Asking about jobs is a normal conversation-starter when you meet someone. It isn't too personal, it might indicate areas of shared interest and it allows us to slot people into a neat pigeon-hole.
Lots of people lie to others about how happy they are about the work side of their life because they want to appear successful and in control of their destiny. Lots of people also lie to themselves about how happy they are in their work life. Some of them realise ten or twenty years down the line that they've built their life around a job they hate and they've been chasing goals that are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The really sad people are those who get to sixty and realise they took a wrong turn in their youth and have wasted most of their life doing something they aren't proud of and which gives them no true satisfaction.
The way our economy is structured means that there are a huge number of people doing drone-work that pays the bills but occupies a large part of their time and gives no real sense of achievement or satisfaction. There's nothing wrong with being honest about being in such a job when you first meet someone. If that makes them uncomfortable, it could be that they're one of those people who's lying to themselves about their own job-satisfaction. Cognitive dissonance - that unsettling feeling you get when the facts in front of you conflict with what you believe - can be a bitch.
As Swick says, the work you're doing right now isn't nearly as important as where you're heading and what your long-term goals are. If you're in a shitty job, going through the motions like a good little drone and hating yourself for that, it's probably time for you to have a good think about what you want out of life and how you can get to a better place.
IIN to respond honestly to the question "What do you do?"
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Asking about jobs is a normal conversation-starter when you meet someone. It isn't too personal, it might indicate areas of shared interest and it allows us to slot people into a neat pigeon-hole.
Lots of people lie to others about how happy they are about the work side of their life because they want to appear successful and in control of their destiny. Lots of people also lie to themselves about how happy they are in their work life. Some of them realise ten or twenty years down the line that they've built their life around a job they hate and they've been chasing goals that are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The really sad people are those who get to sixty and realise they took a wrong turn in their youth and have wasted most of their life doing something they aren't proud of and which gives them no true satisfaction.
The way our economy is structured means that there are a huge number of people doing drone-work that pays the bills but occupies a large part of their time and gives no real sense of achievement or satisfaction. There's nothing wrong with being honest about being in such a job when you first meet someone. If that makes them uncomfortable, it could be that they're one of those people who's lying to themselves about their own job-satisfaction. Cognitive dissonance - that unsettling feeling you get when the facts in front of you conflict with what you believe - can be a bitch.
As Swick says, the work you're doing right now isn't nearly as important as where you're heading and what your long-term goals are. If you're in a shitty job, going through the motions like a good little drone and hating yourself for that, it's probably time for you to have a good think about what you want out of life and how you can get to a better place.