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Comment by PragmaticPulp | Hacker News Reader

Coworkers will make or break a job for me.

I can enjoy even menial work if I'm surrounded by friendly people who like doing a good job.

I can loathe any work if I have to deal with unqualified, socially combative, or unnecessarily difficult coworkers.

The job also needs to be focused on delivering the product, not constantly fighting corporate dysfunction, attending meetings, and jumping through managerial hoops.

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YES! ^^^ My favorite job, years ago, involved co-workers that I actually enjoyed spending time with. I looked forward to going into the office. I enjoyed staying late. The bosses/managers were generally jerks, but my co-workers were great.

This 100 %, I am in academia since 2013 changing every couple of years the team I work with. Everytime I have loved my job was when I was working with people I liked. Not necessary that I liked them outside of work (maybe we never even went to the pub together) but we liked each other in the way we were at work.

It's a shame job ads are so focused on bullet points of technology, I'd much rather see info such as "really friendly and helpful team who are smart and effective but not in an insufferable way, working on generally interesting stuff" :-)

One of the few things I miss about in person work is the banter that happens more organically in an office. I do love my job and enjoy my coworkers still, but it's not the same. Sometimes I'll grab a beer with some old coworkers and that's always a blast.

Even back in high school and college when I was working generic minimum wage jobs, coworkers could make or break it. So many good times collecting trash and cleaning bathrooms with Ashwin, but the same thing with Dave was dreadful. Turns out spending time with people you like leads to happiness, who would have though :)

Yeah, that makes a big difference.

I also work at a place that has a social good (healthcare). The ability to materially help someone manage their disease on a daily basis is fulfilling. This is true in a way that helping people arbitrage crypto could never be. I've found the daily grind of tickets is different when you are helping people versus trying to finish UI that is designed to trick people into clicking on ads or whatnot.

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