I get itchy at this whole post but this stuff is just terrible. Take some pride in yourself and what you do.

That's like 80% of news articles we get on local media, gives me ****ing cancer.

What on Earth does this even mean?

By taking as little time as I can on my work I can maximise the time I devote to activities that I actually enjoy. Work isn't fun and in the event that extra effort goes unrewarded, I want to do as little of it as possible.

Its that simple. And honestly? I can't understand what it must be like to feel anything else.

I'm not saying I'm right and you're wrong. I'm not saying that you're some kind of wage slave and that I'm some wiser-holier-than-thou being that's seen past mere social obligations or whatever the hell. I'm simply saying that I don't relate to your sentiment at all.

I just get the idea that you really want to get a better/more fun job, you've expressed your interested in writing and whatnot. I guess your last sentence basically works the other way around as well, I find it very hard to relate to all these things. I could never see myself doing something like that, if I do something which has my name on it, its going to be ****ing awesome and Im going to be proud of my work. People notice this and it likely has a positive influence on your career.

Only for instrumental reasons. I require a job (that's at least bearable) that pays me more money than I currently earn in order to live/eat and drive a car. I want to hopefully leave the possibility of one day having a family open to me as well, although I'm undecided as to whether or not I could cope well enough without this (or indeed whether I should) but nevertheless, I don't want to eliminate that option.

But put it this way, if, hypothetically, you gave me an unconditional income of say, £25,000, I'd definitely never work another day in my life. Even if I had to sacrifice the family/car/house etc.

Yeah I wish I could somehow make myself feel this way, but I don't. I am honestly not trying to insult you or act high-and-mighty here but that is something I just don't give a **** about, and I'd be lying if I told you I didn't feel slightly liberated by that. I do feel unrestricted and freer by not feeling the need to work hard on something that 'has my name on it' for the sake of...well?...nothing else.

As I say, these are my involuntary emotions. I don't ascribe a value to them and I definitely don't want to come off like I'm somehow insulting anyone else who doesn't feel that way.

Not in this company. Definitely not. And I'm not the only one. Trust me on this.

If I were in a company with scope for progression I'd happily go the extra mile if it returned adequate reward.

Yeah fwiw I dont mean to say you should behave in whatever way I do, the thought and feeling was just kind of alien to me but people are different, strokes folks etc .

So, you really want to be a writer, but
at your current job where you get paid to write, instead if actually doing that you spend all day plagiarizing other people's articles. Which I'm sure you know is illegal, no matter how much "everyone does it."

You do realize that in order to get the kind of writing job you want, you'll have to provide samples of articles you've actually written and published? So, you're going to point them to this blog that's 100% not written by you but has your name on it? Nice.

You're not a writer. If you were, you'd put at least some effort into your current job. And lol at ever expecting a raise for having no integrity and thinking nobody at your office has the intelligence to notice. You should have been fired a long time ago.

I don't want to be a writer anymore.

The articles cite Reuters/Bloomberg etc. You're reporting what they're reporting so its not illegal.

There's absolutely no way they've noticed. If they had, they'd have complained.

The reason I can get away with it is because neither the commercial director nor head of finance who basically run the company have equity. They have no incentive to press on with any investment or improvement. They just have to report back to the owner that everything is running smoothly and don't waste time checking up on me.

Numerous people at the company have worked overtime and not got any sort of a raise because replacements are waiting in the wings from the next batch of university graduates wanting to work in London. There's just such a huge oversupply of labour that you have no bargaining chip whatsoever.

Its hugely exploitative of the analysts and sales staff to be quite frank. I've seen loads of people put in tonnes of effort and get absolutely nowhere, the Glassdoor reviews sum it up completely.

You're right that I should have been fired though, frankly I'd make the position redundant, it does nothing to bring in revenue.

Anyway, my name isn't on anything. The job is super basic and completely dead-end.

When you say that 'you take pride in what you do' etc. Can you perhaps elaborate on what you mean by that? I mean, do you mean that you actually work hard despite having nothing whatsoever to gain from it?

I have a lot to gain from it and it has already gained me a lot. People around me see me as someone who can deliver which allows me to do a lot of different projects. If I had never cared about the way I did a job I'd still be doing data entry like I did when I started here through the employment agency, instead I got a fulltime job and have been going up ever since. I have my own flaws which has held me back from time to time but doing my best allowed me to get into fun jobs which made it easier to try hard/do my best. I dont care for monetary compensation as I do about being appreciated tbh.

I so agree with that.

Ok, bit of an update, got a rejection from the sports content writer job that I applied to a couple of weeks back and just did the numeracy test (guess my application was good enough) for the Charity graduate scheme.

Its touch-and-go whether I passed. Unfortunately I threw away 3/32 marks by making a stupid mistake (no back button). However, even if I did fail, I felt pleased that I managed to give it a good honest go. I know that I got a lot of the answers correct, the only problem was that I didn't finish in time (had to just blitz-guess the final 5-6 questions as I had like 20 seconds remaining).

Still, I'm feeling somewhat pleased even if I do fail. Its quite encouraging to go through a test where you feel like an emotionally inadequate wreck at the start and slowly but surely get answer after answer correct (or at least, get the idea of what method to use to get the answer) and realise that you are indeed capable of getting a pass.

(and Yak and Lapka; re. my job it simply isn't like that. People do go beyond the call of duty and they aren't rewarded. Its a scummy, exploitative, borderline criminal company and I feel better about myself knowing that I cost them money. I'm deadly serious. I may actually pop onto Glassdoor and show you a few of the employee reviews, because you've gotta believe me on this one, I'm honestly not just justifying my laziness.)

We get it, your employer sucks for whatever reason. But you don't understand that the reason for being good at your job is not just to get promoted at that same company. This isn't the 1950's, in order to progress in a career most people end up leaving their jobs for better opportunities elsewhere. But the people who have the best chance at snagging those opportunities are the ones who've accomplished something at their previous job. No one cares if you drove up company revenues as a blog writer. But if you planned to apply for better writing jobs (which you obviously did not too long ago), those companies will ask for samples, and they're going to wonder how you spent two years responsible for writing a company blog and never published an original piece of content.

No wonder you decided you didn't want to write anymore. You never even tried.

How do you plan to explain to potential employers in interviews what you did at your last job? Will you lie? Do you assume that these new employers will also be too apathetic to verify anything you tell them? What will your current employer/supervisor say about you when they call to check your references?

They'll likely give me a good reference. I do get on well with my manager (the commercial director) and she, I think, is actually happy with my loyalty if nothing else. I'm confident that if I told her that I was leaving and had a good job to move into that she'd give a solid reference.

Besides, I think its illegal to provide a poor reference without very good reason. For most employers, they won't cut their nose off to spite their face (risk being seen as a company that may give a poor reference in order to achieve nothing for themselves).

If a company asked for samples of writing it would still be impossible to provide anything worthwhile.

I have to write roughly 19 articles per day. Its not possible to write something original and interesting in that period of time. I'm just responsible for the daily news update.

If I go to another job I will absolutely embellish the truth (although I won't have to directly lie too much).

Ok! I've passed the maths test despite (for sure) cocking up at least three of the questions, I now need to take the verbal reasoning test by Monday.

Should I pass those I guess I'll make it through to the next stage. Still, whatever happens from here its nice to have passed the maths (not usually my strong suit)

congrats

I guess I would say that good habits start early and tend to stay with you. At my second real job, I got yelled at fairly early on for coming to senior people with problems and questions, not solutions. I was irritated for getting yelled at, but the point was a good one: so, from then on, I never asked for questions or help without also articulating a solution or recommendation. Ever. That takes much much more work and makes life much harder, and plenty of my recommendations were shot down or even laughed at. But repeating this enough times starts to develop judgment, which has since proven invaluable.

This is obviously a little different from your spot. But in your situation, I think the analogy is this: for eighteen of the nineteen articles you have to do every day, take the cheap and easy route you're currently on. But for one, do it yourself. Gnaw at it. Edit it, then edit it again. And again. Every time you think it's good, find a way to make it slightly better. Find a way to use words outside your comfort zone -- not many, but perhaps one per article. Yes, I understand you don't want to be a writer any more. But skill at writing transfers in to most jobs you'll get to at least some degree. You've been given an opportunity to develop a skill. Now take it.

Rinse and repeat in whatever job you get next. Results may not be obvious, but over the course of time, they show.

Congrats on progress, by the way.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...32&postcount=1

Just having a look at this advert for gambling writers here.

Frankly I'd love to have the chance to make an extra few quid from something like that and would very likely have the time and enthusiasm to be able to do it enjoyably.

Did first driving lesson in ages yesterday.

Happily enough I could still basically drive just fine, just need to tidy up a few things and iron out the odd mistake.

I requested a disciplinarian from the driving school rather than anyone too relaxed and friendly and that's certainly what I got. Old Pakistani fella demanding 'when I want to pass the test then'?

It will be tricky though. The driving test in the UK is incredibly difficult. Even touching the kerb whilst parking/rolling the slightest bit backwards on a hill start etc. is an instant fail. I can drive well enough but can't begin to imagine how I'll get to a stage where I wouldn't make a single error in 45 minutes worth of driving.

****ed up my first test with few hundred meters left until the end by touching a road line with one of the wheels. Drove perfectly until then, still had to come and retake it. Out of five friends in school only one passed at first time, and that guy was driving in road long before legal age.

One of friends ****ed up twice and cried huge man tears. Don't worry too much, failing driving test is fine and normal and men do that too and everyone I went with were pissing their pants.

I guess one tip is, that when you're getting examined you get anxious and get this temptation to rush things and get this over with which obv eventually leads to mistakes, so gotta breathe deeply and let things slow down a bit around you.

I failed 2 on my first. Didn't visibly look to both sides in one spot, where I should have looked. The word is still round and rotating around the sun, and no other catastrophes happened because of my failing. So don't worry.

..Or is it?!

^^ I know in OOT, especially in some threads the world is different, but my failing in driving exam didn't trigger that. Otherwise I would feel now really guilty.

Just checking in to ask how you're doing Rasta, in the sense: how are you feeling. Still depressed? How's the GF?

All the best!

Cheers for the solidarity re. driving guys

Yeah I'm feeling OK I guess. Haven't had a 'depressive' episode for a while now.

The fact that I can work from home two days a week is a big deal for me. I worked for 2 hours today whilst gambling and listening to the radio and that counted as a day of 'work'. Its brilliant.

I really can't complain to be quite honest. I don't even feel underpaid as I get away with doing so little. Its raised my mood hugely.

Still, I can't rest on my laurels at all. Shame as were I say, 21 or so, I'd probably be up for doing this job for quite a while. However, I'm 24 and I need to kick on. Still, means that I have plenty more time to devote to other stuff in my search for a better job.

Oh, and of course it means I can get my driving sorted nice and easily.