leisure necessary to counter the stress, than to get sidetracked in something enjoyable and have a hard time quitting.

I waste 8 hours a day with no pay anyway, in school. What's the difference?

/<3

[Lucidism]

Karanime, instead of enjoying your work...

you'd rather make a lot of money so that you could quit, follow your greater purpose and...

enjoy your work?!



(just kidding )

[Curtis2011]

I would say, as long as the enjoyable job pays enough to cover the bills, go with that.

Obviously if it doesn't pay enough to cover basic expenses, then go with the higher paying one.

[SatvikBeri]

Enjoyable, enjoyable, enjoyable, enjoyable. Better to BEG for money and work at an enjoyable job (or purpose) than to work at a place that drains you (assuming a long period of time. It's fine to work at a less-than-enjoyable job temporarily if it helps you towards some other goal, such as getting into work that you enjoy).


There's really no way to understand how terrible it is to do work that you hate until you've been on both ends of the spectrum. No hobby in the world can make up for hating your work.

Btw, I believe that once you're 16 you can drop out of school. I went to Home &mdash; Bard College at Simon's Rock - The Early College after my 2nd year of high school and it was once of the best decisions of my life.

[SnerpGoodWord]

IMO there are two reasons to work an unpleasant job:

1) to earn money to buy yourself a more pleasant situation
2) to support your family

So depending on the situation, I might go either way. If the sole purpose of the unpleasant job is to buy luxuries, then no.

[CoolBee]

What he said (Satvikberi)

Hating your job is one of the most miserable experiences in life. Dragging yourself in day in and day out, fighting with yourself every morning not to throw a 'sickie'. And quite often the job sucks so much out of you, you find yourself unable (either because of time or energy) to do a 'hobby'. Feeling that they have you boxed in and are nailing down the lid.... yes, I know exactly how that feels.

Sometimes, its worth walking out with nothing to go to just to feel the freedom and also have the exhiliration of knowing you're on your own resources/wits now while you hunt down the next opportunity before the rent/mortgage is due!

I always remember years ago I quit a job like that with nothng to go to. I had been talking to one of the accountants at work before I left and he hated it, but had a wife, kids, mortgage. A few weeks later, I was on a temping assignment in central London and this guy started calling my name out of a van. I turned round and was amazed to see the accountant guy. He said he'd thought and thought and said to himself "if she can do it, so can I" so he'd found a job driving a van for a living - "I'm on half the pay but I'm enjoying my life again - I'm so much happier" he said.

[CoolBee]

I suppose the question we should ask is - what makes the job so hated?

[SatvikBeri]

Originally Posted by CoolBee

I suppose the question we should ask is - what makes the job so hated?

This is a great point. Oftentimes what makes the job hated is just internal stuff that would follow you around anywhere. A lot of people have disdain towards anything that feels like work or anything that helps them earn money. I don't know what the best option is when your job problems come from within-maybe it's to stay and work things out, maybe it's to leave and start fresh.

But when it's due to external, unchangeable conditions of the job (such as an extremely bureaucratic environment or a company you believe is hurting people), then definitely quit.

I actually went through this not too long ago. I'm not sure what I would do if I had children, but I am married and my wife and I recently had this discussion. The conclusion we came to was definitely to quit. However, before I could do that the company basically went bankrupt and I was laid off

[CoolBee]

Originally Posted by SatvikBeri

......

But when it's due to external, unchangeable conditions of the job (such as an extremely bureaucratic environment or a company you believe is hurting people), then definitely quit.

I actually went through this not too long ago. I'm not sure what I would do if I had children, but I am married and my wife and I recently had this discussion. The conclusion we came to was definitely to quit. However, before I could do that the company basically went bankrupt and I was laid off

Great when that happens isn't it Like the Universe giving you the little nudge you need!

I remember sitting in the park one summer with a friend saying I wish I had the guts to give 6 months notice on my job to force me to save and tidy things up but I didn't want to incase they were going to make me redundant in that time, but because I had already quit they wouldn't bother, saving themselves having to pay me redundancy pay!

6 weeks later, a fresh round of redundancies was announced and I said to the boss, if you put me on the list I won't be unhappy about it So I walked out 3 months after the park session with the equivalent of 6 months take-home pay in my bank account and got another job 2 days later

As my mother said to me 'they're making the decision for you that were going to have to make anyway'

[Requiem]

I don't think I'd settle for either. I want a reasonably enjoyable, reasonably well-paying job. I plan on retiring quite early.

[SallyMays]

You all make excellent points. I lean toward the "enjoyable" option as well, although I always hear that little voice in the back of the mind warning of unpredictable times where a little extra income would come in handy. Fact: trying to be one step ahead = unnecessary worries As Curtis2011 said, if less pay is enough to cover the bills, enjoyable does seems to be the best for a healthy life, unless bound by the priorities SnerpGoodWord listed (priorites which apply to many people, possibly even most).

@Lucidism: So very true --> "happiness is not only found at work, it's usually something you bring with you to work". People fall in this pitfall too often, where work seems to assume front and center position in one's life and the rest is neglected.

Wise words spoken from experience, CoolBee and SatvikBeri. To a very small degree, I have experienced a bit of what it is to not like a job: to the point of waking up and not feeling the least like going, but fortunately not to the extent of some cases I've seen that included daily and heated adjective-fights in the office. I think that if it were me in those kinds of pressure I wouldn't even be able to wait for a future layoff, although quitting without a windfall seems a scary (if adventurous) prospect.

Karanime, that's what I call a high-powered attitude

"Not settling" would of course be the ideal, no one would have to endure a bad job again (which would mean no one would be around to do them, the companies would colapse, economy would fail, and then there would have to be bad jobs all over again) Still, I don't feel that choosing one or the other is really "settling" in the negative sense... it's more that the uncertainty of passing up opportunities (even if unpleasant) until something better comes along always feels a bit like stomping your own foot.

Where does one sign for the "enjoyable with high pay" option?

[aiyori]

SallyMays

Did you draw your own avatar?

[SallyMays]

Originally Posted by aiyori

SallyMays

Did you draw your own avatar?

Hi, aiyori! While I do enjoy drawing, even if only for myself, I can't claim that one (it sure would be nice to draw that well). I had the image in my computer, found at some point in the internet... I've always found it quite a beautiful drawing (or painting, I believe it is a watercolor). An avatar drawn by me would not look anything like it

[Cochonette]

I would never take a job I "dread going to" all the time unless I were desperate. A mediocre job for high pay, well, it depends on how badly I need money. I'm not all about the money... the important thing to me is to enjoy it. I guess I haven't had a "real" job yet, if you don't count working as a student in the university library. It's not very interesting of a job, but the pay is decent ($9/hr with my raise this summer), and there are free moments when I can read a book or surf the internet.

A job I would really enjoy... honestly, it would probably be too much for me right now. I still gotta work on self-discipline and getting things done as well as learning specific topics/skills. A job I would really enjoy would probably involve a lot of creativity - teaching or researching. Hopefully I will be worthy of it eventually. I gotta work harder to get there than people who are smarter than me.

So right now the only job I look for is a not-totally-boring job that pays decently. But if I were ready for a more enjoyable job, then it would depend on how broke I am!

[ellie]

Enjoyable...unless you could work just one day and quit and make a 100,000,000

[InterfaceLeader]

Depends on how high the pay is and how enjoyable the other job is

If I could earn, say £100k after tax in one year of work - I would do that year, suck it up, and then quit and live financially free for the next 6 years (I currently live on 17k a year) .... or better still, go and do the enjoyable job and have the benefit of having 100k in the bank earning interest and enjoying my life

A job that I would enjoy (or feel passionate about) would be something like providing aid relief in poverty stricken countries - working for Oxfam or similar. I would rather do it for very little/no money, and see the charitable donations go to the people they were intended for.

[CoolBee]

Originally Posted by Cochonette

I would never take a job I "dread going to" all the time unless I were desperate.

Problem is, they don't start out like that!!

Jobs I've reached that state in started out as jobs I absolutely loved.

But after a few years with changes of management, reorganizations and so on they become very different.

Jobs where they start out allowing you to carve your own niche and build up a great deal of expertise, allow you to use initiative and really develop things - get new management in with fixed notions, imposing unachievable deadlines, impossible targets, refusal to listen to common sense because they are reporting to government puppetmasters who brook no dissention... instruct you that you have to give one 'customer' a bigger slice of the pie while leaving all the other slices the same size (erm - like how - 100% of the pie is 100% of the pie!)

[brendannz]

Enjoyable is more subjective than High Pay. Plus you want the money to enjoy what you can do with the money, not as a means to an end

[gene2009]

Originally Posted by SallyMays

My question is: which would you value most if you had a choice? Having a job where you like to be and where you are able to do what you like, yet receiving a significantly lower pay... or being in one where you're paid well, but dread going to it every day of the week? Would the high salary really justify the hassle? It's a hard and uncertain economy out there, after all... I know each case will obviously be unique for each person, but I'd like to know more about your reasons and possible regrets for each.

I'd go further and ask if it would be different if you had NO job, and were given the choice of one you dislike with ANY kind of pay, but that'd probably be a simpler decision... better being warm than toasted, I guess.

I would prefer a high pay job for saving money up during 5-10 years. Then i'd change the job and do a job which i like to do.

[codefreeze]

I wouldn't need to give it too much thought - go with the lower paying job if you enjoy it. But here's the rub, if you enjoy it, you will probably be good at it, and that will always lead to better things...like a pay rise

But I'd have to go with the others and say the best option is a high paying job you like. What I did was take a high paying job that I thought was so-so, and then reworked my tasks to turn the job into one I loved