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does anyone here other than me feel like they are consumed by their job? Mine is VERY stressfull. I work in a kitchen cooking for up to 50+ hrs per week. Some days I just think to myself what the hell am I still doing this for? I've been at it now with this comapny for 9yrs this coming April. Seven years in another kitchen prior to that and about 6 1/2 to 7 yrs in a restaurant before that.

I have many problem employees to deal with. Yes I am in a position to hire and fire them and they know that but go just far enough as not to push me to the point of doing that.

They are not the problem though. The job just weighs heavily on my mind and there is so much responsability on my part. Making sure people get to work on time and doing what is supposed to be done,all of the food and supply ordering is done by me.

I think after this many years at it it's just starting to take effect and wear me down!! I really don't know how many more years I can do it. I'm only 36 and it's really all I know other than gardening and having a lot of knowledge of plants and such. Which i've never been to school for. And at this point in life have no desire to go back to and learn something new. Call that stupidity on my part!!!

The great thing about it though is that I can come home from that BAD day at work and go into my greenhouse and fool around with my plants, brugmansias for instance and it just seems to make the world outside disappear.

I go in there and it's like once i'm inside i'm on my own planet. All the worries just go away. At least until I have to go back to that place at 5:50 am the next morning.

Well that's enough of me venting. Anyone else experience the same when they enter that magical GH?

This is the entrance to my never never land!!!

I know exactly how you feel, David. Before I retired, I worked at a Home Health and Hospice agency. There was a lot of pressure and some days my blood pressure went much higher than normal just from the stress. The only way I kept my sanity was in my yard taking care of my flowers (which my husband never understood). He thinks I just create more work with them. When I finally decided life was too short for that, I retired. My blood pressure immediately dropped to normal and I love every day that I can just get outside, even if I do nothing but walk around the yard to see what is blooming that day.

I'm glad to see that i'm not the only one who does that. Sometimes i'll just be sitting at home on a day off and decide to go walk around the yard and I might do it many times that day. If I get bored in the house i'll go walk through the yard and jsut look at things. Sometimes seeing things that I didn't the time before and sometimes nothing new but it seems to get rid of that bored feeling then i'll come back inside.

I started doing that when I was just a child. I got my love of flowers from my father and we had a huge yard with flowerbeds all the way around the front and back. In the summer when I was out of school, I always got up early and spent nearly the whole day outside. I loved to walk the beds to see every single flower.

Management stinks! Thank God for Brugs, other flowers (lol) and nature...I wouldn't be alive without my garden (~:

Trust me Vi, I didn't ask for the management position. I had it bestowed upon me. It does pay good though! :.)

This is mostly why we work.........for the money. Maybe you could find something in a nursery, selling, planting and growing? Good luck in whatever you do.

David, I tried to return mail and it doesn't recognize your name!

David, I know exactly what you mean! I deal with the insanity of the entertainment biz 24 hrs a day & my only refuge is in my garden. And now, the smell of brugs & a glass of wine at the end of the day or night (brugs are there to smell & enjoy all night long)is probably the only things that keep me sane!

All I have to say to you David is marry rich or start buying those lottery tickets!!

I know how you feel David. On most days when I arrive home from work, I head straight to the garden. Just walking around, watching the birds, butterflies, and lizards go from plant to plant relaxes me. I'm a new gardener, I started gardening last year, and I thank God for it. It has been a life saver and enhancer, in more ways than one could ever imagine.

This message was edited Oct 25, 2003 11:45 AM

Looks like that worked--now erase the above!

I hung up my nursing shoes in May... very stressful! I now manage a greenhouse which I hope to purchase in the spring. My husband tells everyone I don't work anymore, I play in the dirt! He is right, I love playing in the dirt....

I hung up my nursing shoes after years of nursing, also. I spent a year taking care of my dying husband and after that was over, I didn't want to take care of another patient, ever! I may have to go back to nursing some day to pay for my gardening habit, lol.

Gardening, plants, pets and nature are the best cure for many worries. Many of my friends, no matter if male or female, agree!

Mary I quit after my Dad died, my heart just wasn't in it anymore. Like you maybe someday, but not now. The trick is knowing when to say enough is enough, that is why there are so many bad ones (nurses and doctors) out there, they didn't take a break when they needed too! Thank God for plants!

Okay everybody, I may not be the right person to be giving this advice but being 57 and having had some experiences in life I will give you my words of wisdom (that, of course, is questionable)
If you get up in the morning and you dread where you have to go to spend your time to get a paycheck, it is time to change what you do!! Life is much to short to spend 8 to 10 hours a day doing something that you are not at least occasionally enjoying, or feeling satisfied about at the end of the day. I have had 4 positions in my life 2 of them were wonderful and 2 of them I couldn't wait to get away from. The two that I loved, I looked forward to the challenges of the day and went home with enough energy to deal with whatever came my way. The two that I hated, even though I was making decent money, I was exhausted when I left at the end of the day and I dreaded getting up in the morning to go. I found that I was constantly not feeling well, and my lack of enthusiasm for what I was doing must have shown in my work, all though it wasn't reflected in pay raises.
Again I will say to all of you that life is too short to do things that make you miserable.
I am guessing you all have a lot more talents and abilities than you give yourself credit for!!
It is so easy to forget that not everyone can do what you are doing, and to put that into abilities to equal job skills in other areas, but I promise you it is worth it.
I had waitressed for a long time, and when I wanted to go to work in an office environment was told that I did not have the skills for it. I finally found someone who would give me a chance (everything I have ever done is pretty much self-taught) and stayed there long enough to be able to convince other employers that I could do their idiotic jobs. Do not sell yourselve's short, I would guess that you all have many talents that you do not think of as being skills, and believe me they are.
My one other piece of advise is to make sure your employer appreciates you. You may think I am nuts, but there really are companies out there that will appreciate your hard work and dedication, and it makes a lot of difference in how you feel about getting out of bed in the morning.
Well I think my soapbox is getting damaged from all the weight I am putting on it, so I will get off it.
MOST IMPORTANT is to remember that you are all unique and have many experiences and abilities that are actually very valued job skills.
Have a great day all and start appreciating yourselves more.
I really hope that I have not offended anyone, I promise I only want you to know how unique each and everyone of you really are!!!

i did the managing thing, 6 years with 8 doctors to yell at me, 15-18 employees to supervise, and the cranky patients, computer changes, yadayadayada. i have been doing med reports at home for 7 years now. aint life grand! DH says i should get a real job, i laugh at him.

back2back now you've peeked my curiosity lol...what kind of entertainment do you do? Sounds interesting.

I taught young children in the Head Start program for 17 years and the last couple of years became a real drag. I was beginning to acquire grandchildren at this time and decided that if I wanted to enjoy them, I better get away from the job I was in. I tried a couple of other jobs and enjoyed them, but felt I was being worked to death. My now husband and I were dating and had plans to marry and he told me to quit working and stay home if I wanted to, so I did. We got married about 8 months later and I have worked harder staying at home than I ever did at a real paying job. I think I was just more organized when I had the paying job, but this job is one I love and can't wait to do each day. Even watering all summer due to no rains didn't discourage me. I love the challenge of gardening and the rewards are more than I could ever imagine. Jim is supportive most of the time, as long as he gets his meals each day. LOL!! Besides, that was 18 years ago and now I couldn't go back to a paying job if I tried. I love my latest job and enjoy getting up to go to work. Winters are a little slow, but I'm still gardening, even if it is in the house.

Management job stress affects everyone in the family especially when they hold it in. It nearly cost me my marriage of 17 years. The major stress of my husbands job, my seeming never ending health problems, and his fathers accident that nearly cost him his life made my husband snap a few months ago. It is important to always talk to someone. Guys it will not make you any less a man to cry on your wifes shoulder and she is the one you should talk to not another woman. The same goes for the women. I sure wish he could just take off and go fish whenever he is upset.

Well shoot Brugie, I am already married and if my DH has not said that to me in 27 years I do not think he is ever going to! LOL.

I totally agree with you Aknapp. I say that to my son all the time. Follow your heart and no matter what it is you want to do, you will be a great success for you will love getting up to do it every day. He is a senior in college and is looking to where the money is. He is confused, the money will follow when you pick what excites you. Money in itself can't sustain you.

I am a nurse also, so many nurses here! I have been working for years and years. I am sick of working. I enjoy being the boss more than I would being the employee at my age, but I have so many things I rather be doing! I am thinking I may stop this year. I bet I can excel at doing nothing but what I want to do!!

I am finding out....."old too soon, smart too late"! I wasted a lot of years working, didn't really need the money, just wanted to be valuable to someone. Wasn't appreciated, only DH appreciates me, and me, him. That is all I need.

Amen, Gloria. That is one thing I have learned over the years with all the trials and tribulations. I remember when I was young, kids were young, we were working every available hour we could, I was working all kinds of overtime, etc., and we were raking home the money, but of course, spending every penny we brought in and so stressed out and miserable. I now realize how un-important material things are to me, I love my life now, I don't work, am able to stay home and play in the yard as much as I want. Sure, I don't have the fancy things I had when I was working my a** off, but I also don't have the stress either. Life is too short and totally unpredictable to spend any time at all not happy!

I worked for 33 yrs teaching and loved doing my job, however, administration kept changing what was working, and it got to be more than I wanted to tackle. Left still loving it and with many fond memories. BUT I love staying home and puttering in the garden and home. I am busy from dawn to dusk - how did I ever have time to work for all those years!! I miss the money coming in, but having little or no stress is better than all the $$ in the world. I get up in the middle of the night to read, sleep in if I want, can use the bathroom anytime, and the frig is always there if I need a snack (10lbs up tho!!) I have every intention of exercising and cleaning closets - maybe next year!! Life's great!!

Interesting reading about you all. I've worked at a University for 35 years. Different departments and different Directors so I've done many things (from secretarial to graphics illustrator to numbers crunching.) Some of the years were very stressful but I had to hang in there because I was the single parent of teen-age children. They are now grown and the job has changed to the point that it is very enjoyable. I could retire anytime now (except I can't live on the reduced income) but plan to stay on for a while. Like TLynn, I have thought about working for a garden center or greenhouse when I do retire, and possibly become a owner (but I'm not sure I want that responsibility.) I love to play with plants and start seeds.

This is my little greenhouse. Not fancy but I love it. It's attached to the garage, so I have a door that lets me do my potting and storage in there, leaving the greenhouse for just plants. I have my old stereo out there, so there's music and it's outlined with little white Christmas lights attached to a timer that comes on every evening at dark (got to go change it, it gets dark so much earlier.)

This is from the side.

I think it's great that so many of you have been able to give up working in order to spend more time at home. I'm betting though that you are either retired and are on pension or have a supporting spouse? Don't knock yourselves for working when you were younger. Did you have a choice then? I know I'm 25 and work full time and I don't know how I could take a lesser job and still survive. I don't mean live in luxury, I mean pay the bills. We do what we have to do to live in today's society. I know noone will pay my mortgage if I don't! lol :) Even though, I look forward to being where you all are one day...

All the above very interesting reading. Surely makes me realize how lucky I am. My husband and I had 80 acres of apple orchard for more than 45 years. Worked very hard 7-24-365 but watched our pennies and invested wisely. I took care of my husband for 7 years, half of which or more he spent in nursing home. After he died I bought the 5 acres where i live now, virgin land. Now my wonderful garden. Have a small 10 X 14 greenhouse, where I love to spend time. Donna