Message #77533

[Brighton Rock]

I'm with Gee on this one. 

I happen to enjoy my job very much indeed, whether it was my "old" job as EA to our CEO or my new role as ACS.  I like work itself and I like the work I do.  Yes, there are days when I feel less than bouncy.  There are days when I wish I could send Bossie on a very long trip, out of reach of telephones and emails, but we get along very well 99 per cent of the time.  My company has been very kind to me during periods of great personal stress.   So, my working life is pretty normal, I think.

I have been with my current employers for quite a while so naturally there are those days that I have described above.  Those are the days that I try hard to count my blessing.  I have a good job with considerate and, on the whole, fair employers who obey the law and follow their own policies.  Our pay isn't lavish, but it is good.  Our holidays are not lavish, but more than the statutory requirement.  We have union representation.  We don't have many perks, as such, but we do have tea, coffee and water free of charge, food when we go to meetings, and a proper kitchen if we wish to store and prepare our own food.  We have pleasant, but not extravagant, offices with decent furniture and good equipment.  We have plants inside and a small garden outside.  So there is nothing to dislike, except the usual "rub" of getting along with very different characters of our colleagues. 

There are people living just down the street from my workplace who don't have enough to eat, are poorly housed, and have a low income.  Friends of mine are losing jobs.  Others are losing welfare benefits.

I also have a husband and children.  I could, I suppose, not work because my husband's income is more than large enough to pay for our needs.  I work because I want to and it helps pay our family's school fees and, more recently, college education. 

I'm lucky, and I know it.  So, I suppose that my natural character is my motivation and also simple gratitude.