4 ms·

Seriously, calm down. What's up with the assumption these days that everything done in our work is supposed to be fun? It's work. Sometimes it sucks, it's un-in

Seriously, calm down. What's up with the assumption these days that everything done in our work is supposed to be fun? It's work. Sometimes it sucks, it's un-interesting, it's laborious, sometimes maddeningly menial. You're not always going to be learning at a fast pace. You could just quit and go somewhere else, get assigned a crappy project and find that the grass isn't any greener. Or you can suck it up and take the good with the bad. Put your head down and get through it and you'll learn how to deal with work that's not fun.

gaius 18y ago
Millenials, eh? ;-)
- adldesigner 18y ago
  Lol. Funny cross-reference!
axod 18y ago
Also be sure to watch the movie "Office space".
- jamesbritt 18y ago
  "Seems you've been missing a lot of work." "Well, I wouldn't say I was missing it ..." That movie help motivate me to quit a boring cube job.
jodrellblank 18y ago
"What's up with the assumption these days that everything done in our work is supposed to be fun? It's work. " That's ridiculously self referential. It's not fun because it's something which is defined to exclude fun? It's not "work", it's "creating value" and there's no rule about creating value requiring laborious, menial, maddening, un-interesting work. Particularly not IT/knowledge/computer-based work. I don't assume it should be fun, I demand it should be fun. (Well, I don't, but someone else should on my behalf ;) (Also, I know there must be troughs, it can't be peaks all the time. I'm just in the middle of some frustrating, dull, un-interesting work too)
- kaens 18y ago
  As an aside, there are multiple popular uses of the word "work" - I tend to use "activity that I do (or am obliged through contract to do) that I am compensated at least partially by money" Work, in the way I use it, neither excludes or includes fun. Whether or not my "work" is fun changes from 'assignment' to 'assignment', however it does generally include some activities which I do not consider fun. Luckily, a large part of the non-fun portions of what I do can be automated. For instance, every time I start a new cherrypy app, there's a bit of stuff that I know I'm going to do - create a certain directory structure, possibly a database/tables, put some files in said directory structure, create a python file for the main app, etc. This is boring, but can be handled easily by writing a small shell script that accepts a few options. On my machine, I have a few cherrypy apps that are mounted at any given time. When I create a new app, I just use my little script - and if I tell it to, it will open the file that runs the main cherrypy server on my machine, add the import line for the new app, and add the part to the server configuration that mounts it under a specific URL, by default the name of the apps class. All of the steps handled by the script are generally part of the "work" I need to do, but instead of taking 20 minutes, it takes half a second. Granted, not every boring, menial task can be automated away like this - but a much larger proportion of boring, menial tasks can be than is found in other lines of work.
azanar 18y ago
I agree that the original poster needs to calm down, but I get the impression you should calm down, too. I've been avoiding getting involved in the generational battle that seems to have been sparked here over the past week, since I didn't want to add fuel to the fire. But this comment struck an unhappy chord with me; it just seems a bit too indignant. I think the problem I have is that the assumption it is based on is wrong. I can only speak as a representative of the millenials, but the motivational power you have identified is incorrect. I am not working off of the assumption that everything I do ought to be fun. Given the discussion I've observed here so far, this seems like a gross exaggeration of what has been said. The primary motivation for me is to be productive and build things people find useful. It seems that this is the same primary motivation of the original poster, too. If things are uninteresting, if they are laborious, if they are maddeningly menial, but they need to get done, then I have no problem getting them done. If, above all of that, they are pointless or otherwise seem like a counter-productive waste of time, then I will get demotivated, and my productivity will slow. As a result of my productivity slowing down, I will become unhappy and start asking questions similar to that of the original poster. I like getting things done, and when I feel like I’m running in place, it begins to make me ask why I’m not just standing still. Your position on this seems to be that I should shut the hell up and just keep running, if I know what is good for me. Can you be so kind as to explain why it is good for me, or those who have ordered me to keep running? Obviously, if fed with an endless stream of menial work, my motivation will suffer as well, but I suspect that is not where the original poster is at right now. If it was, would you still be yelling at him to suck it up and get back to work? At what point do you decide that there really _is_ a field somewhere else with greener grass? I hope you are not so cynical as to say the grass everywhere is indistinguishably parched.
- nostrademons 18y ago
  I'm a Millenial and didn't find the original comment all that indignant or upset. It was another side-comment that tossed in the "Millenials, eh? ;-)" and I just figured that was a humorous attempt to tie this to another discussion.
  - azanar 18y ago

gaius 18y ago

Millenials, eh? ;-)

adldesigner 18y ago
Lol. Funny cross-reference!

axod 18y ago

Also be sure to watch the movie "Office space".

jamesbritt 18y ago
"Seems you've been missing a lot of work." "Well, I wouldn't say I was missing it ..." That movie help motivate me to quit a boring cube job.

jodrellblank 18y ago

"What's up with the assumption these days that everything done in our work is supposed to be fun? It's work. " That's ridiculously self referential. It's not fun because it's something which is defined to exclude fun? It's not "work", it's "creating value" and there's no rule about creating value requiring laborious, menial, maddening, un-interesting work. Particularly not IT/knowledge/computer-based work. I don't assume it should be fun, I demand it should be fun. (Well, I don't, but someone else should on my behalf ;) (Also, I know there must be troughs, it can't be peaks all the time. I'm just in the middle of some frustrating, dull, un-interesting work too)

kaens 18y ago
As an aside, there are multiple popular uses of the word "work" - I tend to use "activity that I do (or am obliged through contract to do) that I am compensated at least partially by money" Work, in the way I use it, neither excludes or includes fun. Whether or not my "work" is fun changes from 'assignment' to 'assignment', however it does generally include some activities which I do not consider fun. Luckily, a large part of the non-fun portions of what I do can be automated. For instance, every time I start a new cherrypy app, there's a bit of stuff that I know I'm going to do - create a certain directory structure, possibly a database/tables, put some files in said directory structure, create a python file for the main app, etc. This is boring, but can be handled easily by writing a small shell script that accepts a few options. On my machine, I have a few cherrypy apps that are mounted at any given time. When I create a new app, I just use my little script - and if I tell it to, it will open the file that runs the main cherrypy server on my machine, add the import line for the new app, and add the part to the server configuration that mounts it under a specific URL, by default the name of the apps class. All of the steps handled by the script are generally part of the "work" I need to do, but instead of taking 20 minutes, it takes half a second. Granted, not every boring, menial task can be automated away like this - but a much larger proportion of boring, menial tasks can be than is found in other lines of work.

azanar 18y ago

I agree that the original poster needs to calm down, but I get the impression you should calm down, too. I've been avoiding getting involved in the generational battle that seems to have been sparked here over the past week, since I didn't want to add fuel to the fire. But this comment struck an unhappy chord with me; it just seems a bit too indignant. I think the problem I have is that the assumption it is based on is wrong. I can only speak as a representative of the millenials, but the motivational power you have identified is incorrect. I am not working off of the assumption that everything I do ought to be fun. Given the discussion I've observed here so far, this seems like a gross exaggeration of what has been said. The primary motivation for me is to be productive and build things people find useful. It seems that this is the same primary motivation of the original poster, too. If things are uninteresting, if they are laborious, if they are maddeningly menial, but they need to get done, then I have no problem getting them done. If, above all of that, they are pointless or otherwise seem like a counter-productive waste of time, then I will get demotivated, and my productivity will slow. As a result of my productivity slowing down, I will become unhappy and start asking questions similar to that of the original poster. I like getting things done, and when I feel like I’m running in place, it begins to make me ask why I’m not just standing still. Your position on this seems to be that I should shut the hell up and just keep running, if I know what is good for me. Can you be so kind as to explain why it is good for me, or those who have ordered me to keep running? Obviously, if fed with an endless stream of menial work, my motivation will suffer as well, but I suspect that is not where the original poster is at right now. If it was, would you still be yelling at him to suck it up and get back to work? At what point do you decide that there really _is_ a field somewhere else with greener grass? I hope you are not so cynical as to say the grass everywhere is indistinguishably parched.

nostrademons 18y ago
I'm a Millenial and didn't find the original comment all that indignant or upset. It was another side-comment that tossed in the "Millenials, eh? ;-)" and I just figured that was a humorous attempt to tie this to another discussion.
- azanar 18y ago