I work in building maintenance for a large hotel chain.
I started at the front desk, was there for a couple years. I was starting to become frustrated with the job and the nepotism that was rampant in that department(that's another story.) I had gotten to know the maintenence manager pretty well and he saw that I was unhappy so he offered me a job in his department. I didn't know the first thing about maintenance and I wouldn't have described myself as particularly handy. But it seemed a welcome change and he offered to train me so I took it.
Our department cut a full time position about a month or so ago, at the same time our workload tripled. That has been difficult to keep up with. I would say that its less about the work itself, more about how the the department is being managed from higher up.
Something that I don't find particularly frustrating but that I did notice, people absolutely look at you differently based on your uniform. They treat you different too. You tend to be ignored unless there's a problem that you're there to fix.
Despite our workload, I put in 40 hours a week. Sometimes more if overtime is approved. Hours aren't bad, but my days off are during the week and my shifts are slightly irregular.
I fucking love my job. It's great. It is so personally gratifying to be able to point to something and say, "This works now because of me. It was broken and then I fixed it." My job can be kind of gross sometimes, I definitely plunge a lot of toilets. But I have found a confidence that comes from working with your hands that I never knew. I really can't say enough about how much I love my work.
I may change employers but I don't see myself changing my work. I need to be able to work with my hands. I would only switch to something else if it could teach me a new skill.
White male, 20s.