I'm stunned, daily, by these takes on lemmy. I quit a fat IT career to sling mulch, rocks and lumber for $15/hr., happier by far. I work hard, my physique is clearly better after only a month, my coworkers respect and like me, the managers all know me by name in a place where a 1-month employee wouldn't rate a glance.

I'm learning more about the world and how things work, already got some great tips from customers for doing shit free and cheap. I'm getting better hours, and more of them. Already been offered a temp job, one they don't ask dipshits to handle. And the fringe benefits! I scored $1,400 in culled lumber today for $50, can't even haul it in a single truck load. New shed coming!

After my 4th real shift (not computer training) I found myself blabbering away to my wife about what all I did that day. That really hit me as to how much happier I am.

Sure, the hours and pay suck, but I have time and a 10% discount to work on projects I've wanted to try selling. Looking at bat houses, dog houses, kid's picnic benches, fixing discarded washers and dryers, all that. Tomorrow I'm selling a dryer I found on the road, put 1.5 hours and $13 into, probably score $150-$200, start looking for more.

Sure, it feels kinda nice but then gestures broadly at everything, that momentary "nice" feeling isn't going to get me out of debt, isn't a guarantee that I won't be fired and replaced the moment I am too old or sick to work, isn't going to get me out of my current "On a diet for financial reasons" financial situation.

It is like trying to cure depression with a breath mint. Plus, the usual "Company reports growth and record profits but certainly cannot afford to give raises to you, bottom feeders, keep making profits for us who sit at the top and be thankful you even get a chance to do so", sure sucks all the joy out of everything.

I love doing a good job and completing a project. Those moments are wonderful and i cherish them deeply but they're fleeting. The obligation to have and maintain a career for survival is the issue. I like the work i do, i loath that i have to do it.

The trick is finding the joy, for lack of a better word, in those things while knowing full well they don’t matter. Do it just to do it for you, and hopefully for good reason.

Lemmy is filled to the brim with the kind of people that can't run into each other without going ballistic over a greeting, so those takes are about expected

Frankly I'd be weirded out if they did found fulfillment from their work, that'd mean there are actual mentally, emotionally and physically healthy, happy, pro social and productive members of society in here.

Which is a counter fact, seeing as most of them have never touched grass