brain turning to mush at job

[albireo13]

My job at MegaCorp has my brain turning to mush.
Instead of solving real problems and designing system architectures, I am mired in process documentation.
Documentation which anyone with a HS education could handle.  It will take me weeks/months to get through it.
At some level it is hilarious, at another level it is sad.

In any event, I am approaching the breaking point at my job.

[diapasoun]

You need a technical writer. Can you get a technical writer?

[Vertical Mode]

Sorry to hear it, that sounds pretty tedious. Kind of reminds me of my last job, where a not-insignificant portion of my time involved shredding enormous quantities of large-format documents. Haven't worked at a megacorp and not a whole lot of experience with this type of problem, so mostly just here for support.

Do you by any chance read "Ask A Manager"? Trying to pivot away from boring tasks that underutilize your skills seems like the kind of topic they'd have at least one post about, perhaps there would be something there that might resonate with you.

Good luck!

[calimom]

OP you are veering into complain-y pants territory. Based on other posts, you have assets of close to 2 million dollars and you say you have a pension.  You're not young; you're basically traditional retirement age. Yet you continue to stay with a job that is beating you down emotionally and physically. It's destroying your health, yet you go day after day after day after day.

One question: why?

[SC93]

Have you ever listed to the Ken Coleman podcast? If not, you should give it a try. Sometimes the first 5 minutes are boring but he takes calls from listeners. You could either call, email or just listen.... maybe it might help you get to your sweet spot in life. He is in the App Store.

[grantmeaname]

OP you are veering into complain-y pants territory. Based on other posts, you have assets of close to 2 million dollars and you say you have a pension.  You're not young; you're basically traditional retirement age. Yet you continue to stay with a job that is beating you down emotionally and physically. It's destroying your health, yet you go day after day after day after day.

One question: why?

Agreed. Quit whining and either 1) admit to yourself that you actually love your desk job, or 2) retire.

[albireo13]

Staying another year to cover expected big expenses on the horizon ....  college tuition for my son.
I want to get past that before retiring, for more security.

I am a compainie-pants, aren't I??  : )

[Roadrunner53]

I was a lab technician and did a lot of technical writing. I absolutely loved it! My boss was a brilliant engineer educated at MIT. Since all the engineers avoided doing documentation, everyone was behind. I had only done SOP's and some other small reports in the past but my boss put me to work writing technical reports. I would meet with the engineer and he would give me his half ass notes, pictures and whatever else and pulled the report together. Since my boss was involved with all the projects he added to the report as I progressed. He critiqued my writing skills which was very uncomfortable for a while. But I learned so much from him it no longer bothered me when he corrected my writing. He critiqued in a good way. If I had to do it over again and was seeking a new career, technical writing would be for me! Most of the engineers I worked with just didn't like writing about their experiments and the progress of the project. I found it fascinating because I would document everything from the very beginning of the project to the end! Talk about trials and tribulations! Many wrong paths, then success! Some of my reports were 150-200 pages and more. Filled with graphs, photos, even x-rays to show cracks. Wish I could help you with your reports! I would get so engrossed with the reports that I would begrudgingly have to go home due to no overtime! LOL!

I have several suggestions and one would be to not let your documentation linger till the end. Do a little each week. Even if it is raw, it can be dolled up later. Another suggestion is if you can hire a professional tech. writer as a temp. or hire a college kid as an intern to write reports. You might also have a hidden gem that already works with you that could be utilized to write reports. Not everyone is detail oriented to do technical writing. Not all engineers are good at documentation either. They have it in their heads but not anywhere someone can get at it.

[GuitarStv]

My job at MegaCorp has my brain turning to mush.
Instead of solving real problems and designing system architectures, I am mired in process documentation.
Documentation which anyone with a HS education could handle.  It will take me weeks/months to get through it.
At some level it is hilarious, at another level it is sad.

In any event, I am approaching the breaking point at my job.

My experience has been that this is very typical of work at large corporations.  Process becomes more important than product, and the higher you get up the chain, the less real work and the more process/documentation you end up spending time on.  Leaving the company for a smaller place (following a less ridiculously overbearing process) has made me much happier, even if it came with a slight pay cut.

[Roadrunner53]

The company I used to worked for got a contract with a large mega company to build a custom built machine to use with our patented containers. It was all new technology that my 'little' company claimed they could accomplish. There was a lot of underhanded crap that went on. Certain palm greasing went on to build a machine with a company this one engineer had past history with. This machine company had no experience in certain sterilization techniques that were needed. The machine was a disaster and NEVER ended up working. This mega company was outraged they had put millions into this technology and the machine was a DUD! That is when they demanded documentation to see where their money had been spent and what kind of engineering went into this pile of metal junk. They ended up yanking the metal junk pile out of the building and took it to one of their facilities. I still wonder if they ever got it to run!

[shunkman]

I also felt that my brain was turning to mush at work. Typically, around 2PM my brain would start shutting down. I think this was due to too much multitasking and a dysfunctional work environment which has gotten much worse over the past few years. Or maybe its just my aging brain? Regardless, I finally said screw this. Today I am celebrating my first FIRE Monday!

[iluvzbeach]

I also felt that my brain was turning to mush at work. Typically, around 2PM my brain would start shutting down. I think this was due to too much multitasking and a dysfunctional work environment which has gotten much worse over the past few years. Or maybe its just my aging brain? Regardless, I finally said screw this. Today I am celebrating my first FIRE Monday!

Congrats to you! I am very much in the same boat as you describe, too much multi/switch tasking and my brain is fried by 2:00 each afternoon. I am really envious that today is your first FIRE Monday as mine is still 27 months away. Enjoy!

[mathlete]

Sorry for your situation. Sounds like you're nearing the light at the end of the tunnel though.

I will say that I find process documentation to be very important. And the people who stay behind after you leave will really appreciate it.

[Roadrunner53]

mathlete, I totally agree with you in the importance in documentation. I was instructed many years ago to keep a good lab book because in the event of a patent, if it isn't documented it doesn't exist.

Plus, like you said, those who come behind you, will appreciate the documentation. This way they don't have to reinvent the wheel by redoing what has already been tried.

[MrThatsDifferent]

Staying another year to cover expected big expenses on the horizon ....  college tuition for my son.
I want to get past that before retiring, for more security.

I am a compainie-pants, aren't I??  : )

Yes, you are. You don’t need to work an entire year at a job you hate when you have the assets that you do to cover the expenses of your son. You’re not being honest with yourself. That’s on you to deal with but I’m not sure what’s the point of posting this when you have no intention of doing anything about it? You have FU money, tell them you’re not doing the work and you want something more interesting or go on a vacation for as much time as you have saved up and force them to get someone else. Or just quit. Because you can. Easily. Just recognize that the only crisis you’re in is the one you’ve created for yourself. You’re not powerless, stop pretending you are for sympathy from strangers.

[albireo13]

Wow!

A bunch of harsh responses. 
Time to lock this thread I think.
Thanks.

[Dicey]

Wow, Albireo13, I did not realize we are about the same age. Another post made me think you were much younger. Now I'm reading through your previous posts with interest. I'd like to finish before commenting much more than this. If you're interested in what I hope will be helpful feedback, please don't lock the thread just yet.

What I see so far is that you have a lot of stressors in your life. It isn't just the job that's "turning your brain into mush". You seem to be facing a wall of stress from all directions.

I would definitely turn down the pseudo-promotion. You just got a raise, you don't need the money. It's fine to indicate to your boss that you want to enter the glide path toward retirement. You might also cite the challenges of dealing with aging parents.

Perhaps you've written about this elsewhere, but I haven't seen it, so sorry if this is a repeat. Could you explain a little bit more about your youngest son?

My bonus kid is about to turn 26, still in Junior College, and only started a real-ish job about a year ago. It's not full time and doesn't have benefits. And he still lives at home. DH also lost his first wife and received a similar amount from her 401k. We have also dealt with the aging process and death of three out of four parents in the last five years. The remaining parent has ALZ and lives with us. Seems we have a lot in common... Oh, and I hated my job before retirement ;-)

[seemsright]

Maybe figure out how much you make per minute. The data will either entertain you as the company is paying you to do intern level stuff or make you even more mad that you have to do intern level stuff.

[grantmeaname]

Wow!

A bunch of harsh responses.
Time to lock this thread I think.
Thanks.

These are just friendly facepunches. It's how we show love.

[Schaefer Light]

Typically, around 2PM my brain would start shutting down.

2PM?  That's pretty good.  You're getting in a good 4 or 5 hours before it happens.  Mine shuts down around 9:15.

[frugalnacho]

Typically, around 2PM my brain would start shutting down.

2PM?  That's pretty good.  You're getting in a good 4 or 5 hours before it happens.  Mine shuts down around 9:15.

Mine too.  It's crazy because I generally come in at least 15 minutes late.  I use the side door - that way Lumberg doesn't see me. 

[swampwiz]

In my working days as a mercenary programmer, sometimes I would so impress my client with my documentation writing that I would be asked to help out others' documentation.  I actually enjoyed that - and since the other programmers would not have to deal with it, they would always be helpful in explaining to me what their code was doing so that I could crank out something that flowed like a great textbook.

[Roadrunner53]

Swampwiz, Yes, some of the documentation I generated was pretty good too! I loved doing it and I think some people are just wired differently to be able to do it. You have to be a very organized person. I found that it was like a story that had to flow from beginning, middle to end.

[o2bfree]

I too love tech writing, been doing it for awhile. Six-figure salary ain't bad either.

[Roadrunner53]

o2bfree, YES! If I had it to do over again, tech writing would be my go to job! Where I worked they also had a REAL tech writer who knew much more than I did. I never did some of the more intense things but would have loved it! The money is good! However, the real tech writer was a contract employee. My guess it that kind of job would be short lived at each place you worked unless you worked for a HUGE corporation.  I heard the real tech writer cracked up and they had to have the cops come and not allow him in the building... Mmmm, maybe the job is too intense!

[o2bfree]

o2bfree, YES! If I had it to do over again, tech writing would be my go to job! Where I worked they also had a REAL tech writer who knew much more than I did. I never did some of the more intense things but would have loved it! The money is good! However, the real tech writer was a contract employee. My guess it that kind of job would be short lived at each place you worked unless you worked for a HUGE corporation.

Mine is a medium-sized company and all our writers are full-time. Many have been here 10-20+years. But then that's the kind of company this is, you're a short-timer if you've been here less than 10 years.

I heard the real tech writer cracked up and they had to have the cops come and not allow him in the building... Mmmm, maybe the job is too intense!

LOL!! Yeah, tech writers can be a little off for some reason. We've had a few real cuckoo nuts that either ended up getting fired or left. I think part of the reason is that user docs are often considered a necessary evil, so sometimes tech writers don't get a lot of respect. So here we are all excited about documenting something to the nth degree, and no one else seems to give a rat's azz. Also, reviewers can be unkind, and you gotta develop a thick skin and just be able to focus on what's best for the customer.

[Roadrunner53]

Well,  this guy was an oddball. He was a temporary employee and he spoke to me for several months. I went on vacation, without telling him, and when I came back, he never spoke to me again! We were not close at all and basically only said good morning. One time he approached me and spoke like a normal human being. Then BAM, he never spoke to me again! I tested him and kind of spoke to him basically forcing him to speak to me. He was curt and cut and dried and the answer was like two works. I NEVER got what this idiots problem was. I did find out that he did the same to some others. The bad thing was that I never said a bad thing about this guy and just minded my business. UGH, where do these mentals come from!