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i was watching the 1999 movie office space the
other day a comedy set at the peak of the 1990s
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corporate culture it is one of my all-time
favorite movies but the more i watch it the
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more i notice something the core of this comedy
is its cynical commentary on working a boring job
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at a boring company but the more i watch it the
better the jobs of peter and his co-workers look
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because it's a comedy the writers took a
lot of creative liberties to make peter's
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working environment especially terrible but even
still 20 years later it doesn't look that bad
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his office cubicle would be a luxury to most
workers today in an open plan office with no walls
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in sight he is allowed to go on extended lunches
with his colleagues and even his over dramatized
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shitty boss knows that working on a weekend is
a big ask rather than an expectation this made
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me think of the classic anecdote find a job you
love and you will never work a day in your life
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most of us go to work because we have to not
because we want to and that means a lot of us
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are stuck spending a good portion of our waking
hours doing things that aren't very enjoyable
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a cunning strategy that school career planners
and linkedin gurus will promote to get around this
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unfortunate predicament is to find a job that you
love doing so that you are excited to go to work
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every day and you don't feel like you are working
at all on the surface this sounds sensible now
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more than ever with new technologies there are
millions of different job titles out there with
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new professions and career paths being made every
single day my job as a now full-time youtuber
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didn't exist 15 years ago but now it's the career
that children want most beating out traditionally
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popular options like astronaut but i want to
do what i do best which is to rein in on this
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parade of finding fulfillment through your work
instead i want to try and convince you that what
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you want instead is a really boring job a job
that doesn't make you or anybody else excited
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a job that nobody would dream of so it's time
to learn how money works which was made possible
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there are lots of very attractive jobs out there
that for a number of factors would appear to be
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preferable over other jobs there is being a doctor
lawyer or high-level corporate executive which is
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enticing because these roles are traditionally
very well paid and are very well respected by
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society at large if you tell someone that you
are a c-suite executive at a fortune 500 company
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you are instantly going to get more respect
than if you told them that you work in retail
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is this how it should be of course not but it is
and people are willing to sacrifice a lot for that
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respect these roles come with the expectation
of very long and irregular hours to say nothing
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of the years of grueling study or corporate butt
kissing needed to get the jobs in the first place
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now there's actually nothing wrong with these jobs
most people know what they are getting themselves
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in for when they pursue these kinds of careers and
the trade-offs are clear most people do these jobs
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because of prestige not because they love them so
what about jobs that people are more passionate
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about the jobs that people would supposedly love
to do i am talking about jobs in the fields that
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people get excited about like gaming fashion
travel and sports imagine getting paid to make
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video games or attend fashion events around
the world sounds like a dream right well no
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big name companies in aspirational industries
are more often than not terrible places to work
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the reason for this is simple they know that
people want to work for them so if you as a worker
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aren't willing to put in unpaid overtime deal
with abusive management and accept comparatively
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low pay then there are dozens or sometimes even
hundreds of equally qualified candidates who are
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willing to put up with these issues because they
get to work what they thought would be their dream
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job turnover in these companies is extremely
high especially when it is considered that
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these businesses are attracting skilled career
driven workers the type of worker that you might
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normally expect to stick around for longer than
a regular employee now of course changing jobs
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regularly is actually a good idea employees that
change companies on average every two years are
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paid significantly better than their peers who
attempt to work for internal promotions but you
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need to be quitting for the right reasons quitting
your current job to start a new more senior role
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at a company offering double your current salary
as a great career move quitting your current job
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because you can't mentally handle another week of
a coding crunch is probably going to stall your
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career development another reason it's best to
avoid doing what you love for work is that you
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won't love it forever even the most exciting jobs
you can imagine have a lot of boring work that
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comes with them a video game tester will spend
most of their time doing the same mission over and
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over again to make sure there are no bugs and most
people that work for nfl teams spend their days in
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an office answering emails just like everybody
else even if a dream job does manage to live up
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to its type initially there is one surefire way
to end up hating something you originally loved
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and that is being forced to do it for 40 hours
a week with the threat of homelessness hanging
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over you if you don't really you are much better
off working for money and then using that money
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to enjoy things you love in your own time in
your own way hopefully i have convinced you
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that exciting jobs are not all that they seem but
surely that doesn't mean that a boring job is the
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best alternative right well they have a few big
perks that a lot of people don't really consider
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a boring job at a boring company will on average
be easier to get than the rare more prized
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jobs at exciting companies having more options
available to you especially early in your career
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can be a big head start over your peers who waited
out or go through extended internships to get a
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traditional dream job boring jobs will also on
average pay better ford's median employee made 64
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316 dollars in 2018 including bonuses overtime and
stock awards gm's media and employee made slightly
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more than 77 849 dollars tesla a far more exciting
business paid its median employee just 56 163
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this of course will not be true for every company
but again if there are more people that want to
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work at a company then generally that company
can get away with paying their workers less
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this is even more apparent when we
zoom out to look at entire industries
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on average web developers will earn more than
game developers a marketing manager for exxon
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will learn more than a marketing manager
for the patriots and an administrative
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assistant at a bank will earn more than
an administrative assistant at vanity fair
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if you are doing a job to make money you should
maximize the amount of money you can get for
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doing that job you won't see the name on the
side of your building from your desk anyway
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now if making money isn't the most important thing
for you when considering a career a boring job
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still has its perks boring jobs are just genuinely
more enjoyable a boring company is more likely to
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be filled with employees and managers who realize
that a job is something people do to put food on
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the table this type of corporate attitude tends to
result in more productive workplace relationships
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a manager at a generic boring company that has
been in their job for decades and has no ambitions
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of moving up the corporate ladder is not going
to take it personally when you ask for a raise
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a promotion or a reference letter contrast
that with a company where the management has
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drunk though we are changing the world kool-aid
and you are much more likely to face opposition
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when doing these things that all employees
should really be doing as regularly as possible
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time and time again we hear stories about high
staff turnover and toxic workplace culture in
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companies that sound exciting from the outside
this is because when managers believe what they
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are doing is more important than just working a
job to make a living they naturally expect their
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colleagues to work harder than should reasonably
be expected to toxic workplace cultures are almost
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inevitable in environments where managers will
think to themselves that straight-up verbal abuse
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is really just a heated disagreement amongst
peers who are too passionate about what they do
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these types of managers are also much more likely
to go unchecked in exciting fields because again
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staff turnover is not a big deal when there is an
endless line of new candidates now before anybody
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says it in the comments yes you're absolutely
right there are great managers and there are
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terrible managers in every kind of company but
you are much more likely to run into one in a
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job that you thought was going to be exciting and
that's the biggest bonus of a boring job better
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management on average that boring company manager
from earlier that has been at the job for a decade
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will have one big advantage over the manager
from an exciting company with high staff turnover
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they will have more experience at their job
working for a manager that has seen every possible
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problem the job can throw at them is going to be
a much more pleasant experience than working for
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a manager who is figuring it out as they go along
a more experienced manager also has less to prove
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if they feel secure in their own position then
they won't feel the need to work their employees
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to the bone to avoid becoming one of those
turnover statistics themselves last month i made
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a video about why management is always terrible
and the reason that video was so important is
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because people don't quit jobs they quit managers
even the best most exciting job in the world would
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quickly become unbearable with a useless manager
that takes their shortcomings out on their workers
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working a boring job gives you a better chance
of finding a good manager who will make your
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time at work not totally miserable and also help
to progress your career so that you can make more
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money and use that to enjoy the hobbies that other
people were dumb enough to try and build a career
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around i have a theory about why we all love
movies like office space or tv shows like parks
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and rec and the office so much these shows all
highlight the realities of a boring workplace to
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a comically ridiculous degree but at the same time
they are also very comfortable places to work the
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people stick around and even the bad guy bosses
are not abusive towards their employees maybe
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this is an indictment on how low the bar is for
what we consider comfortable working arrangements
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in america but i think it's something more we turn
to these kinds of shows for comfort binge watching
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we wouldn't do that if we didn't secretly think
that maybe working alongside these people in these
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boring offices wouldn't be such a bad thing now if
you want to learn more about why good managers are
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so hard to come by go and watch my video on why
company management is always terrible a special
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thanks again to morningbrew for making it possible
for everybody to keep on learning how money works
