Lubeboy

So here's my story. I've survived over three rounds of layoffs where I work. The once fun and collaborative work environment is no longer there. Most of my good friends I made at the job have been laid off or quit. Morale is at an all time low. I've been looking for a new job ever since, going on interviews, etc.. but haven't found anything solid yet for me to jump ship. I'm trying to keep positive but it's increasingly eating away at me psychologically working there. I just don't want to be there. I don't know how much longer I can take it. Some days I just want to quit or wish they would lay me off so I can go on unemployment so I can really concentrate on looking for a job and brush up my skills. Then I remember that I have to pay rent and eat. So my question for people out there in similar situations, how are you sucking it up until something better comes along? What's keeping you sane?

Glory's Sun

I don't suck up at all actually.. I just do my work better than the next guy.

little_tippler

I suck up by doing a fucking great job, all the time. My boss knows it. I know he knows it. I know if I wanted to leave he'd offer to pay me more so I'd stay, though I'm not sure how far he'd go. He once told me if I decided to leave he'd still want me to step in freelance. Shitty side of it is, even so, he's not usually keen to offer any extras or pay rises. I have to wrench everything out of him...but I know it's not that he doesn't value me, he's just cheap. Which I hate. I'm looking...but I know I'm not in such a bad place overall.

Not sure I would suck up if I felt I had to. I'd rather be somewhere where people recognize my dedication to the job, which is something I pride myself on. I am not one to let others step on me, so it would be hard for me to be somewhere where someone above me was constantly challenging me, just for the hell of it. There would be sparks!

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

Cynosure

So, you don't suck up because you're such a fantastic worker, you don't need to suck up, eh?

Too bad life isn't fair. In a recession (or, even worse, in a near depression, like we're having), even the best and hardest workers can have the rug pulled out from under them and find themselves laid off. Meanwhile, others can do craptastic jobs and still get bonuses for it, e.g. the managers at AIG.

snowy

Hey guys, I think he meant "suck it up" not "suck up", like hanging tough when times are tough.

I just realize that things can always change, and that we all go through times in our lives where we just need to keep our heads down, our noses clean, and get through whatever it is that has to be got through.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Sue

I was kept at my job when layoffs were done. Only one was laid off, and another resigned.

I'm starting nursing school in a week and a half, so if anything happens regarding my job, I'll just concentrate on school and live on my student loans. There's an urgent care practically across the street from me should I want to stay experienced and get some extra money in.

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Teg yw edrych tuag adref.

World's King

It's not so much sucking up as it is sucking off.

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heavy is the head that wears the crown

Manic_Skafe

Saving cash and doubling up on recreational activities is what keeps me sane. Having a bank account/ mattress full of cash helps alleviate the stress of having to make a shit job work out as does knowing that by the end of the week, I'll have my face between the breasts of someone who's name I'll be incapable of remembering.

__________________
"Porn is a zoo of exotic animals that becomes boring upon ownership." -Nersesian

MSD

In a few years I'll be able to get a free Ph. D working here, then do something that rakes in the cash, then retire and teach.

Xerxys

Manic, are you some sort of .... life sensei?

I suck up by being nice to the boss and trying, somewhat covertly, to get into her pants. These lewd "The Todd" like thoughts get me through the day of people I find inherently evil but strikingly sexy. But then again, my job is easier than nothing else in the world.

777

Look at the bright side, at least you're working

I've been unemployed from a few months now and it bites. I'm down to potatoes and Spam. And it's not even the good Spam, I'm getting the generic stuff.

__________________
"I don't know that I ever wanted greatness, on its own. It seems rather like wanting to be an engineer, rather than wanting to design something - or wanting to be a writer, rather than wanting to write. It should be a by-product, not a thing in itself. Otherwise, it's just an ego trip."

Roger Zelazny

Willravel

The key to any job is to find joy in it. You could have the best job in the world, but you'd be bored and frustrated if you weren't intentionally finding ways that your job can fulfill you. I know it sounds vaguely philosophical, but it's true. You need to list aspects of your job from least favorable to most favorable and then latch on to your favorite parts of the job. Maybe it's being able to surf the internet while still efficiently working. Maybe it's that one boss that really encourages you. Maybe it's that satisfied customer. It's up to you to find it.

Good luck on the job search, btw.

inBOIL

When I read the title, I wondered if you were referring to a job or a relationship.

__________________
And you believe Bush and the liberals and divorced parents and gays and blacks and the Christian right and fossil fuels and Xbox are all to blame, meanwhile you yourselves create an ad where your kid hits you in the head with a baseball and you don't understand the message that the problem is you.

Lubeboy

Sigh... read the OP

Push-Pull

I just went through this recently, although before the market tanked. I leapfrogged from job to job until I finally landed where I am. My secret was just knowing that I had a (nearly) handicapped wife to take care of and plain ol' stubbornness. I'M the one in control, I'M gonna do something. In the end, it ended up being a combination of "What's my next step?" and "Oooh! What's that over there?"

Sorry, that's all I have.

__________________
"No laws, no matter how rigidly enforced, can protect a person from their own stupidity." -Me-

"Some people are like Slinkies..... They are not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs." -Unknown-

DAMMIT! -Jack Bauer-

mixedmedia

Like other people here, I don't suck up either. I just do a great job. There have been two rounds of lay-offs in the company I work for since I started last May. One that happened just yesterday, as a matter of fact. They let some people go and reduced all of our salaries by 8%. As a result of the lay-off, my workload is going to increase exponentially which conflicts in a jarring fashion with the realization that I am going to be paid less to do it. Yet, I still must be happy that I have a job.

I am morally opposed to 'sucking up' unless the sucking up is honest. Sometimes sucking up is honest - if you really do admire and appreciate the people you are sucking up to. But anyway the person whose workload I will be picking up starting next week was let go primarily because he didn't 'get it' they said. Meaning he was not a 'team player,' not enthusiastic enough about 'the dream', etc. etc. Which made me laugh inside a little because anyone who knows me, knows that I don't 'get it,' either. I think the difference though between this fellow and myself is simple maturity and professionalism. If you bring those to work with you everyday, then you don't need to worry about sucking up and you don't need to worry about being thought to not 'get it', either. Save your sarcasm and bitching for the family dinner table and facebook where they belong. That is, of course, unless you made the mistake of friending work people on facebook, lol. Then your avenues are a little more limited.

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

Lubeboy

Um this thread isn't about kissing ass, it's about hanging in at your current situation until something better comes along. Didn't anyone read the OP?

frogza

I have gone out and got a second job teaching night school. It allows me to keep working at my day job but opens up an avenue should things go south at work. It doesn't much time for recreation but since knowing that I don't have all my hopes pinned to one job I don't have as much stress and am able to enjoy the smaller things around the house more.

Cynosure

Sorry, man, but "sucking up" (as given in the title of your post) is the same as "kissing ass" and "brown nosing", just as a "suck up" is the same as an "ass kisser" and a "brown noser".

You were probably thinking of the phrase, "suck it up, walk it off".

little_tippler

I think since Lubeboy started the thread, it's only fair we try and respond to what he intended. I missed it too! Your thread title is misleading so I tweaked it a little. Hope you don't mind.

__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

mixedmedia

Sorry about that. But I also explained how I am sucking it up in my post.

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

canuckguy

This is a weird time, I know how I should be acting and handling my money but I also realize these trying times also produce great opportunity. I am in sales so my goal is always to bring in more money than I cost the company. Whether that keeps me employed I really don't know, and really don't care at this point. It is a job that pays amazing, I've saved most of my money and would be just as happy working at walmart if i needed too.

My missus though has a much different story. She was given her lay off notice Feb 17th, the day we were put an offer in on a house!! The house was an amazing deal because of the market so I still pulled the trigger and bought it anyway rolling the dice that everything would work out. Wise choice as I can afford the mortgage with a low paying job so why not eh.

She was very depressed when she was given her notice because like above she always out worked her co-workers by 1000%. She chairs every committee, when two people were let go last years she took on there roles and still did her job too with no increase in pay because she was so efficient. She is amazingly talented and one of the most determined and positive people I know.

At her work, like any office you have some real incompetent people get to keep there jobs yet she is getting laid off in 1 month. Makes no sense.

She used that opportunity to apply for ANY job out there, plus she applied to selected career jobs in her field. She went on many interviews always making it to the final stages with no luck. The kicker is that she currently works for a non-profit and gets paid crap for what she does, so really any job would have done for her.

She received an offer on tueday for a job in her field that pays triple what she makes now. it is insane! Her determination and hard work paid off, less than 1 month after getting a lay off notice she is now going to an amazing company AND making triple? It makes my head spin! she is an amazing girl. she never would have applied without getting that lay off notice.

Work hard at your current position but always be prepared for the worst. Just remember that with tough times brings great opportunity.

blahblah454

That is awesome canuckguy!

I have the worst boss that I have ever had in my life, the man is intentionally rude and mean to his employees. He purposely tries to put people down, and not in a playful manner, in a hurtful way.

I am also in a job that I care very little about the subject material. I have no interest in what I do and do not believe that I ever will be interested in it. But I am good at it and would probably be able to excel in it, but I need to get out.

My plan was to work 1 to 2 years out here and get some good field experience and then go to a job that I really want to do. I wanted to actually take my experience and move overseas and get a job in the oil industry somewhere. But his has all backfired since this recession has come along. I am now trying my hardest to be seen as a valuable team member and offer to help everyone else in the office anytime they need it. Its a little difficult helping everyone else with their work when they would never in a million years even help me out with a small issue. Being the office computer guy (not actually, but I know more about computers and software than the rest combined) I get called on every single time there is a problem, and I get the nagging feeling that the boss does not give two shits for me. Its not the best situation to be in.

So I suppose I am just going to hang in there until this all turns around, then jump ship ASAP and move on to something that I will enjoy more.

Bill O'Rights

Same here. I'm going into my 5th month of unemployment.

__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

soma

I'm in my last semester of college, hardly making any money, so I just stay at home and eat canned food until I get a "real" job after graduating.

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Having Girl Problems?

ASU2003

You have to seperate your work life from your personal life. Make a budget and have your bills paid automatically, while keeping debts down as low as possible (home, apartment). Then focus on having fun with your life outside of work.

The other important thing is to sit down and have a plan for 6 months if you lost your job or quit your job. Would you have enough saved to survive? What would you do around town that doesn't cost much? Would you work on starting your own company or trying to come up with some new product?

And if you are not happy at your current job, start looking and figuring out what job you want to have. How much money you really need to live the lifestyle you want, instead of what others might expect you to do.

Bear Cub

Hell no, my job is great right now. When my work started to suffer because of other people's laziness, I made a huge fucking stink about it. Clients found out, site managers found out... I stirred the pot in every way imaginable. During the lulls, I took on side projects and created systems that now make me indispensable to the group. Everyone important loves me, site personnel love me, and I'll be receiving a raise/promotion/per diem when I'm transferred in June.

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Living in the United Socialist States of America.