I've worked in IT, retail and as a gardener.
What I don't like about IT is the frustration when you don't know what's wrong and stackoverflow doesn't have the answer. It is also very stressful when people expect you to fix an error asap and you spend hours trying to think of a solution only to figure out that a new software update caused some trouble and you have to reload one file or something. Also working on a computer all day and getting home playing videogames wasn't the kind of lifestyle I wanted.
Working in retail is like hell. I carefully arranged the groceries in the morning only to witness how people ransack the shelves within 3 hours and make it look like the day before. Not knowing what it's like outside because of no windows, no feeling of time, hearing the same ads and music over and over again, customers who go apeshit on a price difference of 5 cents.. it's insane. Also no two days of weekend, shifts, shitty payment and mold in the shelves.
Right now I work as a gardener and it has some great benefits but my body constantly hurts and I'm so tired when I get home. I reduced my workload from 40 hours a week to 30 hours, which feels a lot better, but the payment is really bad. Physical labor outside under every weather condition is hard. Management told me we don't always have very difficult tasks to do, but today was such a day again and I just don't see myself doing this kind of hard work every know and then for the next 40 years.
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So ideally, what I'm looking for is a job with these aspects:
- My workplace changes. Doesn't have to be daily but every know and then I want to see something different. I dread the thought of going to the same place, the same office every day until retirement.
- Where I'm able to work 30 hours a week and the working hours are strict. No “We need to finish this now, so you have to work overtime!”
- A job with a decent salary so I can afford some hobbies. My salary right know only allows me to afford the basics aka what I need to survive.
- A job where I work together with others but I also have my own freedom and peace.
- No bullshit projects. What I mean by that are things like this: We had to uproot a perfectly fine hedge because the neighbor complained that the hedge was growing through his fence and therefore diminished the space of his property. So we spend like a week of physical labor during freezing temperatures, harsh winds and rain to erase an existing hedge and replace it with a new one which has like 30 cm space to the fence. Today we had to correct a mistake which could have easily been prevented. I worked 10 hours, my limbs hurt and I'm tired and tomorrow we do the same again. I'm so done with this, it sucks!
Maybe I just needed to vent because being a gardener is almost perfect if it wasn't so exhausting and wouldn't pay so shitty.. Maybe being a tree appraiser or a forest ranger would be better but I know it's going to be hard for me to study something new whilst having depression.