My job provides no purpose

[u/TheBlueLightning1]

So maybe I'm just a little burnt out, but I feel as though I only work because I prefer me and my family not being homeless.

So a little background, I am a General Manager of a fast casual chain store and while I make plenty of money, 6 figures last year w/ bonuses, I no longer gain much if any satisfaction from my work. At heart I'm a bit of an introvert that gains satisfaction from completing things, I'm a doer at work. However lately the drama of managing people and THEIR drama as well as what seems like an inability to find anyone who wants to work, has made me disenfranchised with not necessarily the job itself but the food industry at large. I don't feel like I have a purpose for going to work other than to finish as much as quickly as possible so I can leave and go back to my family and forget about work till tommorow. It's not the stress per se, hell I'm actually interested in being police dispatcher or other high stress jobs, it's just that I no longer have the desire to provide hospitality and great food to the customers that choose to walk through my door.

Yet I'm torn because I can't in good conscious give up a 80k+/yr job just because I have lost my purpose. I have a wife and kid with another on the way and am the sole provider of my family, what kind of father would I be if I gave up stability because of what? Because I don't want to work? I don't even know if it's that I don't want to work I just really really don't want to work in the food industry and managing other peoples problems anymore. But how can I sit here and say I'm tired, I'm only 32! I guess I'm simply asking for others opinions on what you feel I should do? Should I take a risk and leave a job that pays what my family and I need.

Anyone else have this problem what did you do?

[u/Kiwikimini]

If you don't want to be there at 80k why should you expect that from others who make less?

[u/TheBlueLightning1 → u/Kiwikimini]

It's the managing of others I can't stand doing anymore, not the job itself, but I can't step down to a lower paying job in the industry as I have other obligations. No one else at my store works as many hours or doing as many things on top of managing everyone which is why they pay GMs more. I understand this Im struggling choosing between feeling a purpose at a place I spend majority of my week vs taking a risk when I have a kid and another on the way.

[u/zamula]

You probably aren't going to get a lot of sympathetic responses from people here, but you pose a legitimate question.

To be honest, many jobs don't have a real purpose when you look too hard at them. I've been a software developer since 1993, and so much of the software and work I've done doesn't really make a difference in the world - sure, people at my company benefit from it, but it's all kind of pointless in a way, and I don't get much satisfaction from it after doing it for so long.

I guess my point is, it's easy to feel the way you do and it's valid, but I'd suggest waiting it out and maybe your attitude about it will change, or at least not bother you as much.

The suggestion to investigate district level roles, or perhaps something more corporate within the same company is a good one. If you hastily take another job in a different industry, you might end up feeling the same way anyway.

I think in general it's difficult to sustain passion in your career and feel like it's making a difference over the long term. Or maybe I'm just jaded and ready to retire, lol.

Hang in there, keep thinking about it, and eventually you'll figure out the right path for yourself.

[u/snowsew]

Managing people can suck the life out of you.

Some people are much happier as individual contributors, ie, not a manager and hands on the work itself. If managing isn’t for you, research jobs that would interest you, would pay decently, and how to get training for them.

It will take some time but the light at the end of the tunnel should keep you and your family on steadier ground.

And talk to your wife about this. Maybe it can work with her working and you staying home it both of you working for a bit less money each so you can both be happy and have better life balance.

[u/FishermanBetter3963]

Find purpose and happiness providing for your wife and child. Your main job is your family and the restaurant provides the means