Why do you **love** your job?

August 8, 2023 1:08 PM

I've got a job that I should love on paper, but frequently... don't. Hearing from people who love their jobs, and what about the jobs they love, might help me look at where I'm at with fresh eyes and find new joy.

No thank you to "I love my job but... [stealth complaint about your job]."

I also don't want any advice for me. I just want to know why you love your job.

This is a no-complaint zone. Good vibes only. Paraphrasing the late Paul Reubens, I have no interest in your big but. Pure positivity, please!

posted by Shepherd to Work & Money (29 answers total)

Best answer: Complete autonomy
Being treated with respect by peers
Flexibility and trust from my boss
Mentoring my direct reports
Being able to use my problem solving skills
I love enforcing rules :D and being FAIR rather than playing favorites
I truly love anything that lets me get down n dirty in a complicated Excel workbook
4 day work week (Mon - Thurs)

I am the HR Manager for my organization.
posted by srrh at 1:30 PM on August 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I love my job because of the smart, caring colleagues I get to work with. I feel like we are all pulling together to make our corner of the world a little better.

I live my job because of the community members who I get to interact with and help have an impact.
posted by brookeb at 1:31 PM on August 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Take care of people rather than tech
Legit demonstrated support for work/life balance
Front-line management is close enough to the nitty-gritty of the daily business/customers but with just enough visibility into the higher levels of leadership to gain context for corporate decision-making.
But most of all: 100% field based/WFH, with all the associated benefits.
posted by jquinby at 1:38 PM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

My paycheck!
posted by kingdead at 1:39 PM on August 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

Best answer: People think the work I do (embedded software development) is a complicated black-art miracle, and I think the same about what they do (public secure APIs, cryptography, back-end server/container stuff).

So there's an atmosphere of mutual respect and we leave each other alone to do our work. It's really nice.
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:45 PM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I work in the membership department of a professional association. We offer our members (healthcare professionals in the field of hospital medicine) ways to connect with each other, ways to learn about their rapidly-changing field, pathways to make their voices heard about laws and regulations.

I love Excel, I love solving puzzles (why doesn't this list look correct? why is this metric changing, what if we try X instead of Y?), I love bouncing ideas off of my colleagues, and I love talking with our members to see what they need from us. Our upper management believes in work-life balance. Nobody's going to die if we log off at quitting time on Friday and a problem is still unsolved. I can take PTO without having to offer a reason.

Most importantly, each task and project that could seem rote or boring or mundane (to others, not me) leads to someone's loved one being treated better/having better outcomes in a hospital environment. We enable our members to make that difference in the world and I love that so much.
posted by kimberussell at 1:49 PM on August 8, 2023 [5 favorites]

Best answer: I’m semi-retired. I am privileged to be able to work part time at this point in my life. Here’s what I’m consciously grateful for every day:
*10 minute commute (this is HUGE for me)
*Genuinely enjoy 90% of the people I work most closely with.
*Work with people who “get me”
*Feel like I make a meaningful difference for those we serve
*Freedom to use my time as I like as long as my work gets done
*When I leave work, I leave my work. My off hours time is my own.
posted by bookmammal at 1:53 PM on August 8, 2023 [7 favorites]

I truly enjoy the field and my management enables me to do things like conferences related to it with more leeway than many employers would allow.
posted by Candleman at 2:17 PM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Things that I loved about my job that I lost in July:

Paraphrasing jquinby first, and adding my own for-instances -

* Take care of people rather than tech. This was one of the most supportive workplaces I have EVER, EVER seen. One thing that my company did was make breathing-assistance devices to treat people with covid, and when I got a case last year and had to stay home for a few days, they sent me a message that "if you need us to get one of our nHale units to you, just say the word." They would have pulled it off the shelf and gotten one over to me had I needed it.

* Legit demonstrated support for work/life balance. When the George Floyd protests were going down, we all got an email of the sort I'd seen in other workplaces before, acknowledging that these were heightened times and many of us may want to join the protests. However - instead of saying what I've usually seen emails like this say ("If you do join a protest, please do not represent yourself as an employee of XYZ corp"), they said "if you do want to join a protest, and need to leave early to make it there, that's fine, just let your boss know." When I saw that, I told my friends that I would follow this company to the grave if they'd asked me.

* Front-line management is close enough to the nitty-gritty of the daily business/customers but with just enough visibility into the higher levels of leadership to gain context for corporate decision-making.

* MY BOSS WAS TIN-PLATED AWESOME. The job placement agent who sent me there said she had the idea "because you and he are weird in the same way," and for three years every so often he would say or do something that made me remember that and think "yeah, she was right." He is a weird sort of mix of forward-thinking design tech innovator and old-fashioned English country gentleman, with a fancy-ass tech gadget in one hand and a specific brand of Italian fountain pen in the other. Walk into his office and he was usually blasting something on Spotify - and it could be Frank Sinatra or Black Flag or German opera - or in later days he was using a turntable and vinyl. He asked how you were doing and he MEANT IT. He remembered stuff about you - I brought in a nautical map of Buzzards Bay to decorate my office once, and he remarked on it when he saw it, and then a week later he was in his apartment building and saw someone was throwing away a similar framed nautical map of New York Harbor; he took it from them and brought it into the office to give to me.

* I had WORK friends. There was a dude down the hall who called me his "town crier" because whenever there was crazy political news I'd go give him a heads-up. I would give him movie reviews and he would shoot the breeze with me. I also bonded over ice cream with the HR staff, puppy sat for people who brought their dogs in, and talked about gardening with another guy.

* I could walk to work. After 30+ years of hideous subway commutes into Manhattan, and one hellish year when I had to commute into Manhattan and then across into New Jersey, being able to walk to work and walk home was a god-damn luxury.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:49 PM on August 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

My job is to think very hard about things and solve problems and I like doing that. Also, my boss is great and trusts me.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:07 PM on August 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

My job is literally playing with dogs all day so...
posted by The otter lady at 3:14 PM on August 8, 2023 [12 favorites]

Best answer: My list is very similar to srrh's.

- Autonomy
- Challenging, interesting work that plays to all my strengths
- Just enough interaction with peers to add interest to my day, and lotssssss of focus time to work alone
- Excellent coworkers who treat me with camaraderie and respect
- Excellent boss who trusts me and champions me to the higher ups at every opportunity
- Working from home 100%
- Good salary and benefits
- I work in a "hot" industry which gives me job security & marketability, plus I find the field very interesting
- Writing is my actual day job and that to me is magical
- Max 40 hours a week with near-complete flexibility about when I work them
- Flexible time off and a company culture that fully supports me taking at least 5 weeks off every year (I haven't tried to take more time, but I'm sure it would be okay)

I am a proposal manager for an AI company.
posted by MiraK at 3:19 PM on August 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I'm an elementary school art teacher.

What I love about my job: I have always wanted to make a difference in the world without feeling like I am selling out at some point or compromising my morals. When I am in the classroom and reaching individual students, I feel like I am making a small measurable difference in their lives, and hopefully something they will hold onto for a long long time.

I was an ok student but definitely struggled with certain things in school. I love being able to try and reach the students who are struggling and make their school experience better than my own experience.

I love figuring out puzzles and kids (and adults!) are all individual puzzles that I love to try and figure out so I can help them reach the things they want in life.

I really really love talking with kids.

I love love love art and I love talking with kids about art and teaching them about artists that I never learned about so that maybe they can see themselves reflected in the wider culture and see how everyone is an artist and anyone can become an artist.

I really love lesson planning and coming up with new and interesting things/projects to do with my students. I also love love love reading and talking about books so when I taught 4th grade it was just my favorite thing to pick a book that inspired deeper thinking and have conversations with kids about how the books made them feel. If you need some suggestions for middle grade books to make you cry, I'm your person.

This upcoming school year is going to be my 10th year and honestly thank you so much for this question because lately there has been a lot to be upset about in education and it's so nice to think about all of the reasons why I truly love my job and wouldn't leave for anything.
posted by ruhroh at 3:20 PM on August 8, 2023 [14 favorites]

Best answer: The job I loved best was teaching ESL and academic upgrading courses to small (3-5) groups of adults on disability. They wanted (well really, needed :/) to be there - they were motivated, and did their best. I liked getting to know them, and hearing their stories (always interesting, though of course there was usually some sadness there. The focus though was about making academic progress and achieving goals, so we generally kept things upbeat). It was lovely to relate to students/clients just as people, we laughed most days. (I wasn’t and didn’t present myself as any kind of authority, just a facilitator, which probably helped. Most were older than me.) I really enjoyed working out where and how someone struggled with a concept, and communicating it in a way that made sense to them. Great feeling to see someone “get it”. Amazing feeling to see someone achieve a goal and move on.

I had core texts to work from, a schedule, and a rubric, but had some leeway in terms of approach. No one looking over my shoulder day to day. Groups were small, so grading wasn’t overwhelming (and we had the opportunity to actually talk a bit). Also, adults = way easier for me than kids would be, any time, jeez

Thanks for the question, answering has been helpful for me, too.
posted by cotton dress sock at 3:21 PM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: University based staff research scientist: I have an excellent manager who entrusts me with complete autonomy over my schedule and a significant amount of control over what my job description actually entails. This means I've gotten to focus on a pretty niche but marketable set of skills, enough to get headhunting emails from recruiters in industry. I've turned them down so far because a) I love where I live, and b) the non-monetary aspects of my position are pretty sweet. Most important of those is that I get to work on tough problems that I find genuinely fun to figure out solutions to. If a project's not interesting to me, I can say no to working on it.

I don't manage people, but I do mentor junior folks informally, and I get a say in who gets hired into our group (along with the rest of the team). Our group culture prioritizes hiring smart people who are fairly independent but will pitch in to help their coworkers when needed. No jerks, no drama. We trade pet sitting with each other, get together for board game nights, and occasionally go camping or hiking together. I've realized over the years that I'm very comfortable socially when I'm trying to solve a complicated problem with other people, so as coworkers come and go I've expanded my social circle more easily than I might have in other situations.

I have a good balance of walking around doing stuff with my hands and writing/coding at my desk. I average 40 hours of work a week. I can work from home whenever it's feasible for my science and/or necessary for my personal life, and my commute is 15 minutes of non highway driving. Also, both the lab space and my shared office space have windows.
posted by deludingmyself at 4:24 PM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer:

• I love nature and biology but I am not a biologist. I get to work with a whole bunch of biologists, which includes fieldwork.
• My co-workers are not technologists but I am, so I get to feel very useful and also be a part of something that I would not otherwise be able to participate in. (If I were back in the mercenary world of private-sector tech, I'd have more money but I'd be miserable.)
• My work is in support of policy advice, so we're actively working to preserve species and habitats that need preserving. We're also at the forefront of reconciliation with First Nations (in Canada) and their traditional territories and resources.
• We have a professional union in government so the salary and benefits are good (not great) and my health and wellbeing are protected (at least from my privileged perspective).
• My workplace (again, from my perspective) is extremely healthy. I work with smart, ambitious, motivated people who also happen to be amazingly cool. I know there are conflicts but I really enjoy and appreciate the atmosphere.

In short: useful, satisfying work; decent money and work-life balance; cool people.
posted by klanawa at 4:30 PM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: The work I do is intellectually stimulating, with an atmosphere of exploration and innovation. I'm an ex-academic, and this job shares some of the parts of academic work that I liked.

I work on a technical team supporting the work of a traditionally non-technical organization. There's an atmosphere of mutual respect between the technical and non- (or less-) technical groups, where our work is taken seriously but we also lean on the expertise and institutional knowledge of the others. (I know that this is not universal among organizations in the same field.)

The team I work with is large enough that nobody has to do multiple peoples' jobs. Nobody is on an island by themselves, but everyone has ownership of a project, and a lot of autonomy and room to innovate within that project. My supervisor has been proactive about finding projects that cater to my stated interests and my technical strengths.

Most of the time, even though we work in a competitive field with time-sensitive requirements, we don't have to work nights or weekends, and people take their vacation time. When things do get intense -- which happens, because our work has some big seasonal deadlines -- everyone steps up and pitches in so that the work gets done without an impossible load falling on one person.

I can work remotely, so I didn't have to move across the country to take the job, and my schedule is usually reasonably flexible. The company flies me out to the HQ a few times a year to collaborate on site and for in-house conferences, so I still get some face to face time with my colleagues.
posted by egregious theorem at 4:43 PM on August 8, 2023

Best answer: I loved my job as a metalsmith/ jewelry designer. I worked in Manhatten for 18 years in a smallish...35 employees...company. It was not traditional jewelry repair type job as you see in traditional jewelry shops. We manufactured art jewelry or fashion jewelry. I was the assistant to the owner and designer of the company. We had a fantastic working relationship. She had no drawing skills. I was pretty good in that area. But she would lay out stones and small pieces of brass or silver, and I could see clearly what she wanted. It just worked really well. I also got to supervise 15 to 20 piece workers who actually made the pieces once we got an order from some fashion designer or department store. I never fancied myself an instructor of any sort. Actually switched majors in college from teaching to design. I thought teaching would wear me down. Turns out I loved instructing the workers on how to produce the jewelry pieces. It was difficult finding people who wanted to get paid by the piece. No traditional jewelers would consider it. But we found young people who were willing to work with us. Sometimes asking people on the street if they wanted work, and could they use a saw and a torch, and polishing wheels, etc. We made sure they made a decent living even when times were slow by having them produce product to build up inventory.I enjoyed watching them grow their skills. Another aspect of the job I liked was being surrounded by creatives. It was also great dealing with big name designers...Bill Blass, James Galanos, Oscar De la Renta. I would deliver our product when they had their runway shows 4 times a year. I found them kind and interesting people. I also worked right along side the production workers at my little bench, making patterns and doing the first prototypes. We all got along really well, from some of the workers who could barely speak English, to the well spoken sales people who were rather dramatic in dress and lifestyle. We were a real team.
posted by Czjewel at 5:49 PM on August 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

I don't love my job so much as I love my employer and the people I work with. Yes, it's a big capitalist company and it's certainly not perfect, but they talk and walk a culture of taking care of their employees, supporting them in hard times, promoting from within, etc. In 40+ years in business they have never had a layoff or had a merger (though they have strategically purchased a few small companies).

They are careful with hiring, ensuring new hires are a good fit for the team as well as qualified as employees. Once a new outside hire has spent some time with their first team, they're almost guaranteed to be a good fit with other teams.
posted by lhauser at 6:53 PM on August 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

I’m a monitor tech at a hospital, a job I got after working in hotels for twenty years, and I wish I had switched so many years ago. I get all the satisfaction of measuring complexes on ECG strips, and all the fun of interpreting what they mean. Also there is the possibility of being on the team who saves a patient’s life.
posted by oldnumberseven at 8:53 PM on August 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I write books, mostly for children. Things I especially love about my work:
• Spending time in imaginary worlds of my own invention;
• Learning new things as part of my research process;
• Wandering around fascinating real-world places, thinking about the story I plan to set there;
• Lying in bed reading a Middle Grade fantasy novel and being able to count it as professional development;
• Seeing how my writing has improved over the years;
• Feeling like my books can make a positive difference in some kid's life;
• Writing a book about self-improvement and (because I'll feel hypocritical if I don't practice what I preach) having an incentive to exercise or socialize more;
• Having a flexible schedule and working out of home, which lets me be a presence in my own children's lives in a way that not all working parents have the privilege of being;
• Talking to other writers about their own artistic goals and practices;
• Sometimes grownups and kids dress up like my characters. Sometimes they even do it on the steps of the Library of Congress!
posted by yankeefog at 3:07 AM on August 9, 2023 [6 favorites]

I work as a staff scientist, planning studies, analyzing data, designing graphs to convey the results, writing/editing papers, informally mentoring graduate students, and helping out with other data tasks where needed. I have a lot of autonomy, and a skill set that lets me feel useful often, and I think I need both of these things to be happy. Additionally, the remote-friendly nature of the work allowed me never to miss a paycheck during the pandemic, for which I am grateful.
posted by eirias at 4:29 AM on August 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Good vibes only about my customer service job, which I love:

- Interesting problem-solving
- It's a non-profit that does good things, in a real way I get to see daily
- I like my coworkers and they like me
- Even shorter commute than bookmammal's
- I work with a great variety of people, which is interesting and helps me feel more in touch with our community
- I'm considerably older than my coworkers but I feel like that's respected for what I bring rather than being held against me
- I work part time and my boss is great about respecting what days I want off
- The minute my shift ends, I'm done
- I'm not interested in advancing my career, but I've seen support for coworkers who do
- No lost sleep worrying about work
- It's physically active
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:42 AM on August 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I'm a project manager for a tech company.

- My boss is wonderful. Last year I had a bit of a mental breakdown and she noticed before I did that I was really struggling. When I requested three weeks (unpaid) off to take a break, she got it approved in less than an hour. Anything that is my problem is also her problem.
- I work remotely and as long as I attend the meetings that I need to, most of my time is quite flexible.
- My company heavily uses Slack and we have tons of social channels for things like music, dogs, and ladies/theydies that are quite active. It's even better than the traditional in-person "watercooler" because I get to pick and choose how I socialize with my coworkers.
- Said coworkers (broadly, not just on my team) are generally very funny, smart, interesting people. I actually left this company for a year and came back because I missed the overall vibe and cameraderie of the company as a whole.
- Good salary, decent benefits
- I work 40 hours (or less) every week and that's respected and acceptable
posted by anotheraccount at 7:20 AM on August 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

The work I do has a real part in advancing the progress of humanity.
posted by bdc34 at 7:33 AM on August 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

I live in a not especially religious corner of the U.S., and I have a number of Muslim co-workers. One year one of these co-workers wrote a simple “Ramadan Mubarak” message on her team list serve, as other people had written similar good wishes for other holidays. She got a whole host of thank you’d and wishes for a blessed Ramadan from people of all religions or lack thereof. It’s a small thing, but given the ambient levels of Islamophobia in the post-9/11 U.S. /general default US assumption that everyone is Christian until proven otherwise, I was pleasantly surprised.
posted by ActionPopulated at 12:41 PM on August 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I have the most wonderful coworkers, and I do a lot of collaborative work
I have the most wonderful learners, and I do a lot of teaching
I get to do a lot of different things during the week
I have KPIs to meet but mostly I get to decide how I do that, because
My boss very much has a "I'm going to be hands off to let you do your work, but if there's a problem I will go to the mat for you" approach.

You'll note that the actual work I do, while generally interesting, is not on the list

tl;dr: I work with awesome people and have a fair amount of control over how I do my work.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 5:05 PM on August 10, 2023

Best answer: I'm a librarian whose job is largely public-facing. I love my job because:
-On a very real and practical level, I help protect and promote democracy for the average citizen, every day.
-I help underprivileged and marginalized people navigate a world that's not always kind (bureaucratic government agencies, the legal / political system, utility companies, employment-seeking).
-I'm exposed to many different people, with so many different experiences and backgrounds.
-I see new books, magazine, music, movies, websites, and tech every day that keep me way more up-to-date than I would be on my own.
-I can usually find ways to incorporate my own interests and talents into my work. Often I can create programs and events to share them with other people.
-I'm surrounded by smart, funny, witty, empathetic, literate, compassionate, generous, curious co-workers.
-My boss is awesome—a queer woman who's a real stand-up person of integrity, who believes in my abilities, trusts my judgment, and encourages me to be thoughtful, innovative, and creative.
-My projects, tasks, and timelines are varied enough for my ADHD brain to thrive on.
-As a public-sector education-adjacent org, our concerns are centered around providing high-quality service that improves individuals and communities, not how many widgets we sell or pleasing shareholders.
-Only about 25% of my day is scheduled by somebody else. The rest of my time I schedule any way I want to. So I can work on projects when I'm in my best headspace for them.
-I'm forced to practice being extroverted, patient, and collaborative, which is good for me. I'm not naturally inclined in those ways!

Also, in general my job entails a lot of things that drive Trumpies, FOX News audiences, authoritarians, right-wingers, bigots, nationalists, religious extremists, xenophobes, and drown-government-in-a-bathtub types crazy about American culture.
posted by Rykey at 9:39 AM on August 11, 2023 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! Super helpful in inspiring ways, and also in a "what is missing from my current job" set of ways.
posted by Shepherd at 3:20 AM on August 16, 2023 [1 favorite]