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