What do YOU do when you can't bear your job any more?

It's not so much the job for me, it's the not wanting to be a responsible adult thing.

It would be nice to just be able to take a break from that. So nice.

(reply to original post)

It's Marx's theory of Alienation. Paperwork and that type of work has got to be the furthest from our human nature.

excerpts:

"These include the alienation of the worker from his or her ‘species essence’ as a human being, not a cog in a machine; alienation among workers, since capitalism reduces labour to a commercial commodity to be traded on the market, rather than a social relationship; alienation of the worker from the product, since its design and production are appropriated by the capitalist class and escape the worker's control; and alienation from the act of production itself, so that work boils down to an endless sequence of discrete, repetitive, trivial, and meaningless motions, offering little, if any, intrinsic satisfaction."

I don't totally hate it, even if I said I did at some point on a2k.
Years ago, back when we had a gallery-theater, and I was already linked to one of the theater guys for what would turn out to be many many years, we all would go out and get pizza and big jugs of beer. I could drink it then, but less than all the others. I never got into chugging it.
Sometime after that I learned to like single malts and to play around with wines, usually from Trader Joe's. Beer fell off the horizon except for with chinese food. Since I don't get chinese food much in Albuquerque, I also don't get any Tsing Tao in my life. I've shared beers, typically Pacifico, with pals/colleagues when we go for mexican food, and now new mexican food.. but mostly often pick iced tea.

It's true that by now I'm down to 1 or 2 beers a year. When it's freaking hot here, I'd rather have ice water. Dys and Diane got some unusual texas beer last year and I took one home. Drank half of it, and it was a small bottle. Poured the rest out.. it tasted all right but, eh.

However, I leave room for the potential of my liking all these new (now getting older) craft beers and ales. And I used to like the Lost Coast
Brewery's Downtown Brown, including in a beef stew at their restaurant.

Re alcohol at work, we did use to have a small glass of wine maybe one day a week as we closed up shop in northern california. For one thing, we had to test which incredibly cheapo wine from the local outlet that it might be possible to get away with serving at the monthly big gallery opening. That was always a good thing, kind of an unwinding after whatever intensity of decisions the day had brought.

I hear you sister!!!!!!!!!!

Actually, I don't feel alienated.

I feel extremely engaged.....I just feel overwhelmed and avoidant!

Awwwwwwwwwww.......

I COULD.

But I'd feel worse.

I think they'd fire me after trying to turn me around for a while, too!

I'm not following -- isn't that what you want?

Maybe a holiday then. Overseas. Maybe not Kentucky though...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I need an income!!!

We are all addicted to the all-mighty dollar be it Australian or US born!

It represents our ability to conform our environments to our wishes.





David

If paper work is so foreign to our natures, why do so many of us do it?

BECAUSE WE ARE STUPID.


And, in my case, it is extensive because of ******* lawyers.

U need to get CELIBATE counsel!

I love a good misinterpretation, me.

So, Deb, feeling any better about it all on Friday evening after work?

Analysing it.

1. I had a horrible incident of a client firing me after I dared to hint at an awful truth...( that the mother's parenting was far more the crux of her daughter's distress than alleged sexual abuse, for which there is almost no supporting evidence.) This is a thorny issue, and needed to be confronted, but (accidentally) I didn't do it well. Hence great self-flagellation.

2. I had been absorbing (via offering to co-work a case) a torrent of a colleague's enormous distress and tension over a case that the carers concerned were making impossible for her.

This is one of those weird situations that comes up because I am way more experienced than all but one of the folk doing the clinical supervision where I work. I am used to supervising, and I would have pulled the plug on this case ages ago had I been the supervisor. Not being so, it's kind of weird absorbing the incredible angst, while not actually having any mandated power to do anything about it.

In the event, I kind of took charge when things blew yet again, and the plug has been pulled (which is going to cause a ginormous explosion, but I have senior management on board now) and I am absorbing less stuff now.

And, I think I clearly have cycles (now coming further apart) which I think really are hormonal (I have so never had hormone problems until the last few years...I kind of thought they were a myth!)...which are truly awful and difficult to manage, frankly. I manage them, but they take a lot out of me.

Also, I think there is a bit of a shelf life for my kind of work. I mean, you know the deal....I've specialised in the worst kinds of trauma and and **** forever...I think it does slowly wear away at one, especially with the ridiculous demands of legally defensive practice paperwork (which I consistently fail at, in favour of fitting people in .)

Normally one is in management by my stage of a career......but I loathe the very thought!!!! I'd happily be doing mainly clinical supervision and leadership, but, to do that, one is usually trammelled with management and admin responsibility.... Ewwwww.

And, I'm neurotic. I am overly sensitive, self-critical, put ridiculous amounts of myself on the line every day, and (except clinically) disorganized.

It's all swings and roundabouts...those very qualities add a lot to work, and have driven me up and up, clinically speaking...and add a lot to a team.

Also, this team is consistently feeling overwhelmed by demands, (mostly they do massive assessments, which are subject to constant legal bullshit, and they are overloaded and constantly feel out of control. They generally don't feel able to say "no" to work being piled on, and, given the stakes, constantly feel as though they are not doing enough for the kids, but feel destroyed by the demands. This affects even those of us doing pure therapy, because it is awful to watch and empathise with.


And I am tired.

Bring on the worried well, or a repetitive and non-demanding job!!!!!

It sounds like the perfect storm of life and job stress. Other than getting a new job shelving canned peas at a local grocery, I think you are going to have to ride it out. I'm sure you know there are "happy pills" to deal with the hormonal shifts that are very real, but overall I don't think you can detach much and still do your job well. You job seems to be about feeling and analyzing which is also the cause of your discontent. Maybe sneak in a personal mental health day here and there to decompress - get a massage, take a yoga class, go for a long walk, some form of escapism seems necessary.

Some clients only want to hear what they want to hear. That, however, is not your job.


Any way to streamline the paperwork part of the process?


We knew that.


You'd hate it.