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Do you feel like you're working your life away? I'm thankful to have a job but I feel like I get no time to LIVE except on the weekends (& even then you have to run to the grocery/clean house/etc).
All I can say is Yes, yes, yes, YES, yes!!!
The only difference is I work 2 jobs so I only get one full day off a week. And most of that is spent doing chores, running errands and trying to get in whatever I didn't have time for during the week.
I think it makes a difference if you enjoy what you do at work. If I hated my work, I would feel worse about the job and how much time it takes, but if you get to do what you want to do and be paid at the same time, it works out.
I'd rather do what I do at work than watch television all day for sure.
I think the 5-day 40 hour work week is and has been going by the wayside. I know many that want and need the overtime. I'd like to make in 40 what I do in 60 hours, but it's just not possible. For one, companies want profit and production. Two, the US is an "on-the-go" society. Why do you think fast food, remote controls, ipods, high speed internet, cell phones, and text messaging have all taken off here? Here's a real easy one, why do you think football has overtaken baseball as the national past time? It moves faster. Overall we're just not a laid back society. This translates to the workplace as well. I'm not saying your post is all wrong 7 wishes, I'm just giving you my interpertation of why Americans are working more. Money and demands. Employees need to earn more money as the cost of living keeps rising, companies need to earn more money and need to be more productive in order to stay alive so they demand more.
I think the last 4 posts (starting with this one) were spot on. But the thing is, there are people who aren't (mentally, physically, or both) capable of working 60 hours/week, what do you do with them/about that?
I love how a current mantra is "start a business." It would appear that most business is suffering these days. One's own business always had a poor track record of success, and not everyone has the skills to do so anyway.
I think starting a business is a great idea if you have a well-employed spouse (preferably one with federal benefits, as I look at two couples I know).
I try to remember my not-so-distant ancestors (and for some people, very distant) who worked all the time. To live. To eat. They farmed, ranched, made stuff. My grandfathers (both from Ukraine), one was a tailor ("schnieder?") and then worked in a swimsuit factory in Philadelphia. The other one loaded ships on the docks in Odessa, and then in Philadelphia before dying of pneumonia shortly before antibiotics were in circulation (for poor people). My grandmother (who went to second grade only) cleaned houses and worked in a box factory.
And I should whine that my job isn't "satisfying?" Nah.
That said, for a while, I twisted and turned, trying different work, and then trying different scheduling. My last stand was buying a crumbling cottage on a short mortgage and planning to work part-time. Then it finished crumbling and I build a small new house. The only way I could afford part-time (and save for retirement, as I am almost 57) would be to sell the house, as I do have some equity, and move into a 55+ trailer park in my town, and it's pretty beat. Plus I wouldn't be able to adopt multiple rescue dogs or give money to charity, both of which matter to me. I have an old-fashioned pension, for which I am extremely grateful.
So am I living to work? Now, yes, although I'm working for a home that works for me like I've never known and for money when I cannot work or am able to work part-time or not work at all (retirement). I wasn't able to make these decisions until my mid-40s, and then still kicked and screamed at myself.
I asked one friend what she thought would happen to us, and she said, "I don't know, I thought we'd just get rich and party down." I asked her how this was supposed to happen, and she said she can barely think about next week, never mind the future. She's 61, and did manage to buy a two-family house and rents out an inherited house in Florida.
If I didn't have the pension, I'd be saving more myself and those vacations out West might get fewer and further between. They are the only travel that matters to me- horseback riding in the Mountain West- and I know that won't be possible at some point, age-wise.
When I was 20s-30s, I never thought of these things. I tried mightily to make work into a calling, that is, to find work that really mattered to me and worked in my life, etc. etc. It's worth every effort. It's real hard to pull off, and there are real costs to the effort and falliing short. There's a reason people slog along at jobs (if they have a job) and it's not always about buying too much shiny stuff.
......and probably end up more screwed than you were before
It's a definite risk. However, I will say that it has worked out pretty good for us thus far, and has certainly made us happier overall with our lives. One plus with what we do is that it's a service, and we have no goods nor inventory that we need to purchase. Plus, have a business for the tax write-offs is wicked nice.
Last edited by thepinksquid; 02-28-2010 at 11:08 PM..
It's a definite risk. However, I will say that it has worked out pretty good for us thus far, and has certainly made us happier overall with our lives. One plus with what we do is that it's a service, and we have no goods nor inventory that we need to purchase. Plus, have a business for the tax write-offs is wicked nice.
What kind of a business do you have? I'm definitely considering doing something. No goods or inventory sounds really good to me.
Do you feel like you're working your life away? I'm thankful to have a job but I feel like I get no time to LIVE except on the weekends (& even then you have to run to the grocery/clean house/etc).
I wake up at 5am (get ready for work, commute to work, etc), work, get home @ 6pm---then by the time I eat & clean up around the house, I only have 2 hours to myself (to live...do things I want to do rather than things I have to do) before I go back to sleep at 9pm in order to get my 8 hours of sleep. I mean, wtf?
I don't know how people with kids do it. I feel like I have no life.
Nah, I work 9/10 to around 5/6 depend on what needs to get done. Don't really get slave driven in the office since I mostly need to hit deadlines. I live about 15 mins from work so it's not like I have a rough commute. I slip 30 min - an hour of gym time in there as well. Work is pretty cool so I'm not burnt out (usually a little bit amped) when I get home.
I tend to go out and do stuff most weekday nights (sometimes I hit up a coffee shop and do some work on my own stuff, other days I head out with some friends and have a couple beers, or it's Thursday and thus: bowling night).
I dunno, I've found my work life to be far less stressful than my college life since I actually have time to do things. Part of why things aren't so bad now is I've gotten pretty good at organizing myself due to how hectic my college schedule was.
I dunno, life is pretty good, at least based on how I've prioritized things.
use that 2 hours for a hobby. this is most important.
staying fit and having a hobby will keep the grim reaper away.
it will also prevent you from becoming this if you are a gal, or your wife becoming this if you are a guy.
What kind of a business do you have? I'm definitely considering doing something. No goods or inventory sounds really good to me.
Skilled web development (as in, not really design--more like custom back-end systems; a lot of our clients are from the health care industry) and iPhone app development. We're getting into circuit board design for a few things soon, too.
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