Well, they don't torture me (yet), and today they had meat in a bag in the vending machine.

I worked for a couple semesters in my college's fish labs, where I was in charge of taking various preserved deep-sea Atlantic fish and transfering them from cloudy-alcohol jars into fresh-alcohol jars. Other than smelling like rubbing alcohol constantly for that entire period of my life, I really liked handling the fish. And since I was an English major, it was such a break from my life being surrounded by rows and rows of biology specimens and dusty museum storage shelves.

This is obviously not something I like about my current job, but mgl's story reminded me how much fun that job was. And now I miss the fishies!

-Freedom- to control my own schedule (somewhat), to work at home or the office
-Responsibility
-Nice co-workers
-Great boss
-Get to sit in front of excel sheets all day and crunch numbers

* Friday morning is hockey-with-the-grad-students morning.
* Two campus pubs within 5 minutes' walk.

I work for one of the preeminent technology and civil liberties public interest groups in the US.

My jobs forces me to speak publicly every once in a while, which is terrifying but cool.

My job is a wonderful springboard to going to law school next year.

All of my coworkers rule.

freedom to do whatever I want as long as I publish a couple papers a year.

MGL, I sooooo want to visit your museum.

-My office is a big oversized chair nestled between a fireplace and a giant picture window with a view of hills and trees.

-My workday is punctuated with hugs and kisses.

-Once, a few months ago, someone actually went to the trouble of looking up my home number so they could call and let me know how much an article I wrote meant to them. That was nice.

I love that we occasionally get folks looking for training on how to use our site better. I tell them that, no, we don't have any sort of formal training program, but, hey, why don't you come by the office sometime, and I'll give you some pointers? They love that. I love that they love that.

Oh, and I walk to work (and home again) every day, through a really neat neighborhood.

I really enjoy my casework, it's incredibly varied, from business/corporate stuff to home repossessions to fraud cases. After six-plus years doing this job I am still excited when a new case file lands on my desk.

Seeing patients. Fast internet. Working out at lunch (weird, but true, and I wouldn't do it if I weren't right near the gym at work).

The best part of working at a university is the stunning amount of experience and knowledge available on tap. Just about anyone here will answer your silly ass questions for at least a couple of minutes.

I stopped at the bank on the way home from work last night and met with a personal banker to shuffle some accounts around. While waiting for some confirmation numbers, he noticed my jeans and boots asked, "So is that what you wear to work?" When I answered in the affirmative, he made the most saddest, most longing look I've ever seen outside of a dog pound.

The most saddest!

* Writing about art
* Looking at art
* Talking to artists about their work, especially on studio visits or in front of their work at shows
* All the free booze at openings
* Not having to get up early

(The only bad bit is being a bit lonely working from home, though it probably beats office politics.)

having access to a color laserjet and a wide-format printer/scanner is nice.

having a coffeemaker, water cooler, microwave and mini-fridge in the office is pretty cool, too.

other than that... meh.

My boss is one of the most vocal adversaries of a certain administration that jeopardizes the future of the "home planet". No shit. Although we might all get fired for that.

There are people who actually like and appreciate my work. I am one of them. My work and my kids are the most important part of my life. Sometimes, a day's hours are just not enough. "Work therapy" is a bonus.

I travel to cool places.

My office window overlooks one of the main avenues in New York City. All I need is to turn my head, to see life going by...

eamondaly - I've gotten the exact same look from the peeps who live across the hall from me, when I get to go to work in jeans and a polo shirt (those are also usually, "let's go outside and make mud puddles" days, too, so I come home all dirty and sunburned and exhausted - those days are what I like best about my job).

We use macs in my office, that makes me happy.
I have a huge window that looks out on a duck pond and we sometimes have meetings out there too.

I'm lucky eamondaly - although I work in an environment where traditionally people have to be suited up, because I don't get to meet the public, I can wear what I like. So it's usually jeans and boots for me.

I like breaking things.

And getting paid for it.

God I love my job. I am a history professor and I love:

1. The students--bright, polite, and eager to learn, almost every one of them. And they laugh at my jokes!
2. My coworkers, great teachers and scholars, we have mutual respect, a weekly happy hour, know the names of one another's children.
3. My schedule. I teach 75% online since my son was born and work from home several days a week. A lot of my teaching goes on between 9 and 12 p.m.
4. My office--I finally got a window office last year and I spent about $200 on plants. It is a wonderful space.
5. We now have Starbucks coffee at the library coffee shop and wireless across campus.
6. My subject. I find history as interesting and compelling as I did as an undergraduate. The best part is when students each me things I did not know.

I get paid for shit, and would rather live in a different part of the country, but really I have it pretty darn good.

I love that I can call anywhere in the world, and go on about any tangent, that will get me answers related to my field. And that I can do it without people looking over my shoulder at the time I take doing this.

An example: One of my jobs is to look after high school theater safety. Some of the "theater types" kept pushing back at my requirement that all stage lights need to have secondary safety cables. So I got on the phone, called Carnegie Hall, and asked their head stage person what they so. He said, "until they repeal the law of gravity, all stage lights at Carnegie Hall will have secondary safety cables." So now I am able to go back and ask if these jerkass Eugene theater types know more than the head guy at Carnegie Hall.

Oh yeah, and I keep my bike in my cube and can go riding at lunch. That totally kicks ass!

This is a challenging question, because I do hate temping as a secretary.

Let's see:

There is quite a bit of variety. Every couple of months, I've got a new working environment, new local lunch spots to explore, new personalities, etc. I'm pretty shy so temping does allow me to meet and talk to a wide range of people. And learn from them.

I'm not tied down to a particular company. If something sucks too badly, it's just a matter of taking the timesheet in to be signed and ending the job. Even when I have to stick around for financial reasons, it's comforting to know that the job is just, well, temporary. There's no ring on this finger.

I don't get stuck in "roles." Offices, like families, often have weird dynamics where so-and-so has to play this role in response to so-and-so playing this role. I don't get stuck in that game-playing because I'm the outsider (in a GOOD way.)

It's nice to get affirmation from a wide range of people. I worked at one office for a few days for this one litigator who was a real angry, difficult dude. His telephone calls usually sounded something like: ". . . yeah, and you can stick it up your ass if you don't like my offer, fucking useless blah blah blah." Then I overheard him talking to a friend saying "Yeah, this new guy here. He's really fuckin' good. I'm happy we got him." It's very gratifying to my ego that I can parachute into any new situation, calm a lawyer down and impress him with the quality of the work that I do.

As a temp, I can be fired with two telephone calls. But nobody ever does this. I can know that if they kept me on, it's because I did good work, not because of managerial inertia or because they were afraid I'd file a lawsuit.

As the new guy, the temp, I find that people are a little more genuine with me, a little more open. I'm not aligned with any office faction or any of that crazy shit.