My friends and family are certainly interesting people when it comes to telling me about their jobs. When I get home from work after a long day, I often endure a dinner where my mom tells me about how stressful her job is. Going out with my friends, I listen to their stories about how the problems with their desk jobs. I usually don't talk much about my job because I usually rather not rehash my days. Also, the horrors of my job, specifically the discharge planning portion, don't exactly sound that bad when described so I don't bother.
The problem with not saying anything is that there are times when I want to ask, "YOU think you have it bad?" I mean, I'm a little more forgiving if the person is a nurse (until that person complains about being an underpaid nurse) or other medical profession. If you're a cop or a firefighter, then your job is likely more dangerous and stressful than mine. Even engineers get some slack since they work long hours and, as my boyfriend tells me, are out of a job by the age of 40 unless they keep up with the latest computer languages and technologies. Apparently, compared to the continuing education classes nurses and social workers have to take, these languages and technologies are hard to learn. If I'm to be thankful for something, it's that age discrimination isn't as pervasive in social work than it is in more technical fields.
However, if you're working in an office job, posting pictures of cats on facebook multiple times a day, and complaining about how stressful work is, then maybe you need a dose of the long finger. Same for the person working retail who condescendingly states, "You wouldn't understand because you've never worked retail!" Trust me, tell that to any social worker or nurse and they will roll their eyes at you.
Maybe I'm being overly critical of these people. Maybe I should try to be more supportive and understanding of their job situations.
Or maybe I just need new friends.
I understand how you feel and have learned to keep my mouth shut for the most part. I think everyone has it stressful at work these days.....it's the people who are like "I'm the only one who does any work. Everything falls on me. You don't understand" people that I have to roll my eyes at. (When they're not looking, of course ;) ).
ReplyDeletei can understand this feeling because as a social worker of India is a not easy because peoples in India (specially Indian Politicians) restrict us to do the job what we wanted to do for the proples who are in trouble.
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