Why do people stay at jobs they don't like for so long?

[IndyColtsFan]

Re: consulting

Health insurance is a major issue if you don't have a spouse with good insurance. And if there are pre-existing conditions involved I have no idea how that would work.

Very true; however, if you contract through a firm, they’ll often have some benefits. In my case, my wife has good benefits so my salary was pretty much all take-home pay (after taxes, of course) since I didn’t have all those benefits taken out. The only thing I had deducted was for my 401k.

 

[snoopy7548]

People get comfortable, but in the OP's relative's case I really don't know. If the pay is bad, hours are bad, and co-workers are bad, the work must be really incredible for somebody to stay or the job market in the area is trash.

You're gonna have bad times at any company, whether you love your work or not. Sometimes it gets better and sometimes it doesn't. Jumping into the unknown, especially if you're making good money at your current job, doesn't really make sense to most people unless you're completely burned out and your health is being affected.

 

[Elfear]

Anyway, my goal was always to make bank into my early 50s and then settle down into a gravy train government job and coast to retirement while picking up another pension. For you government employees out there in ATOT who read that and are offended, I just have to say - sorry, it's true though.

Ha! Not sure which govt employees you know but there's no "coasting" in my job. Rarely do I work just a 40hr week although I do love what I do and work for a pretty good boss.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Ha! Not sure which govt employees you know but there's no "coasting" in my job. Rarely do I work just a 40hr week although I do love what I do and work for a pretty good boss.

Government employees and jobs have a reputation for a reason, and after having known many, I can tell you that all those stories and anecdotes about incredible inefficiency, needless red tape, lazy people who aren’t fired for years (if ever), etc. seem fairly accurate. I’m not saying it applies to you, but from the stories I’ve heard from friends and relatives, I know I’d be able to put little effort into the job and never fear losing it. . My wife is a government employee and it certainly doesn’t apply to her either, but she also admits she can do a half-assed job and still be the star of her department due to the huge slacker:worker ratio.

 

[urvile]

Government employees and jobs have a reputation for a reason, and after having known many, I can tell you that all those stories and anecdotes about incredible inefficiency, needless red tape, lazy people who aren’t fired for years (if ever), etc. seem fairly accurate. I’m not saying it applies to you, but from the stories I’ve heard from friends and relatives, I know I’d be able to put little effort into the job and never fear losing it. . My wife is a government employee and it certainly doesn’t apply to her either, but she also admits she can do a half-assed job and still be the star of her department due to the huge slacker:worker ratio.

I have had that experience to. It attracts a lot of people due to the insane benefits. Six weeks paid holidays for example. The pay is also well above average for people who only have a high school education. They aren't interested in doing anything beyond exactly what's required e.g. they are required to a do an 8 hour workday so that is all they will do. OTOH people who work for organisations like ASD* or ASIO** are primarily all public servants as well and they only employ the best and brightest.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Signals_Directorate
**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Security_Intelligence_Organisation

 

[Exterous]

Government employees and jobs have a reputation for a reason, and after having known many, I can tell you that all those stories and anecdotes about incredible inefficiency, needless red tape, lazy people who aren’t fired for years (if ever), etc. seem fairly accurate.

Most of our customers are government ememploye and everything you said applies to them. Not every employee mind you but far far more than our private company customers or any private company I've worked for. In one case a woman wasn't doing her job which resulted in a verifiable $1.5M a year in additional costs which i fixed in just a couple of days. That woman is still employed and got the same standard yearly raise that 75% of the employees get

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I have had that experience to. It attracts a lot of people due to the insane benefits. Six weeks paid holidays for example. The pay is also well above average for people who only have a high school education. They aren't interested in doing anything beyond exactly what's required e.g. they are required to a do an 8 hour workday so that is all they will do. OTOH people who work for organisations like ASD* or ASIO** are primarily all public servants as well and they only employ the best and brightest.

My wife's vacation time is insane and since travel is one of her passions, I told her she just needs to quit giving a damn and not let the lazy people bother her. A few years ago, she did briefly leave government for the private sector and let me just say, it opened her eyes wide open and she went back into government work. The great thing was that even the that job was hard, she got a huge boost in pay and when she went back to the government, they matched it. She wound up making $15K-$20K more just because of that one jump.

Most of our customers are government ememploye and everything you said applies to them. Not every employee mind you but far far more than our private company customers or any private company I've worked for. In one case a woman wasn't doing her job which resulted in a verifiable $1.5M a year in additional costs which i fixed in just a couple of days. That woman is still employed and got the same standard yearly raise that 75% of the employees get

Many years ago, my wife worked with a lady that pretty much didn't do her job. When she did do it, she did terrible work that everyone had to redo. Anyway, whenever she was called on it, this person accused others of "modifying" her work and "sabotaging" her. The manager got fed up after a couple of years of this and went to HR to terminate her. Despite having poor performance reviews, being written up many times, etc, HR REFUSED to let the manager fire her because they were afraid of a discrimination lawsuit. Finally, the manager meticulously documented this lady's behavior and work over the subsequent two years and when HR refused again, she went over their heads and got her fired. As predicted, the lady did try to file a lawsuit but was laughed out of court when the massive history of idiocy occurred.

In the private sector, that lady would've been fired in a matter of months. It took our wonderful government YEARS to get rid of her.

 

[Ns1]

Man I gotta jump companies so bad. But my company is brilliant and does just enough to keep me 90% happy/content.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Man I gotta jump companies so bad. But my company is brilliant and does just enough to keep me 90% happy/content.

Why leave then?

My current company has awesome benefits, perks, and pay. The work is infuriating though. I am going to try my best to hold out at least until I vest in the pension (another 4 years ) because I could use another pension, but my God I get so mad at the idiocy....

 

[Ns1]

Cuz I'm trying to get that last 10%.

They just need to promote me one more time (with the corresponding big bump) instead of just giving me more money and new job titles (i.e. Little bumps)

/fwp

 

[Chaotic42]

In the private sector, that lady would've been fired in a matter of months. It took our wonderful government YEARS to get rid of her.

I keep hearing this, but I've never seen it happen. We had the exact same problem in my last private sector job, except no matter how high they went they couldn't fire her. They finally laid her off with a group of other people. I've been in the private sector corporate world for 14 years and I have never seen someone fired for incompetence, no matter how bad they are.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I keep hearing this, but I've never seen it happen. We had the exact same problem in my last private sector job, except no matter how high they went they couldn't fire her. They finally laid her off with a group of other people. I've been in the private sector corporate world for 14 years and I have never seen someone fired for incompetence, no matter how bad they are.

Depends on the company. What many in the private sector do is usually one of three things:

1) Clean folks out during planned layoffs. I worked for a company that did stack rankings and anyone in that bottom 10% category would be let go if they didn't improve within X months.
2) If they want to fire you, they'll just try to make your life miserable so you'll leave. It is cheaper for them to do that.
3) (rare) And the worst: if you're only semi-incompetent but a kiss ass, some companies promote you. Seriously. I worked for a company that would do this regularly. If you were great at your job, they were determined to keep you doing it and move the suckwads up.

 

[lxskllr]

3) (rare) And the worst: if you're only semi-incompetent but a kiss ass, some companies promote you. Seriously. I worked for a company that would do this regularly. If you were great at your job, they were determined to keep you doing it and move the suckwads up.

Sucks for the employees, but it really does make sense. You want to keep your best people doing what they do best, and place the dipshits where they do the least damage. They already know what they're about, so it's better than bringing in outsiders. Again, it comes down to "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't".

 

[Exterous]

Many years ago, my wife worked with a lady that pretty much didn't do her job. When she did do it, she did terrible work that everyone had to redo. Anyway, whenever she was called on it, this person accused others of "modifying" her work and "sabotaging" her. The manager got fed up after a couple of years of this and went to HR to terminate her. Despite having poor performance reviews, being written up many times, etc, HR REFUSED to let the manager fire her because they were afraid of a discrimination lawsuit. Finally, the manager meticulously documented this lady's behavior and work over the subsequent two years and when HR refused again, she went over their heads and got her fired. As predicted, the lady did try to file a lawsuit but was laughed out of court when the massive history of idiocy occurred.

In the private sector, that lady would've been fired in a matter of months. It took our wonderful government YEARS to get rid of her.

The lawsuit angle sounds similar to another experience of mine. Another customer had an older lady in our meeting taking notes - but she was only there sometimes and her presence, in no way, corresponded to the importance of the meeting. I asked my point of contact about it and it turns out this lady was the Director of some large department who said she was going to retire. After training her replacement and less than a week before her last day she changed her mind. Afraid of an age discrimination lawsuit they asked her to come up with a new job for herself. Her new job was to take meeting notes at meetings she felt like attending and whether they needed them or not - all for $135,000 a year.

I keep hearing this, but I've never seen it happen. We had the exact same problem in my last private sector job, except no matter how high they went they couldn't fire her. They finally laid her off with a group of other people. I've been in the private sector corporate world for 14 years and I have never seen someone fired for incompetence, no matter how bad they are.

I haven't seen anyone fired from my current employer but they are growing fairly quickly and are probably the most well run (so...good at interviewing too maybe?). My last 3 had no issues firing people

 

[Ns1]

Private sector here, not all fuckups are created equal. But have been here for multiple people being escorted out of the building by security during lunch hour.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

My current company is so bad that there have been multiple people walking in, resigning, and turning around and leaving with NO notice. In my career before this place, I had only seen that maybe once or twice - more often than not, if someone resigned and didn’t show up the next day, it was the company who told them that 2 weeks was not necessary.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Sucks for the employees, but it really does make sense. You want to keep your best people doing what they do best, and place the dipshits where they do the least damage. They already know what they're about, so it's better than bringing in outsiders. Again, it comes down to "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't".

I understand the logic behind it, but if you’re going to hold back the good people intentionally, you’d better compensate them at that next level or they’ll leave and screw you over

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Cuz I'm trying to get that last 10%.

They just need to promote me one more time (with the corresponding big bump) instead of just giving me more money and new job titles (i.e. Little bumps)

/fwp

If you’re 90% happy and like your coworkers, stick around. I’ve only had a job like that a couple of times in my career, and forces beyond my control caused me to leave.

 

[BD231]

Work involves people, and most people suck, therefore most jobs suck.

 

[FelixDeCat]

This is why....

 

[urvile]

I keep hearing this, but I've never seen it happen. We had the exact same problem in my last private sector job, except no matter how high they went they couldn't fire her. They finally laid her off with a group of other people. I've been in the private sector corporate world for 14 years and I have never seen someone fired for incompetence, no matter how bad they are.

It does vary but at the largest company I worked for it was very hard to get fired for incompetence. They had an issue with a project manager where a multi million dollar hole appeared in the programs budget. They couldn't fire him for that because he had been bringing up that there were issues (rather than doing something about it) with the project. He had to leave though because his career was dead at that point.

An interesting side effect was we had an IT guy who was borderline competent but once that hole appeared management made him redundant and called it cost cutting. Then a couple of weeks later they brought in an IT person from another site to replace him. Management had been waiting for their opportunity. I also worked on a project where they hired a contractor who was so terrible. Our boss actually apologised for hiring him. Apparently he talked a really good game. Even though he was useless. It's still easier for them to let him finish out his contract.

Because large organisations have processes for everything. It's difficult to fire people but it can also be difficult to hire them. One thing I learned is when you are on a team and people leave and they aren't being replaced. It's time to go.

 

[hasu]

Government employees and jobs have a reputation for a reason, and after having known many, I can tell you that all those stories and anecdotes about incredible inefficiency, needless red tape, lazy people who aren’t fired for years (if ever), etc. seem fairly accurate. I’m not saying it applies to you, but from the stories I’ve heard from friends and relatives, I know I’d be able to put little effort into the job and never fear losing it. . My wife is a government employee and it certainly doesn’t apply to her either, but she also admits she can do a half-assed job and still be the star of her department due to the huge slacker:worker ratio.

In general, government employees are also as good as the rest of the consultants. But consultants might keep them at a distance as far as technology goes, probably for fear of losing the project if they teach internal team all the details. Consultants might want to keep the reason alive why they got in there to begin with!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

- f

In general, government employees are also as good as the rest of the consultants. But consultants might keep them at a distance as far as technology goes, probably for fear of losing the project if they teach internal team all the details. Consultants might want to keep the reason alive why they got in there to begin with!

You're probably a government employee who read my post and was offended. I knew that would happen, but I won't apologize because in general, I'm correct. Maybe you're an exception to what I said (there are many) or maybe you're not - I really don't know or care.

Sorry to disappoint you, but consultants don't lack opportunities and the reason they "got in there to begin with" is because they sell a service and were hired to perform the service - if the employees could do the job themselves, no one would hire consultants. It isn't a consultant's job to teach company employees technology - consultants are only responsible for doing knowledge transfer for the solution(s) they implement unless they're specifically contracted to teach technology. Otherwise, if employees don't understand the technology, that's on them.

I actually did consult for one of the largest DMVs in the nation and I can assure you, none of the employees we dealt with "were as good" as the consultants. Nice people, yes, but nowhere near as technically adept as us. And that's fine - that's why we were hired.

 

[sportage]

Is tis thread for real?
Health insurance.
Money.
Health insurance.
A reason to get out of the house.
Health insurance.
A roof over ones head.
The wifey.
The kiddies.
Food.
Health insurance.
And, something to gripe about that you hate doing.
And don't forget the health insurance.

One could ask the same with marriage.
Why do people stay married that hate each other?
Most of the above would also apply.

 

[Thebobo]

Money and security.

My suggestion is while young stick the thumb out and see the world first. Metaphorically at least.