Job Satisfaction (1 Viewer)

[SWJJ]

This is somewhat of a tangent, but do any of you fear AI? My current job is somewhat hands on, but could definitely be impacted once AI takes off. I would think a very large number of jobs fall into that category. I just crossed the fitty barrier and I've saved well in retirement, so I think "I'll be good", just curious how the rest of you feel with this elephant in the room looming. I genuinely feel this will significantly impact a large number of Americans in the next decade. So much so, it gives you a sense of fear. I gear it more toward "can my children survive"? Both are in careers that should be able to withstand the AI onslaught.....but what about people in your sphere? Close friends and relatives. Just your general neighbor. How will gubmint adjust? How will we handle the unemployment and poor?

Will this be the industrial revolution 2.0? Maybe even more significant. Crazy times.

I use AI a fair amount in my current role. I have been polishing my skills in AI prompting, and am learning a bit of the Engineering and have some product ideas that I may try to develop that would utilize AI.

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

This is somewhat of a tangent, but do any of you fear AI? My current job is somewhat hands on, but could definitely be impacted once AI takes off. I would think a very large number of jobs fall into that category. I just crossed the fitty barrier and I've saved well in retirement, so I think "I'll be good", just curious how the rest of you feel with this elephant in the room looming. I genuinely feel this will significantly impact a large number of Americans in the next decade. So much so, it gives you a sense of fear. I gear it more toward "can my children survive"? Both are in careers that should be able to withstand the AI onslaught.....but what about people in your sphere? Close friends and relatives. Just your general neighbor. How will gubmint adjust? How will we handle the unemployment and poor?

Will this be the industrial revolution 2.0? Maybe even more significant. Crazy times.

I was watching an interview with someone the other day about this, she was older even than me, she was in her 60s-and her point was you might as well embrace AI.. it’s coming, it’s here like it or not.. and there’s no putting it back in the tube.. that we should try to work with it and utilize it, not be afraid of it.. also, i try not to spend time worrying about things i cant control, and i certainly cant control AI and how pervasive it is .

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

I use AI a fair amount in my current role. I have been polishing my skills in AI prompting, and am learning a bit of the Engineering and have some product ideas that I may try to develop that would utilize AI.

Thanks for helping me to make my point literally as i was typing it .

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

This is somewhat of a tangent, but do any of you fear AI? My current job is somewhat hands on, but could definitely be impacted once AI takes off. I would think a very large number of jobs fall into that category. I just crossed the fitty barrier and I've saved well in retirement, so I think "I'll be good", just curious how the rest of you feel with this elephant in the room looming. I genuinely feel this will significantly impact a large number of Americans in the next decade. So much so, it gives you a sense of fear. I gear it more toward "can my children survive"? Both are in careers that should be able to withstand the AI onslaught.....but what about people in your sphere? Close friends and relatives. Just your general neighbor. How will gubmint adjust? How will we handle the unemployment and poor?

Will this be the industrial revolution 2.0? Maybe even more significant. Crazy times.

that's my bit of solace, I doubt AI wants to teach theatre to HS kids

 

[zeetes]

I have plenty of hobbies, just not enough time to indulge them all!

legos.

 

[jboss]

This is somewhat of a tangent, but do any of you fear AI? My current job is somewhat hands on, but could definitely be impacted once AI takes off. I would think a very large number of jobs fall into that category. I just crossed the fitty barrier and I've saved well in retirement, so I think "I'll be good", just curious how the rest of you feel with this elephant in the room looming. I genuinely feel this will significantly impact a large number of Americans in the next decade. So much so, it gives you a sense of fear. I gear it more toward "can my children survive"? Both are in careers that should be able to withstand the AI onslaught.....but what about people in your sphere? Close friends and relatives. Just your general neighbor. How will gubmint adjust? How will we handle the unemployment and poor?

Will this be the industrial revolution 2.0? Maybe even more significant. Crazy times.

I don't think AI is ever gonna become what it's being hyped to be. It's being sold as way more revolutionary than it is.

 

[Bleu Raeder]

This is somewhat of a tangent, but do any of you fear AI? My current job is somewhat hands on, but could definitely be impacted once AI takes off. I would think a very large number of jobs fall into that category. I just crossed the fitty barrier and I've saved well in retirement, so I think "I'll be good", just curious how the rest of you feel with this elephant in the room looming. I genuinely feel this will significantly impact a large number of Americans in the next decade. So much so, it gives you a sense of fear. I gear it more toward "can my children survive"? Both are in careers that should be able to withstand the AI onslaught.....but what about people in your sphere? Close friends and relatives. Just your general neighbor. How will gubmint adjust? How will we handle the unemployment and poor?

Will this be the industrial revolution 2.0? Maybe even more significant. Crazy times.

We're integrating stuff with AI every day. From our perspective, it will add jobs in the tech field.

I believe AI has been way overhyped but there is, as with everything, good and bad. I can see many ways in which AI will be helpful and I can see how AI will force some to work differently than they do now. As someone in this thread said, AI is coming and we should embrace it. But it is still very much in its infancy and we don't know what we don't know.

But I do not fear AI save for its use by bad actors.

 

[kcirdor]

AI is just the new abacus.

 

[saintmdterps]

that's my bit of solace, I doubt AI wants to teach theatre to HS kids

Nor wipe the backsides of incontinent patients.

 

[Sun Wukong]

My job has taken a massive toll on my mental and physical health. I've spent the last decade teaching in very low income schools. My first school had its issues, but the main thing was pay. I was not making enough to live off of. I moved to another district several years ago for substantially better pay. When I interviewed at my current school I was sold a story that did sound very promising.

In short, it has been a disaster. The behavior issues are extreme. The worst I have ever seen. I have been verbally abused, received death threats, had to get restraining orders against parents for harassing me outside of school, etc. Literally just today I had a student go nuts on me, threaten me, and she had to be escorted out of the classroom. We have significant issues with drugs and violence, both physical and gun related. Its very bad. When I was initially hired I was told there was low turnover because of the higher pay. This was a massive lie. We have insane churn and already had five teachers quit before mid year. There has been double digit turnover every year I have worked here.

On top of that, you have the basic insanity that is being a public educator. I could go on for days about that. Even if you're dealing with a good school, this is still a horrible career. Compound that with a bad school and it's just daily torture.

Over the past several years I have developed severe panic attacks, cervigocenic headaches that leave me in intense chronic pain and with light sensitivity that makes ambient lighting feel like staring into the sun. I've ended up on blood pressure meds, numerous neurological meds, etc.

I've let myself go healthwise because at the end of every day I'm so exhausted and depressed that things like exercise or meal planning go out the window. More often than not, I'm so anxiety ridden at the end of the day that I just go home and do nothing.

I've made a decision this year that I want myself, my health, and my life back. It is going to require some short term sacrifice for long term gain, but I have settled on a path out of education. Just having that light at the end of the tunnel has given me new life.

 

[Booker]

My job has taken a massive toll on my mental and physical health. I've spent the last decade teaching in very low income schools. My first school had its issues, but the main thing was pay. I was not making enough to live off of. I moved to another district several years ago for substantially better pay. When I interviewed at my current school I was sold a story that did sound very promising.

In short, it has been a disaster. The behavior issues are extreme. The worst I have ever seen. I have been verbally abused, received death threats, had to get restraining orders against parents for harassing me outside of school, etc. Literally just today I had a student go nuts on me, threaten me, and she had to be escorted out of the classroom. We have significant issues with drugs and violence, both physical and gun related. Its very bad. When I was initially hired I was told there was low turnover because of the higher pay. This was a massive lie. We have insane churn and already had five teachers quit before mid year. There has been double digit turnover every year I have worked here.

On top of that, you have the basic insanity that is being a public educator. I could go on for days about that. Even if you're dealing with a good school, this is still a horrible career. Compound that with a bad school and it's just daily torture.

Over the past several years I have developed severe panic attacks, cervigocenic headaches that leave me in intense chronic pain and with light sensitivity that makes ambient lighting feel like staring into the sun. I've ended up on blood pressure meds, numerous neurological meds, etc.

I've let myself go healthwise because at the end of every day I'm so exhausted and depressed that things like exercise or meal planning go out the window. More often than not, I'm so anxiety ridden at the end of the day that I just go home and do nothing.

I've made a decision this year that I want myself, my health, and my life back. It is going to require some short term sacrifice for long term gain, but I have settled on a path out of education. Just having that light at the end of the tunnel has given me new life.

What do you teach, and do you see any options for a career change?

 

[CapitalCitySaint]

Oh man this thread is so appropriate for me right now.

At age 35 I was pretty much burned out from 10 years as a 911 dispatcher. So my wife and I downsized our house so I could quit work and go back to school to finish my bachelor's degree in Engineering. I was a nerdy smart math kid in high school, but super lazy and undisciplined, so I flunked out of college the first go round.

At age 40 I graduated with my degree. I felt like I could take on the world and do/learn anything.

I was job hunting during the height of COVID. I was lucky to get any job at all, but I got a job at a small engineering firm making GPS satellite receivers. Interesting stuff. I had to take a REALLY low salary
Less than I made at 911. Everyone had a hiring freeze...it was this or nothing.

Except this company was running some kind of ponzi scheme. I was the only engineer on staff and they never gave me any work. I just sat there doing nothing. So I also learned nothing, and actively started to lose skills because I wasn't using them. Finally, after 6 or 7 months paychecks stopped coming and they revealed to us the company was bankrupt, but not closing. I started job hunting immediately. It took 5 months to find something else.

The 2nd job I got is where I still work. The salary is still really low....about the same as I made at 911.

I asked for more money last year...they said no. Actually, I asked for a performance review. All positive...all good we are glad to have you....etc. so THEN I asked for more money. Suddenly, they say I make tons of mistakes and cost the company a lot of extra money to fix my mistakes...etc. funny, no one ever mentioned a specific mistake to me and still hasn't. No raise given. So I still make a COVID salary years after COVID. They made me feel incredibly small and dumb...now I question my abilities and have lost all confidence. I have so stagnated here....i am not learning anything because I perform the same basic level tasks over and over for years now. Unfortunately I am too old to pivot again to another career. I have to make this work...we put all our eggs in this basket.

So, now I am job searching again, looking for a better work environment where I can learn a proper engineering skillset. I have a degree and 4 years experience and can't even get any interviews after over 40 job applications. Yet everyone is supposedly hiring and there is a shortage of engineers. Someone somewhere is lying.

Also, I hate engineering as much as I did 911. It's just the workplace....it's miserable. We aren't meant to sit at a desk for 8 hours and stare at a computer screen. I would rather do anything else, really.

At this point I am totally disillusioned with professional life. It feels like there is no path forward and each time I make more money, everything on the planet increases in price so I don't actually get anywhere. I feel like I made a huge mistake and should have stuck it out at 911. I could have retired in another 10 years with full benefits.


Honestly my favorite job ever was as a dog poop scooper. You get to be outside....and most of the dogs are out and you get to pet them, play with them, give treatos during your work. Unfortunately the salary smells as bad as the sheet.

You're never too old to reinvent yourself. It's not easy but it is certainly doable.

Many people on here know I used to volunteer with Guide Dogs for the Blind (don't anymore for various reasons) and I would love to go work for them in the puppy center. Just playing with puppies, doing health checks, teaching them stuff. But it just doesn't pay enough. It pays about 1/4 of what I make in a year now.

 

[Sun Wukong]

What do you teach, and do you see any options for a career change?

English.

Transitioning out of teaching with a humanities degree is next to impossible. There are career coaches that will claim you have a lot of transferable skills but the reality is there is a stigma in the private sector about teaching not being a "real" job and there has been a major outflow of people leaving the profession. Upskilling or going back to school are often the only options.

I'm going back to school in the fall. Its a huge change for me at 41 and not without risks, but I can no longer function like this.

I'm fortunate in the sense that it's just me. No family or spouse or anything. So I can take this risk without impacting anyone else. And worst case scenario I can always reactive my teaching license so I do have a safety net of sorts. But that will be the literal last resort.

 

[Bayouboy]

My job has taken a massive toll on my mental and physical health. I've spent the last decade teaching in very low income schools. My first school had its issues, but the main thing was pay. I was not making enough to live off of. I moved to another district several years ago for substantially better pay. When I interviewed at my current school I was sold a story that did sound very promising.

In short, it has been a disaster. The behavior issues are extreme. The worst I have ever seen. I have been verbally abused, received death threats, had to get restraining orders against parents for harassing me outside of school, etc. Literally just today I had a student go nuts on me, threaten me, and she had to be escorted out of the classroom. We have significant issues with drugs and violence, both physical and gun related. Its very bad. When I was initially hired I was told there was low turnover because of the higher pay. This was a massive lie. We have insane churn and already had five teachers quit before mid year. There has been double digit turnover every year I have worked here.

On top of that, you have the basic insanity that is being a public educator. I could go on for days about that. Even if you're dealing with a good school, this is still a horrible career. Compound that with a bad school and it's just daily torture.

Over the past several years I have developed severe panic attacks, cervigocenic headaches that leave me in intense chronic pain and with light sensitivity that makes ambient lighting feel like staring into the sun. I've ended up on blood pressure meds, numerous neurological meds, etc.

I've let myself go healthwise because at the end of every day I'm so exhausted and depressed that things like exercise or meal planning go out the window. More often than not, I'm so anxiety ridden at the end of the day that I just go home and do nothing.

I've made a decision this year that I want myself, my health, and my life back. It is going to require some short term sacrifice for long term gain, but I have settled on a path out of education. Just having that light at the end of the tunnel has given me new life.

Get the hell out. I know that seems like the obvious thing, but I know there are a lot of variables that go into big decisions. BUT, sacrificing your well being isn't worth whatever check they are cutting you. Hope you find peace.

 

[Paul]

Nor wipe the backsides of incontinent patients.

Or make a delicious sammich after great sex.
Hey, I’m just the messenger.