How do I fake it (at work)?
March 12, 2017 9:40 PM Subscribe
I'm bored at work and get restless, but I'm stuck. How do I get myself to concentrate when I don't like what I do?
I've never been particularly interested in any of the jobs I've had, and it tends to show. Right now I have a decent salary and a decent office, but my job is at once boring and painstaking (copy editing) and I have to listen to a lot of podcasts/music to make it through the day. In addition, I don't agree with a lot of the on the job stuff--it's a values mismatch. I'm definitely not doing much good for the world. In ADDITION addition, editing is a classic pink collar job--it's all women with a male boss, and there are no raises or ways to get into other career fields. It's especially rough because I see other women treated as professional equals, and I know I'll never be seen in the same way. It's a lot of small, negative stuff and I feel frustrated and bored a lot--and it shows.
These are all good reasons to not like a job, of course, but another thing is that my concentration is SHOT. I have to take frequent Internet breaks and there's always something "more important" to do than work, even if it's just checking Facebook. I feel like a fraud.
I tend to try and keep myself going by being extremely negative--telling myself that I'm too stupid to do another job, that I'm too old, that I'm too female, that I'm too broke to pay for any more training, and that I'm just to plain fucked up to be good at any job. I mean, if I can't concentrate at this job, what makes me think I'd be good at anything else? There are so many smarter, younger people out there who have the skills and drive to do something interesting. I'm not one of them, and even WANTING to be one is spoiled as hell.
I haven't hated everything I've done-- I have an advanced degree and enjoyed getting it, love to study and do academic writing and did well, but it was a humanities degree and went nowhere. (I really miss writing and going to conferences and just talking with other people about interesting things, thinking about never doing that again is probably the worst part.* Editing isn't exactly a communicative profession.) The idea of going back for another degree to change professions seems great until I realize how wasteful it would be, because eventually I'll have to go back to the office (and presumably more copy editing). Anyway, most people hate work, everyone is disappointed in life, etc etc. Right?
I guess my question is--how do i fake looking like I'm interested in my job so I don't get fired for being a slacker? My poor friends are tired of hearing me complain that I'm bored, and it IS such a spoiled brat complaint to have. Would drugs help? Ritalin? Hell, a lobotomy? I just want to be the happy camper I should be so I don't get fired and can have insurance and not burden anyone.
* I have been to one copy editing conference. There was a heated argument about whether to move a heading two picas up. It's what they do to you in hell when they have to reheat the red hot pokers.
I've never been particularly interested in any of the jobs I've had, and it tends to show. Right now I have a decent salary and a decent office, but my job is at once boring and painstaking (copy editing) and I have to listen to a lot of podcasts/music to make it through the day. In addition, I don't agree with a lot of the on the job stuff--it's a values mismatch. I'm definitely not doing much good for the world. In ADDITION addition, editing is a classic pink collar job--it's all women with a male boss, and there are no raises or ways to get into other career fields. It's especially rough because I see other women treated as professional equals, and I know I'll never be seen in the same way. It's a lot of small, negative stuff and I feel frustrated and bored a lot--and it shows.
These are all good reasons to not like a job, of course, but another thing is that my concentration is SHOT. I have to take frequent Internet breaks and there's always something "more important" to do than work, even if it's just checking Facebook. I feel like a fraud.
I tend to try and keep myself going by being extremely negative--telling myself that I'm too stupid to do another job, that I'm too old, that I'm too female, that I'm too broke to pay for any more training, and that I'm just to plain fucked up to be good at any job. I mean, if I can't concentrate at this job, what makes me think I'd be good at anything else? There are so many smarter, younger people out there who have the skills and drive to do something interesting. I'm not one of them, and even WANTING to be one is spoiled as hell.
I haven't hated everything I've done-- I have an advanced degree and enjoyed getting it, love to study and do academic writing and did well, but it was a humanities degree and went nowhere. (I really miss writing and going to conferences and just talking with other people about interesting things, thinking about never doing that again is probably the worst part.* Editing isn't exactly a communicative profession.) The idea of going back for another degree to change professions seems great until I realize how wasteful it would be, because eventually I'll have to go back to the office (and presumably more copy editing). Anyway, most people hate work, everyone is disappointed in life, etc etc. Right?
I guess my question is--how do i fake looking like I'm interested in my job so I don't get fired for being a slacker? My poor friends are tired of hearing me complain that I'm bored, and it IS such a spoiled brat complaint to have. Would drugs help? Ritalin? Hell, a lobotomy? I just want to be the happy camper I should be so I don't get fired and can have insurance and not burden anyone.
* I have been to one copy editing conference. There was a heated argument about whether to move a heading two picas up. It's what they do to you in hell when they have to reheat the red hot pokers.
ooh..bummer. ok i think, you could need to read this: Liz Gilberts thingy about the difference between a job, hobby, career and vocation. she also prattles on about it in various youtube videos/podcasts, but this one was the first one i found this with a quick google. i know she wrote that fluffy book about love and food etc., but the link has some decent ideas to have rattle around in your head while you're browsing imgur at work.
as someone whos had a string of some weird (some very boring, others shitnucleartoxic ones) jobs, i've found that even the worst ones are okay if you have someone there with you. my work buds have had me laugh so hard i've cried cleaning bathrooms. that kind of thing. but if you're totes isolated, sounds hella rough. and
sort of feel like negative self talking yourself into doing your work is like kicking a dog to get it to like you. For now, i doubt you'll get to loving your job, but try to get to as neutral a place as possible until you figure out the next step. You seem funny and bright to me, with passion to boot, so i'm pretty sure you can sculpt your career into something that is a better fit.
posted by speakeasy at 10:10 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
as someone whos had a string of some weird (some very boring, others shitnucleartoxic ones) jobs, i've found that even the worst ones are okay if you have someone there with you. my work buds have had me laugh so hard i've cried cleaning bathrooms. that kind of thing. but if you're totes isolated, sounds hella rough. and
sort of feel like negative self talking yourself into doing your work is like kicking a dog to get it to like you. For now, i doubt you'll get to loving your job, but try to get to as neutral a place as possible until you figure out the next step. You seem funny and bright to me, with passion to boot, so i'm pretty sure you can sculpt your career into something that is a better fit.
posted by speakeasy at 10:10 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
You don't like the job,* it's a values mismatch, and you've hit a ceiling. You're not doing the work. You try to keep yourself going by telling yourself distasteful lies. There are skills you have learned and have enjoyed and work environments you've thrived in. You see other women treated as professional equals.
Yet somehow, if you were to learn more skills and change professions, you'd end up in the same sort of job you currently have? If you want to be a happy camper, you're going to have to work on being a happy camper.
*I have to tell you - that copy editing conference sounds like so much fun!
posted by aniola at 10:10 PM on March 12, 2017 [8 favorites]
Yet somehow, if you were to learn more skills and change professions, you'd end up in the same sort of job you currently have? If you want to be a happy camper, you're going to have to work on being a happy camper.
*I have to tell you - that copy editing conference sounds like so much fun!
posted by aniola at 10:10 PM on March 12, 2017 [8 favorites]
You must be my female doppleganger. I’ve spent my adult life copy editing. I never wanted to do that work, but it was the only work that presented itself despite a widespread job search and a master’s degree (humanities, of course). I am almost literally sick of cleaning up the messes of both mental midgets and Ph.D.s who should know better. I honestly feel your pain.
The only thing that kept me going was the absolute need to make the rent payment. To put food on my table and in my cat’s bowl. A healthy fear of screwing up and being fired would drag my attention back to comma placement. Beer and Zoloft numbed some of the misery. This might be effective for you, but it surely isn’t inspiring.
I agree with speakeasy: “You seem funny and bright to me, with passion to boot.” My suggestion (“those who can’t, teach”): Suck it up at work until you can get out. And do everything you can to get out. Look for a reporting position. Newspaper, magazine, online … whatever you can find that will get you out of an office for a few hours each day to talk to people. Write things on your own time (yes, I know how hard that is) and send them to potential paying publishers. I think you’ve got the chops to do humor: try writing something for Funny Times. Or whatever interests you. See where that sort of thing can take you.
I wish you all the luck I never had in reinventing your career.
posted by bryon at 4:54 AM on March 13, 2017 [5 favorites]
The only thing that kept me going was the absolute need to make the rent payment. To put food on my table and in my cat’s bowl. A healthy fear of screwing up and being fired would drag my attention back to comma placement. Beer and Zoloft numbed some of the misery. This might be effective for you, but it surely isn’t inspiring.
I agree with speakeasy: “You seem funny and bright to me, with passion to boot.” My suggestion (“those who can’t, teach”): Suck it up at work until you can get out. And do everything you can to get out. Look for a reporting position. Newspaper, magazine, online … whatever you can find that will get you out of an office for a few hours each day to talk to people. Write things on your own time (yes, I know how hard that is) and send them to potential paying publishers. I think you’ve got the chops to do humor: try writing something for Funny Times. Or whatever interests you. See where that sort of thing can take you.
I wish you all the luck I never had in reinventing your career.
posted by bryon at 4:54 AM on March 13, 2017 [5 favorites]
Completely agree with aniola that the lies you're telling yourself are distasteful (though I'm with you on that copyediting conference sounding excruciating!). If it helps at all, I'm 42 and will be going back to grad school for the third danged time this fall in yet another attempt at reinventing my career. Like you, I've felt a lot of frustration with my decently-paying and comfortable office job, and "not doing much good for the world" has definitely been a huge part of my problem. You say you don't want to go back to school because you'd eventually end up back in an office anyway, but maybe look into career options that would get you out from behind the desk?
Alternatively, what about looking for a staff job at a local university or large consulting company - i.e., somewhere with many different lateral career paths you could pursue once you were established? This is just anecdotal but I'm close to someone who got in the door through the temp pool at one of our larger local universities, ended up coordinating a writers' series and corresponding with a number of big-name authors and poets, took some classes in areas she thought she'd like to move into thanks to her employee discount, and later moved into a very different field (still at the university) to try out something new that she thought she'd enjoy. This was all over the course of a couple years - we're not talking decades here.
I know you'd specifically asked how to cope with your current job, but these are my suggestions for that - having a goal you actually care about, and being able to see an eventual way out even if it won't happen immediately, can make your current drudgery FAR more bearable. I'm still working my frustrating job for now, but doing so while also taking classes in something I care about and knowing that I'll be going back to school full-time this fall helps me approach this job with a much lighter heart.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do - being stuck in a soulsucking job is awful.
posted by DingoMutt at 6:16 AM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
Alternatively, what about looking for a staff job at a local university or large consulting company - i.e., somewhere with many different lateral career paths you could pursue once you were established? This is just anecdotal but I'm close to someone who got in the door through the temp pool at one of our larger local universities, ended up coordinating a writers' series and corresponding with a number of big-name authors and poets, took some classes in areas she thought she'd like to move into thanks to her employee discount, and later moved into a very different field (still at the university) to try out something new that she thought she'd enjoy. This was all over the course of a couple years - we're not talking decades here.
I know you'd specifically asked how to cope with your current job, but these are my suggestions for that - having a goal you actually care about, and being able to see an eventual way out even if it won't happen immediately, can make your current drudgery FAR more bearable. I'm still working my frustrating job for now, but doing so while also taking classes in something I care about and knowing that I'll be going back to school full-time this fall helps me approach this job with a much lighter heart.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do - being stuck in a soulsucking job is awful.
posted by DingoMutt at 6:16 AM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
How about instead of kicking yourself for being unmotivated, pat yourself on the back for doing enough to keep you from getting fired even though you screw around much of the day? Seriously; that’s an important skill!!
Some ideas:
Consciously choose to only do one page at a time. After that page, take a short break doing something you like, then do the next page.
Move more. A treadmill desk would probably be helpful but I assume that’s not an option. But a standing desk might be, or doing squats while working, or various other exercises/ stretches. If your body isn’t screaming about being sedentary, you might be able to concentrate better. (I can wander the halls every 45 minutes or so and take a long walk at lunch, but I know that may not be possible for you.)
Shorten your workday. Even if you have to stay in the office, just plan to stop working two hours early and do something more interesting at your desk. Obviously this depends on how much work you REALLY need to get done, but you might find yourself more productive if it’s only for four hours before lunch and then two hours after that, rather than “OMG I’m stuck here staring at this forever.”
Is it possible to print things out rather than look at them on a computer screen? If so, that could be a good change of pace; alternate between the two every hour or so.
posted by metasarah at 7:38 AM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
Some ideas:
Consciously choose to only do one page at a time. After that page, take a short break doing something you like, then do the next page.
Move more. A treadmill desk would probably be helpful but I assume that’s not an option. But a standing desk might be, or doing squats while working, or various other exercises/ stretches. If your body isn’t screaming about being sedentary, you might be able to concentrate better. (I can wander the halls every 45 minutes or so and take a long walk at lunch, but I know that may not be possible for you.)
Shorten your workday. Even if you have to stay in the office, just plan to stop working two hours early and do something more interesting at your desk. Obviously this depends on how much work you REALLY need to get done, but you might find yourself more productive if it’s only for four hours before lunch and then two hours after that, rather than “OMG I’m stuck here staring at this forever.”
Is it possible to print things out rather than look at them on a computer screen? If so, that could be a good change of pace; alternate between the two every hour or so.
posted by metasarah at 7:38 AM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
Find an outside interest. It's OK to have a job that just pays the bills. Seriously, I swear it always seems such American mindset that your work should be the most fulfilling thing in your life. If you are doing things that interest you outside of work then being bored at work doesn't feel like such a waste of your time. Trust me I've worked assembly on a production line. Over year of assembling the same components day after day after day, then did data entry of invoices for more years than I like to admit
I know boredom, but I was fine with it because after work I'd go home and work on renovating my house, basically rebuilding a condemned 120 year old stone cottage. I worked to pay for what I really enjoyed working on the house, I'd spend time at work thinking about my latest project, sneak off at lunch to get quotes or check out paint samples or go to the library to research how to do my next big project (this was in the days before internet). Another person I worked with lived to surf, he'd surf every morning before work & in the evenings if he could, he worked to pay for his surfing habit.
Hell if nothing else think of your work time to fund the search and/or training for a career you do want. I'll do x before lunch then at lunch I can go & research that training course I'm interested in. You like study, what's to stop you taking night classes in a field you are vaguely interested in. You have a job so it doesn't have to be learning for the next big career move, I mean it can be of course, but maybe take that pressure off yourself & just study something for shits & giggles. When you aren't relying on your job to be the big interest in your life it's easier to do it, it becomes like eating your veggies or going to the gym, shit you have to do before you can eat your cake.
posted by wwax at 8:16 AM on March 13, 2017 [7 favorites]
I know boredom, but I was fine with it because after work I'd go home and work on renovating my house, basically rebuilding a condemned 120 year old stone cottage. I worked to pay for what I really enjoyed working on the house, I'd spend time at work thinking about my latest project, sneak off at lunch to get quotes or check out paint samples or go to the library to research how to do my next big project (this was in the days before internet). Another person I worked with lived to surf, he'd surf every morning before work & in the evenings if he could, he worked to pay for his surfing habit.
Hell if nothing else think of your work time to fund the search and/or training for a career you do want. I'll do x before lunch then at lunch I can go & research that training course I'm interested in. You like study, what's to stop you taking night classes in a field you are vaguely interested in. You have a job so it doesn't have to be learning for the next big career move, I mean it can be of course, but maybe take that pressure off yourself & just study something for shits & giggles. When you aren't relying on your job to be the big interest in your life it's easier to do it, it becomes like eating your veggies or going to the gym, shit you have to do before you can eat your cake.
posted by wwax at 8:16 AM on March 13, 2017 [7 favorites]
This is a bit outside what you're asking for, but do you have an interest that you're deeply passionate about? If so, are there (nonprofit) orgs out there that devote themselves to furthering the cause that you're passionate about? Odds are, there are, and odds are, they're always looking for in-house writers, editors, proofers, content developers, etc. I know my org is.
I climbed the education and training ladder expecting higher rungs to make me happier with the work. It had the opposite effect. About ten years ago, I ditched my former career path to take my skills to a nonprofit org whose mission I'm passionate about. It hasn't been incredibly easy--work is always work, boredom and ennui are unavoidable, compensation and advancement are always concerns--but it has been wonderful. I can't imagine having kept on the track I was on ten years ago. I would have been a horrible, surly person by now, I imagine, if I hadn't made this change.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 8:51 AM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
I climbed the education and training ladder expecting higher rungs to make me happier with the work. It had the opposite effect. About ten years ago, I ditched my former career path to take my skills to a nonprofit org whose mission I'm passionate about. It hasn't been incredibly easy--work is always work, boredom and ennui are unavoidable, compensation and advancement are always concerns--but it has been wonderful. I can't imagine having kept on the track I was on ten years ago. I would have been a horrible, surly person by now, I imagine, if I hadn't made this change.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 8:51 AM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]
« Older Trying to get a receiver to work with smart TV | Trans male friendly health in London Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Could you start the Dilbert or Terminal Lance of copy-editing? Be at work and do the work, but at the same time, think about ways to skewer the work and make people laugh. Now you've gone meta and every annoyance is raw material.
posted by metaseeker at 10:06 PM on March 12, 2017