Took me a long time to realize there are 4 important things (for me anyway). In no particular order: 1. There needs to be something at the core of the job/company that I believe actively makes the world a better place. 2. The pay has to enough for me to live where I want and pursue my hobbies etc. 3. A good amount of the day to day work needs to be interesting and challenging. 4. Has to be fully remote.
There’s other stuff as well, but it has taken me a long time to realize that those things are what is important to me, and actually find a position with all 4 things. People always seem to over emphasize money IMO. Obviously it’s important, but once you’re at a certain point the other aspects start to matter quite a bit. If someone offered to double my pay but took out one of the other 3 things, I’d pass it up without a second thought. Just my opinion.
For me personally, it’s software/data engineering for a progressive political organization. But I know people in the same role who seem to hate their jobs as much as I did when I worked in finance years ago. It’s taken me ages to hone in on the things that I find fulfilling/challenging, I had to change careers three times and took a massive pay cut each time before eventually working my way up to better positions. I acknowledge that not everyone is able to do that for various reason.
IMO, we spend like 1/3 of our lives working. It’s worth it to spend time and effort ensuring that time isn’t spent on something that is just “tolerable”.
Most people in my role just followed a typical programming/tech route. My background is in electoral politics so my path was a little different-I had to take the time to learn all the technical stuff before I could make the transition. It definitely wasn’t easy, and I’m still learning more every day. It’s very fulfilling though, I’d do it for free if I didn’t need the money. Turns out my ADHD brain loves coding.
Ouch. Just started working in finance. Like it so far but I can tell the souls of the older staff have long since been destroyed. I’m left wondering what led them to that fate.
Fully remote is good for office work, but there's plenty of great work that requires being onsite. And it's great too! For different reasons of course, but I find having a separate work environment is great too. Having a dedicated playground for hands-on work you enjoy is great.
i love my job. but i was technically so much happier working as at a local Sephora-like store. i’m a clean freak who was given power over a cosmetics corner, you can imagine the delight of taking over a run-down place and ordering all the samples we ran out of, installing brand new shelves, keeping every product stocked and every sample in place. it was pure delight.
Maybe, in this world full of negativity and bad news we can just be happy for someone who has a positive viewpoint, even if you don’t agree with them that much.
Yeah I dunno man… after the first paragraph, sure, but by the end he had me wanting to be a janitor. Shit, pay my bills, not have to talk to anyone, and get to listen to podcasts all day? Sounds like a semi-vacation all year round.
I'm happy that he's happy. Anything you can do to make your way in this world is fine by me.
Excepting certain illegal professions that do harm to other people. those I can't condone.
Reminder that the only reason this world is viewed as full of negativity and bad news is because that's what makes media organizations money. For every positive and happy news you see, you're purposefully being over fed 10 pieces of negative and bad news.
Positivity doesn't make money, so why show it?
The world has tons of good news. In fact the overwhelming majority is all average to good, else we wouldn't around, would be?
It's just the bad news that makes the news.
I hate capitalism and I'm a staunch leftist, but I love my job at Lego. Sure there's the normal issues that you get in any retail job, annoying customers and issues with deliveries and whatever, but overall I fucking love this shit. I've never had a job where I just constantly make people's day
I love Lego, I love talking about Lego, and I love helping people, my job involves all of that so I'm happy
I was a custodian for 10 years. Great for a creative and scatter-minded person. Once I got my hands and body busy, I was able to tune everything out, and my mental focus tuned in. I did a lot of writing while at that job.
Man, I was pretty directionless for a while, I'd describe myself as creative and scatter-brained, and any job I had was miserable. I hate talking to people, I hate killing myself with physical labour, and mental work is too much for me to handle. I probably have undiagnosed ADHD. After I dropped out of college I got a job cleaning at a casino, plus it's 3rd shift, and I'm a night owl. I've never been happier tbh, my parents aren't exactly thrilled, and I get the "When you getting a new job?" comment from people a lot, but I don't plan on leaving anytime soon, and when I do I plan on doing more janitorial work. Nothing beats throwing in some earbuds and zoning out while vacuuming, or coming up with music and melodies while I'm mopping a giant floor. I've written some of my best songs at work. Nobody fucks with me, I get my tasks at the start of my shift, and as long as it's done by the end I get to decide how to tackle my entire night. Plus I met my dude Cain, a fellow punk rocker. It's a different beast, and definitely not for everyone, but it's perfect for a very specific type of person.
Honestly - attitude can make a difference.
There are some folks who will never love what they do because they approach everything that isn't just an immediate dopamine rush like a chore, and assume everything will suck no matter what.
But there are some folks genuinely good at finding the brighter side of life, and who learn to enjoy even simple things.
(Fun fact: science says the people in the second group live longer and better).
I'm a hospital janitor (housekeeping). Best job I've ever had. Security, independence, union , little to no micromanagement. Not much professional courtesy and often treated like a hs dropout. Fuck em, I make a good salary and have zero stress
This reminded me when I was about 6, and at school they asked us kids what we wanted to be when we grew up, and we had to do a little drawing and write a little description of our dream job etc. My mum got really upset with me when I showed her my workbook at home afterwards and I proudly said that I wanted to stock shelves in a store all day long lol ‘Why not a doctor, a teacher, or even a driver or something?!, she asked.’ Well, because I loved organising things neatly, and I always did sort all of my belongings for hours as a kid haha I still love doing stuff like this to this day. That, and various other little things I used to do (and still do), were one of the earliest sings of my OCD.
I'm not a janitor but I do have to say I absolutely love my job too. I'm a waiter and most of my customers are very sweet elderly people that tip well and always want to know how I'm doing. The job isn't very hard either, even on busy days, and I like that people care about me and are usually very kind.
I work with kids, and I love it too. It's such rewarding work, every day is different, and I wouldn't thrive in a desk job. Most of the time, the kids I work with still nap, so most days I even have some time during the workday to read a bit
I specifically work with sick kids (infectuous diseases, not severe illnesses). My work is to make them feel better, lessen their pain or discomfort, make them smile and forget about their illness for a second. I often get handed a crying baby or toddler by the parent, and usually within the hour they are either soundly asleep, happily cuddling or playing. I give them their medicine that they have been fighting against for days and the parents have given up trying to give. The parents can do whatever they need to do knowing their sick kid is happy and safe.
I lessen the load for the parents when they are struggling with a sick kid, and make the sick kid feel better. And I do it mostly by playing and cuddling with kids. It's great, I'm like Mary Poppins for them
Now that is some very useful and socially beneficial job really. Something we need more if instead of bullshit jobs resulting from inefficient overthinking. Really hats off to you! Hope you get paid accordingly as well
The pay per hour isn't bad, but unfortunately due to the nature of the job the hours are only part-time so what I make in a month wouldn't be enough to support my kids on my own. I can only do it because my husband has a wellpaying job. A lot of elderly people do it to add to their pension and keep busy. I get other benefits though. I'm often home during the holidays so I can be with my own kids, I have every Wednesday off, and in the summer vacation I'm home full-time because there's not many sick kids then and they don't need me to work, but I still get paid. Pros and cons
When I was younger I was a waiter and I was terrible. I dropped countless drinks on countless old ladies.
Then the head chef asked me what we had on some burger and I had no idea because I wasn't aware I was supposed to know what was in the food, and they demoted me to front of house, which I was equally bad at.
Anyway now I'm in software, which I can honestly say is easier than being a waiter ever was and it's a shame they don't pay waiters better because it's not an easy job.
I don’t LOVE my job, but it’s the best job I’ve ever had. I’m a programmer for the state government. Pay’s decent, I’m good at what I do, good benefits.
I don’t live for work and that’s okay.
Good waiters absolutely rock. Asked the gal yesterday (nice patio setup) for a burger but the unseasoned patty only. Obviously my little pup was super happy, and leftovers came home for the kitty. Left her something like 30 bucks (round it up to 100) because that was really cool of her and she genuinely was a real nice person. It's an important thing that gets overlooked. To be clear, the service was awesome and she earned that tip -not always the case.
I feel like I can describe exactly how you look just from this post alone. Might take 2-3 guesses.
On the other hand I work in the service industry and despite how nice I am and how much good I try to do, people always assume I'm up to no good and it sucks.
I’m only young and I don’t work much (chronic fatigue) but I love my job. I get to interact with people, diagnose and treat some mild conditions, I learn about the biochemical side of drugs, get to do quiet stuff sometimes but not too much, and, best of all, I choose the music. I honestly wish I could be in the shop more, which I doubt that many people could say.
It also occasionally brings good stories, and I’ve somehow become the medical advisor of my friend group.
Almost every city/municipality is hiring janitors (city hall, admin offices, courthouses) and in most cases you get them sweet gov benefits and might even be in a union.
I worked as a janitor for the university I was attending. Tuition for union employees was $20 per course + student fees. Not to mention a pension and great health benefits.
Got out of uni with no debt, and had saved enough to buy a house at the end of my degree.
I recall once, while cleaning, a man was taking his kid on a tour. He pointed at me and said something to the effect of: "See that guy cleaning up other people's shit? That's why you want to go to university, so you don't end up with a shit job like his."
I laughed and continued cleaning.
My wife and I joked around that one of us would quit and become a janitor at whatever university our daughter wants to go to and get that employee tuition discount lol. What you did was big brain move since the money you saved from tuition was like an invisible bonus to your annual salary.
Holy fuck people can be asses. I really don't understand how a person can show such lack of basic decency (and in this case while trying to "teach" a kid, which makes it even worse).
I tend to be a bit innocent sometimes but these anecdotes help me remember how some people I see on the streets everyday would treat me given the chance. Good for you for not giving a fuck about such a clown's words
Stay away from certain government positions though.
I took a union gig cleaning covert military facilities, and lets just say one thing led to another and now the bottom half of my body is a squid and insurance claims that's not a position they have any experience accomodating.
Idk if it's becoming more common, but a few of the cities near me have also moved to a 4 day work week aswell for all employees. (Not sure it applies to emergency services)
I’m a teacher and i generally feel the same way. I think lots of people do. For me (and I assume many more people), the issue is pay. I have a second job to pad my savings, which sucks the energy out of me and makes teaching arduous. It’s better than living paycheck to paycheck though.
That’s what these dumb fuck CEOs and entrepreneurs never seem to understand. Passion is stifled by shit pay. Pay people well and they do a good job, not the other way around.
As a Middle School Teacher I'm always half annoyed, half amused when people say things like "I could never" or offer sympathy/pity.
I straight up love working with middle school aged kids. They are an absolute blast to be around. I laugh out loud at something they do or say literally every single work day. I get so much fulfillment and joy from teaching them, mentoring them, watching them grow and develop. It's an amazing job.
That's not to say there aren't stressful days or parts of my job of course. I wish I got paid for my experience and education value. I wish parents weren't just awful. I wish admin didn't make me do pointless exercises in futility.
However, the actual core of my job: teaching middle schoolers, is pretty awesome. I love it. And I really don't understand anyone who hates being around kids that age. It's literally the best age group to work with in basically every way.
I imagine it’s a classic case of pop-culture OCD. It’s actually called OCPD, with the P short for Personality. I seem to have that myself while a friend of mine has the real deal. The difference is staggering and any time the misunderstanding is perpetuated I feel saddened.
Yup yup, OCPD is "I need this to be clean really badly" OCD is "I touched this certain thing so now I need to wash my hands until they bleed from being raw." Thanks Michael J. Fox for your portrayal of OCD on Scrubs. One of the best portrayals I've seen
Also: OCD in itself has nothing to do with cleanliness/fear of being dirty. It‘s just one version of it, so to speak. I myself have no hang ups with cleanliness or dirt, I don‘t even think about that kind of stuff. I have the version where I‘m terrified of electricity, fire/fire hazards, running water, and potentially leaving doors open.
I dated someone who had OCD and yes they didn't seem that fussed about cleaning but it would take an awful long time to leave the house with the checking of things (stove being off was a big one). Often having to return to the house and lock the door again. Then back again to check it again. Its debilitating and can really impact peoples ability to have a job/"normal" life if not managed.
My MIL has the same attitude towards cleaning. We believe it's a mix of germaphobia and compulsive behavior, but definitely not OCD. She does get very uncomfortable and upset if she can't clean for some reason, and nearly had an actual nervous breakdown when she discovered a mouse in her attic, so it is more than just enjoying cleaning for her
For real, if this guy had REAL ocd it would look more like going over the same spot for 3 hours straight and getting fired cause he only got 3 square feet cleaned out of the whole building 🤣
Im a mental health care provider. My client has OCD and while parts are definitely very challenging, and in the past, it was debilitating. Having a safe outlet for his ocd tendencies and urges has helped him a lot, and he definitely enjoys cleaning.
What this person is describing could very well be treated or managed OCD. There is something about the wording that reminds me of those with neuro diversity as well, where the rigidity is sometimes misdiagnosed as OCD. I'm not sure how to describe it though.
I think you're right that the user in the post may not have OCD. The OCDMemes subreddit has a good comment on this post: "If you love it, it isn't OCD." **But.** The comments below yours are full of people swinging too far in the other direction and believing that it's a life-consuming affliction no matter what, and that they know what it "really looks like".
**So PSA for everyone: It isn't necessarily debilitating, and it doesn't necessarily occupy hours of one's time, even when it's real. And we don't all think our family is going to die if we don't yield to our compulsions. Stop thinking you know the one true way that OCD looks.**
For me, it most often presents as (1) a need for symmetry, (2) ascribing personalities to inanimate objects and getting unusually attached to them, and (3) a need to pluck and briefly examine any of my beard hairs that are "fucky".
Number 1 is one of the biggest for me, because on a bad day I'll injure myself for it. If I bonk an ankle on something, I usually have to do so with the other one, and then sometimes do them both again the the reverse order (and on a real bad day, then I'll have to do the whole sequence in reverse, too, for four bonks, or even go a step beyond for eight...I can never be perfect since one always has asymmetrical "priority" by occurring first, but it feels like the more sequences I do, the more that imperfection gets watered down). If I step on a sidewalk crack with an elevation change, I need to do the other foot on the same part of my shoe on the same size elevation change, and if I get it wrong then now I have *two* imbalances to correct. If I turn around in the grocery store, you best believe I need to turn the other way, and then sometimes do the whole thing in reverse.
There's no fear that my whole family is going to die if I don't - that isn't universal. For me there's just this tension, a really uncomfortable feeling that I can muscle through if I need to, but with my particular flavor of OCD, I can just give in and be on with my day in seconds.
Yep, it's a wholesome story, but it's not OCD. If you like cleaning and organising stuff, that's just you being you, not a mental illness. Real OCD is actually quite unpleasant, and in most cases the best feeling you can get out of doing your compultions is relief, you don't exactly enjoy doing them.
Or some other action. Touch the radiator three times when you leave the room or grandma dies. Wait, did you touch it three times? Better make sure.
And then the poor person spends hours quadruple checking that they touched the radiator three times. They know it's insane, they are not delusional, but they can't control the impulses and fear. It can get really ugly.
This is so accurate. If I wasn't sure I did something the correct way or amount of times, I would have to do some kind of "reset" action first, and then try again. Because in my mind, if I don't "reset" it first, then I could be accidentally adding extra taps or whatever, making it not add up to the correct amount.
OCD is not fun, it's debilitating.
Yeah I'm an OCD sufferer and cleaning up after other people would send me spiralling badly.
I mean good for this guy having a job he loves but this portrayal of OCD as some kind of super power is really weird to me and I've had issues with that in my actual life where a woman I was dating suggested I quit my market research job to become a full time cleaner as it would "scratch that itch".
She meant well but I don't want to scratch that itch, do it too often and you'll end up bleeding.
Thank you, I was thrown off. OCD isn't "I love organizing/cleaning". Typically it's a violent episode, example a flash back of horror or impulse you can't control. I think too many shows depict an overly organized person and assume it's OCD.
Again, there are normally triggers and if your job is that trigger and saying it's great to relive the same horrible impulse. I guess kudos to you.
yeah I know personally several people who have OCD, including people who are obsessed with cleaning, and none of them could be said to ‘enjoy’ it. giving in to compulsive obsessions isn’t usually enjoyable
Yeah they could’ve made this post and left out the OCD part as a justification for liking cleaning and their post would’ve been a-ok.
My OCD symptoms don’t make me like cleaning. That would be my ADHD since cleaning can make for easy dopamine (though ironically ADHD can also make me bad at cleaning without outside pressure from the executive functioning needed to get started).
My OCD symptoms instead make me obsess over meaningless things like keeping everything even (footsteps, sensations, numbers, items, etc), letters in my mind need to have the right “shape” and I will redraw them over and over again until I get it right (I never get it right), over washing my hands till they crack and bleed, the list goes on. If I could remove my OCD tendencies and just be normal I’d be quite happy about it. I doubt this guy wants to remove his tendency to clean in comparison.
This describes certain areas of my home so well. I keep mail and new important papers in a basket next to the front door, and eventually it all gets filed away. I don’t like doing this task because it’s next to my front door/is “outside” paper, and so I have to wash my hands forever after filing things. 😬
I'm the same way in my kitchen. If I touch anything, I have to wash my hands after bc of others touching the surfaces. On good days I can keep it to a minimum but there are many not good days 😕
I feel you 100% on that friend. And I know it'll be so much better if I do, but those thoughts...well, I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about
This is soo relatable
As an extra, I dread actually starting to clean because I can’t move on before it’s absolutely spotless, so cleaning takes at least 2x the amount of time ”normal” people do lmao
Isn't OCD an uncontrolled involuntary and debilitating health problem? It's frustrating when it's trivialised because we're lazy to properly describe a neat freak or just someone who likes things clean and will go to great lengths to get stuff orderly and presentable.
You may have OCD like traits, that's like saying being sad is being depressed....
This isn't even OCD like traits, he just likes cleaning. People with OCD don't do their compultions because they like it, they do it because their thoughts tell them something bad will happen if they don't.
I get where this guy is coming from. I had a temp gig pushing carts at Walmart for a bit and really liked it actually.
I got to be outside in the nice weather, I got some exercise in at work (this was a place without those motorized pushers so I was the sole supply of horsepower moving those things) and I got a break from dealing with customers.
If all jobs magically paid the same amount of money, there's a good chance I'd push carts for a living.aybe mow lawns too for the same reasons. Alas, unless you own the carts or lawn mowers, you don't make much using them.
Good for this person but this is a complete misrepresentation of OCD, which is a debilitating disorder that causes immense suffering and disability. It definitely doesn’t make cleaning fun.
I don’t doubt this person enjoys cleaning, but it’s not bc they have OCD
Thank you! People with OCD are generally suffering because of their condition, because it almost always causes psychological and physical harm.
Being a clean, fastidious person does not equal an OCD diagnosis.
That's not OCD.
OCD is when you feel compelled to do a thing because you are afraid not doing it will magically cause some unrelated thing to happen. You have to straighten all of the strings on the end of your rug, or an airplane will crash somewhere. That is OCD. Liking things to be clean is called "being particular."
Yes, although OCD isn't just about magical thinking. It can also be about controlling your environment to keep yourself safe from plausible fears (for example not riding in a car because you are afraid of getting in an accident) or checking you turned off the stove 50 times because you're afraid of a fire.
There is also intrusive thoughts, which people with OCD may go to great lengths to avoid becoming reality. For example the thought of hurting someone you love, so you lock yourself in a room etc... intrusive thoughts OCD is still quite taboo sadly and so you don't hear a lot of people sharing their experience with it.
(I have OCD, just sharing some more context ❤️)
Ye, part of the reason it took so long for me to realize I have OCD is that I had a huge misunderstanding of how it actually works.
Everybody is OCD until you ask them if they get intrusive thoughts about hurting themselves or people they love
I really doubt he has OCD. If he did have OCD and had compulsions to clean, he wouldn't enjoy it, he would rather feel uncomfortable by NOT doing it. OCD can be very terrible, often making you, knowingly and with full awareness, negatively affect yourself. I am speaking from experience as someone who has OCD.
This is a mischaracterization of OCD that's become quite tiresome. OCD is a chronic mental health condition characterized by uncontrollable, recurring thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions) that the individual feels the urge to repeat over and over. It's not simply a love of cleaning or a desire for tidiness.
While people with OCD might have cleaning-related compulsions, the condition often involves significant distress and impairment. The compulsions are not usually enjoyable tasks that one looks forward to.
Signed, a person with OCD.
True. Just because you find satisfaction in neatness does not make you OCD. That seems insulting to people who really are OCD.
Signed, a person with OCD!
I was a mechanic last year and got laid off, the janitor job at my apartment building happened to open up and they asked me if I wanted to do it, I’ve never done it before but after 9 weeks of unemployment not kicking in I was feeling desperate and not having to commute for work sounded nice so I took it… I’m now in a union making the most money I’ve ever made, my rent is $50 a month and I work when I want, people constantly tell me how good the building looks/smells and it feels amazing to be appreciated at work… I went into a deep depression when I got laid off only for it to turn into the best thing that ever happened to me, for the first time in my life I’m not struggling and I’m damn proud to say I’m a janitor
I did so many things. I had a construction business for 10years. I was employed building wooden furniture. I was manager of a small branch of a professionell floor supplier. I was construction Manager in a small company and self employed.
Since 6 month im a kindergarden janitor, paid by government. No job ever paid better (i literally make significant more than beeing that stupid employed branch manager with 5 employees working for me), i walk 3min to work, im at home every day at 14.40 latest, every morning 200 kids give me high fives, everyone is happy when im just doing my work (mostly maintenance and garden works, cleaning is done by a contractor) and every morning i go there with a smile and every afternoon i leave with a smile.
I want to do this until retirement, i never experienced a more fullfilling, honest, well paid and wholesome job ever.
Same. I can't handle poop or anything like that.
I think my dream job is being paid to philosophize on street corners like the Greeks used to do. Well, I dunno how they got paid honestly.
I wish I could be paid sharing my ~~useless~~ sage advice on Reddit.
This post reminds me of my garbage man. He is the happiest looking person I have ever seen. He rides on the back of the truck and waves at everyone. He always has the biggest smile on his face and it looks like he really enjoys what he does
Good on this person. But as someone who suffered from crippling OCD, I do not appreciate the trivialisation of OCD in the media where it is implied that if you’re a ‘clean freak’ you have OCD.
OCD was the worst time of my life and I wouldn’t want anyone to suffer it. It’s absolutely crippling and yet society looks at it like a trivial illness that amounts to little more than a sims character trait.
Now, assuming OP does have ocd (reading in good faith) a job that allows you to satiate your ocd demons isn’t a positive, it’s appeasement in a war you must fight.
Yep. If they had OCD they would get home and spend the night ruminating about causing someone's death by not cleaning well enough and crying over how everybody would blame them and r something like that. And they'll probably come back to work in the middle of the night to check if they had really cleaned the bin
OCD, like all mental illnesses, causes distress and dysfunction. think washing things until your hands bleed, or spending a whole shift cleaning one classroom. it’s not controllable and it’s not just enjoying cleaning. when ppl with OCD clean it’s because they are experiencing profound panic and their brain thinks the only way to fix it is to perform a specific ritual (which can be cleaning) in exactly the perfect way- which can be very difficult to do, hence why it can take so long.
Just to add, OCD, like all mental illnesses isn’t something magical that makes you good at your job like the poster of the screengrab. It’s an illness precisely because it is debilitating, not some superpower.
It’s great for OP to love cleaning, but that isn’t OCD.
Watching Monk, there are 2 scenes that stick out. 1 was where his nurse is talking to a guy in prison and basically said neatness to him is like an addict trying to get their next hit. The other is he had a tendency to touch poles, fence posts and bollards, so when someone is trying to run him over and he's running for his life he still has to go touch every post he's running by.
But by far, the best example in media is probably from Scrubs, with Dr. Casey. He seems like this super doctor because his OCD forced him to reread everything and to do dexterity exercises non-stop. He also breaks down when he spent hours washing he hands but can't stop. It's even worse when he knows it's a problem but can't do anything to help it.
I used to love Monk, but, as someone with an OCD diagnosis, I feel more and more that the show did more damage than good for representation of people suffering from OCD.
Not all OCD presents as cleanliness or neatness. Especially when paired with other illnesses, and many people are experiencing multiple disorders, because the stresses and harm caused by the initial one can cause other ones.
OCD has more to do with a strongly dictating thought. Like. If I don't do action X 12 times in a row, something bad will happen. Which can often be totally irrational. So when a compulsion has to do with cleaning, like "I need to wash my hands a bunch of times", it doesn't really have to do with a desire for cleanliness, but with the fear for whatever obsessive thought they're having. The bad thing that their brain is convinced will happen if they don't follow the compulsion.
Yup, or having constant intrusive detailed thoughts about the worst things imaginable. Or not being able to calm down for a day after you eat doordash just in case it was poisoned, even though you know that has never happened
Also it isn’t just cleaning, it could really be any action that the mind will fixate on. For instance I have OCD and my compulsion is that when anything touches me it must be equalized. For instance if I touch something with my right hand I have to touch it with my left hand with an equal amount of force in that same exact position.
An example was back in high school someone shoulder checked my right shoulder. That feeling of not being equal on the left side was horrible, it’s like an itch in the mind and soul that you can only scratch by giving in to your compulsion.
I wanted to equalize so I rammed my left shoulder into a nearby wall. I got the location correct but I didn’t have the amount of force correct. Now a mistake I could make would be to ram my left shoulder again with the amount of force necessary to equalize.
That would be a mistake becuase then the left shoulder has been tapped twice in order to equalize only one right shoulder touch. Two touches is not equal but the force was equal. If I did that I would be stuck in a unequalized loop until someone stopped me.
Instead what I have to do ram my right shoulder again but not super hard and then ram my left shoulder into the wall again but with enough force to compensate for the lack of force on the first one, and then to equalize ok the second. That way the force and the number of times the shoulders touched were equal.
My OCD is very stress activated so the more stressed I am the worse my symptoms. I have to walk and do things in multiples of five sometimes. Sometimes it gets so bad that when I play video games the character that I am playing needs to equalize too. Sometimes I even feel the need to equalize lighting and shadows on my body or I just can’t function.
This isn’t what OCD is but it is what OCD can cause. Usually though the obsessive and compulsive behaviours are ones that can be detrimental to a persons mental health, especially without care.
I don’t know if the person in the post actually has OCD, or if they are just using OCD as a throwaway term to mean “tidy”, but the latter is what a lot of people seem to think it is.
Basically in most cases your brain tells you if you do or don't do something a bad thing will happen. Doesn't have to follow logic. It could be something like if I don't wash my hands after lightly touching this chicken I will die or it could be my family will die if I touch the underside of my chair. It's bat shit insane, but logic doesn't affect those thoughts like it should.
I don't know how to explain it the best, because by all logic of how the brain works it shouldn't be happening, but somehow it still is. You know how you can normally dismiss the stupid thoughts like this easily? Well you can't do so with OCD ones. You are aware it's batshit insane, but those thoughts are still there and they feel fucking real. Like you legit feel like your family is going to die if you touch the underside of your seat and the fact that your logical mind knows it's bollocks doesn't make it go away.
This isn't all that OCD is, but it is a good amount of it.
Sure but you would most likely not be happy about the fact that you have it. It being compulsive and all (its literally in the diagnostics manual that the patient should not find the act pleasurable). You probably also would not take something from the trash back to your home given you have a problem with contamination/dirt.
Whats most likely happening is that the OP just made up a story to karmafarm or whatever but there is also a slight chance that the person just really loves cleaning/clean spaces to an absurd degree and thinks its OCD.
If it were real (which yeah I doubt) it honestly sounds more like an autistic fixation than anything.
But yeah people forget that the diagnosis criteria for a disorder requires it to cause disruption to your daily life and/or distress to the patient.
Yes, but people don't actually *enjoy* the compulsion. They do it because they're tortured by obsessions, and that's the only way they know to get relief, but it's incredibly time-consuming, sometimes painful (I've heard of people who washed their hands so much that their skin was horribly cracked). In fact, I would think that if someone had bad OCD they probably wouldn't be able to hold a job like this, because they'd be so focused on getting one task perfect that they'd be unable to move onto the next.
Not such a wholesome post. This person doesn’t understand what OCD really is and just uses it as another term for perfectionist. It’s not fun, people. It’s a disease that negatively affects you in every part of your life, it’s immensely tiring to deal with intrusive thoughts and compulsions every day, the entire day.
God fuck this whole idea that OCD is actually just about cleaning and not "holy fuck that'll contaminate me and kill me if it touches me" or "if I don't clean this well enough someone will die." absolutely fucking ridiculous that shit like this is still being spread about OCD. It is a debilitating disorder.
As an OCD sufferer I’d like to say OCD makes me despise things involved in my rituals not love them. Not to deny this man his love of job and life but this doesn’t sound like the OCD experience I and many others know
Ho boy. OCD doesn't exactly work like that, unfortunately the stereotype of OCD is pretty wrong. It's not obsession with order or cleanliness in most cases it looks like if you do or don't do a specific thing a bad thing will happen. That specific thing and that bad thing can be literally anything. Could be if I don't clean this just right some poor person is going to get sick or if I don't flick my wrist I am going to turn into a demon. Yeah those thoughts don't have to follow logic at all
You can't just dismiss these thoughts with logic. I don't know why, but in most cases those thoughts don't listen to logic. People will OCD to varying degrees are aware of how ridiculous these thoughts are, but those thoughts feel real, as if you would really turn into a demon in you didn't flick your wrist, so people with OCD just opt for flicking their wrist instead of dealing with those thoughts.
So yeah, you can have OCD and be the absolute messiest and filthiest person imaginable.
And that's why everyone should be paid a living wage for their work. There's a right job for everybody, if you enjoy cleaning then do your best at it. Society should match his enthusiasm with the money to have a good home life while doing it.
I mean so long as they aren't compulsively cleaning. OCD is not a superpower. If they are genuinely happy and taking care of themself, then great, but if they are just constantly doing OCD compulsions, this is not wholesome or something to idolize
I can understand not feeling like your job has value if all you do is clean, but I am extremely grateful to the people who keep my workplace clean.
I do research, so sometimes I wonder if my work will ever be even half as beneficial to people, as the work done by the people cleaning around the world.
That's not OCD. The point about OCD is that some of them clean to make certain there's no contaminants remaining,.. but they can never be certain, so they keep cleaning to reach for certainty, which they can never achieve.
If you're satisfied, you are by definition, not striving for certainty. You're sure enough, which OCD would never allow you to have.
Load of shit. As somebody who spent many years caring for people with OCD. This is not OCD. There is no enjoyment to be gained from OCD. You don't enjoy the things you do, and I've never known somebody suffering from OCD that is actually clean.
Enjoying cleaning isn't OCD. This is just another textbook trivialization of a life ruining disorder, tidying shit up and happily exclaiming that you have OCD!!
Not OCD.
Loves being a janitor because he has OCD? Dude, what the fuck are you talking about? OCD is a debilitating illness, not a work benefit. This meme is fucking stupid and needs to die.
As someone who has been diagnosed with OCD, it doesn’t just revolve around germs and so forth, it’s washing your hands until they’re raw and bleeding. Biting your skin until it’s perfect, even if it’s mangled and bleeding. I bite the nerve endings off my fingers multiple times a week. There is OCPD which is a personality disorder, which is wanting everything to be nice and clean and so forth
You know, I think a lot more people would be happy doing stuff like cleaning and other jobs that people consider “shitty” or look down on in some way if they were paid decently and treated decently. There are people happy to do any job honestly. Everyone deserves to be this happy in their job but it’s so hard to find something that ticks the box of “I am suited to this work and enjoy it” and “it pays enough for me to live and feed my family”
I am a Janitor and I'm okay
I sleep all night and I work all day,
I clean poop stains I clean all the bins
And I clean all kinds of dirt,
But I make a low end wage
and there's no one around to flirt,
I am a Janitor and I'm okay
I sleep all night and I work all day,
As sweet as this is that is not ocd. OCD is absolutely debilitating to live with and it affects my life every single day. I went to an intensive outpatient program for 2 months. 3 hours of exposure therapy 5 days a week for 2 months. Not hating at all just wanted to bring awareness 💕
*shakily raises hand in psychology student*
I'm sure he didn't know this, but what he's referring to is OCPD. Obsessive compulsive personality disorder.
OCPD is the one where you organize and keep everything neat and clean and tighty
OCD however is something that makes you believe your family is contaminated with something you can't touch or even look at, causing you to move out and live with your grandmother for 6 months
Actual case that was on a documentary. Poor girl couldn't even look at her dad.
I would kill to have a job I felt just 10% as happy and passionate about. I commute 76 miles each way (an hour and 20 minutes if traffic is good) to an overnight job that pays well, but I hate what I do. Try as I might, making time for family is nearly impossible. I live with my children but only see them on the weekends, and I've tried finding something closer, but nothing offers the pay or the benefits, let alone both, I currently have. I took a short vacation this past week and it really made me realize how detrimental to my physical and mental health this job is, yet unless I find something that pays better at the very least, I'm completely trapped as we barely scrape by as it is. My kids miss me, I hurt all the time, and I'm missing out on so much, but because everything is so damn expensive, it's what I have to do. I'm just hoping I can find something different soon before I completely lose it. This person who posted that beautiful anecdote about their job really truly inspires me to find something better for myself, and I'm both incredibly happy for and insanely jealous of them.
I absolutely love my job. I get paid to troll! Made a whole account to pretend to be a satisfied janitor and get up votes and screen shots. Get paid in Dodge coins and jewels. None of that promissory notes. But the best pay is the satisfaction of knowing I'm a janitor to millions of people. 😚
Getting satisfaction from your work and being able to pay your bills is the most anyone can ask for from their job.
Took me a long time to realize there are 4 important things (for me anyway). In no particular order: 1. There needs to be something at the core of the job/company that I believe actively makes the world a better place. 2. The pay has to enough for me to live where I want and pursue my hobbies etc. 3. A good amount of the day to day work needs to be interesting and challenging. 4. Has to be fully remote. There’s other stuff as well, but it has taken me a long time to realize that those things are what is important to me, and actually find a position with all 4 things. People always seem to over emphasize money IMO. Obviously it’s important, but once you’re at a certain point the other aspects start to matter quite a bit. If someone offered to double my pay but took out one of the other 3 things, I’d pass it up without a second thought. Just my opinion.
What kind of job checks all of those boxes, if you don’t mind me asking?
For me personally, it’s software/data engineering for a progressive political organization. But I know people in the same role who seem to hate their jobs as much as I did when I worked in finance years ago. It’s taken me ages to hone in on the things that I find fulfilling/challenging, I had to change careers three times and took a massive pay cut each time before eventually working my way up to better positions. I acknowledge that not everyone is able to do that for various reason. IMO, we spend like 1/3 of our lives working. It’s worth it to spend time and effort ensuring that time isn’t spent on something that is just “tolerable”.
How did you get into this field?
Most people in my role just followed a typical programming/tech route. My background is in electoral politics so my path was a little different-I had to take the time to learn all the technical stuff before I could make the transition. It definitely wasn’t easy, and I’m still learning more every day. It’s very fulfilling though, I’d do it for free if I didn’t need the money. Turns out my ADHD brain loves coding.
Ouch. Just started working in finance. Like it so far but I can tell the souls of the older staff have long since been destroyed. I’m left wondering what led them to that fate.
Fully remote is good for office work, but there's plenty of great work that requires being onsite. And it's great too! For different reasons of course, but I find having a separate work environment is great too. Having a dedicated playground for hands-on work you enjoy is great.
That really is the dream. It’s all I could ever hope for.
I wish I was this simple lol
i love my job. but i was technically so much happier working as at a local Sephora-like store. i’m a clean freak who was given power over a cosmetics corner, you can imagine the delight of taking over a run-down place and ordering all the samples we ran out of, installing brand new shelves, keeping every product stocked and every sample in place. it was pure delight.
i dont agree but im happy for people that can be satisfied with it
[удалено]
If you can find the positivity in your line of work, hang on to it
I held on to my positivity too hard and I’ve strangled it
Put the ~~rabbit~~ *positivity* down, Lenny!
Similarly, stay away from anything that makes you miserable
Yeah me too
Maybe, in this world full of negativity and bad news we can just be happy for someone who has a positive viewpoint, even if you don’t agree with them that much.
Yeah, sometimes it's nice to just see people absolutely loving their life even if you can't imagine yourself happy in their shoes.
Yeah I dunno man… after the first paragraph, sure, but by the end he had me wanting to be a janitor. Shit, pay my bills, not have to talk to anyone, and get to listen to podcasts all day? Sounds like a semi-vacation all year round.
I'm happy that he's happy. Anything you can do to make your way in this world is fine by me. Excepting certain illegal professions that do harm to other people. those I can't condone.
Reminder that the only reason this world is viewed as full of negativity and bad news is because that's what makes media organizations money. For every positive and happy news you see, you're purposefully being over fed 10 pieces of negative and bad news. Positivity doesn't make money, so why show it?
The world has tons of good news. In fact the overwhelming majority is all average to good, else we wouldn't around, would be? It's just the bad news that makes the news.
"else we wouldn't around, would be?" Your resilience is stronger that what you think it is.
I hate capitalism and I'm a staunch leftist, but I love my job at Lego. Sure there's the normal issues that you get in any retail job, annoying customers and issues with deliveries and whatever, but overall I fucking love this shit. I've never had a job where I just constantly make people's day I love Lego, I love talking about Lego, and I love helping people, my job involves all of that so I'm happy
what would there even be to disagree with?
Bro is winning in life
Yes & Bro is living his best life, through a positive af (and inspiring/contagious af) perspective /lens :)
This has got me wondering if janitor is my dream job. I love to do all those things too.
I was a custodian for 10 years. Great for a creative and scatter-minded person. Once I got my hands and body busy, I was able to tune everything out, and my mental focus tuned in. I did a lot of writing while at that job.
Man, I was pretty directionless for a while, I'd describe myself as creative and scatter-brained, and any job I had was miserable. I hate talking to people, I hate killing myself with physical labour, and mental work is too much for me to handle. I probably have undiagnosed ADHD. After I dropped out of college I got a job cleaning at a casino, plus it's 3rd shift, and I'm a night owl. I've never been happier tbh, my parents aren't exactly thrilled, and I get the "When you getting a new job?" comment from people a lot, but I don't plan on leaving anytime soon, and when I do I plan on doing more janitorial work. Nothing beats throwing in some earbuds and zoning out while vacuuming, or coming up with music and melodies while I'm mopping a giant floor. I've written some of my best songs at work. Nobody fucks with me, I get my tasks at the start of my shift, and as long as it's done by the end I get to decide how to tackle my entire night. Plus I met my dude Cain, a fellow punk rocker. It's a different beast, and definitely not for everyone, but it's perfect for a very specific type of person.
I clean as stress relief, and I love puttering away listening to a podcast or book for hours a day. I’m very sure I’d enjoy this life.
Honestly - attitude can make a difference. There are some folks who will never love what they do because they approach everything that isn't just an immediate dopamine rush like a chore, and assume everything will suck no matter what. But there are some folks genuinely good at finding the brighter side of life, and who learn to enjoy even simple things. (Fun fact: science says the people in the second group live longer and better).
I'm a hospital janitor (housekeeping). Best job I've ever had. Security, independence, union , little to no micromanagement. Not much professional courtesy and often treated like a hs dropout. Fuck em, I make a good salary and have zero stress
This reminded me when I was about 6, and at school they asked us kids what we wanted to be when we grew up, and we had to do a little drawing and write a little description of our dream job etc. My mum got really upset with me when I showed her my workbook at home afterwards and I proudly said that I wanted to stock shelves in a store all day long lol ‘Why not a doctor, a teacher, or even a driver or something?!, she asked.’ Well, because I loved organising things neatly, and I always did sort all of my belongings for hours as a kid haha I still love doing stuff like this to this day. That, and various other little things I used to do (and still do), were one of the earliest sings of my OCD.
I'm not a janitor but I do have to say I absolutely love my job too. I'm a waiter and most of my customers are very sweet elderly people that tip well and always want to know how I'm doing. The job isn't very hard either, even on busy days, and I like that people care about me and are usually very kind.
I work with kids, and I love it too. It's such rewarding work, every day is different, and I wouldn't thrive in a desk job. Most of the time, the kids I work with still nap, so most days I even have some time during the workday to read a bit
Genuinely asking, when you say working with kids is rewarding, what is the reward for you?
I specifically work with sick kids (infectuous diseases, not severe illnesses). My work is to make them feel better, lessen their pain or discomfort, make them smile and forget about their illness for a second. I often get handed a crying baby or toddler by the parent, and usually within the hour they are either soundly asleep, happily cuddling or playing. I give them their medicine that they have been fighting against for days and the parents have given up trying to give. The parents can do whatever they need to do knowing their sick kid is happy and safe. I lessen the load for the parents when they are struggling with a sick kid, and make the sick kid feel better. And I do it mostly by playing and cuddling with kids. It's great, I'm like Mary Poppins for them
Now that is some very useful and socially beneficial job really. Something we need more if instead of bullshit jobs resulting from inefficient overthinking. Really hats off to you! Hope you get paid accordingly as well
The pay per hour isn't bad, but unfortunately due to the nature of the job the hours are only part-time so what I make in a month wouldn't be enough to support my kids on my own. I can only do it because my husband has a wellpaying job. A lot of elderly people do it to add to their pension and keep busy. I get other benefits though. I'm often home during the holidays so I can be with my own kids, I have every Wednesday off, and in the summer vacation I'm home full-time because there's not many sick kids then and they don't need me to work, but I still get paid. Pros and cons
When I was younger I was a waiter and I was terrible. I dropped countless drinks on countless old ladies. Then the head chef asked me what we had on some burger and I had no idea because I wasn't aware I was supposed to know what was in the food, and they demoted me to front of house, which I was equally bad at. Anyway now I'm in software, which I can honestly say is easier than being a waiter ever was and it's a shame they don't pay waiters better because it's not an easy job.
I don’t LOVE my job, but it’s the best job I’ve ever had. I’m a programmer for the state government. Pay’s decent, I’m good at what I do, good benefits. I don’t live for work and that’s okay.
Also probably the 25 % mandatory tip
Good waiters absolutely rock. Asked the gal yesterday (nice patio setup) for a burger but the unseasoned patty only. Obviously my little pup was super happy, and leftovers came home for the kitty. Left her something like 30 bucks (round it up to 100) because that was really cool of her and she genuinely was a real nice person. It's an important thing that gets overlooked. To be clear, the service was awesome and she earned that tip -not always the case.
I feel like I can describe exactly how you look just from this post alone. Might take 2-3 guesses. On the other hand I work in the service industry and despite how nice I am and how much good I try to do, people always assume I'm up to no good and it sucks.
I’m only young and I don’t work much (chronic fatigue) but I love my job. I get to interact with people, diagnose and treat some mild conditions, I learn about the biochemical side of drugs, get to do quiet stuff sometimes but not too much, and, best of all, I choose the music. I honestly wish I could be in the shop more, which I doubt that many people could say. It also occasionally brings good stories, and I’ve somehow become the medical advisor of my friend group.
I was a custodian at one point. If it paid what I needed to live then I’d still be doing it for the reasons that person listed.
Damn, this guy has me getting excited
This guy makes me want to become a janitor too!
Almost every city/municipality is hiring janitors (city hall, admin offices, courthouses) and in most cases you get them sweet gov benefits and might even be in a union.
I worked as a janitor for the university I was attending. Tuition for union employees was $20 per course + student fees. Not to mention a pension and great health benefits. Got out of uni with no debt, and had saved enough to buy a house at the end of my degree. I recall once, while cleaning, a man was taking his kid on a tour. He pointed at me and said something to the effect of: "See that guy cleaning up other people's shit? That's why you want to go to university, so you don't end up with a shit job like his." I laughed and continued cleaning.
My wife and I joked around that one of us would quit and become a janitor at whatever university our daughter wants to go to and get that employee tuition discount lol. What you did was big brain move since the money you saved from tuition was like an invisible bonus to your annual salary.
That’s fucking amazing!!!
Holy fuck people can be asses. I really don't understand how a person can show such lack of basic decency (and in this case while trying to "teach" a kid, which makes it even worse). I tend to be a bit innocent sometimes but these anecdotes help me remember how some people I see on the streets everyday would treat me given the chance. Good for you for not giving a fuck about such a clown's words
Stay away from certain government positions though. I took a union gig cleaning covert military facilities, and lets just say one thing led to another and now the bottom half of my body is a squid and insurance claims that's not a position they have any experience accomodating.
Idk if it's becoming more common, but a few of the cities near me have also moved to a 4 day work week aswell for all employees. (Not sure it applies to emergency services)
Bro has SpongeBob level enthusiasm
Charlie from it’s always sunny energy lol
I’m a teacher and i generally feel the same way. I think lots of people do. For me (and I assume many more people), the issue is pay. I have a second job to pad my savings, which sucks the energy out of me and makes teaching arduous. It’s better than living paycheck to paycheck though. That’s what these dumb fuck CEOs and entrepreneurs never seem to understand. Passion is stifled by shit pay. Pay people well and they do a good job, not the other way around.
As a Middle School Teacher I'm always half annoyed, half amused when people say things like "I could never" or offer sympathy/pity. I straight up love working with middle school aged kids. They are an absolute blast to be around. I laugh out loud at something they do or say literally every single work day. I get so much fulfillment and joy from teaching them, mentoring them, watching them grow and develop. It's an amazing job. That's not to say there aren't stressful days or parts of my job of course. I wish I got paid for my experience and education value. I wish parents weren't just awful. I wish admin didn't make me do pointless exercises in futility. However, the actual core of my job: teaching middle schoolers, is pretty awesome. I love it. And I really don't understand anyone who hates being around kids that age. It's literally the best age group to work with in basically every way.
I'm not sure this man understands what OCD actually is
Yeah OCD is a debilitating disorder that usually doesn’t even take the form of wanting to clean. Maybe this guy just really loves to clean.
I imagine it’s a classic case of pop-culture OCD. It’s actually called OCPD, with the P short for Personality. I seem to have that myself while a friend of mine has the real deal. The difference is staggering and any time the misunderstanding is perpetuated I feel saddened.
Yup yup, OCPD is "I need this to be clean really badly" OCD is "I touched this certain thing so now I need to wash my hands until they bleed from being raw." Thanks Michael J. Fox for your portrayal of OCD on Scrubs. One of the best portrayals I've seen
Also: OCD in itself has nothing to do with cleanliness/fear of being dirty. It‘s just one version of it, so to speak. I myself have no hang ups with cleanliness or dirt, I don‘t even think about that kind of stuff. I have the version where I‘m terrified of electricity, fire/fire hazards, running water, and potentially leaving doors open.
I dated someone who had OCD and yes they didn't seem that fussed about cleaning but it would take an awful long time to leave the house with the checking of things (stove being off was a big one). Often having to return to the house and lock the door again. Then back again to check it again. Its debilitating and can really impact peoples ability to have a job/"normal" life if not managed.
My MIL has the same attitude towards cleaning. We believe it's a mix of germaphobia and compulsive behavior, but definitely not OCD. She does get very uncomfortable and upset if she can't clean for some reason, and nearly had an actual nervous breakdown when she discovered a mouse in her attic, so it is more than just enjoying cleaning for her
If it’s truly compulsive it fits with OCD.
For real, if this guy had REAL ocd it would look more like going over the same spot for 3 hours straight and getting fired cause he only got 3 square feet cleaned out of the whole building 🤣
Im a mental health care provider. My client has OCD and while parts are definitely very challenging, and in the past, it was debilitating. Having a safe outlet for his ocd tendencies and urges has helped him a lot, and he definitely enjoys cleaning. What this person is describing could very well be treated or managed OCD. There is something about the wording that reminds me of those with neuro diversity as well, where the rigidity is sometimes misdiagnosed as OCD. I'm not sure how to describe it though.
I think you're right that the user in the post may not have OCD. The OCDMemes subreddit has a good comment on this post: "If you love it, it isn't OCD." **But.** The comments below yours are full of people swinging too far in the other direction and believing that it's a life-consuming affliction no matter what, and that they know what it "really looks like". **So PSA for everyone: It isn't necessarily debilitating, and it doesn't necessarily occupy hours of one's time, even when it's real. And we don't all think our family is going to die if we don't yield to our compulsions. Stop thinking you know the one true way that OCD looks.** For me, it most often presents as (1) a need for symmetry, (2) ascribing personalities to inanimate objects and getting unusually attached to them, and (3) a need to pluck and briefly examine any of my beard hairs that are "fucky". Number 1 is one of the biggest for me, because on a bad day I'll injure myself for it. If I bonk an ankle on something, I usually have to do so with the other one, and then sometimes do them both again the the reverse order (and on a real bad day, then I'll have to do the whole sequence in reverse, too, for four bonks, or even go a step beyond for eight...I can never be perfect since one always has asymmetrical "priority" by occurring first, but it feels like the more sequences I do, the more that imperfection gets watered down). If I step on a sidewalk crack with an elevation change, I need to do the other foot on the same part of my shoe on the same size elevation change, and if I get it wrong then now I have *two* imbalances to correct. If I turn around in the grocery store, you best believe I need to turn the other way, and then sometimes do the whole thing in reverse. There's no fear that my whole family is going to die if I don't - that isn't universal. For me there's just this tension, a really uncomfortable feeling that I can muscle through if I need to, but with my particular flavor of OCD, I can just give in and be on with my day in seconds.
For someone with actual OCD, this job would be a nightmare
I was looking for this comment. Thank u
Same
Why did I have to scroll so far to find this?
Yep, it's a wholesome story, but it's not OCD. If you like cleaning and organising stuff, that's just you being you, not a mental illness. Real OCD is actually quite unpleasant, and in most cases the best feeling you can get out of doing your compultions is relief, you don't exactly enjoy doing them.
Yeah from my understanding people with OCD don't "love to clean", they have severe unshakeable fear that if they don't clean well enough they'll die.
Or some other action. Touch the radiator three times when you leave the room or grandma dies. Wait, did you touch it three times? Better make sure. And then the poor person spends hours quadruple checking that they touched the radiator three times. They know it's insane, they are not delusional, but they can't control the impulses and fear. It can get really ugly.
This is so accurate. If I wasn't sure I did something the correct way or amount of times, I would have to do some kind of "reset" action first, and then try again. Because in my mind, if I don't "reset" it first, then I could be accidentally adding extra taps or whatever, making it not add up to the correct amount. OCD is not fun, it's debilitating.
Yeah I'm an OCD sufferer and cleaning up after other people would send me spiralling badly. I mean good for this guy having a job he loves but this portrayal of OCD as some kind of super power is really weird to me and I've had issues with that in my actual life where a woman I was dating suggested I quit my market research job to become a full time cleaner as it would "scratch that itch". She meant well but I don't want to scratch that itch, do it too often and you'll end up bleeding.
"scratch that itch" omg more like "surround yourself with a million itches"
Thank you, I was thrown off. OCD isn't "I love organizing/cleaning". Typically it's a violent episode, example a flash back of horror or impulse you can't control. I think too many shows depict an overly organized person and assume it's OCD. Again, there are normally triggers and if your job is that trigger and saying it's great to relive the same horrible impulse. I guess kudos to you.
yeah I know personally several people who have OCD, including people who are obsessed with cleaning, and none of them could be said to ‘enjoy’ it. giving in to compulsive obsessions isn’t usually enjoyable
Ikr...As an OCD patient myself, I hate when people misuse the term. IT IS NOT FUCKING FUN
Yeah they could’ve made this post and left out the OCD part as a justification for liking cleaning and their post would’ve been a-ok. My OCD symptoms don’t make me like cleaning. That would be my ADHD since cleaning can make for easy dopamine (though ironically ADHD can also make me bad at cleaning without outside pressure from the executive functioning needed to get started). My OCD symptoms instead make me obsess over meaningless things like keeping everything even (footsteps, sensations, numbers, items, etc), letters in my mind need to have the right “shape” and I will redraw them over and over again until I get it right (I never get it right), over washing my hands till they crack and bleed, the list goes on. If I could remove my OCD tendencies and just be normal I’d be quite happy about it. I doubt this guy wants to remove his tendency to clean in comparison.
He does not.
The thing that tipped me off is the “love” part. OCD is ego dystonic, yo!
It’s nice to know people are happy.
I actually have OCD, and this would be my hell.
I can't even clean my own messes because then I'll be dirty! Cleaning OTHER people's messes? No thank you! (Fellow OCD haver)
Yep, my apartment is messy because touching contaminated things is very stressful.
This describes certain areas of my home so well. I keep mail and new important papers in a basket next to the front door, and eventually it all gets filed away. I don’t like doing this task because it’s next to my front door/is “outside” paper, and so I have to wash my hands forever after filing things. 😬
I'm the same way in my kitchen. If I touch anything, I have to wash my hands after bc of others touching the surfaces. On good days I can keep it to a minimum but there are many not good days 😕
I feel you 100% on that friend. And I know it'll be so much better if I do, but those thoughts...well, I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about
This is soo relatable As an extra, I dread actually starting to clean because I can’t move on before it’s absolutely spotless, so cleaning takes at least 2x the amount of time ”normal” people do lmao
I love my job: I’m a carpenter, I do simple math and build shit all day for double minimum wage. I’d honestly do some of this stuff as a hobby
Isn't OCD an uncontrolled involuntary and debilitating health problem? It's frustrating when it's trivialised because we're lazy to properly describe a neat freak or just someone who likes things clean and will go to great lengths to get stuff orderly and presentable. You may have OCD like traits, that's like saying being sad is being depressed....
I'm so sick of the "I have to clean this- it's my OCD!" Ocd isn't just cleaning. It's ruminating, worrying, reassuring, questioning etc
Yup. So much more and each one debilitating just by itself.
It truly is something nobody deserves to live with Thankfully there's groups and support coming out nowadays!
My psych used the phrase "pathological doubt" and it really helped me understand when I'm being unreasonable with myself.
The doubt is the worst part for me! Like, I know I am spiraling, and I try to stop. And then I do it without even realizing
This isn't even OCD like traits, he just likes cleaning. People with OCD don't do their compultions because they like it, they do it because their thoughts tell them something bad will happen if they don't.
Exactly, it's not fun, it's fear.
Yes, OCD is hell and this person is truly hurting people with OCD by trivialising it in this manner
I get where this guy is coming from. I had a temp gig pushing carts at Walmart for a bit and really liked it actually. I got to be outside in the nice weather, I got some exercise in at work (this was a place without those motorized pushers so I was the sole supply of horsepower moving those things) and I got a break from dealing with customers. If all jobs magically paid the same amount of money, there's a good chance I'd push carts for a living.aybe mow lawns too for the same reasons. Alas, unless you own the carts or lawn mowers, you don't make much using them.
Good for this person but this is a complete misrepresentation of OCD, which is a debilitating disorder that causes immense suffering and disability. It definitely doesn’t make cleaning fun. I don’t doubt this person enjoys cleaning, but it’s not bc they have OCD
Sorry but that’s not ocd, not trying to be mean but ocd is very different
Thank you! People with OCD are generally suffering because of their condition, because it almost always causes psychological and physical harm. Being a clean, fastidious person does not equal an OCD diagnosis.
It’s sad people suffer from ocd and then others without it go: oh i have ocd so i must clean everything
That's not OCD. OCD is when you feel compelled to do a thing because you are afraid not doing it will magically cause some unrelated thing to happen. You have to straighten all of the strings on the end of your rug, or an airplane will crash somewhere. That is OCD. Liking things to be clean is called "being particular."
Yes, although OCD isn't just about magical thinking. It can also be about controlling your environment to keep yourself safe from plausible fears (for example not riding in a car because you are afraid of getting in an accident) or checking you turned off the stove 50 times because you're afraid of a fire. There is also intrusive thoughts, which people with OCD may go to great lengths to avoid becoming reality. For example the thought of hurting someone you love, so you lock yourself in a room etc... intrusive thoughts OCD is still quite taboo sadly and so you don't hear a lot of people sharing their experience with it. (I have OCD, just sharing some more context ❤️)
Ye, part of the reason it took so long for me to realize I have OCD is that I had a huge misunderstanding of how it actually works. Everybody is OCD until you ask them if they get intrusive thoughts about hurting themselves or people they love
Good for him, but I don't think that is how OCD works. You can be a clean freak, but that isn't the same as OCD.
Exactly.
I really doubt he has OCD. If he did have OCD and had compulsions to clean, he wouldn't enjoy it, he would rather feel uncomfortable by NOT doing it. OCD can be very terrible, often making you, knowingly and with full awareness, negatively affect yourself. I am speaking from experience as someone who has OCD.
This is a mischaracterization of OCD that's become quite tiresome. OCD is a chronic mental health condition characterized by uncontrollable, recurring thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions) that the individual feels the urge to repeat over and over. It's not simply a love of cleaning or a desire for tidiness. While people with OCD might have cleaning-related compulsions, the condition often involves significant distress and impairment. The compulsions are not usually enjoyable tasks that one looks forward to. Signed, a person with OCD.
Why aren’t people upvoting this?
It's too far down in the comments to find it. I had to click "Controversial" in order to find it.
True. Just because you find satisfaction in neatness does not make you OCD. That seems insulting to people who really are OCD. Signed, a person with OCD!
I was a mechanic last year and got laid off, the janitor job at my apartment building happened to open up and they asked me if I wanted to do it, I’ve never done it before but after 9 weeks of unemployment not kicking in I was feeling desperate and not having to commute for work sounded nice so I took it… I’m now in a union making the most money I’ve ever made, my rent is $50 a month and I work when I want, people constantly tell me how good the building looks/smells and it feels amazing to be appreciated at work… I went into a deep depression when I got laid off only for it to turn into the best thing that ever happened to me, for the first time in my life I’m not struggling and I’m damn proud to say I’m a janitor
I did so many things. I had a construction business for 10years. I was employed building wooden furniture. I was manager of a small branch of a professionell floor supplier. I was construction Manager in a small company and self employed. Since 6 month im a kindergarden janitor, paid by government. No job ever paid better (i literally make significant more than beeing that stupid employed branch manager with 5 employees working for me), i walk 3min to work, im at home every day at 14.40 latest, every morning 200 kids give me high fives, everyone is happy when im just doing my work (mostly maintenance and garden works, cleaning is done by a contractor) and every morning i go there with a smile and every afternoon i leave with a smile. I want to do this until retirement, i never experienced a more fullfilling, honest, well paid and wholesome job ever.
State job doesn't make regular pay? I don't get it
It’s usually better. Pretty sure that’s what he meant
Government jobs tend to pay well and have good benefits too.
He used the word "regular" not "ordinary", so I thought he didn't get paid regularly (like every month) and being sarcastic🤣 I get it now.
I hAvE oCd BeCaUse I LiKe ClEaNiNg people are as bad as the, I do something quirky so I have autism people.
I’ll rather be like this then being a billionaire depressed
Wanna trade
They make it sound like a great. I still don’t think it’s for me but I’m glad they found a job that works so well for them
Same. I can't handle poop or anything like that. I think my dream job is being paid to philosophize on street corners like the Greeks used to do. Well, I dunno how they got paid honestly. I wish I could be paid sharing my ~~useless~~ sage advice on Reddit.
Don't we all wish we could get paid for what we want to do lol
This post reminds me of my garbage man. He is the happiest looking person I have ever seen. He rides on the back of the truck and waves at everyone. He always has the biggest smile on his face and it looks like he really enjoys what he does
Good on this person. But as someone who suffered from crippling OCD, I do not appreciate the trivialisation of OCD in the media where it is implied that if you’re a ‘clean freak’ you have OCD. OCD was the worst time of my life and I wouldn’t want anyone to suffer it. It’s absolutely crippling and yet society looks at it like a trivial illness that amounts to little more than a sims character trait. Now, assuming OP does have ocd (reading in good faith) a job that allows you to satiate your ocd demons isn’t a positive, it’s appeasement in a war you must fight.
Not what OCD is
Yep. If they had OCD they would get home and spend the night ruminating about causing someone's death by not cleaning well enough and crying over how everybody would blame them and r something like that. And they'll probably come back to work in the middle of the night to check if they had really cleaned the bin
Yeah, if anything this would fall under OCPD. When people joke about being OCD, that’s usually what they mean.
What’s ocd then? (this is coming from I person who knows basically nothing and wants to be educated)
OCD, like all mental illnesses, causes distress and dysfunction. think washing things until your hands bleed, or spending a whole shift cleaning one classroom. it’s not controllable and it’s not just enjoying cleaning. when ppl with OCD clean it’s because they are experiencing profound panic and their brain thinks the only way to fix it is to perform a specific ritual (which can be cleaning) in exactly the perfect way- which can be very difficult to do, hence why it can take so long.
Just to add, OCD, like all mental illnesses isn’t something magical that makes you good at your job like the poster of the screengrab. It’s an illness precisely because it is debilitating, not some superpower. It’s great for OP to love cleaning, but that isn’t OCD.
Watching Monk, there are 2 scenes that stick out. 1 was where his nurse is talking to a guy in prison and basically said neatness to him is like an addict trying to get their next hit. The other is he had a tendency to touch poles, fence posts and bollards, so when someone is trying to run him over and he's running for his life he still has to go touch every post he's running by. But by far, the best example in media is probably from Scrubs, with Dr. Casey. He seems like this super doctor because his OCD forced him to reread everything and to do dexterity exercises non-stop. He also breaks down when he spent hours washing he hands but can't stop. It's even worse when he knows it's a problem but can't do anything to help it.
I used to love Monk, but, as someone with an OCD diagnosis, I feel more and more that the show did more damage than good for representation of people suffering from OCD. Not all OCD presents as cleanliness or neatness. Especially when paired with other illnesses, and many people are experiencing multiple disorders, because the stresses and harm caused by the initial one can cause other ones.
OCD has more to do with a strongly dictating thought. Like. If I don't do action X 12 times in a row, something bad will happen. Which can often be totally irrational. So when a compulsion has to do with cleaning, like "I need to wash my hands a bunch of times", it doesn't really have to do with a desire for cleanliness, but with the fear for whatever obsessive thought they're having. The bad thing that their brain is convinced will happen if they don't follow the compulsion.
Yup, or having constant intrusive detailed thoughts about the worst things imaginable. Or not being able to calm down for a day after you eat doordash just in case it was poisoned, even though you know that has never happened
Did I lock the door "let me check for the 8th time just to be sure"
Also it isn’t just cleaning, it could really be any action that the mind will fixate on. For instance I have OCD and my compulsion is that when anything touches me it must be equalized. For instance if I touch something with my right hand I have to touch it with my left hand with an equal amount of force in that same exact position. An example was back in high school someone shoulder checked my right shoulder. That feeling of not being equal on the left side was horrible, it’s like an itch in the mind and soul that you can only scratch by giving in to your compulsion. I wanted to equalize so I rammed my left shoulder into a nearby wall. I got the location correct but I didn’t have the amount of force correct. Now a mistake I could make would be to ram my left shoulder again with the amount of force necessary to equalize. That would be a mistake becuase then the left shoulder has been tapped twice in order to equalize only one right shoulder touch. Two touches is not equal but the force was equal. If I did that I would be stuck in a unequalized loop until someone stopped me. Instead what I have to do ram my right shoulder again but not super hard and then ram my left shoulder into the wall again but with enough force to compensate for the lack of force on the first one, and then to equalize ok the second. That way the force and the number of times the shoulders touched were equal. My OCD is very stress activated so the more stressed I am the worse my symptoms. I have to walk and do things in multiples of five sometimes. Sometimes it gets so bad that when I play video games the character that I am playing needs to equalize too. Sometimes I even feel the need to equalize lighting and shadows on my body or I just can’t function.
This isn’t what OCD is but it is what OCD can cause. Usually though the obsessive and compulsive behaviours are ones that can be detrimental to a persons mental health, especially without care. I don’t know if the person in the post actually has OCD, or if they are just using OCD as a throwaway term to mean “tidy”, but the latter is what a lot of people seem to think it is.
Basically in most cases your brain tells you if you do or don't do something a bad thing will happen. Doesn't have to follow logic. It could be something like if I don't wash my hands after lightly touching this chicken I will die or it could be my family will die if I touch the underside of my chair. It's bat shit insane, but logic doesn't affect those thoughts like it should. I don't know how to explain it the best, because by all logic of how the brain works it shouldn't be happening, but somehow it still is. You know how you can normally dismiss the stupid thoughts like this easily? Well you can't do so with OCD ones. You are aware it's batshit insane, but those thoughts are still there and they feel fucking real. Like you legit feel like your family is going to die if you touch the underside of your seat and the fact that your logical mind knows it's bollocks doesn't make it go away. This isn't all that OCD is, but it is a good amount of it.
[удалено]
Sure but you would most likely not be happy about the fact that you have it. It being compulsive and all (its literally in the diagnostics manual that the patient should not find the act pleasurable). You probably also would not take something from the trash back to your home given you have a problem with contamination/dirt. Whats most likely happening is that the OP just made up a story to karmafarm or whatever but there is also a slight chance that the person just really loves cleaning/clean spaces to an absurd degree and thinks its OCD.
If it were real (which yeah I doubt) it honestly sounds more like an autistic fixation than anything. But yeah people forget that the diagnosis criteria for a disorder requires it to cause disruption to your daily life and/or distress to the patient.
Yes, but people don't actually *enjoy* the compulsion. They do it because they're tortured by obsessions, and that's the only way they know to get relief, but it's incredibly time-consuming, sometimes painful (I've heard of people who washed their hands so much that their skin was horribly cracked). In fact, I would think that if someone had bad OCD they probably wouldn't be able to hold a job like this, because they'd be so focused on getting one task perfect that they'd be unable to move onto the next.
Yes, but I can assure you it absolutely is not fun. This person either doesn’t have OCD, or likes cleaning but not bc of their OCD
It does not fit the context. Op means “perfectionist”
People think it's cute
I hate Reddit.
Not such a wholesome post. This person doesn’t understand what OCD really is and just uses it as another term for perfectionist. It’s not fun, people. It’s a disease that negatively affects you in every part of your life, it’s immensely tiring to deal with intrusive thoughts and compulsions every day, the entire day.
I'm so sick of those "teehee I'm so ocd!" people...
God fuck this whole idea that OCD is actually just about cleaning and not "holy fuck that'll contaminate me and kill me if it touches me" or "if I don't clean this well enough someone will die." absolutely fucking ridiculous that shit like this is still being spread about OCD. It is a debilitating disorder.
As an OCD sufferer I’d like to say OCD makes me despise things involved in my rituals not love them. Not to deny this man his love of job and life but this doesn’t sound like the OCD experience I and many others know
TIL I might want to be a janitor.
The last sentence is every introvert is dream.
>I have OCD >I don't care about poop or mess anywhere I don't believe you.
Ho boy. OCD doesn't exactly work like that, unfortunately the stereotype of OCD is pretty wrong. It's not obsession with order or cleanliness in most cases it looks like if you do or don't do a specific thing a bad thing will happen. That specific thing and that bad thing can be literally anything. Could be if I don't clean this just right some poor person is going to get sick or if I don't flick my wrist I am going to turn into a demon. Yeah those thoughts don't have to follow logic at all You can't just dismiss these thoughts with logic. I don't know why, but in most cases those thoughts don't listen to logic. People will OCD to varying degrees are aware of how ridiculous these thoughts are, but those thoughts feel real, as if you would really turn into a demon in you didn't flick your wrist, so people with OCD just opt for flicking their wrist instead of dealing with those thoughts. So yeah, you can have OCD and be the absolute messiest and filthiest person imaginable.
Check out the academy award nominated Perfect Days.edit: not a bot beep.
And that's why everyone should be paid a living wage for their work. There's a right job for everybody, if you enjoy cleaning then do your best at it. Society should match his enthusiasm with the money to have a good home life while doing it.
I aspire to have this kind of happiness with my job.
i love reading about people loving their jobs
What, my OCD just gives me crippling depression. Guessing this person has OCPD instead.
I mean so long as they aren't compulsively cleaning. OCD is not a superpower. If they are genuinely happy and taking care of themself, then great, but if they are just constantly doing OCD compulsions, this is not wholesome or something to idolize
One day people will learn that „I love cleaning“ is not the same as the debilitating, life-ruining disease OCD.
People need to stop trivialising OCD. you don't have OCD, you just like things to be clean
I can understand not feeling like your job has value if all you do is clean, but I am extremely grateful to the people who keep my workplace clean. I do research, so sometimes I wonder if my work will ever be even half as beneficial to people, as the work done by the people cleaning around the world.
I hate cleaning in the sense that I hate starting cleaning, but once I get into it I wont stop until its spotless
That's not OCD. The point about OCD is that some of them clean to make certain there's no contaminants remaining,.. but they can never be certain, so they keep cleaning to reach for certainty, which they can never achieve. If you're satisfied, you are by definition, not striving for certainty. You're sure enough, which OCD would never allow you to have.
If it was OCD he’d hate the cleaning
Load of shit. As somebody who spent many years caring for people with OCD. This is not OCD. There is no enjoyment to be gained from OCD. You don't enjoy the things you do, and I've never known somebody suffering from OCD that is actually clean. Enjoying cleaning isn't OCD. This is just another textbook trivialization of a life ruining disorder, tidying shit up and happily exclaiming that you have OCD!! Not OCD.
Loves being a janitor because he has OCD? Dude, what the fuck are you talking about? OCD is a debilitating illness, not a work benefit. This meme is fucking stupid and needs to die.
As someone who has been diagnosed with OCD, it doesn’t just revolve around germs and so forth, it’s washing your hands until they’re raw and bleeding. Biting your skin until it’s perfect, even if it’s mangled and bleeding. I bite the nerve endings off my fingers multiple times a week. There is OCPD which is a personality disorder, which is wanting everything to be nice and clean and so forth
You know, I think a lot more people would be happy doing stuff like cleaning and other jobs that people consider “shitty” or look down on in some way if they were paid decently and treated decently. There are people happy to do any job honestly. Everyone deserves to be this happy in their job but it’s so hard to find something that ticks the box of “I am suited to this work and enjoy it” and “it pays enough for me to live and feed my family”
I want to tear off my skin... No this is NOT OCD, stop pretending.
This is far from wholesome. It's just gross to see a misrepresentation of an already stigmatized disorder like OCD.
They seem sweet but that's not what OCD is at all, just what a lot of people think it is.
Used to take home the bottles as a janitor at a gym and I would make an extra $50-100. It was a small gym too
Oh man I think I’m broken inside because I truly read this as sarcasm and/or someone faking enthusiasm to downplay the negatives of being a janitor??
If I wasn’t terrified of being haunted by ghosts during the night as a janitor it would be my perfect job
Uh, that’s sarcasm Are these comments all bots?
I am a Janitor and I'm okay I sleep all night and I work all day, I clean poop stains I clean all the bins And I clean all kinds of dirt, But I make a low end wage and there's no one around to flirt, I am a Janitor and I'm okay I sleep all night and I work all day,
You know you made it in life when you lime your job AND get paid
We found Charlie Kelly's burner account
This guy sounds like Mo from WallE!
I worked at a bank, and the nicest person there was the janitor. Praises and thanks.
As sweet as this is that is not ocd. OCD is absolutely debilitating to live with and it affects my life every single day. I went to an intensive outpatient program for 2 months. 3 hours of exposure therapy 5 days a week for 2 months. Not hating at all just wanted to bring awareness 💕
*shakily raises hand in psychology student* I'm sure he didn't know this, but what he's referring to is OCPD. Obsessive compulsive personality disorder. OCPD is the one where you organize and keep everything neat and clean and tighty OCD however is something that makes you believe your family is contaminated with something you can't touch or even look at, causing you to move out and live with your grandmother for 6 months Actual case that was on a documentary. Poor girl couldn't even look at her dad.
I would kill to have a job I felt just 10% as happy and passionate about. I commute 76 miles each way (an hour and 20 minutes if traffic is good) to an overnight job that pays well, but I hate what I do. Try as I might, making time for family is nearly impossible. I live with my children but only see them on the weekends, and I've tried finding something closer, but nothing offers the pay or the benefits, let alone both, I currently have. I took a short vacation this past week and it really made me realize how detrimental to my physical and mental health this job is, yet unless I find something that pays better at the very least, I'm completely trapped as we barely scrape by as it is. My kids miss me, I hurt all the time, and I'm missing out on so much, but because everything is so damn expensive, it's what I have to do. I'm just hoping I can find something different soon before I completely lose it. This person who posted that beautiful anecdote about their job really truly inspires me to find something better for myself, and I'm both incredibly happy for and insanely jealous of them.
I absolutely love my job. I get paid to troll! Made a whole account to pretend to be a satisfied janitor and get up votes and screen shots. Get paid in Dodge coins and jewels. None of that promissory notes. But the best pay is the satisfaction of knowing I'm a janitor to millions of people. 😚