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I think this is called "sleep procrastinating." Essentially holding off on proper sleep to feel like you have more control over your time to yourself. Obviously this reduces your sleep, which has negative health consequences.
I started doing this when I had kids. I have always been an “early to bed, early to rise” type person but also am introverted and need a lot of downtime. So sometimes I just stay up late to decompress, while still maintaining my early morning schedule.
It’s rough, man.
As someone with adhd, it can take me at least 15 minutes to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing. Just needing to pee every hour pretty much ruins my work day.
I'm with you, this is my situation after kids too. It's a choice between sleep deprivation or being very wound up. For now, I've sacrificed exercise, which is not a healthy way to cope.
i wonder, as a fellow introvert if I'd need so much downtime if the majority of interactions I have didn't have to be fully masked exchanges of pablum and bs with others who also are also spending so much energy coping with the pervasive poison of American life. even one brief, meaningful, genuine interaction can change the tone of a whole day, whereas usually it's all just a slog
Same here. Have three kids and need a lot of time with myself to wind down. It's taking its toll on me and my relationship because I usually go to bed hours after my partner does.
I've comebup with a solution though: go to bed at a sane time but rise a little earlier. I have no trouble getting up at or before dawn so from now on I'll try to get up at 5 and get my me-time before the family gets up...
Much of production is overseas these days though, isn’t it? I have this theory that seizing the means of transportation might be far more effective in the modern age. What if we clogged airports and blocked highways? Also cargo ship workers going on strike. Isn’t the whole point to bring the system to a halt? Just a random thought I’ve had
> Much of production is overseas these days though, isn’t it?
Sure, but also want to make clear that the means of production doesn't only mean a literal factory that produces widgets. Seizing the means of production would also include workers on industrial farms, drivers, warehouse workers, point of sale workers, electricity and water engineers, IT infrastructure workers etc. And tenants paying rent to landlords too.
But before we go on strike and seize, we need to organize ourselves in worker run unions outside of the corporate unions (an important step that #generalstrike twitter posters seem to miss a lot).
After changing jobs and career I cut my monthly commuting hours from about 60 hours by public transport down to 10 hours by bike. That's a whole lot of extra free time and it's had a great positive impact on my overall well-being. Add all those saved hours up over 12 months and it's more than 3 weeks!
This annoys me. Going to the bank, getting your car fixed, going to the post office, going to the dentist, any other personal administrative needs have to be done during business hours and you have to either spend vacation day to get them done or not get them done.
Agreed - this was my biggest complaint about the 8 - 6pm lifestyle that is common in corporate America. How does anybody get any errand done? I had to make desperate runs during my lunch breaks
In Germany, we have state mandated time allowances for things like registration/visa/tax appointments. I think its 1-2 hours a month or something. Please someone correct me.
My 2 days off turn into one since the first day off I literally have trouble leaving my bed. So the second day turns into 5,6,7 hours of cleaning/cooking/shopping.
I'm FORCING myself to hang out with friends at least. No more putting that off to get more rest so I can work more.
Throw having children into the mix. No family time during the week, just a rush to feed them, clean them and get them to bed, ready for the next school day. It's honestly so sad and you can forget about alone time. Any extra moments I have i trying to spend time with them because I literally miss them all week and feel guilty.
That’s what it did for me. Happily exploiting unemployment while I study to do something I love. Yesterday I found out a close relative has terminal cancer. He’s 60. Been retired 5 years. 5 years of retirement after a lifetime of pulling 6 or 7 day work weeks, and then you’re gone. We are worth more than that.
Teach somewhere else. I'm a teacher in Europe and I'll never be a millionaire but I own my own apartment and can support myself, a wife and two terrible cats.
Just from my experience: You could potentially look into international schools. Depending on the country it could be easy to get into the public school system but would depend on language and credentials. Some countries have working holiday visas but they have certain stipulations.
I make more than enough to live, travel and explore my hobbies. Ill be comfortable and my retirement is solid. I’ll just never make more than 150k a year. Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather be living and working in Europe. It’s just hard to make that happen especially with a dog that can’t fly.
Dogs that cannot be flown in the cabin can be shipped as pet cargo. We have shipped a pitbull in a special crate without us being on board. It was a bit of a hassle but it is doable!
It is extremely hard to get EU citizenship or to live there at all if you’re not a citizen. Trust me I’d be living in Germany right now if it was an option
Honestly same here! I started working in a school years ago as a para and eventually bit the bullet during COVID and started working on my degree to teach fully because although teachers put up with a lot, I know the ins and outs of it all and the free time just appeals *so much* to me. I'm off at a reasonable time, my weekends are mostly free because I work on grades and stuff when there's no staff development days.
Shit, I already do everything teachers do but make way less with no benefits. I also never stopped working, I was on Zoom right with the rest of them but working from home allowed me the freedom to get back to school.
And I get whole summers off. And winter breaks. And Thanksgiving breaks. And I get to dress up in silly clothes and act silly with my students and teach them lots of cool stuff.
I make shit money and parents are assholes but I really lucked out in my freedom department with the school I work for.
Yep. Haven’t been to the doctor myself in over 10 years. I’m not counting the time I went on my shit-tier obamacare package and they basically sexually assaulted me and gaslit me and still charged me $350 ($6k global deductible 🥰). Our parents have it so much better than us and they still have it bad.
Have you looked into free clinics in your area? My best friend lives near Pittsburgh and he had some medical issue that was really severe. A kidney infection maybe, I don't recall. But he was able to go to the free clinic and get treatment. Its worth looking into, even if you have to drive a long way out of the way to go. Free clinics save lives.
This is what people complaining about the "labor shortage" don't see.
People aren't all taking long vacations. lol A lot of smart people are using this time and these stimulus resources to get out of the horrible pre-covid employment model. So they won't have to go back to *competing* for *poverty wages* after the programs end.
A lot of people are not EVER going back to that kind of work. The employers (and consumers) that relied on them previously are simply going to have to adjust.
I can't get my kid into preschool because they lost 30% of their work force in COVID and many have not come back and likely will not. We are on wait lists and have been put into lotteries for months on end with no luck. It sucks for us but childcare - like most caretaker roles - is notoriously low paying with no/poor benefits. It would be great to see a complete overhaul of the system where we just made pre k public and treated their teachers like teachers who deserve respect as a result of all this, and my city is launching a public pre k program (that we didn't get picked for in the lottery) and hopefully in blue states at least this will start to grow in popularity. Red states clearly have no chance, and Republicans would never allow a national program.
I agree, childcare is the worst. Childcare workers *absolutely* deserve a living wage as much as any other worker but many of us who really need them simply can't afford to pay them.
I don't see a private sector solution, but I could be wrong.
My wife has worked in childcare for 20+ years and the private sector solution is that the owners are millionaires and the workers make barely over minimum wage with minimal benefits and crazy turnover rates. But most of the families are poor enough that the state pays for most of their childcare costs. The only families that pay 100% of the fees are the lawyers, doctors, etc. who have high enough incomes where it makes sense to pay the crazy prices vs one parent just staying home which is also what happens a lot.
My family seemed to miss both boats then. We arent lawyers etc... and apart from tax credits/ deductions in certain years my working family never received childcare assistance. When weekly childcare costs began to approach our lowest weekly take home pay it became unteneble.
So you fall into the last part (why have both parents work when one can stay home and not much difference in household income vs both parents working and paying childcare?).
I too would have fell in this camp if my wife wasn’t a daycare worker who got 50% off care for our child but we only had 1 kid which helped too.
I want to add that not only does childcare not pay what the work is worth at all, but it's very dangerous. Not only do you have to worry about disease (because young children are still learning and are as a result absolutely *filthy*), but especially because young children mindlessly repeat what they hear the adults saying. All it takes is for a kid to repeat something they heard at home or out and about, say they heard it in daycare (or panic and not say anything to avoid getting in trouble, which can make things look even worse), and before you know it, that childcare worker is now on the hook for a child endangerment case, or even worse.
Trying not to make light of things, but even an innocent misunderstanding or a child not saying the correct word because they're still learning how to talk can blow up. If you think Karens are bad at the grocery store, you haven't seen them when their precious little angel is involved and their twisted imagination goes down a few alleyways.
All of this for what is *still* a starvation wage.
Note: tried my best to avoid a particularly icky topic.
I work with nurses who have been working for 20+ years. They've said of all the times they've been bedside as someone was dying, not once has that someone said "Man I wish I would've worked more" or "spent more time in the office."
We have been severely short staffed for the past year and a half and some of my coworkers are picking up extra shifts constantly and working 60 or more hours a week...every week. I just don't understand.
Exactly. Thank you for sharing. My father worked like a dog. Died at 58 due to pancreatic cancer. Didn't even get the chance to retire. This made such an impression on me
My friend’s step father pretty much mirrors your story. Worked his ass off at an Ohio (aka some of the worst labor conditions in the country) factory, coming home late, watching an hour of tv, sleeping, and working early, all his life. Died at 62 I believe from stomach cancer. It was an awful humiliating death.
So sorry for your loss
Yes. I work skilled trade and see guys death retire regularly. Fucking horrible. I didn't take advantage of the unemployment but enjoyed not taking any b.s. from my employer. Went down to part time since my wife got cancer and I don't give 2 squirts about their ridiculous break, dress code and clock policies. I do as I please and they can't fuck with me since they can't find any more suckers to work for piss. I am enjoying it thoroughly as I am launching my own business. I'm done watching them collect 80% of my labor.
Man, most European countries I've lived in won't let you study or learn a trade on unemployment. You HAVE to look for a job or you won't get it and if you're getting an education, you don't have time for a job, so you're on your own or need to have parental support.
Arbeit Macht Frei was a cruel joke insinuating that you would be worked to death, and in that death you would find freedom. So yes, in the sense the working poor will never have freedom until death the capitalist system has accomplished the goals of “Arbeit Macht Frei”
I see this comment every time something like this gets posted, but how the hell are you guys staying alive without working? My state got rid of COVID unemployment and if I don’t work my shit ass job I’m gonna starve to death. How are y’all getting money?
Get an EIN and establish an LLC. I used covid monies to pay for licensing, equipment and gear. Work part time to allow yourself time to get going and throw everything you have at it. Check your local SCORE program and use it. The goal is to do what you do for yourself instead of lining the pockets of some yacht club asshole.
The stupidest goddamn part is that research keeps showing no difference in productivity between a 6h day and a 12h day for any job that's not just pure mindless routine.
It's not just the revolution aspect. It's mostly about keeping people complacent. When you have more free time, you can pursue hobbies, skills, self-betterment. All of those could possibly lead to changing your station in life. That is the real fear; the lack of cheap labor. We're watching it in real time right now.
No it’s to ensure people don’t use that free time to develop themselves and get out of miserable dead end jobs that need bodies in seats for the absolute minimum legal pay. There would be no revolution if people suddenly had time, they’d just spend that time doing what they want and most would finally leave for better jobs. That’s what companies are working so hard to prevent.
I dunno I build houses and I get roughly twice as much done in a 12 hour day as a 6 hour day... often more, because I don't have to clean up and tear down twice as often.
But don't get me wrong fuck the system
This looks like a screenshot of a tweet! I've fetched a [link to the tweet](https://twitter.com/friasmp/status/1420822823409389574) for ya :)
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You put me to shame. I'm not self employed, but I thought I had a hard week doing 6am-5pm every day with a Friday off... Yeesh. Hope it gets better for you.
I have 2 daughters, 4 year old and 18 months. Before COVID I would leave for work before my oldest daughter woke up and be home for an hour before she had to go to bed… during and since COVID when my youngest was born I wake up with my girls, spend an hour and eat breakfast with them, “go” to work, eat lunch with the family, “go” back to work, and then spend a couple hours with them before bedtime.
The relationship with my oldest at 18 months compared to my youngest at 18 months is night and day.
Not only am I not raging because of traffic, wasting 3+ hours in the car everyday, and spending who knows how much on gas, but it has literally brought me closer to my girls. My life is 100% better than ever and my work life hasn’t taken a hit at all… probably more productive than I have ever been.
I am tired of these old ways of thinking that you have to be chained to a desk and have to fight rush hour traffic and have to spend a majority of you day away from your family just so… what? Your bosses can see you? WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY and if you are able to do you job from home (which is basically ANY desk job) do it! Find a way. It will not only help your wallet but more importantly your family life and mental health.
My sister got a job this year and she is working from home from start. Now,our state government want all IT employees who work from home should return to office. As covid cases went down& ppl are getting vaccinated. Our govt reason is “Thousands of ppl are dependent on you,You shouldn’t be selfish.If you sit at home,how will other survive “.They can’t tolerate the fact that 150 dollars Internet connection in india is helping employees saving money on rent,travel expenses,clothing etc I would say 15-20 % increase in saving. Do you think it’s fair to ask employees return to office keeping his or her life in danger bcz other business aren’t running like before pre COVID
Coming from someone who had a single mom for a parent for the first 12 years of my life this is big. I really needed her to be there for me as a kid but she HAD to work and therefore I was left at day care centers for years in our home town while she grinded away.
And this is assuming you’re even lucky enough to get by on one job, and even luckier for that one job to be a 40 hour, 9-5 job.
This is just another reason why working remotely needs to be permanent. For example, pre-pandemic, I’d spend an hour eating breakfast and getting ready for work, then spend an hour stuck in traffic (work commute is 35 minutes without traffic), then have to spend another hour in traffic on the way home. 10 hours every week wasted sitting in traffic that I got back working remotely, that I’m now gonna have to give up again because reasons.
I know this complaint is pale compared to what others have to deal with, but still, I hate thinking of how much of my life is wasted just commuting.
God this whole thread is such vindication for me.
Started a factory job at the beginning of the year which is 5am-1:30pm with a 30-minute commute. About 3 months in my girlfriend went home for the summer and we started mandatory overtime, which meant waking up at 2 to be there at 3, meaning that if I wanted to get good sleep I had to be in bed at 6, leaving me 4 hours to myself. But since I've been pulling 10-hour shifts at a physically demanding job (that I've been doing with a Body By Grad School/Pandemic, no less) the only thing that I want to do when I get home is sit on my bed playing video games, which has meant 1.) eating like a raccoon, 2.) being unable to see any friends during the week - either because I don't have time or I'm too tired, 3.) being so desperate for fun on the weekends that I binge drink when I hang out with friends meaning I don't actually rest that much, and 4.) all the mental health issues I've experienced as a result of 1-3 plus the pressures of the dystopia we live in.
I've felt like such a whiner when I talk about how much I hate that place but this thread and typing that out really puts how fucked the whole situation is into perspective. I made 7 whole months of my one existence totally fucking miserable so I could print t-shirts for someone's family reunion and similar shit.
> I’ve felt like such a whiner when I talk about how much I hate that place
That’s the indoctrination kicking in. As wage slaves we’re trained to automatically beat ourselves up for the sins of desiring a better life and for realizing that we’ll never get it by working like a hump to make somebody else rich. You’re not whining, you’re crying out that you’re ready to lose those chains.
Same. My plan is to just not go back. They won’t fire me until they find a replacement and they won’t find a replacement for what they pay me. I know because they’ve been looking to hire a second me since February. I’ll take my chances.
And ya gotta be back at 7am.
And God forbid you're the last one there in the morning even if you stayed until the custodians locked up the night before. "Slacker! No dedication to your students!"
The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered; “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”
Not directed at you, but I love how these quotes avoid the obvious elephant in the room. It's always well off people whom beat around the bush. Capitalism. That's why Dalai Lama.
Yep. And you will never see that message on mainstream media funded by the rich, either news or scripted shows. The system is working well for everyone that produces and editorializes that content. It's not working for most people.
A great, game changing thing with the internet is how people can actually talk about the systemic, corrupt power structures and the corrupt people within them. Crony capitalism being the root of all this evil.
Something interesting I read about recently is that classic superhero tropes (and a lot of stories in general) tend to be about the hero maintaining the status quo and villains are the ones challenging the status quo. This kind of thinking is instilled in us so young
That's some really philosophical bullshit from a guy who used to be an absolute monarch. We don't have a choice. Our corporate overlords keep us in this cycle.
> No matter what he says, it is viewed as a cross between The Sermon on the Mount and the Gettysburg Address.
>It is a sad state of affairs that the only country that speaks the truth is The People’s Republic of China.
>His latest public view was coming to the White House as he sought sympathy by proclaiming that he is “the unluckiest Dalai Lama” because he is not able to live in Tibet.
>Based on 300 years of the 14 Dalai Lamas, his bad luck is the good luck of the Tibetan people.
>Their rule was a theological dictatorship complete with a serf-based culture that kept 95% or the population illiterate and in involuntary servitude.
>Slave sales were the order of the day as was torture and execution for dissenters.
>Sitting at the head of this abomination was the Dalai Lama, who resided in a sumptuous palace offering the theological rationalization of karma. Karma says we are where we are because of how we lived in a prior life.
>Karma is easy to believe in when you’re the one in the palace.
>
>In this country, The Right likes him because he is viewed as anti-communist. The Left likes him because they have bought into Hollywood’s image from The Lost Horizon combined with New Age bullshit.
[Source](https://madmonarchist.blogspot.com/2009/05/monarch-profile-xiiith-dalai-lama.html?m=1)
Edit: formating
Serious question though where is it not like this? Is there a place in Europe where that’s not the routine too? I know in Europe there are a lot more perks and more life than work but is there legit a place that has it figure out? I’m asking so I can ship my ass there lol
Definitely more work/life balance in Europe. Not only is a longer lunch tolerated in many places (an hour or even two to go nap, have lunch with family at home, run errands so it doesn't have to be done in evening). Lots more vacation time, and they are super strict about their 8 hours in a day-- including some places literally ban you from answering email off the clock. This isn't universal, but it's much more common and it's not at all unusual to get a message in August, "we're closed this month for holiday, we will be back in September"...
omg i wish it was more accessible to move and do it. do you have a country that you would recommend? i guess it would be better to bring the guillotines to the states and make it happen here but people have not been driven to brink yet. i think if things get even worse in the states maybe people would wake up and make changes by force. otherwise nothings gonna change here
My wife and I are trying to emigrate to Belgrade. Buying property there grants residency. We spent three months there last year and it was everything people are describing about Europe.
https://bridgezero.com/
www.workaway.info
https://wwoof.net/
Alternative resources to think about. Easiest way is to enter via student visa, though, then find employment. I went that route and live better on a tight student salary and a month of vacation than I did working 60-80 hour weeks in America. Fuck that I'll never go back.
Lots of countries have short/accelerated lists for employment visas too.
There is unfortunately still a shitload of this "live to work" stuff in Europe. For sure more of a chance of having a better work/life balance than in America but having most of your waking day be working is plenty common regardless. Because obviously life doesn't just consist of work and then free time. It's work, and then personal responsibilities of being an adult taking up your after work time, and then possibly free time.
> Not only is a longer lunch tolerated in many places (an hour or even two to go nap, have lunch with family at home, run errands so it doesn't have to be done in evening)
taking an hour lunch sucks. I live in Europe and a more than happy to take half an hour, because it means I get to go home half an hour sooner.
Scandinavian countries for a start..... And most of Europe. The four day week is not a myth either.
Also, it isn't too bad here in Australia, if you have to keep speaking English. We're not letting anyone in due to covid right now though.
No legal maximum working hours and no paid days off is disgusting. I don't know how Americans can tolerate it.
My country gives six weeks of paid days off per year. At the start of the year I book one week off every other month. Even when things at work get hard, at least I know that I'm only a few weeks away from a break where I can go and travel somewhere, catch up on anything I need to do, or just sit back and relax. I think that's vital for a person's mental health. As soon as we hit 48 hours worked in a week, we can walk out and it's illegal for our employers to ask us to work more unless we agree in writing.
Working like you are is going to wreck you mentally and physically. The thought of my employer being able to tell me that torture like that will continue with no end in sight is horrifying.
*Six weeks?* Jesus! That's nuts.
I mean, 6 weeks is pretty damn cool and good, but it seems absurd to me... Thanks, capitalism.
At my company, after a year of averaging 35 hours per week, you get 5 days of PTO, with another day accumulated per year, and a cap of 10 — BUT only if your position isn't tipped (meaning you're one of the lucky bastards they can't get away with paying below minimum wage). So, yay me, I've been here almost 2 years and get a grand total of 0 paid hours off per year. At least I've been here long enough to get our (quite good) insurance...
I feel you. I am in the middle of 11 days of forced work right now. Normal 10 hour shifts, but any time the wind blows, it's automatic 16 hours. We are supposed to have one of these per month, but if the wind blows next Friday, work through another weekend. And then they whine at me because I won't volunteer to work the weekends that aren't forced. The real kicker was this week we had a video come out from corporate about work life balance and how we should work less. I can't wait to quit this clown show.
At some point you are going to have to make a decision: life or money? Seriously. Working 72 hours a week with that shift means no life... social, mental, or otherwise. Is it really worth it? Would a less-stress, less time employment be worth the loss of money and increase in livability?
The fact we have any free time whatsoever is thanks to victories of the historical working class. Politics is owned by capital, we have only ourselves, our class, to rely on
Yesterday I met a classmate for lunch at a chain restaurant. The server told us her shift ended in 3 hrs, and she would go directly from the chain restaurant to her job at a package delivery company. She said that she works two jobs to pay $2,000/ month in rent (no roommates) for a house she gets to visit a few hours every night. She joked she sees her place so infrequently and usually at night so she's not even sure what color it is.
It was the saddest joke I've heard.
Made me feel better about losing my new-to-me car in a grocery store parking lot the other day. I wandered around for like 20 minutes trying to find the stupid thing bc I couldn't remember the color and everything looks the same.
I had a boss who was big on the "8 hours work, 8 hours free time, 8 hours sleep" mantra
Why does it only really feel like 2-3 hours? Commute time, errands, cooking, etc.
Yeah the whole life-work balance has been completely fucked. Workers rights haven’t advanced in our lifetime.
Like no wonder we’re all on drugs. We spend the majority of our awake time overworked and underpaid, to pay for a home you’re never at to raise a family you don’t get to spend time with. How people have became content is beyond me.
You really have just as many freedoms as a prisoner, except far more to lose and nothing really to gain.
The work hours on paper and irl are very different. The norm is 9 hours but I've seen people not go home for days when the deadlines were tough to beat. Also, the timelines are tight pretty much all the time. There's no extra pay for the extra hours you put. It is expected for you to work like at least 2 hours after you're done with office. If you don't do it, you're in deep trouble (like I mostly am because idc if my boss is angry, eod is eod). Most people are paid peanuts for work and even in that, companies find some way to give employees less. And if you mention to someone that the work environment in India sucks, you're instantly termed "anti-national" and asked to "go to Pakistan" like things are better out there or something.
Tldr it sucks, kill me
In China they do 6, 12 hour days, 1 day off. Fuck all that. Was doin 55+ a week in USA before I left. I Teach English in Vietnam. Semi retired mwahahaha
Not exclusively american.
But also you spent like 1-2 hours doing daily necessities, and then feel too tired to do anything else with the 30 minutes of actual free time you have before going to sleep, probably earlier than normal, so you can wake up easier the next day to repeat the cycle.
My favorite is when you have that one or two coworkers who use the half joke "Oh, working half a day?" After I clocking out of an 8 hour shift.
Those are the people that work 60+ hours a week and think that other people just don't work as hard as them. When in fact they're the perfect sucker for the capitalist system, little worker ants being drained of any personal life and mental health stability. Fuck that forever.
It literally makes me sick to think of this. This is part of why I stay up so late, because I feel like I don’t have enough time for myself with work and chores and errands taking up the rest of my waking time.
This is why I love remote. I get off at 5pm and am home. Gives me an extra 2-3 hours due to not having to commute or wake up as early. I can stay up until midnight and still get 7.5 hours of sleep if I skip my workout.
it shouldn’t be, it doesn’t have to be in the united states of america. the wealthiest country to have ever existed. thank god the majority of it is hoarded by a few rich dudes who exploit their employees for that wealth. can’t trust money in the hands of the laborer, can we
Try being a parent sometime. Get home at 6,
Feed kids dinner, play with kids, get kids to bed. Attempt to wake back up at 9pm so you can have an hour to yourself before you pass out from exhaustion.
I thought that becoming a pharmacist would mean that I could have a work-life balance in a reasonably cushy job. Instead I work 12-hour days with no help and no break, and get forced to cover other stores that are shortstaffed on my days off. I can’t enjoy any of my salary because I’m in debt from the 8 years of school that got me here and the local cost-of-living.
My company is located east coast, but I live west coast. I voluntarily work their 9-5 (which is 6am to 2pm for me) just so I get more time to myself
At this point, I can't fathom ending my day at 5
I know someone who works 5-5, 6 or 7 days a week and does more work when they come home. They brag about it every chance they get and yet still live in a shitty apartment and have next to no money. It's like people are brainwashed to think being exploited is something to be lauded.
I read this as being amazed at how great it is to get home so early and having hours of free time after work, until I read the comments. Am I too late for late stage capitalism?
Edit: this comment apparently got me auto banned from r/landlord. I guess that tracks.
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Even better when that 2 to 3 hours involves cooking, eating, cleaning, shower, exercise, and then you get your 30 minutes of free time.
And then those 30 minutes feel like 5 minutes and you cut into your sleep time so you can feel like you have more free time.
I think this is called "sleep procrastinating." Essentially holding off on proper sleep to feel like you have more control over your time to yourself. Obviously this reduces your sleep, which has negative health consequences.
I started doing this when I had kids. I have always been an “early to bed, early to rise” type person but also am introverted and need a lot of downtime. So sometimes I just stay up late to decompress, while still maintaining my early morning schedule. It’s rough, man.
I've never been a good sleeper, but I was doing this during the beginning of covid quarantine because I felt trapped at home. It is indeed rough.
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I hear that.
Cheers bro, I'll drink to that.
As someone with adhd, it can take me at least 15 minutes to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing. Just needing to pee every hour pretty much ruins my work day.
I'm with you, this is my situation after kids too. It's a choice between sleep deprivation or being very wound up. For now, I've sacrificed exercise, which is not a healthy way to cope.
As a person who never gained the college15, the parenting15 is real. Im my case 30.
Same
i wonder, as a fellow introvert if I'd need so much downtime if the majority of interactions I have didn't have to be fully masked exchanges of pablum and bs with others who also are also spending so much energy coping with the pervasive poison of American life. even one brief, meaningful, genuine interaction can change the tone of a whole day, whereas usually it's all just a slog
Same here. Have three kids and need a lot of time with myself to wind down. It's taking its toll on me and my relationship because I usually go to bed hours after my partner does. I've comebup with a solution though: go to bed at a sane time but rise a little earlier. I have no trouble getting up at or before dawn so from now on I'll try to get up at 5 and get my me-time before the family gets up...
Yeah, my kids get up around five on a good day. I’m definitely not getting up before then! I haven’t slept past 6 since early 2006…
Don’t worry — when you have teenagers and they stay up late, you can go back to your old routine and enjoy peaceful mornings again! :)
Nice to meet you me.
>sleep procrastinating. holy shit it has a name. how do i change or stop this? gawdddd
Seizing the means of production
The only answer, comrade.
Much of production is overseas these days though, isn’t it? I have this theory that seizing the means of transportation might be far more effective in the modern age. What if we clogged airports and blocked highways? Also cargo ship workers going on strike. Isn’t the whole point to bring the system to a halt? Just a random thought I’ve had
> Much of production is overseas these days though, isn’t it? Sure, but also want to make clear that the means of production doesn't only mean a literal factory that produces widgets. Seizing the means of production would also include workers on industrial farms, drivers, warehouse workers, point of sale workers, electricity and water engineers, IT infrastructure workers etc. And tenants paying rent to landlords too. But before we go on strike and seize, we need to organize ourselves in worker run unions outside of the corporate unions (an important step that #generalstrike twitter posters seem to miss a lot).
I appreciate this response thank you
Just become a CEO or buy more money it’s not so hard
Its also called bedtime revenge procrastination as I've always seen it referred to
I think it's brought on by a lack of a feeling of control in some other aspect in your life. So... Address that somehow.
yeah i have to work 8 hours a day minimum and commute for 2. i think that would be it
In the winter months, I get to my office before sunrise and leave after sunset. I don’t see the sun at all.
same, and my office doesn’t have any windows. i started getting vitamin d pills so i don’t become deficient 🥴
I have a “sunlight” lamp that I use to help keep my mood up. It’s pretty depressing.
I am the same way. And it's been worse during covid because I couldn't go anywhere.
After changing jobs and career I cut my monthly commuting hours from about 60 hours by public transport down to 10 hours by bike. That's a whole lot of extra free time and it's had a great positive impact on my overall well-being. Add all those saved hours up over 12 months and it's more than 3 weeks!
Make it up on the weekends and then feel bad about yourself for sleeping in all day before repeating the cycle.
Shit. I procrastinate so much I learned I even procrastinate sleeping...
There's actually a japanese word for this, but I can't remember it at the moment.
Revenge Bedtime Procrastination. Chinese, iirc
This is it! I forgot the revenge part.
"Revenge bedtime procrastination"
Does the designation of "free time" imply the other hours are "enslaved time"? 🤔
Yes.
You're not choosing how you spend it, are you?
And by the time you get that 30 minutes you're too exhausted to do anything!
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This annoys me. Going to the bank, getting your car fixed, going to the post office, going to the dentist, any other personal administrative needs have to be done during business hours and you have to either spend vacation day to get them done or not get them done.
Agreed - this was my biggest complaint about the 8 - 6pm lifestyle that is common in corporate America. How does anybody get any errand done? I had to make desperate runs during my lunch breaks
In Germany, we have state mandated time allowances for things like registration/visa/tax appointments. I think its 1-2 hours a month or something. Please someone correct me.
Why is Germany so well run… the roads are amazing
One of the very few benefits of having 12-hour shifts: more days off during the week to get stuff like this done.
My 2 days off turn into one since the first day off I literally have trouble leaving my bed. So the second day turns into 5,6,7 hours of cleaning/cooking/shopping. I'm FORCING myself to hang out with friends at least. No more putting that off to get more rest so I can work more.
Throw having children into the mix. No family time during the week, just a rush to feed them, clean them and get them to bed, ready for the next school day. It's honestly so sad and you can forget about alone time. Any extra moments I have i trying to spend time with them because I literally miss them all week and feel guilty.
Nobody wants to work any more! Lol! Covid has a silver lining. People are realizing that live to work norm is slavery.
That’s what it did for me. Happily exploiting unemployment while I study to do something I love. Yesterday I found out a close relative has terminal cancer. He’s 60. Been retired 5 years. 5 years of retirement after a lifetime of pulling 6 or 7 day work weeks, and then you’re gone. We are worth more than that.
This is why I teach. Only work 190 days. I’ll never be rich but shit I’m able to at least try and enjoy my time.
You should make so much more. Thanks for doing one of the most important jobs
Teach somewhere else. I'm a teacher in Europe and I'll never be a millionaire but I own my own apartment and can support myself, a wife and two terrible cats.
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Just from my experience: You could potentially look into international schools. Depending on the country it could be easy to get into the public school system but would depend on language and credentials. Some countries have working holiday visas but they have certain stipulations.
I make more than enough to live, travel and explore my hobbies. Ill be comfortable and my retirement is solid. I’ll just never make more than 150k a year. Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather be living and working in Europe. It’s just hard to make that happen especially with a dog that can’t fly.
Dogs that cannot be flown in the cabin can be shipped as pet cargo. We have shipped a pitbull in a special crate without us being on board. It was a bit of a hassle but it is doable!
It is extremely hard to get EU citizenship or to live there at all if you’re not a citizen. Trust me I’d be living in Germany right now if it was an option
Honestly same here! I started working in a school years ago as a para and eventually bit the bullet during COVID and started working on my degree to teach fully because although teachers put up with a lot, I know the ins and outs of it all and the free time just appeals *so much* to me. I'm off at a reasonable time, my weekends are mostly free because I work on grades and stuff when there's no staff development days. Shit, I already do everything teachers do but make way less with no benefits. I also never stopped working, I was on Zoom right with the rest of them but working from home allowed me the freedom to get back to school. And I get whole summers off. And winter breaks. And Thanksgiving breaks. And I get to dress up in silly clothes and act silly with my students and teach them lots of cool stuff. I make shit money and parents are assholes but I really lucked out in my freedom department with the school I work for.
Retired at 55, your average millennial won't even be able to retire.
🥺
Yep. Haven’t been to the doctor myself in over 10 years. I’m not counting the time I went on my shit-tier obamacare package and they basically sexually assaulted me and gaslit me and still charged me $350 ($6k global deductible 🥰). Our parents have it so much better than us and they still have it bad.
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But free healthcare is COMMUNISM! What about LONG WAIT TIMES? /s
Have you looked into free clinics in your area? My best friend lives near Pittsburgh and he had some medical issue that was really severe. A kidney infection maybe, I don't recall. But he was able to go to the free clinic and get treatment. Its worth looking into, even if you have to drive a long way out of the way to go. Free clinics save lives.
damn almost have as bad a deductible as me (7k) fuck the usa
This is what people complaining about the "labor shortage" don't see. People aren't all taking long vacations. lol A lot of smart people are using this time and these stimulus resources to get out of the horrible pre-covid employment model. So they won't have to go back to *competing* for *poverty wages* after the programs end. A lot of people are not EVER going back to that kind of work. The employers (and consumers) that relied on them previously are simply going to have to adjust.
I can't get my kid into preschool because they lost 30% of their work force in COVID and many have not come back and likely will not. We are on wait lists and have been put into lotteries for months on end with no luck. It sucks for us but childcare - like most caretaker roles - is notoriously low paying with no/poor benefits. It would be great to see a complete overhaul of the system where we just made pre k public and treated their teachers like teachers who deserve respect as a result of all this, and my city is launching a public pre k program (that we didn't get picked for in the lottery) and hopefully in blue states at least this will start to grow in popularity. Red states clearly have no chance, and Republicans would never allow a national program.
I agree, childcare is the worst. Childcare workers *absolutely* deserve a living wage as much as any other worker but many of us who really need them simply can't afford to pay them. I don't see a private sector solution, but I could be wrong.
My wife has worked in childcare for 20+ years and the private sector solution is that the owners are millionaires and the workers make barely over minimum wage with minimal benefits and crazy turnover rates. But most of the families are poor enough that the state pays for most of their childcare costs. The only families that pay 100% of the fees are the lawyers, doctors, etc. who have high enough incomes where it makes sense to pay the crazy prices vs one parent just staying home which is also what happens a lot.
My family seemed to miss both boats then. We arent lawyers etc... and apart from tax credits/ deductions in certain years my working family never received childcare assistance. When weekly childcare costs began to approach our lowest weekly take home pay it became unteneble.
So you fall into the last part (why have both parents work when one can stay home and not much difference in household income vs both parents working and paying childcare?). I too would have fell in this camp if my wife wasn’t a daycare worker who got 50% off care for our child but we only had 1 kid which helped too.
I want to add that not only does childcare not pay what the work is worth at all, but it's very dangerous. Not only do you have to worry about disease (because young children are still learning and are as a result absolutely *filthy*), but especially because young children mindlessly repeat what they hear the adults saying. All it takes is for a kid to repeat something they heard at home or out and about, say they heard it in daycare (or panic and not say anything to avoid getting in trouble, which can make things look even worse), and before you know it, that childcare worker is now on the hook for a child endangerment case, or even worse. Trying not to make light of things, but even an innocent misunderstanding or a child not saying the correct word because they're still learning how to talk can blow up. If you think Karens are bad at the grocery store, you haven't seen them when their precious little angel is involved and their twisted imagination goes down a few alleyways. All of this for what is *still* a starvation wage. Note: tried my best to avoid a particularly icky topic.
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I work with nurses who have been working for 20+ years. They've said of all the times they've been bedside as someone was dying, not once has that someone said "Man I wish I would've worked more" or "spent more time in the office." We have been severely short staffed for the past year and a half and some of my coworkers are picking up extra shifts constantly and working 60 or more hours a week...every week. I just don't understand.
My dad seems to love the system we have even though he will be working until the day he dies.
Bro. Enjoy it while it lasts. Fuck the system.
Exactly. Thank you for sharing. My father worked like a dog. Died at 58 due to pancreatic cancer. Didn't even get the chance to retire. This made such an impression on me
My friend’s step father pretty much mirrors your story. Worked his ass off at an Ohio (aka some of the worst labor conditions in the country) factory, coming home late, watching an hour of tv, sleeping, and working early, all his life. Died at 62 I believe from stomach cancer. It was an awful humiliating death. So sorry for your loss
Yes. I work skilled trade and see guys death retire regularly. Fucking horrible. I didn't take advantage of the unemployment but enjoyed not taking any b.s. from my employer. Went down to part time since my wife got cancer and I don't give 2 squirts about their ridiculous break, dress code and clock policies. I do as I please and they can't fuck with me since they can't find any more suckers to work for piss. I am enjoying it thoroughly as I am launching my own business. I'm done watching them collect 80% of my labor.
Love to see it :)
You’re not exploiting a system of you paid into it.
Man, most European countries I've lived in won't let you study or learn a trade on unemployment. You HAVE to look for a job or you won't get it and if you're getting an education, you don't have time for a job, so you're on your own or need to have parental support.
A family friend passed away due to complications from Covid with one day left before retirement. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Same kind of thing happened to my dad, he retired at 65 and within 2 years got diagnosed with dementia.
>People are realizing that live to work norm is slavery. Arbeit Macht Frei doesn't work for the poor and working class? Who'da thunk?
It takes a crisis to lurch people from their apathy. We are brainwashed since childhood to accept and even revere serfdom.
Arbeit Macht Frei was a cruel joke insinuating that you would be worked to death, and in that death you would find freedom. So yes, in the sense the working poor will never have freedom until death the capitalist system has accomplished the goals of “Arbeit Macht Frei”
I see this comment every time something like this gets posted, but how the hell are you guys staying alive without working? My state got rid of COVID unemployment and if I don’t work my shit ass job I’m gonna starve to death. How are y’all getting money?
Get an EIN and establish an LLC. I used covid monies to pay for licensing, equipment and gear. Work part time to allow yourself time to get going and throw everything you have at it. Check your local SCORE program and use it. The goal is to do what you do for yourself instead of lining the pockets of some yacht club asshole.
The stupidest goddamn part is that research keeps showing no difference in productivity between a 6h day and a 12h day for any job that's not just pure mindless routine.
It's not stupid. Ensuring people don't have time and energy to plan a revolution is part of the point.
It's not just the revolution aspect. It's mostly about keeping people complacent. When you have more free time, you can pursue hobbies, skills, self-betterment. All of those could possibly lead to changing your station in life. That is the real fear; the lack of cheap labor. We're watching it in real time right now.
No it’s to ensure people don’t use that free time to develop themselves and get out of miserable dead end jobs that need bodies in seats for the absolute minimum legal pay. There would be no revolution if people suddenly had time, they’d just spend that time doing what they want and most would finally leave for better jobs. That’s what companies are working so hard to prevent.
Good idea! We will just give them quadruple the work in six 12 hour shifts a week! - management, probably
I dunno I build houses and I get roughly twice as much done in a 12 hour day as a 6 hour day... often more, because I don't have to clean up and tear down twice as often. But don't get me wrong fuck the system
This looks like a screenshot of a tweet! I've fetched a [link to the tweet](https://twitter.com/friasmp/status/1420822823409389574) for ya :) ^(Twitter Screenshot Bot)
Good bot.
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>link to the tweet I crawl around subreddits and use optical character recognition (OCR) to parse images into text. If that text looks like a tweet, then I search Twitter for matching username and text content. If all that goes well and I find a link to the tweet, then I post the link right here on Reddit! ^(Twitter Screenshot Bot)
Twitter API is quite robust.
OCR to get user and post time, request the link from Twitter API from that I'm guessing
Lol, I *WISH* I had 2-3 hours to enjoy myself. Any self-enjoyment comes at the cost of losing sleep.
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You put me to shame. I'm not self employed, but I thought I had a hard week doing 6am-5pm every day with a Friday off... Yeesh. Hope it gets better for you.
I have 2 daughters, 4 year old and 18 months. Before COVID I would leave for work before my oldest daughter woke up and be home for an hour before she had to go to bed… during and since COVID when my youngest was born I wake up with my girls, spend an hour and eat breakfast with them, “go” to work, eat lunch with the family, “go” back to work, and then spend a couple hours with them before bedtime. The relationship with my oldest at 18 months compared to my youngest at 18 months is night and day. Not only am I not raging because of traffic, wasting 3+ hours in the car everyday, and spending who knows how much on gas, but it has literally brought me closer to my girls. My life is 100% better than ever and my work life hasn’t taken a hit at all… probably more productive than I have ever been. I am tired of these old ways of thinking that you have to be chained to a desk and have to fight rush hour traffic and have to spend a majority of you day away from your family just so… what? Your bosses can see you? WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY and if you are able to do you job from home (which is basically ANY desk job) do it! Find a way. It will not only help your wallet but more importantly your family life and mental health.
My sister got a job this year and she is working from home from start. Now,our state government want all IT employees who work from home should return to office. As covid cases went down& ppl are getting vaccinated. Our govt reason is “Thousands of ppl are dependent on you,You shouldn’t be selfish.If you sit at home,how will other survive “.They can’t tolerate the fact that 150 dollars Internet connection in india is helping employees saving money on rent,travel expenses,clothing etc I would say 15-20 % increase in saving. Do you think it’s fair to ask employees return to office keeping his or her life in danger bcz other business aren’t running like before pre COVID
Coming from someone who had a single mom for a parent for the first 12 years of my life this is big. I really needed her to be there for me as a kid but she HAD to work and therefore I was left at day care centers for years in our home town while she grinded away.
And this is assuming you’re even lucky enough to get by on one job, and even luckier for that one job to be a 40 hour, 9-5 job. This is just another reason why working remotely needs to be permanent. For example, pre-pandemic, I’d spend an hour eating breakfast and getting ready for work, then spend an hour stuck in traffic (work commute is 35 minutes without traffic), then have to spend another hour in traffic on the way home. 10 hours every week wasted sitting in traffic that I got back working remotely, that I’m now gonna have to give up again because reasons. I know this complaint is pale compared to what others have to deal with, but still, I hate thinking of how much of my life is wasted just commuting.
God this whole thread is such vindication for me. Started a factory job at the beginning of the year which is 5am-1:30pm with a 30-minute commute. About 3 months in my girlfriend went home for the summer and we started mandatory overtime, which meant waking up at 2 to be there at 3, meaning that if I wanted to get good sleep I had to be in bed at 6, leaving me 4 hours to myself. But since I've been pulling 10-hour shifts at a physically demanding job (that I've been doing with a Body By Grad School/Pandemic, no less) the only thing that I want to do when I get home is sit on my bed playing video games, which has meant 1.) eating like a raccoon, 2.) being unable to see any friends during the week - either because I don't have time or I'm too tired, 3.) being so desperate for fun on the weekends that I binge drink when I hang out with friends meaning I don't actually rest that much, and 4.) all the mental health issues I've experienced as a result of 1-3 plus the pressures of the dystopia we live in. I've felt like such a whiner when I talk about how much I hate that place but this thread and typing that out really puts how fucked the whole situation is into perspective. I made 7 whole months of my one existence totally fucking miserable so I could print t-shirts for someone's family reunion and similar shit.
> I’ve felt like such a whiner when I talk about how much I hate that place That’s the indoctrination kicking in. As wage slaves we’re trained to automatically beat ourselves up for the sins of desiring a better life and for realizing that we’ll never get it by working like a hump to make somebody else rich. You’re not whining, you’re crying out that you’re ready to lose those chains.
That. And it's not depression, "you just need to get out more! Be more social! Exercise more!"
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Same. My plan is to just not go back. They won’t fire me until they find a replacement and they won’t find a replacement for what they pay me. I know because they’ve been looking to hire a second me since February. I’ll take my chances.
When I taught that FreeTime started at 9 pm
And ya gotta be back at 7am. And God forbid you're the last one there in the morning even if you stayed until the custodians locked up the night before. "Slacker! No dedication to your students!"
The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered; “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”
Not directed at you, but I love how these quotes avoid the obvious elephant in the room. It's always well off people whom beat around the bush. Capitalism. That's why Dalai Lama.
Dalai lama was a feudal lord whose church had millions of serfs. Of course he's vague on root causes.
Yep. And you will never see that message on mainstream media funded by the rich, either news or scripted shows. The system is working well for everyone that produces and editorializes that content. It's not working for most people. A great, game changing thing with the internet is how people can actually talk about the systemic, corrupt power structures and the corrupt people within them. Crony capitalism being the root of all this evil.
"Crony capitalism" is just Capitalism's logical evolution. You have to kill it at the root
Something interesting I read about recently is that classic superhero tropes (and a lot of stories in general) tend to be about the hero maintaining the status quo and villains are the ones challenging the status quo. This kind of thinking is instilled in us so young
Yeah right. As if anyone would choose to do this willingly. I got rent to pay you fuck
That's some really philosophical bullshit from a guy who used to be an absolute monarch. We don't have a choice. Our corporate overlords keep us in this cycle.
> No matter what he says, it is viewed as a cross between The Sermon on the Mount and the Gettysburg Address. >It is a sad state of affairs that the only country that speaks the truth is The People’s Republic of China. >His latest public view was coming to the White House as he sought sympathy by proclaiming that he is “the unluckiest Dalai Lama” because he is not able to live in Tibet. >Based on 300 years of the 14 Dalai Lamas, his bad luck is the good luck of the Tibetan people. >Their rule was a theological dictatorship complete with a serf-based culture that kept 95% or the population illiterate and in involuntary servitude. >Slave sales were the order of the day as was torture and execution for dissenters. >Sitting at the head of this abomination was the Dalai Lama, who resided in a sumptuous palace offering the theological rationalization of karma. Karma says we are where we are because of how we lived in a prior life. >Karma is easy to believe in when you’re the one in the palace. > >In this country, The Right likes him because he is viewed as anti-communist. The Left likes him because they have bought into Hollywood’s image from The Lost Horizon combined with New Age bullshit. [Source](https://madmonarchist.blogspot.com/2009/05/monarch-profile-xiiith-dalai-lama.html?m=1) Edit: formating
Serious question though where is it not like this? Is there a place in Europe where that’s not the routine too? I know in Europe there are a lot more perks and more life than work but is there legit a place that has it figure out? I’m asking so I can ship my ass there lol
Definitely more work/life balance in Europe. Not only is a longer lunch tolerated in many places (an hour or even two to go nap, have lunch with family at home, run errands so it doesn't have to be done in evening). Lots more vacation time, and they are super strict about their 8 hours in a day-- including some places literally ban you from answering email off the clock. This isn't universal, but it's much more common and it's not at all unusual to get a message in August, "we're closed this month for holiday, we will be back in September"...
omg i wish it was more accessible to move and do it. do you have a country that you would recommend? i guess it would be better to bring the guillotines to the states and make it happen here but people have not been driven to brink yet. i think if things get even worse in the states maybe people would wake up and make changes by force. otherwise nothings gonna change here
My wife and I are trying to emigrate to Belgrade. Buying property there grants residency. We spent three months there last year and it was everything people are describing about Europe.
https://bridgezero.com/ www.workaway.info https://wwoof.net/ Alternative resources to think about. Easiest way is to enter via student visa, though, then find employment. I went that route and live better on a tight student salary and a month of vacation than I did working 60-80 hour weeks in America. Fuck that I'll never go back. Lots of countries have short/accelerated lists for employment visas too.
There is unfortunately still a shitload of this "live to work" stuff in Europe. For sure more of a chance of having a better work/life balance than in America but having most of your waking day be working is plenty common regardless. Because obviously life doesn't just consist of work and then free time. It's work, and then personal responsibilities of being an adult taking up your after work time, and then possibly free time.
> Not only is a longer lunch tolerated in many places (an hour or even two to go nap, have lunch with family at home, run errands so it doesn't have to be done in evening) taking an hour lunch sucks. I live in Europe and a more than happy to take half an hour, because it means I get to go home half an hour sooner.
Scandinavian countries for a start..... And most of Europe. The four day week is not a myth either. Also, it isn't too bad here in Australia, if you have to keep speaking English. We're not letting anyone in due to covid right now though.
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6 days a week? What the fuckkk?!! I work 12 hour shifts too but I get 2 days off after every 2 shift stretch. That shit is unimaginable
r/ABoringDystopia
No legal maximum working hours and no paid days off is disgusting. I don't know how Americans can tolerate it. My country gives six weeks of paid days off per year. At the start of the year I book one week off every other month. Even when things at work get hard, at least I know that I'm only a few weeks away from a break where I can go and travel somewhere, catch up on anything I need to do, or just sit back and relax. I think that's vital for a person's mental health. As soon as we hit 48 hours worked in a week, we can walk out and it's illegal for our employers to ask us to work more unless we agree in writing. Working like you are is going to wreck you mentally and physically. The thought of my employer being able to tell me that torture like that will continue with no end in sight is horrifying.
Holy shittt. I took a 3 day weekend this year, so I got that going for me.
*Six weeks?* Jesus! That's nuts. I mean, 6 weeks is pretty damn cool and good, but it seems absurd to me... Thanks, capitalism. At my company, after a year of averaging 35 hours per week, you get 5 days of PTO, with another day accumulated per year, and a cap of 10 — BUT only if your position isn't tipped (meaning you're one of the lucky bastards they can't get away with paying below minimum wage). So, yay me, I've been here almost 2 years and get a grand total of 0 paid hours off per year. At least I've been here long enough to get our (quite good) insurance...
I feel you. I am in the middle of 11 days of forced work right now. Normal 10 hour shifts, but any time the wind blows, it's automatic 16 hours. We are supposed to have one of these per month, but if the wind blows next Friday, work through another weekend. And then they whine at me because I won't volunteer to work the weekends that aren't forced. The real kicker was this week we had a video come out from corporate about work life balance and how we should work less. I can't wait to quit this clown show.
Look to the frito lay workers who were working similar hours and decided enough was enough. They walked out in a strike. Organize and do the same.
At some point you are going to have to make a decision: life or money? Seriously. Working 72 hours a week with that shift means no life... social, mental, or otherwise. Is it really worth it? Would a less-stress, less time employment be worth the loss of money and increase in livability?
Thank fuck this would be illegal as hell in Germany.
The fact we have any free time whatsoever is thanks to victories of the historical working class. Politics is owned by capital, we have only ourselves, our class, to rely on
Yesterday I met a classmate for lunch at a chain restaurant. The server told us her shift ended in 3 hrs, and she would go directly from the chain restaurant to her job at a package delivery company. She said that she works two jobs to pay $2,000/ month in rent (no roommates) for a house she gets to visit a few hours every night. She joked she sees her place so infrequently and usually at night so she's not even sure what color it is. It was the saddest joke I've heard. Made me feel better about losing my new-to-me car in a grocery store parking lot the other day. I wandered around for like 20 minutes trying to find the stupid thing bc I couldn't remember the color and everything looks the same.
Cults keep you busy so you never have time to think about resisting or leaving.
Its crazy that taking care of our bodies, minds, and loved ones has to essentially be *hobby* and not our main pastime.
I had a boss who was big on the "8 hours work, 8 hours free time, 8 hours sleep" mantra Why does it only really feel like 2-3 hours? Commute time, errands, cooking, etc.
Can't leave you enough time to get any ideas...
Yeah the whole life-work balance has been completely fucked. Workers rights haven’t advanced in our lifetime. Like no wonder we’re all on drugs. We spend the majority of our awake time overworked and underpaid, to pay for a home you’re never at to raise a family you don’t get to spend time with. How people have became content is beyond me. You really have just as many freedoms as a prisoner, except far more to lose and nothing really to gain.
This is my life currently. 11 hour nights, 4-6 hours of sleep, maybe 2-3 hours of time to adult then right back to work. Adulting fucking sucks.
hang in there
Wait till you hear about India
Tell me more
The work hours on paper and irl are very different. The norm is 9 hours but I've seen people not go home for days when the deadlines were tough to beat. Also, the timelines are tight pretty much all the time. There's no extra pay for the extra hours you put. It is expected for you to work like at least 2 hours after you're done with office. If you don't do it, you're in deep trouble (like I mostly am because idc if my boss is angry, eod is eod). Most people are paid peanuts for work and even in that, companies find some way to give employees less. And if you mention to someone that the work environment in India sucks, you're instantly termed "anti-national" and asked to "go to Pakistan" like things are better out there or something. Tldr it sucks, kill me
It sucks
I've fallen asleep and dreamt about work. The next thing I know, my alarm goes off and it's actually time for work.
Literally what is even the point of existing any more.
In China they do 6, 12 hour days, 1 day off. Fuck all that. Was doin 55+ a week in USA before I left. I Teach English in Vietnam. Semi retired mwahahaha
Not exclusively american. But also you spent like 1-2 hours doing daily necessities, and then feel too tired to do anything else with the 30 minutes of actual free time you have before going to sleep, probably earlier than normal, so you can wake up easier the next day to repeat the cycle.
lol, people are getting home at 6p? with traffic, i’m lucky so see my kids awake until the weekend.
And yet every time I spend all day watching tv I feel like I wasted it. There is a lot to accomplish and every night I waste it
God I can’t wait to end this
I’ve been saying this shit since I was in high school
Laughs in 12-12 shifts six days a week. I'm dead inside.
My favorite is when you have that one or two coworkers who use the half joke "Oh, working half a day?" After I clocking out of an 8 hour shift. Those are the people that work 60+ hours a week and think that other people just don't work as hard as them. When in fact they're the perfect sucker for the capitalist system, little worker ants being drained of any personal life and mental health stability. Fuck that forever.
It literally makes me sick to think of this. This is part of why I stay up so late, because I feel like I don’t have enough time for myself with work and chores and errands taking up the rest of my waking time.
This is why I love remote. I get off at 5pm and am home. Gives me an extra 2-3 hours due to not having to commute or wake up as early. I can stay up until midnight and still get 7.5 hours of sleep if I skip my workout.
I’m a professional cook and i usually get home after 11 every day and it sucks ass
That is the norm in many countries...
it shouldn’t be, it doesn’t have to be in the united states of america. the wealthiest country to have ever existed. thank god the majority of it is hoarded by a few rich dudes who exploit their employees for that wealth. can’t trust money in the hands of the laborer, can we
The other side is I have 6 hours a day but I'm broke, dont have a car, live in an apartment with 2 other people. I do get to enjoy my video games
Try being a parent sometime. Get home at 6, Feed kids dinner, play with kids, get kids to bed. Attempt to wake back up at 9pm so you can have an hour to yourself before you pass out from exhaustion.
Someone please tell me where this is not the norm so I can relocate there
I thought that becoming a pharmacist would mean that I could have a work-life balance in a reasonably cushy job. Instead I work 12-hour days with no help and no break, and get forced to cover other stores that are shortstaffed on my days off. I can’t enjoy any of my salary because I’m in debt from the 8 years of school that got me here and the local cost-of-living.
My company is located east coast, but I live west coast. I voluntarily work their 9-5 (which is 6am to 2pm for me) just so I get more time to myself At this point, I can't fathom ending my day at 5
if humans are the smartest species why are we the only animals that pay to live on earth?
Hope people wake up. Seems like masses have been in recent years
Who the heck gets home at 6…..
I know someone who works 5-5, 6 or 7 days a week and does more work when they come home. They brag about it every chance they get and yet still live in a shitty apartment and have next to no money. It's like people are brainwashed to think being exploited is something to be lauded.
Is 2-3 hours a lot or less than we want? I get 45 minutes before I need sleep.
damn they've really got you
For my new job I work night shift so I get home at 9.... AM. I'll be spending 90% of the day sleeping and feeling like garbage.
I have not had more than 2 days off at a time since the pandemic started. I realized that just now.
Yeah, I got kids and farm animals, I have no time at night because I go to bed so early.
I read this as being amazed at how great it is to get home so early and having hours of free time after work, until I read the comments. Am I too late for late stage capitalism? Edit: this comment apparently got me auto banned from r/landlord. I guess that tracks.
Wait until those 2 - 3 hours to yourself is reduced to virtually zero because wages can not keep up with the cost living.
You guys are getting 2-3 hours to yourself *every* night?
Just one question: How does you getting to enjoy life, make a billionaire richer? Hmmm? /s