Are you a scuppie?

[snapdragon]

dragon has just said that he works with those who are - willing, able, neat, knowledgeable, enthusiatic & resourceful

I'd prefer to be a - waste evading individual rarely demonstrating obstinacy


or a - noisy unkempt tired tame eccentric rambler

[QuakerBear]

I have a little job where I potter and I'm quite contented and have lots of time to look after the very over-worked Mr. QB. Because of it some people assume I'm not well educated. When they find out I have a post grad from Oxford you can see the surprise

I've seen many people be 'upwardly mobile' and now, to my utter horror I'm starting to see my 'upwardly mobile' and 'successful' peers who are in their late twenties starting to have nervous breakdowns and burn out because of the pressure of their work. Do I want to work like them? Not a jot! I'm poor, unsuccesful and very glad of it.

[hamster]

Same here. I had no desire to go down the 'graduate recruitment' route when I left uni, and was even in two minds about giving up freelancing to go full-time. I'm sure people think I'm 'wasting' my brain or not being 'ambitious' enough, but I don't want the trappings of material success more than the ability to be in charge of my own time. My ambitions stretch to a little place in the country, space to keep chickens and pigs, and writing a novel. (So, yeah, that last one's quite 'ambitious', but people still look at you funny.)

It annoys me so much, all the people who've said, 'So, you've got a job now, that must be nice!' since I went full-time, and I have to bite my tongue and point out, ever so politely, that what I was doing before was also a job.... I just got to do it on MY terms (within the general confines of not starving and not being evicted).

[ina]

It's hard for some people to understand, isn't it!

I know several folk who have postgrads, some PhDs - so what? They work, like me (who made a conscious decision NOT to do my PhD, because I knew I wouldn't be able to stand the "publish or perish" culture), in jobs that need only a bit of common sense, no formal qualifications. We chose this way of life.

But I also have a friend who keeps saying - but she has a PhD - how CAN she be happy with that job! Well, we don't switch our brains off - we can still do all the thinking that makes us happy without the hassle around it...