No Stupid Questions

This is why the rich don't understand how the poor "can't work". They have kids yo. And lower end jobs oftenhave very strict hours. But the upper end jobs have lots of flexibility. And the rich of course just don't volunteer at their kids school, or they have a parent home with the kids to do all those things.

I had a boss tell us we should forget about work-life balance.

You don't. That's why I am only working 4 days a week (with respectively reduced pay). But it's worth it, I much rather reduce the money I have available for my free time, but have a much more relaxed work week.

A 9.5 hour work day is insaaane

Doctor's appointments are considered as showing up to work in my country so people don't go undiagnosed for years before it gets worse. Anyways I don't have a life as well. I just do things that are possible to do in the evening (gym, studying, meeting friends). Weekends are for errands. Fuck life

Go get a PhD and an academic position. The pay is shit but nobody will care whether you show up or not.

Privileged to have flexible time, WFH, paid OT.

Trusted professional career where as long as you get the work done, then if you start later, have a longer lunch or finish earlier every now and then no one bats an eye.

Where I work, they don't really give a shit if you have to go to an appointment or whatever. You just let people know you're going to be out at such and such time and that's it. No micromanaging of time since we're all adults and know what our deadlines and deliverables are. It's a salaried position, though.

If I had no flexibility at all that would definitely be pretty miserable.

You highlighted why I want a 4/10 schedule so much. A designated day for this sort of thing would be a huge boon.

I don’t get anything done.

For me its the other way around. I worked 3 different shifts, including weekends, all the holidays and my shifts would be so random up to 6 workdays in a row with one or two days off in between. Most weekends I've worked, and my friends were available only on the weekends, so I missed on many stuff. My sleep schedule was non existant and I've felt constantly tired - i couldn't recover after those night shifts with 2 days off. I wouldn't get to spend time with my gf, even though it's daily routine - cooking food, watching series before bed, etc, cause most time when she was free i would be either sleeping or working.

Getting the stuff done, your appointments is nice, especially in the mornings when you got evening shift later, there are definitely upsides to working in shifts. But definitely not for everyone, the random sleep patterns caught up to me and since then I'm working in office hours, feeling much better even though the pay is less.

I guess where are working matters a lot. My current workplace let me leave earlier if I need to, or WFH, there's no pressure in time-keeping and I love that. So many places feel like you're working in ER, but you're just making someone rich :D. Also the city I am living in is a 600k European city, where distances are smaller, most drive <1h here to work. But I would move to smaller town for sure of we had children.

I don't want to get into American vs European labor laws, but I'm getting 4week/year PTO as much sick days as I meed (with reduced pay) and child care days off, meaning 1 day off/2 months whenever you want.

Sensible employer, decent sized town, and good enough country.

I don't consider work separate from life. I wasn't happy in my previous job so I started my own bussiness and now I do what I like to do. I still wouldn't work if I didn't have to but because I do, might as well do something that I enjoy and feels meaningful. Admittedly I probably work more hours now than I did before and I took a paycut as well but for as long as it covers my expenses it's all good. Atleast I don't need to ask anyone's permission for.. anything.

Nice office jobs you can slip out for doctors appointments, but you kinda sorta still have to make up some of the time.

How tf do people who work 8-5 M-F get any life done?

Ha ha. Ahhhh ...

sob

I hate it.

Luckily I work a 4x10 right now. But I'm sure somebody somewhere in my company's management has noticed I am just slightly less miserable than I could be.

I would legitimately work a 2x20 if I could.

You're not supposed to do anything other than generate value. Society doesn't care about your DMV needs. Just work and consume.

As someone who also does "8-5" (can't believe we still call it that), I don't get any life done. I get home, get dinner done and then I doom scroll until I pass out from the exhaustion.

Given my commute is longer than most, I just don't have the time or energy to commit to other things I would otherwise be willing to get into. Drives me nuts when I see others being able to get their shit done seemingly whenever they want. With traffic being shit here, no idea how anyone can realistically get to the gym and still make themselves dinner afterwards without going past 10. It's crazy out here.

Jobs paid enough so one person could stay home is how it worked. Growing up, dad made all the money and mom stayed home to do chores and whatnot. It’s just how things worked. These days mom’s living off of dad’s retirement fund since he died early and she’s always surprised when I have to ask her for money even though its her generation that made the world what it is. Even when I am able to find work my wife and I are check to check. It’s stupid.

Honestly? It's hard. I'd literally kill for a 4 day work week. It's become ridiculous.

My gf and I don't even have kids. I can't even imagine having kids to manage on top.

My weekends I barely have time to socialize or engage in my hobbies or leisure. When I do, my weekend chores overflow on my Monday evening. I'm tired all the fucking time.

It feels like a god damn cage.

I worked an average of 12 hours a day last month, 251 hours. Had zero life.

Make up for it in the winter when I work 4 days a week 😆

Late shift--- no social life but I'll be damned if it doesn't make appointments a breeze

that's the point. the capitalists want every minute of your life they can get to work for them, then make you scramble to fit the rest of your life in the gaps. they make more profit and you have less time and energy to educate yourself, think, and organize

Can you not just make up the time lost with overtime? That's how it usually works here. You need to leave early? Just make sure to make up the time.

I mean, you probably can't I guess, limited sick time that can be used up doesn't really paint a good picture of how much your country cares about you.

I recently (3 years ago) changed gears employment wise to a 2 week rotating schedule, working 7 days out of 14 plus and flex time usage. 10 years of house projects done in 6 months. New roof, kitchen renovation + new flooring/paint/trim throughout the house. Raised beds built and in use. Vermin proofed half the block to ward off woodchucks. I go fishing whenever.

60 hour work weeks simply aren't worth it to me.

I haven't got a fucking clue. I always hated normal jobs, but I do enjoy having both food and shelter (how decadent of me, I know), so I did what I could to scrape by. And what I "could" usually translated to "could find".

Then my proper career started in 2008, and it was an offshore rotation. Give weeks offshore in various corners of the world, followed by five weeks at home. It paid well, and I got to see the world. I worked my ass off for five weeks straight, 12 hour shifts every day, and when I was home I was free ro do whatever.

Then came 2011: The company wasn't doing too well, and I had contracted a family. I wanted to spend more time at home, and while I wasn't completely prepared to change careers just yet, I was mentally toying with the idea.

In spring 2012 I decided it was time to find a "normal" job, so I could spend more time with my family. M through F, 0800-1600, mostly at a technical workshop, sometimes at clients' places, and once in a blue moon at an office.

It. Was. Miserable. But having a normal job was what I was supposed to do, right? Well, the money wasn't bad per se, but it was nowhere near what I used to earn. Plus, when I got home from work I was so exhausted I rarely had energy left over. The family life I was aiming for was severely limited by my stamina.

In 2019 I concluded that nor.al jobs are for normal people, so I reached out to some old colleagues of mine, and suddenly I found myself in a job interview. Got back offshore, and never regretted my change of heart.

It's worth noting that I don't really go offshore any.ore, as I have since ended up in a supporting role, where 90% of my job is done via email or VPN, from home, saving up energy for when my kids (now plural) get home.

I end up taking half days off or working slightly later to offset leaving earlier on some days.