I hate working for the man!!!!!

What was I thinking? I sold out and moved to NC and took a corporate job with a bank. I look at all the suits around me with such loathing everyday. Granted it is easier work but I HATE every minute of it.

Has anyone else ever made a horrible career decision and bailed out?

I sent out a message for a job in Afghanistan today. (helping rebuild infrastructure)

Am I a hopeless hippie?

When I left the Army I went to work in a comfy government job in Australia -- the work was mindnumbingly easy and the days went fast if I locked the door and ignored all the idiots.
The pay was pretty good too...more than I'm making now... 4 years of that and I was seriously looking at blowing my brains out. Everyday I wanted to take my johnson and slam it in the desk drawer for an hour - as it would be less painful than suffering the tards I had to work with..

Quitting and leaving the country for a fresh start was the smartest move I ever made.


Siggy.

If I understand this correctly, you would rather watch your back 24/7 and dodge bullets than work around a bunch of suits. They must be really irritating suits.

Oh yes, and I never regret having bailed out. I had been asked to lie and cover up for a cheating boss. I will NEVER do that again. My late husband never understood why I "killed the goose that laid the golden egg", but I quit that job and never looked back.

With the rate of westerners being taken hostage in the Middle-East, you aren't just a hopeless hippie, you are a suicidal one as well.

Briana Dawson

No... you ARE the man now... your worst nightnare!!! hehe

I had a cushy job back in Illinois. My boss loved me, I was getting raises every month, and saving oodles of money. Then my best friend said "Come to California! Live by the beach!" I was a moron. But I soooo wanted out of Prairie Land.

I wound up wasting 4 years of my life in a job I was too smart and underpaid for. Every day that I drove to work, I would contemplate driving my car over the bridge into that sickeningly beautiful ocean below. My brain was dying from stagnation. So I quit. I was burnt out. I had no stamina or desire to work again. Mid-life crisis at 27 go figure.

Now, I don't regret leaving. I'm glad I left that dismal job. Had I stayed in longer, I don't think I live long.

I currently work for The Man. It's fairly secure, pays somewhat decently, but I get little respect.

Whatever. "The Man" looks really good on my resume and I'll kindly thank "The Man" when I start working for someplace better

Sounds exactly like my current situation. I pay more to rent my apartment than my mom pays to own her HOUSE (and two-story garage with deck and spiral staircase) in Texas. I have a somewhat prestigious degree but I do data entry for an outsourcing firm in a field not even related to my schooling or talents. I have come to recognize faces on the train, especially the crazy ones. Not a day goes by that I don't think about jumping in front of the subway. Good times.

I am so much the MAN that it hurts me. Physically HURTS me.

This is my life: http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/02/news/fortune500/wachovia_slavery/index.htm


I worked all over the middle east before I started working for the man. Sure, there is danger involved but I firmly believe we will never be successful without implementing infrastructure programs to rebuild these countries.

This war will not be won with bullets alone.


Teeny, that is exactly how I feel. You put things into perfect perspective. I feel a lot better about my decision now.

Hippies are practically defined by hope

It looks like the financial institution I work for may be assimilated by another, and I'm giving serious thought to finding a career that doesn't involve daily explanation of the simplest computer basics to impatient and abrasive financial advisors

I don't suppose the bank is BoA, and the location is Charlotte. If so, one of those suits might very well be my brother.

Let me know, and if so, I'll have a talk with him. He's still my kid brother and I should be able to get him to lighten up.

- Ace

To win the hearts and minds, we must give them the right to choose Coke or Pepsi. Then we will know we've won. (Me, cynical?)

I worked for a company (associated with the banking industry) for 20 years. The first 10 were pretty fun because the people I worked with were cool, the company had real integrity and I got to do all sorts of interesting things.

Then the corporate gulag moved in. A lot of the better managers and vice presidents were replaced. Ultimately, I would up with a new manager who told me to spy and report on another co-worker who was a friend and someone I had great respect for. (I refused BTW and so did other co-workers).

In the meantime, the corporate gulag begain to move the engineers out of the cubes they were in and into a common area where it became nearly impossible to focus and someone monitored our every move. One day, security came in and escorted one of us away. We were told in no uncertain terms, not to discuss it and he was told not to tell us he was laid off or he would lose the six extra weeks of pay they gave him.

Products deadlines became completely unreasonable yet customers were told that they would be met. We were asked to be less than honest with customers. Stuff coming out of manufacturing began turning out like shit.

More engineers began to disappear.

I found another job and left.

The company that I moved to was very small, not very secure and after 911 I did get laid off and I have to admit, I did momentarily ask myself how I could have been so dumb as to leave the security of a 20 year position (at least until I found out that 40 more engineers from that company got laid off).

I finally found a job with another nice company, good product, good people and I'm happy as a clam. The company that I'd worked at for 20 years has asked me to return twice and my answer has always been No.

I'm not sure if it's really the size of the company that matters, it's more their corporate policy. Do they recognize, value and trust their employees?

If they don't - I highly recommend leaving.

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At my job, they started giving company "Image Awards" to outstanding employees. It sounds like a good idea, in theory, to motivate people to do well... except that all the image awards are announced via email and after a while you start noticing that many of the people GETTING the awards are later GIVING them to the people that awarded them-- which means that the higer-ups are awarding the higher-ups are awarding the higher-ups.

Ironically emphasizing this self-congratulatory back-patting, the CEO sent out an email where he waxed philosophical on the importance of teamwork. The focal point of the email was the metaphorical use of the flight pattern of geese to emphasize the power of a team. "The geese are able to use 70% less energy flying as a team than flying alone," or something similar for several paragraphs, analyzing every single aspect of goose flight behavior.

After reading this dreadful email, I astutely observed to my coworker, "So, the lesson to take away from geese is that a lot of hot air gets you farther than a lot of hard work." And so it goes for most corporate jobs, I think.

I should write for despair.com

VISA got there first! Not surprising is it.

For first time, shoppers will have credit By Mona Mahmoud,

USA TODAY
Fri Jun 3, 6:16 AM ET

Iraq has long been a cash economy, but plastic has just established a foothold here.

The Trade Bank of Iraq recently issued 50 Visa cards to a handful of government officials. In a few weeks, the cards will be available to the public. Bank officials hope it will be the start of a full-scale plastic invasion.

Hussein al-Uzeri, chairman of the Trade Bank of Iraq, says the Visa cards - the first credit/debit cards in Iraq - are an important step to economic recovery. The hope is the cards will entice people into using banks and establishing credit.

Customers will pay a $35 fee to get a card and will be required to deposit $1,000 in their accounts. The card will function initially as a debit card. Customers can only make purchases that are covered by money in their accounts.

The Trade Bank plans to issue 30,000 cards by the end of this year. The bank has also opened Iraq's first automated teller machine, at the bank's headquarters, and hopes to open more throughout the country.

Some business owners say they are excited about the cards. The cards are "very useful for not only businessmen but for common people as you do not have to carry money with you," says Basil al-Hadithi, 42, an owner of mobile phone shops.

The Trade Bank now needs to encourage businesses to accept the cards and overcome Iraqis' natural aversion to anything but cold cash.

"I prefer cash as it is easier and quicker," says Fadhil Hassan Assim, 35, who owns a market in Baghdad and dismisses the idea of using plastic.

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I agree. I just choke on this type of "let's market happy bullshit to the employees" approach instead of treating them with a genuine respect and compensating them competitively what they the job is worth.

The corporate gulag that I mention in my previous post used to have team meetings, then moved into "quality circles" then to sigma. Oh and let's not forget ISO. What a crock of busy work shit.

The company I work for now just wants you to do your freakin job with only as much paper work as is necessary so that if your run over by a truck someone else can pick up where you left off. Keep the customer happy, respect each other and pump out a good product. I can live with that.

When a company starts having touchy feely meetings and awards it raises a big red flag for me.

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I was discussing this very thing with a few friends of mine recently, one of whom is a young lawyer and the other a university prof. We all have "pretty good" jobs but all 3 of us would quit our jobs immediately IF WE WON THE LOTTERY. How does one win the lottery?

Working blows. These are the best years of my life and I'm stuck in a 10x 10 box of an office under fluorescent lighting for 3/4 of the day. I want to save the whales. Or puppies. Or whales, puppies and penguins. And dolphins.

What about the trees? How could you leave those lovable creatures out?

*me hugz a tree*

That's a good point. Saving the trees also saves many, many tasty animals. I mean cute! Cute animals. Mmmm... animals...

Why don't you work for a non-profit? It's not like you wouldn't get paid. Or better yet, start your own... or BETTER yet, start a "for-profit" environmental campaign. I met someone a year ago who did that and was doing quite well. By factoring in the overhead to begin with, you don't have to lie about where the client's money is going and everyone is happier

My personal favorite is impromptu, and I quote, "attaboy" and "attagirl" mini-ceremonies.

That just makes me want to bitch-slap the sh*t out of somebody.

-- jj

Wow Neehai, you're seriously thinking about going over there?

Back over there, yes.