Many of you know that I still dream about work even thought I haven’t held a traditional job in nearly two years. Last night, I dreamt that I was giving a big speech at work but no one was listening. The louder I talked, the more the audience laughed and disregarded my presence. I was sweaty and disheveled — totally panicked — and I was screaming at a group of people who were totally disinterested in what I had to say.
I was ushered off the stage by Barack Obama. He told me, “This isn’t for you.”
He also said, “I’m disappointed.”
Then I was forcibly peeled away from him by secret service and I cried.
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No one likes HR. Not even the President.
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Do you dream about work? What are your dreams like?
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
“No one likes HR.” Ouch! That is harsh, even as an outsider.
When I dream about work (and it is seldom), it is usually something like being late for a meeting or blasting past the most important deadline in the history of mankind.
Back when I was an undergrad, I ran for some student government position (it was my job back then). I dreamt that I was shaking hands and I woke up with my hand stretched out before me in an imaginary handshake. It was literally sticking up in the air.
I keep in touch with three people from my old job RIP 12/05: my former former boss (not the one who laid me off, PBUH), a colleague who now lives an hour from me, and the HR director who was my best bud from day one in the division.
Obama was just wrong on this. And that’s all I’ll say about that.
Luckily I don’t dream about my job. Does that mean that I don’t have a dream job? If I did dream about my job would that be considered overtime? Probably not as I’m exempt from such things. They get enough of my time during the day. I think I’d be seriously pissed if I started dreaming about work.
I dream about work a lot and it usually involves forgetting how to do some very basic function – i.e. how to calculate a percent increase or something. I used to dream, in HS, about forgetting my locker combination. These dreams make me panic and sweat and I usually wake up in terror.
A few months back I had a dream that one of our employees asked me to babysit her infant; she dropped the sleeping baby off at my house and left. When the kid woke up, I saw she had a giraffe neck and it had no bones in it so was just flopping around. The whole dream was me panicking about not letting this baby’s 12 inch neck snap in two. In the dream, the mother never came back to pick up the baby. So I had to track them down (in the dream), and I found that they lived in a one room no-tell/motel. The husband was wearing a wife-beater shirt and their room was stacked with old newspapers and beer cans. I handed over baby-giraffe-neck and left. And then I woke up. Sweating.
I wish I could sleep well enough to have a dream!
When I was a bartender, years and years and years ago, I dreamed about work a lot. Horrible dreams, where I was all alone and customers were eight-deep at my bar, yelling for service, and all my taps and guns were dry and I’d broken a glass in my ice-well and and and …
I don’t dream about work these days, but last night I dreamed that a bunch of hillbillies were holding me captive as a nanny for their deformed, mutant baby.
Seriously.
My subconscious needs meds.
I don’t dream about work (thank God!)…. but if I did, I would want to dream about a Giraffe necked baby too cause that is just too good to pass up!
)
I dream about missing meetings.
I dream about fighting bigfoot. What the heck does that mean?
I would love to see someone analyze that dream!
I do dream about work but it’s usually the mundane stuff; sitting in my office doing real work or out on the floor with the staff. I have had the missed meeting for forgotten project dreams but thankfully nothing too traumatic. I’m sure, having said that, I’ll have some jacked up dream tonight about giving a presentation in my birthday suit.
Dreaming about work is how I know it’s time for a PTO day. The workmares are often so similar to an actual day at work that it can be hard to tell the difference. They’re never awful, but always stressful because of all the stuff I’m not getting done in them. I usually wake up in frustration when I can’t read whatever critical document or email is in front of me.
I’m still waiting to have an epiphany-style dream about work that solves an ongoing work problem in reality.
That piece of art is so Portland, I love it.
I seriously had a dream last night that I had dinner with Barack Obama and my mother. In my mother’s driveway. After dinner, Obama make me take a walk with him and he told me to be nicer to my mother. What the hell does THAT mean???
He had to have known I was an HR guy. Thanks for pissing him off and sending him into my dream, Lauire!
Is the Prez telling you to abandon all HR and move on to a career that will give you personal and professional fulfillment?
I dreamed about work one night, when I woke up it felt like I had actually been working all night.
Going home time is time to put work to bed. (no pun intended)
I worked for one company, and a customer was pissed at some policy I was upholding. He said that he hoped when I got home and went to bed that night that I would think about how horribly I treated him. That was probably the cruelest treatment I have ever received from a customer.
I would say under normal circumstances, if you can’t leave work at work, it’s time for some PTO or even a new job.
In your case, Laurie, I think perhaps it’s more related to how you feel. I know somewhat of speaking and not being listened to. Like other things are more important than you. Like you aren’t doing it right. Well the world can go to heck, my solution for this is to focus on making a difference in the lives of your friends and family. It’s not about changing THE world. It’s about changing YOUR world. My job is a means, not an end.
I don’t dream about work, but I DO dream about Barack Obama. Mostly having him and Michelle as guests at the most fabulous dinner party evah.
I rarely dream about work, but I had one very vivid and useful dream.
Context – Since our Jr. Accountant left I’m doing payroll. It’s not something I’ve had previous experience with so I have plenty of questions. When I asked the CFO if he knew why we only add 50% of the value some taxable benefits to employees’ pay he and I were baffled and he was sure that the old Jr. Accountant had made a mistake.
That night I had a very clear dream in which I was puzzling over the payroll question. In my dream a second me came along and said to the me that was stumped me “You idiot, you pay employees twice per month, therefore, you divide the monthly benefits in half and add them to each paycheque.”
I immediately woke up and realized that this was obviously the answer. Duh! Lest I forget in the morning I sent my boss a groggy email. We both felt like idiots that we didn’t figure this out sooner. I guess sometimes you just need your subconscious to give you the obvious answer!
Actually now that I think about it, back when I was a teaching assistant in university I used to have nightmares about work all the time. Whenever I was in a marking cycle I’d have horrible dreams that I’d gotten sick of marking and just put random grades on all the papers. I’d either feel sick with guilt or would get caught.
Ugh, those horrible dreams with all those papers and numbers. No complex analysis needed on this one – I really did feel like I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
I mostly dream that I show up in my pyama’s
The only time I dreamt of HR work was when I knew in advance that we were having massive lay-offs. That night I dreamt that grown men cried and woman were handing me their babies to feed with their little dirty faced children attached to their skirts with tears in their eyes pleading for me to let their mommy’s and daddy’s work. I woke up in the middle of the night with sweat dripping down my face, my body shaking and trembling….this wasn’t a dream, it was a nightmare….the lay-offs weren’t any better, they were a nightmare too…
Two nights ago I had a work dream: I was sitting at the front desk in our office. A career coaching duo was perched over my shoulder. A crowd of people entered the building, but I was in the middle of a high priority project, and I couldn’t greet all of the visitors.
Then, one of the coaches turned to me and said, “Be sure to keep your lobby eyes open!” She was a close talker.
I woke up angry.
I dream about being back in the days when I was a short order cook in HS and college and was working 12 hours shifts on Friday and Saturday, cooking all you can eat fish dinners all evening until the bars closed. Then all the drunks showed up, and everybody wanted breakfast.
This was when wait staff still hand wrote orders on tickets and they hung them on a spinning metal wheel. The cooks read the scrawl and called the orders out. It was a major busy few hours and highly chaotic. You could barely keep up, sometimes stuffing tickets in your shirt pockets when you had no place left to put them.
Whenever I get really stressed at work, I dream about working in a restaurant with my HR co-workers. That makes it doubly scary becaue they never know what the hell they are doing in a restaurant!
I don’t really dream about work now, but I used to have NIGHTMARES about it when I worked in Advertising. The pressure, the deadlines…stressing about it after hours eventually turned into it creeping into my sleeping hours as well.
In the end, it wasn’t worth it. I ended up quitting after 2.5 years.
Ha-ha
I also dream about work – and work about my dream
Cheeeesseeee
Most dreams are wish fulfillment and insecurities we have don’t want to look at consciously. Others have deep symbolic content unique to the individual. Others are just random information processing crap IMO.
Mark
I dream AT work. Oh wait, I don’t have a job.
When I’m stressed I have dreams that my cats have multiplied and I can’t take care of them all. I also dream that I can’t find them or get to them to take care of them. I hate those dreams.
When I was in high school I had a gerbil named Chuck. I had horrible nightmares that he somehow met a girl gerbil and made millions of babies that I couldn’t take care of.
There is a pattern here.
I had a dream about Obama once during the pres race. He was giving me advice about something, but dang it if I can remember what it was. It would probably totally come in handy, like “stop acquiring pets and you’ll sleep better”.
Did you say dream or nightmare?
Sorry I am not a good listener (I work in HR)!
M
@M What? What did you say?
@Wench I have dreams about multiplying cats, too. Or I dream that one gets out and I can’t catch him/her. Oy!
@StressMark I think dreams are psychic garbage.
@MeredithElaine Oh, boy, advertising? That is a nightmare.
@MVD I bet you can make some great eggs!
@AiryMary Close talkers make me angry, too. (Even in dreams.)
@Latina My layoffs are always easier than my worst fears. I haven’t been shot.
@Rampancy I live my life in pajamas so that’s my reality.
@Wildermiss I feel like we just went through a therapy/analysis session together. That’s awesome.
@Lexy What is Michelle wearing? That’s what I want to know.
@David I think you’re right that the president is telling me to move on and change my world. I think he wants me to get more cats. Maybe a puppy.
@Mona I’d gladly abandon HR but what would I do?
@ScottS Dreams about your momma & HR? Weird!
@Lance LOL, I knew you’d love that art.
@Susan My dreams never solve a problem. Never. It’s too bad because I’d love to solve the mid-east peace crisis.
@adowling If you have a jacked up dream, let me know!
@HRPuf My husband dreams about fighting zombies! Must be a dude thing.
@Ian I’ve had those dreams!
@HR Chick Stand in line for the meds!
@Elise Gross. Mutant babies? Yuck.
@Kirsten I hear this from new parents. They never dream and feel like they’re going crazy — or they have crazy nightmares about killing their children. No thanks.
@Rool That is one fucked up dream. Hands down, you win.
@HRPuter No kidding. We don’t get paid enough to dream about work.
@Class Thanks. I think.
@George I talk during my dreams. It’s totally freaky!
No dreaming about HR just my previous job! Maybe that’s a good thing! I dream to forget or maybe relive the past with a better decision(s)…we could spend more that 30 blogs on dreams.
Personally I like some and hate the others…to bad about Obama I think he has enough on his hands, he has given HR enough to do these last few weeks. Oh well…as I tell my spouse and friends….”sweet dreams”…sigh and then I wake up and its Thursday.
haha – I love it. Every one hates HR. Even Obama.
Dude, get your hubby this http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Survival-Guide-Complete-Protection/dp/1400049628
My wife gets very frustrated when I reference the impending zombie war in polite conversation
I dreamed last night that I was being called and offered an interview for a job that I had applied to that I wasn’t even qualified for. The company was apparently impressed with my chutzpah! I woke up wondering if they really exist and should I send them my resume?
I dream almost every night and remember them perfectly for about an hour. By lunch, I can barely remember it!
When I worked in a horrible office where my co-workers were constantly gossiping, cursing and illegally/unethically recruiting I would dream about horrible things happening in the office and I would just watch them happen and snicker to myself in the corner. This wasn’t far from reality (karma!) but the horrible things in the dreams were always a little more exciting – like a swarm of bees or their skin turning purple
Still waiting for that Obama dream….. I really want one!
KRue should chat with my sister about fighting zombies. She has a strategic plan that includes destroying her staircase (since zombies can’t climb without the aid of a staircase). It’s really quite brilliant.
@Wench Whoa, that’s crazy. He only dreams about killing zombies after playing TONS of video games. Weird.
@KFP I’m like you — I can barely remember my dreams unless they are frightening or super-weird.
@Kimberley Go for it!
@Puf OMG, no. He doesn’t need any encouragement.
@Matthew It’s true.
@ATCNow I think you’re right. Obama doesn’t need to deal with HR issues.
@HR Wench, tell her to invest in a shao lin spade http://www.wle.com/products/W066-C.html best zombie killing tool ever!
Laurie, I think you may be the voice in my head…that dream is disturbingly familiar and hilarious!
@Amy Watch out!