How come I havent been fired yet
I've been at my current job since December and I really hate it. My job is boring, menial, repetitive, and unrewarding. I feel depressed every minute I spend at work. I have been at my current job for 7 months and I still don't fully understand what the job is about. Bu it's not like I care; I just do the maintenance I'm required to do and I don't care if I do the job right or wrong. I honestly don't care. My coworkers constantly try to teach me stuff and are constantly amazed by the fact that I am asking the same questions the next and the next day. I'd be surprised if I remembered two words of what they told me, since my mind is rarely/never "at work". They have suggested that maybe I shouldn't be working there, and I agree with them.
My supervisor doesn't seem to care about my lack of progress. He hasn't said a word. He knows I am having a hard time grasping the stuff we are doing and has even caught me a few times surfing the internet, but he doesn't seem to care. He's always the same nice guy. He also doesn't seem to care if it takes me four days to do the amount of work my coworkers do in one. I just sit at my desk, in front of my computer, attempt to do some work, and inevitably end up daydreaming or surfing the internet for hours at a time - while I have piles of work waiting to get done.
I am also cold with my coworkers and never socialize with them. At first they invited me to parties and going to bars on Fridays and the weekends, but now they don't even bother because they know my answer. There are also some coworkers at the office I never talk to or even acknowledge, and when I talk to the few coworkers I talk to, I have a knack for lowering their morale with deprecating statements about the company we work at and subtle reminders of how lousy we are for not having better jobs.
I know I am a bad worker and one that would have been fired a long time ago from a better company, but I really dislike my job and I can't help it. My job is boring, menial, repetitive, and unrewarding. I don't feel like I am growing professionally or intellectually, and I see my job as a complete waste of my time. When I am at work, I constantly contemplate with great sadness and depression the moment I allowed myself to end up with this job. It doesn't help that I earn less than fourty k in a city that constantly ranks as one of the most expensive cities in the country to live in. The good part is that the tiny paycheck tends to diminish my sense of guilt for being such a lousy worker, since the people at this company can't expect much from someone who'd sell himself that low. I'm currently waiting to complete a year of experience so I can start searching for a new, better job elsewhere. I just hope I don't get fired before December.
Has someone been in a similar situation? And, how come I haven't been fired yet?
To answer your question, probably because your boss is apathetic and complacent.
I would not wait one day longer to look for a better job. Don't wait to be fired or for things to get worse at work, Start looking, take your time, and when you get an offer that you can live with, hand them a resignation letter.
Meanwhile for your sake if you possibly can, make your work days more bearable by acknowledging your coworkers and doing the job you are getting paid to do. Make some effort to accomplish something each day. This will help you when you eventually work for another company. Push yourself a little! When people sit around lazily at work because they do not have enough to do, they get into a bad habit which is hard to break and they feel tired. When you are busy, you are energized!
You sound like you are suffering from a very serious care of clinical depression. Find a therapist or psychiatrist and make an appointment. You need all the help you can get.
Best wishes!
Bunzo
WOW...that's hot mess....
Why haven't you been fired? Status quo. You're a hot body in a seat, the numbers are up, no problem. When the tide starts to turn, perhaps you'll get your wish. I wouldn't wait that long, though.
Please get the hell out NOW. Save some face. Don't just sit there only to crash and burn. You have the power of the situation in your hands. Why are you giving up the controls? Because you're bored? I understand. I have been in positions like that before. Like I said, Get Out, and do something that Tropolis wants to do, something that fulfills you. Or, at the very least, find something you can tolerate for at least 40 hours a week.
Or, if you choose to stay, quit the commentary, be courteous to everyone (yes, EVERYONE) and clean up your act, so-to-speak. Especially if you anticipate seeking other employment in the near future.
Your coworkers do not need to be reminded of the fact that yes, they do work for a crappy company, or whatever the case may be. By making remarks such as that, you may give some the ammunition to help get you fired. Alienating yourself from others is a bad thing from the standpoint that you do not appear to be a team player, and do not work well with others. That can work against you when you need to ask for a professional reference from a colleague. And do not let the smiling, nice guy supervisor fool you, as apathetic as he seems. He is out for himself, and will not hesitate to send you to slaughter when the time comes. Creating allies now will only stand to benefit you later, even if the allies you make are superficial, surface relationships. Aren't most of them, anyway? A good reference can still go a long way nowadays, and if you ask me, you should be playing the game to an extent, so that it will be of benefit to you when you go for that next job.
Maybe a different approach will help you to find your "work self", and what you need to be satisfied as an employee. If you can, temp for a while to discover what it is you are looking for. You can still be somewhat antisocial because you're "the temp" and not one of "us" (the perm employees), and simply come in, do some work and get paid for it, and not feel the need to get caught up in happy hour invites and the overall office politics. And if you are not too picky to a specific industry, or do not mind working in things related to your field, you can possibly find what best suits you. If anything, you will get the chance to sit back and observe what you don't want on or from the job or an employer, how not to act at work, and improve on how you present yourself as a professional.
Good Luck!
TG
Bunzo I only feel this way when I am at work. At home I feel very much at ease :)
Okay! Take my advice and start looking for another job. When you have found one and are ready to accept an offer, give two-weeks notice and be on your way.
Bunzo
There may be a lot of reasons that your boss hasn't fired you yet:
He may be apathetic and complacent, but more likely, he's trying to help you out and hoping you'll somehow catch on. He doesn't want to be the bad guy. He wants to fire you but someone else hasn't approved it yet. He figures you can't really be that bad and that maybe you have something to offer afterall if he can only find it. He doesn't want to be bothered hiring someone else.
And some people just flat out keep thinking that somehow things will work out. I have a buddy who was the boss of a non-profit agency for many years. I complained to him for some time about a volunteer that I felt was totally worthless. He kept giving me the "oh, come on, she's a volunteer, we can find SOMETHING she can do to help." Finally, one day he came to me and said "I've got it! We're serving chili today. I've got her an 8 ounce ladle and a stack of 10 ounce bowls. There's no way she can mess this up!" She walked off the job after about 20 minutes claiming that I made her too nervous to do the job. My buddy had to admit that there really was nothing that this person could do to help out.
So, the bigger question is, why haven't you gotten your act together yet? Yes, you should stay a year if you can, but if you're not building a good reference to take with you, there's not much point to that either now is there? Don't quit, you could be a long time finding something else if you do, but get busy finding something else. And see your doctor about clinical depression. You've got a whopper case of it and it isn't helping your performance and won't help your future job hunting any. Get it fixed first.
Tess
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