Getting back to work

[CelticFrost]

Though I am very busy in a downturn economy I am finding it hard this year to get motivated to work after all the holidays I used this summer and I still have a few weeks left to use up.

Years ago I wouldn't even use all my holidays up and just take the payout at the end of the year. I love what I do, always have as I have only had two jobs since college and the only reason I left the first job was to move back the 3000km from the west coast after 10years.

Anyone else finding it hard to get motivated after taking a bunch of holidays as they get older?

 

[DArtagnan]

My current job is the only steady job I've ever had - as I've never been comfortable spending a third of my life on something as trivial as normal work. Since I have a supreme lack of respect and appreciation for how society works and how human beings behave, it's been a huge struggle to accept that I needed to be a part of that stupidity

That said, I've held this job for 7 years now - and I've been extremely fortunate overall. My work is appreciated, bosses rarely tell me what to do, I can work from home when convenient, my team gets to call most of the shots related to our function, and the pay is decent enough.

So, I'm finally at a stage where I don't hate being at work.

I do find it hard to accept that I'll never really have the kind of time that I used to have, to pursue my passion.

Holidays do tend to make it harder, but not like they used to.

But I don't really see a way around it - so I just deal with it, I guess.

 

[CelticFrost]

See I have always liked my jobs and truth being told at the place I am now they don't even know what I do for the most part. Sure they know I go into machine shops and help them increase productivity. But if I was to ask someone to do one of my quotes or if I was not able to make an appoint no one else in our company could do it.

This was also sort of the same for the other company I worked for. I had taken a part of their business that they didn't really look at as a money maker and made it one. Within 7 years I had increased the business from under a million to over seven. So they never really questioned what I was doing what hours I worked.

Maybe I will just take me a few weeks to get back into the swing of things. Also could be that my children are older so the time I take off my wife and I can do a few more things we enjoy.

 

[DArtagnan]

See I have always liked my jobs and truth being told at the place I am now they don't even know what I do for the most part. Sure they know I go into machine shops and help them increase productivity. But if I was to ask someone to do one of my quotes or if I was not able to make an appoint no one else in our company could do it.

This was also sort of the same for the other company I worked for. I had taken a part of their business that they didn't really look at as a money maker and made it one. Within 7 years I had increased the business from under a million to over seven. So they never really questioned what I was doing what hours I worked.

Maybe I will just take me a few weeks to get back into the swing of things. Also could be that my children are older so the time I take off my wife and I can do a few more things we enjoy.

Well, if you really like what you do - I'm sure you'll be back into it soon enough

 

[Ripper]

I took part in a work survey a while ago, about which elements we prioritise as most important. I rate good colleagues very highly. One of my early jobs was nothing special, but the people were so fantastic and so much fun that it was like being at a much better version of high school. I've had other jobs where I couldn't sleep for dread of the next morning.

 

[Toff]

I don't hate my job but it has gotten annoying. I've been here a very long time tho and wouldn't be able to get as good of a job again in terms of the great location, hours worked and pay so I'll likely stay. Spending so much time every week at work is a bit depressing. There are so much more interesting things I would prefer to be doing plus I don't mind just being lazy around the house. I wish I could retire now. I wouldn't need that much income every month.

 

[GothicGothicness]

Good topic, this particular vacation ( as some of you have seen ), We visited Singapore, China and Australia, and also spent some great time out at a very beautiful seaside mountain here at home. It was a truly great vacation and after such a thing it is hard to get back to normal work! In total I had more than 5 weeks off.

Besides even if you like your work and your colleagues are great and so on, if you have done the same thing for many years, somehow it gets kind of repetitive, I also find that when you are that experienced you can solve a lot of things by routine without using your brain power... somehow it sometimes leads to brain-shutdown or rest mode... I've found it take longer and longer for my brain to wake-up. But once I get home and start working on my game.... it is back in top speeds again after just a few minutes

I do think however if things start getting too repetitive at work it might just be time to try something else, if you dare to.

 

[Ripper]

That does happen. I burned out in my first career very early on. Literally couldn't do it anymore. Every time I tried to turn my mind to it, my brain would just switch to white noise, and my stress levels would go through the roof. It's not fun, and sometimes a radical change is essential.

 

[Kordanor]

I am probably a very weird case in these regards.

I already hated it as a child when our 6 week long Summer Holidays were over and had to go back to school. Well, no kid liked to go back to school. But one thing I really hated about it, was that I was completely out of the recent material in school. In math I forgot about all the most recent formulars and stuff we learnt, and I had to spend a few days "rediscovering" it first.

And regarding work it's no different (well at least I you have to use your brain in some way). So that is one reason I dislike long vacations.

And then there is a dislike to travel. I cannot motivate myself to do it, it's actually not that interesting for me. And without a partner you life with, you also have no one to push you doing so. So there is that.

And I always think like "well…maybe you need the vacation at a later point, so maybe better keep all options".

So a typical year for me looks like this. Out of my 20+ off days I take 6 days total for my 3 trips to my parents each year. Then maybe another 5 for appointments like dentist or so.
And the rest, 10-15 days is just sitting there…
Then the year is at an end and I have to take the rest of vacation…so I just spread it out over 2-3 months or so effectively only working 3-4 days each week.

I think I never took more than 7 days off during my whole work-life (which is over 10 years).

So…to go back to the initial question: Yes, I would find it hard to get motivated, because of relearning old stuff, and learning the stuff I missed. But with this "workaround" it just never happens.

 

[sakichop]

Hard to get motivated after a long holiday? It's hard to get motivated after a night off.:lol:

I own my own business and I don't hate it but I don't love it either. I guess I tolerate it and there is definitely other stuff I'd rather be doing than work. Most people I know think I love working because I do it so much and am good at hiding it but I definitely don't.

Why do it then? I want to make as much money as possible while I can and hopefully retire early. I don't believe you ever truly free until you financially independent and that's my goal so I do what I need to do.

 

[dteowner]

The beauty of owning your own business is that you get to pick which 12 hours of every day you're going to work...

I regularly wish I didn't have to work, but the times I've been without a job have gotten very boring fairly quickly. I guess I'm just perpetually unhappy.

 

[Nukester]

I only call in sick maybe 2 or 3 times a year tops, but I definitely try to use any vacation time Im given. However, my boss always seems to give us these major projects with impossible deadlines in June or July, and most years will say "I will not be approving any vacation time for the remainder of this month or next month". So most of my time off I end up taking like a Friday or Monday off and having long weekends. And yes, I hate returning from a vacation lol

 

[txa1265]

I'm in the US ... we don't have to hassle with that vacation time thingy ...

We didn't take a formal vacation this year for the first time, like, ever. I get 4 weeks, and have been taking it as a day or two here or there. We had a bunch of stuff with our older son finishing high school and prepping to move away to college, so that was a bunch of days. Moving him in was a long weekend, wife and I did a long weekend camping, younger son college visits were already a day off and another two coming up, we're doing more long weekends in the fall and so on.

As for work ... I enjoy it, I do challenging and rewarding stuff that I can see connections to in the real world, and that allows me to be mentally challenged and stimulated working with people I enjoy (and of course some I don't). I chose years ago to not be a manager-type (was forced into the role and had to make a case to get back to technical track), and have no desire to run my own business.

In a few years our kids will be out of school ... then who knows. We have no ties to any particular part of the country at this point, so will likely move somewhere close to wherever the kids land and find jobs there.

 

[Jaz]

Oh, I hated to get back to school after the holidays, and I hate to have to get back to work after a vacation. Or after a few days off. Or after a weekend.

If I had a choice, I wouldn't work, it's that simple. It's not that I hated the company I'm working for (not in the least) or my current job (not really), or my co-workers (nah, they're okay), but I'd just prefer to have way more time to spend with my family. Unfortunately my progenitors weren't rich, so I must earn money to pay the bills.
Should I ever win a substantial amount of money in the lottery, though, I would certainly quit.

 

[Wisdom]

I think it helps if you truly love what you do. It sounds cliche but if you truly love it, it's less like work and more like a hobby. Personally I love being challenged so I will often switch projects or find other areas to explore once I've gotten a good amount of exposure in one sector. I don't want to be a perfect expert in any field, I want to know them all.
If I ever needed to fill out a resume/CV I'm sure it would look like I couldn't focus. Also once you get a few degrees its minimal work to add a few more because so many "credits" cross transfer.

 

[Spider_man]

I know what your talking about, hmm and think those colleges of yours hu? That they want to give you double work, just coz you had holidays.

Time is the most precious thing we have and we wont ever get more, ever. Spend it wisely.
I hate waking up every morning working for others, telling me what to do when to do it how to do it. When to go to WC when to go to eat, when to go home. What life is this ? Is this what suppose to be LIFE? Why doing 10 hours a day a thing that i HATE TO DO. I quite and work my ass off to make my own money! Take my holidays when i want, eat and shit when i want! Yes is more risky and more stressful and more difficult to make your own money. But my life philosophy is that i rather live 20 years FREE than 100 Years SLAVE.

 

[sakichop]

I know what your talking about, hmm and think those colleges of yours hu? That they want to give you double work, just coz you had holidays.

Time is the most precious thing we have and we wont ever get more, ever. Spend it wisely.
I hate waking up every morning working for others, telling me what to do when to do it how to do it. When to go to WC when to go to eat, when to go home. What life is this ? Is this what suppose to be LIFE? Why doing 10 hours a day a thing that i HATE TO DO. I quite and work my ass off to make my own money! Take my holidays when i want, eat and shit when i want! Yes is more risky and more stressful and more difficult to make your own money. But my life philosophy is that i rather live 20 years FREE than 100 Years SLAVE.

Wow the daily bugle sounds like a terrible place to work.

 

[Ripper]

Wow the daily bugle sounds like a terrible place to work.

Maximum points.

 

[Nukester]

And everyone that says that if they hit the lottery or strike it rich (Im talking multi-millions dollars not just 1 million dollars) they would keep working, is crazy. If I hit the lottery for like 30 million dollars, Id never work a day again in my life. Hell no. Trust me, I wouldnt get bored

 

[Sacred_Path]

I haven't worked since school because of my illness and even now I'm thinking about early retirement in earnest every now and then. I do love having time off and I really needed it in the early days of my apprenticeship. In fact I called in sick quite a bit more often than appropriate.

But the truth is that working gives you so much - even if it's maybe just the comfort of conformity. Take this advice from someone who hasn't done fuckall for 10 years. Not that I enjoyed my life very much during that time - my untreated illness prevented that. But I had all the time in the world with nothing to do. And it pretty much sucked.