Learning Throughout Life: We have to stick it out at work...

I have a few questions.

How long have you worked at your current job?
What makes you want to stay working where you are?
What makes you want to leave?
What would you do to change your situation if it's not going well?

You can answer these questions in the comments. I am really interested in knowing your thoughts.

Meetings at work cover topics which can be interesting. Pay grades, holiday time, department issues, future plans, grievances, praise. It's a rollercoaster. I'm often quiet during meetings but I think my face says a lot...

Why do we stay working in places that do not value their staff? Why do we accept low pay?

When we have interviews, I think many of us forget that we are absolutely entitled to interview our prospective employer just as much as they are. I always go equipped with questions. I ask awkward questions, posed nicely, of course, but I want to know what I am getting into. I have as much right to decline a job offer.

Qualifications seem to outweigh the experience which is concerning. Where I live, they seem to want it all, but the feedback I've had over the years is that how can one get experience and be qualified if first you need to get qualified to then get experience? Chicken and egg. I think it's one of two things.

1. Employers who don't want the job of training someone.

2. See no1.

This is not isolated but i'm sure you have experienced this kind of thing.

"When the job requires 10 years of
experience before the age of 22."

I am absolutely not against the idea of university, I am against the idea that someone who may not have a degree, who has perhaps studied in their own time at home and/or gained valuable life experience, a chance to prove themselves. People are unable to gain a university degree for a multitude of reasons. I value qualifications but I also value experience and life.

I came from a dysfunctional working class family, my parents did not support their kids during their marriage and it was sad that I went through school with heavy shoulders full of undiagnosed AuDHD. I did not have a good start and I always regretted not going to university. If I could go back to my 18 year old self, I would tell her to study history. Anyway, I can't change the past but I can create my future and I am way past 40 now which shows me an educational life doesn't end. We are always learning and evolving.

It might sound like I have a problem with university but that's not the case. I just think for many people, it's difficult to navigate life when some have missed the privilege bus. It is a privilege to attend university. Some get there eventually and some don't. And that's ok. There should still be value held for those with working life experience.