What is something that you wish you would’ve been told about before enlisting?

I was lucky during KP. The DFAC manager knew I was going to college and insisted I would watch over the pantry. I had it easy.

Oh the percent is far higher than that. It estimate a minimum of 80%. In fact, I think its less that they hate their jobs as much as it is the person they work for -- their direct superior.

Not talking about toxic leadership. That’s a whole new topic. The 10%ers will exist even in units with good leadership. They’ll exist in good outside jobs. They exist in every aspect of our lives and they ruin morale whenever and wherever they can. They are the people who are unhappy with who they are but blame everyone and everything for their problems, and want everyone else to be as unhappy as they are, LCpl Sidney Green

I get it now, although I still think the two are closely related. Nevertheless, when you put it that way, they can most certainly be evaluated and examined separately. This is something I'll need to spend a lot more time looking in to.

I can, however, say that I did read the results from a survey that determined nearly 50% of the workforce hated their jobs. Although that was a long time ago, so I'm not sure if those values still hold true today. To be clear, is that 10% an estimated amount of the population that are miserable within all groups no matter what?

In any event, I look forward to reading the responses here, and learning more about this valuable topic.

LCpl Sidney Green - 100% upfront, these are merely my observations. It's nothing scientific. I've just noticed, as a Marine, a Soldier, a troop, a leader, and now a civilian, it seems very consistent: 10% of the people I had/have to deal with were just truly unhappy people. It didn't matter if my CoC was good or bad. It didn't matter if I was in recruiting, an instructor, in a line unit, or as a civilian. Now, I agree with you on the toxic leadership part. If your leaders are crap, far more than 10% will be unhappy, but if your command climate changes, the morale of the unit changes, but those 10% will still be unhappy. Now, studies do show the number of people who call themselves "unhappy" runs between 8-13%. Why are they? Who knows? Maybe they just choose to be? Maybe they aren't mature enough to take responsibility for their own happiness? I've known people, had people I hung around with, who were unhappy at work but not on their own time. I've also known people who weren't happy at work and weren't happy off work. Those are the ones I'm talking about.

Oh yea….. I forget to appreciate my civilian education position I came in with. With a masters I’m basically golden so long as I check the box on everything else.