Americans Hate Their Jobs More Than Ever......well, I could've told you that

According to a recent study:

"Americans hate their jobs more than ever before in the past 20 years, with fewer than half saying they are satisfied.

The trend is strongest among workers under the age of 25, less than 39 percent of whom are satisfied with their jobs.

Workers age 45 to 54 have the second lowest level of satisfaction (less than 45 percent), according a survey conducted by The Conference Board, a market information company that also puts out the Consumer Confidence Index and the Leading Economic Indicators.

Older people like their jobs more. Nearly half of all workers over 55 are satisfied with their employment situation.

Unsettling trend

Overall, dissatisfaction has spread among all workers, regardless of age, income or residence. Twenty years ago, the first time the survey was conducted, 61 percent of all Americans said they were satisfied with their jobs, according to the representative survey of 5,000 U.S. households, said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center.

"Although a certain amount of dissatisfaction with one's job is to be expected, the breadth of dissatisfaction is somewhat unsettling, since it carries over from what attracts employees to a job to what keeps them motivated and productive on the job," Franco said.

Money rarely buys happiness but it can buy job satisfaction—people making under $15,000 per year reported the lowest satisfaction while those making more than $50,000 per year said they were the most satisfied.

Location matters

People living in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are the most disgruntled (less than 41 percent say they are satisfied with their current job), and people living in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico were most likely to whistle while they work (56 percent reported being satisfied).

The thing that bugged most workers the most about their jobs were bonus plans and promotion policies. Workload and potential for growth were rated poorly also.

But the majority of workers polled found their work and co-workers interesting and their commute satisfying."

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070226_hate_jobs.html

Update #3

I'm trying to get my head to stop spinning long enough to put together some sort of coherent description of what's been going with me the last few months.

Let's see....In September I started dancing with a modern & aerial dance company here called Perpetual Motion, and this last weekend I did my first full performance with them (which went very well, I might add).

It never ceases to amaze me how things have a way of working out (or rather God has a way of working them out), but never how you think that they should.

I came here this summer with the goal of finding a professional company to dance with by the fall, but then assumed that that plan had to be thrown out because I wasn't even able to fully dance on my foot/ankle at all until the end of August & by then it was too late to set up auditions with any of the companies that I was interested in. Then, as kind of a fluke, I came across Perpetual Motion (the director & two main choreographers took class from me over the summer at Ballet Oklahoma. Then when I saw them perform, I was totally blown away & asked if they had any openings), and before I knew it, I was taking class & rehearsing with them twice a week. As much as I was enjoying working with them, I think I was treating it as a side project that I was doing just until I could get out of here.

As some of you know, I went to Nashville to visit over New Year's. It was a good trip, but also a really hard one. While sitting at the Anchor during the New Year's Eve service, I had a kind of epiphany....I realized that I had spent the last 6 months choosing to be miserable; choosing to hate where I was; not taking anything that I was doing seriously because I just saw it as temporary; and not willing to admit that I had anything positive going on because I was scared that that would mean I was stuck.

But the thing is, I will only be stuck somewhere if I choose to be. And, as much it kills me to admit, I do have a lot of great things here in Oklahoma: I absolutely love my students at the studios I'm teaching for (I'm teaching at 3 different ones still), I've made some really great new friends & have reconnected with some old ones (some of whom are like new friends because I now realize that I never actually got to know them for who are). I've been able to spend some wonderful quality time with my family (especially my grandparents), and am slowly but surely finding art and creativity in the nooks and crannies of this city.

And what is the most interesting of all, is that I achieved my goal...I was dancing with a professional company by the fall. And no, it's not full-time, and we only get paid when the company gets paid for a performance, so it's not exactly what I had in mind...but it's growing. Really, legitimately growing and expanding & becoming a tool to educate and bring culture to the people here. And even more importantly, each one of the women in the company challenges and inspires me every time we're together. I'm growing as a dancer, as an artist and as a person. I'm learning new things, discovering new passions, being stretched and strengthened, and further defining my own artistic expression.

I don't know how many nights, after I broke my foot, that I cried myself to sleep & tried to figure out why on earth this had to happen now...just when I felt I was finally having a shot at maybe a real professional career. Now I'm not saying that it was God's plan all along for me to break my foot so that I would be forced to stay in Oklahoma longer so then I could find this company...but I also think that it is wrong of me to discount where He has me for now and not try to gain everything that I can from this place and these experiences.

Anyways...ok, so there's my rant. So to make a long story longer (did you really expect anything less from me?), I'm still here and will continue to be for...well, hell if I know. I guess until I don't feel like I'm supposed to be here any more. But somehow I feel okay with that. Because I'm actually feel like I'm here on my terms.

Oh, and by the way, tomorrow I leave for Europe (and yes, I'm writing this instead of packing....procrastinators for life)! My whole family is going to meet up with my sister Sarah (who has been in China since the end of August) in London & then about halfway through our trip, I'll be splitting off from everyone else to go to Spain for a day because I have an audition set up with a contempory ballet company in Madrid. Any prayers would be greatly welcomed because, while I'm really excited, I'm also VERY nervous. I'm going by myself to a big city where I don't speak the language & as far as the company goes, I really have no idea what to expect. But I figure, if nothing else, it's a great opportunity & a great experience to have under my belt.

Well, I should probably quit rambling and finish packing. I love and miss you all.