So disclaimer first, this is my first reddit post so excuse me if I make some errors in formatting. Also this ones a bit ranty.
Im a 33m i followed the rules set out by my schooling, im in the UK, so after GCSEs i did my A levels. Following the trend at the time I studied an Engineering degree because it was sold as high demand and highly paid. Im sure many other engineers will agree in 2012 that wasnt the case, the market was saturated. So after a while working basic office jobs I decided to upskill and study a masters degree and eventually got working in a related field.
Anyway despite achieving what was in theory the goal of my education my work only served to make me miserable. I love science and engineering, and did enjoy the technical aspects of my job but I was just miserable. Anyway after working for 5 years in the field I had enough and quit to work for myself and Ive never been happier. I make less money but I have more time to myself and after about 18 months i finally figured out what the problem was.
No one is telling me what to think and trying to gaslight me to work outside my best interests. Im very happy to rock up and do my job, and do it well. But my managers always wanted me to be on board with the company culture and bullshit ideologies. It felt like constantly they where trying to fundamentally change the way I think to exploit more from me. Just doing my job well wasnt enough for them I had to be happy and greatful about it. In my line of work which is project based we do have crunch periods and international clients so overtime (unpaid of course) is part of the territory, I never complained and just got on with it, I was the project lead and the work needs to be done after all, but still they would try and force feed me bullshit about how lucky I was and how I needed to commit more to the company. Urgh i dont know how anyone does it I saw through all the committee approved corporate “we care about our staff” and their weak attempts of platitude.
Anyway now I work for myself no one tells me what to think, I just get to do my work. I work the same as before, my clients are happy, the work is done on time and Im much happier. Why can companies not be happy with that in their employees, why must they try and manipulate, brainwash and gaslight employees to thinking a certain way.
TLDR: I figured out what made me miserable was my past employers trying to brainwash me to their corporate ideals