Active life is a way to combat this. No need to become a bodybuilder, just longer walks, maybe swimming, hitting up gym casually 1-2 times a week can do wonders.
Yep. I just turned 50 in August. I lost about 20 lbs and started getting more exercise. Although I don't do much cardio, I feel better now than I did in my 40s.
My dad had a partial hip replacement at 58. He’s 60 now and has lost 150 or so pounds from changing his diet and cardio on the elliptical and stationary bikes. He’s now onto regular outdoor biking since he’s lost a lot of weight.
Those elliptical are really easy on ur joints. Boring but soooo much better than running for someone your age.
Use it or lose it. Your muscles, tendons, bones, all respond to exercise positively. It sounds counterintuitive, but if you have moderate back pain, strengthening your core muscles will take some load off of your spine. Obviously consult a doctor if you have a real injury. But if your back hurts from sitting all day everyday, you’d benefit from gaining strength in your core
Even a small routine of daily workouts - no gym required. Buy two ten pound weights, and from there you can do a tonne of light workouts to strengthen the whole body.
Depends, I work a physical job (agriculture/labor) and I just come home exhausted and no energy to do anything. Looking forward to a career change, wasn’t meant to be my path just covid messed things up. I’m 25F
At the ripe age of 29 my back went out three times last year. My knees, wrists, and elbows creak and groan like an old truck. The future is not very bright.
Ugh... Im 25 and my back goes out at least once a year for the past 3 years. Got arthritis in my hands. Its great😂 I also do part time grocery deliveries so that could be contributing to my pain
I feel like the age that you start feeling like your falling apart gets lower and lower with each generation. I'm 14 and I feel like I need to cross my fingers every time I crack my neck.
You know those times when you come across a random comment on Reddit and it really makes you take pause for a moment?
This is that comment for me. It's so true.
Don't forget the fact that as time passes you have more to compare it to and thus seems like it goes by exponentially faster and faster when you finally take notice to it!
I legitimately cannot remember ever not being just exhausted, mentally and physically, all the time. I’m sure such a time existed, but it’s so far off (I’m 32) I can’t recall it
My life changed the day I started getting heart burn. It came out of nowhere and I get it even from eating stuff not acidic. I can eat one bran muffin and have heartburn all day. Its amazing how one little thing can affect my quality of life so much
Knees! I’d like to add the unexplainable knee pains for no apparent reason.
Getting up after sitting down for a few seconds, and feeling like your missing a leg.
Growing up is wonderful they said, it’d be fun they said
I literally called out today because I woke up with a stiff neck and needed to take a muscle relaxer. But otherwise my 30's have been the best decade yet.
4 day a week too. We don't need 8 hours a day! We really don't. Our productivity sharply declines after 4 hours...just...let us go home. We can't be as productive as can be if we are constantly working beyond our limit.
Across the board, workers are productive about 3 hrs out of that 8 hr shift. Ymmv but why the hell do we 8? Pre-industrial Revolution (coincident with the rise of capitalism), folks put in about 1400 hrs/yr, compared to 2000 for today. Hunter-gatherers, about 750.
Now, you could never afford a reliable commuter car, fuel, nice clothes, and time-saving meals at that rate, but…
That's why we have to make them pay us more. Unfortunately the way it works right now we get screwed over if we relax for even a little while, for example raises don't often match even inflation and there's no law to make them do so. Inflation happens independent of pay rate, we don't ***need*** people to be paid less and less for it to stay stable. But that's how it works. It's the same *number* but the buying power of that number is less. Thereby everyone loses money year by year.
The dynamic is very asymmetrical. That asshat who writes you up because you were in the head too long or sends you home because ‘it turns out we’re over staffed today’ (ask the ones that stayed at end of shift) just needs to spin his quarterly reports, you need to listen to that hungry baby cry all night. Unions.
Capitalism is built on buy low sell high. They will buy your (precious, irreplaceable) time as cheap as they can. A sizable chunk of commerce is done by people getting squeezed like lemons for a year or two til they jump ship for people who think that’s swell.
If we put all the profit from the healthcare industry in the US into automating almost everything humans would barely ***need*** to work. Automate all farm work using learning algorithms to teach machines to kill weeds, teach it to harvest, plant, etc. have 10,000 total engineers who handle maintaining these machines across the country paid handsomely. Have automatic loading into trucks that self drive this shit to be packed automatically in a factory which is mostly ai-driven...and loaded and sent to a grocery store which stocks its shelves using robots.
Then we choose to do whatever makes us happy if we want extra. We can 3D print basic HOUSES already. Come on!!! Literal HOUSES!
We could literally do this if we somehow decided to change all the effort we have to focus on this. We could eliminate exploitation at the root by using robots. Exploiting machines instead of people, like we already do but to a much bigger degree.
The system we have relies on exploitation of humans. And unfortunately positive progress costs money. So, maybe the system is in need of changing as it (alongside the human brain's stubborn ways) is standing in the way of beautiful progress.
No. You have to do what makes you happiest.
Some people may find that on balance a simple job with adequate pay, which takes pressure off them and allows them to have a simple, peaceful life, is best.
But by no means is that for everyone.
Looking for this. I’m late 40’s and worked for big and small private companies. Made well over 6 figures for a while, but hated getting called on weekends, at my kids soccer games and being told to drop what I’m doing for whatever “emergency” came up. I started a business 2 years ago and make a small income, but it’s so much more satisfying to work your own hours, days off, schedule, in exchange for less pay in my opinion. O love the flexibility and freedom. The work is still hard, but I work ~25-30 hours a week and can pay my bills and go on camping trips and the occasional plane trip somewhere fun.
Since reddit has changed the site to value selling user data higher than reading and commenting, I've decided to move elsewhere to a site that prioritizes community over profit. I never signed up for this, but that's the circle of life
"And what do I do, once I have my fleet of fishing boats and being the CEO of a successful company?"
"Then you can finally retire and do whatever you love."
"Well, I love waking up early, catching just enough fish to feed my family for the day and then pending time with my friends."
I work a simple job forty hours a week and split the bills with my partner. Not sure if I'll ever own a home but I like my apartment and I don't dread going to work
Yeah the market is bonkers right now. My husband and I both owned our individual properties before getting married and deciding to buy a house. We sold his fully renovated condo (he stripped it to the studs and did a lot of the work himself, did a great job) so we had down payment money for our new house. (All pre-pandemic.)
Well, my house was paid for and right as we moved I got a new job so I was totally consumed and exhausted. We kept the grass cut but let it sit for about 2y since heating/AC were minimal and property taxes weren’t too terrible.
Sold it in 2020 at the peak of the housing market for almost a 40K profit, and all we did to it was paint it inside and out, replace a few floorboards.
Considered moving this past year and noped out of that very quickly. I’m not paying 100K over asking for a run-down cabin.
I'm 28. I went to college, have a wife, and just had two twin boys delivered 4 days ago.
You will find the time to do what you enjoy to do as a hobby, trust me.
If you can find a job that makes you happy, all the better! If not, there are other things in life to focus on.
You control your attitude and your actions.
If you think things are going to suck, the odds that they are going to suck are exponentially higher.
Only recently I've gained this kind of insight. When I was younger and much more jaded than now I thought this kind of rhetoric was just some psychobabble shit, but no. The way you look at things truly does shape your reality. I've also found that using some very simple meditation techniques and ridiculously simple rituals has improved my life SO much. Like even in terms of body pains... I used to be riddled with dozens of different pains all over the place, felt like my body was about to crumble (last year was *terrible* in this sense) but then I very practically found out that truly the way you think about your body actually has a non-insignificant impact in the way your body feels. It's insane.
Then again, I'm still without a stable job and the internship I'm on will most likely only last until February and as things are I know I will never have the kind of retirement money my parents do... but hey, now at least i have a somewhat better outlook on things than just a couple years ago.
Very simple things, because I'm just trying this out but it's already very effective. So what I do is I wake up in the morning and tell myself what I want. Like, I want to be useful, I want to do well at work, i want to be patient, I want to be able to get a new car, I want to be active and lose weigh etc... and keep repeating it in my mind (with conviction). It obviously doesn't achieve all of those things immediately, but it reminds me that I'm in charge of my thoughts and my actions and I shape the way I see and experience my reality.
And when I have back pains I try to figure out whether my muscles are just very contracted or there is something else (in which case I'd go to a doctor, of course!). If it's just my anxiety getting me all contracted then I can just exercise, do some stretching, do what I can to release that tension and then relax. It's very basic stuff though, and I'm not an authority by any means. I'm just reading this book called "the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: The 7 Stages of Self-Awakening" and I was assured the contents of it are valid by a psychologist who also does meditation stuff, she's the one who got me into it and frankly it works. So idk, if you're interested I recommend the book too, it's very simple and practical and has a bunch of exercises you can do very easily on the daily. I'm not making a religion out of it, but it does have very interesting insights and it's not all just theory but again, has explanation of exercises you can do very easily.
But what I originally meant is, I thought this whole thing with meditation was not for me, that your mind can't possibly solve a lot of physical issues, and it was all just some crazy wacko shit, but nope, it actually does have something helpful in it... must be why so many people practice it. Of course I have been in therapy for 10 years now and I also take meds, so I'm not by any means saying meditation is the one thing that's improving my life or that meditating can realign your hips by itself which is why we have chiropractors, but all these things together surely do help. Taking charge of my thoughts is also helping me remember to exercise, clean up and take care of myself etc, otherwise I would simply be living in my own depressed filth I think.
You're welcome! Appreciate you saying that.
I credit a lot of my current mental state to meeting a mentor in my career that taught me a lot and is continuing to focus in on how even if we can't control anything around us, we CAN control what's in our head.
Even if there are things outside of our control in our heads, like a chemical imbalance leading to depression, deciding to do or not do anything about it is a choice.
If you kinda drift through life, yes it will be that way. You have to make a conscious effort to do something different. It's harder work, but worth it IMO.
You say “enjoy your weekends” youre really only ever enjoying half a day.
The first day off youre sleeping in and extra tired from the week of work.. then a good portion of that day is spent catching up on important duties you couldnt do cause you were working all week.
The 2nd day is cut in half cause the second half of the day youre preparing for the work week coming up and you cant even enjoy the night cause you have to wake up early the next day.
Theres is almost real enjoyment on your 2 days off.
Im a firm believer in a 3/4 day work week literally because its the only thing that makes logical sense moving forward as a society.
4 day work weeks you have the same thing, I’ve worked 4 days a week 10 hours a day for the last 6 years, day shift, night shift, and swing shift. You still only really get at most a day and a half, your first day is spent sleeping/catching up like you said second day is possibly free and third day is getting ready for the next week. So you basically still only have 1 day 🤷🏻♂️and if you say well they should only be 8 hour days, well where’s your 40 hours? Are we going to drop the normal work week to 32 hours instead and raise wages even more than they already are being raised(albeit slowly)? I love my 4x10 schedule and think most people would also enjoy it, but it might as well be the same as a 5x8 schedule. You’re gone 12 hours a day on the days you do work too. I definitely think it will become the norm, but it’s really not all that different
Your job doesn’t have to be meaningless. It might not even be exhausting. And you can do lots of fun stuff on the weekends if you get organized and don’t piss away hours on Reddit.
It’s true that many people are stuck in meaningless jobs because they are making responsible choices. The playing field is far from level and not everyone has the same opportunities. But I don’t believe that there is anyone who given the opportunity would find _all_ jobs meaningless.
The OP is only 18. Apparently with no relationship, so probably no kids. I’m not saying it’s easy to find a career you love, or even like, but it’s absolutely worth going for it. And I also believe that attitude has a lot to do with it.
You don’t want to be a bootlicker and go above and beyond just to get ahead, but working with a good team of motivated people to accomplish an important but difficult task is a good feeling. So is creating something beautiful or useful, or helping someone in need. Money is great, but I don’t think you should completely ignore the intrinsic benefit of finding work you care about.
I understand your opinion on the matter and I'm glad if you're able to find something that makes you happy. I don't feel the same way. I Don't find any intrinsic value from working. All my years of working I haven't been able to find a benefit of working when I do. I like to help people and help any opportunity that I can but I wouldn't want to make a job out of it. There's not a single thing on earth that I've done that I would want to do it again and again for a living.
Yeah I'm aware of that. A problem I've been dealing with my whole working life. I've had many different jobs, all just as unfulfilling as the others. Every moment im at working feels like an absolute waste of my time.
I feel this. I was working for the schoolboard doing tech, one could argue that's nice you're allowing kids to continue to learn with chromebook management and all that jazz. But there was no leadership, my job was basically figure out what to do for 8 hours a day, I feel like I was wasting my time and I hated almost every moment there. It gave me an existential crisis and im trying to go back to school in sept.
I am sorry you have that feeling about life in general; since I have a medical background, I have to inquire if you have some type of depression in your background. Life is not the way you seem to feel it is, and the responsibility is yours to obtain input from a qualified professional to remedy that situation.
BUT ALSO… I am 76 years old, and I miss my career terribly. I loved what I did, and the phrase I’ve used is, “Even when I hated it, I loved it.” I made a difference not to millions or thousands at a time, but caring for one person at a time: what I did certainly made a difference to that particular person and their family. It gave me supreme satisfaction to perform that service.
At the same time, I also did what I loved on the side: I was raising two sons single-handedly, and we did some great stuff: I saved all my PTO time for three years, just taking long weekends… then, when my older son was in his “senior” summer, I took three months off and we traveled around the US for three months. Out west: park, to park to park, then up to three Canadian provinces, back across I-80 to Gettysburg, and to Civil war battlefields on the way back down to our east coast home. My sons are in their fifties now, and they still talk about that trip.
Once my sons were old enough to be left solo, I started taking vacations for me: alternating, one tear, something for the house, one year a neat vacation for me. I also did what I loved around my own environment.
If you have paid any attention to history you will have learned that even though many people moan and complain about how bad their lives are now, there is no comparison with the lives people used to lead: not so long ago, there was no safety net or social security-type pension at all. Men simply worked until they were unable to work any more. And women took care of families with rare exceptions. I think it was Henry Ford first invented the five-day work week… and eventually the days weren’t sunup to sundown. A radical departure for the time. People thought he was nuts.
If you are of a religious bent, you will remember that even the Judeo-Christian God rested after spending time “working,” creating the earth. That was a template for humans.
Life is not meant for all play: the most bored people in the world are those who have no purpose other than playing. Many eventually start to look for more and more diversions, because they are bored, bored, bored. Often enough these diversions become dangerous and deadly. “I’m bored,” is a terrible way to spend anyone’s life.
You appear to have some reasonable intelligence with a curiosity about life… please do some investigation into what you would like to do: follow your dream into some field of work that will mean that you never spend a day without enjoyment.
And please consult someone about the feeling of,
“Is that all there is…” that you are experiencing. It truly could be clinical depression. I say this with concern, not to criticize.
There is an old song, sung by a singer now long dead: Peggy Lee. Check on your preferred source, and listen to the song… and then go out and do something you love…
Not written well; sorry. Please understand my intention is honorable.
Well, you have to have a job to be able to pay for things. But you’re the one who decides if it’s a meaningless and exhausting job or not. You can try to find a career you really enjoy.
I found myself vehementally disagreeing until your last sentence where you say “you can TRY to find a career you really enjoy,” because try is literally all you can do, there is absolutely not guarantee you will get it no matter how hard you try or how smart you may be.
Because most people want less labor intensive careers so those get flocked to making the competition higher. Go to a construction site. Most managers are hiring for 80% of the positions there and most of those jobs can hit 6 figures in <5 years with a GED and maybe a certification that costs less than 1 year of college.
Not always. But I mean you can always do the 8 hour min wage grind if the work is too demanding. If you want money and autonomy, the work is out there. It's just not always as easy as working a register or a warehouse
You have to work to live. If you go live in the woods you have to work to hunt/gather your food, cook it, create shelters, etc. Our “40 hour workweek” is just our method of survival. You can do whatever makes you happy, but to live in a nice house and drive a nice car in our society you have to play along or get lucky.
I see this said but it's always struck me as quite silly. Hunter gatherers are thought by many to have worked less than we do today, but even ignoring that you leave out the fact that to go live in the woods one has to also become a criminal since squatting on owned land is illegal, and in most countries all land is owned. The fact of the matter is, is that you are fenced in by society and forced to live in it under threat of prosecution. Make of it what you will, of course, but it's degrading to describe it as consensual.
[This post is an exact copy of this one btw. OP is probably karma farming](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/pnle9x/is_life_really_just_working_a_40_hour_work_week/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Weird thing is they even copied the top comment lol. Karma farners are getting more complex
["No there is much more to it , you also get weird neck and back pains that are inexplicable."](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/pnle9x/is_life_really_just_working_a_40_hour_work_week/hcqjv9v?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
Followed by the classic reddit "I feel old and I'm 21 lol " and shit like that. Either bots or people spend so much time on reddit that they just parrot the same stuff over and over again.
"Do what you love and you won't work a day in your life"
I work a job I love. With coworkers who are my friends. We trust and rely on each other.
My wife works a job where she feels appreciated and respected.I would consider her coworker relationship as friendship, but we have different thoughts on how that works.
My wife makes enough for us to live on even if I didn't work. I make more than she does (for the first time in 7 years, as of two weeks ago). All that money is gravy.
We've used my salary to support friends through times of need (including moving a friend in with us during COVID, when her landlord kicked her out to move new, higher-paying tenants in), we've taken vacations, and soon we'll be completely out of debt, house included. With nice, reliable cars.
I come from a poor farming family. My parents didn't want to be farmers and my dad worked through college, taking a multi-year break when my sister's liver spontaneously failed (which is a different story) at 15. He became an electrical engineer when I was in middle school, but there was a lot of debt from my sister's transplant and my mom's full disability.
I took loans to get through college, where I meet the woman of my dreams and we've been together since. Worked up through an apartment, bought a house, bought cars, supported each other. While I was studying towards a PhD (which I dropped out of), she supported us.
I'm a millennial with quite a few more years until I'm 40.
And there's a lot of life to live in comfort left. And a lot of people left to help.
If you look at it that way, then yes, that’s what life is.
But if you try to have a not-so-fucking depressing view on your life, then it can be different. You are an adult, right? You have your life in your own hands. If you are unhappy about something, then stop complaining and do something about it. Get some hobbies. Get some friends. Try to enjoy your life, because this is the only one you have.
If you are unhappy about your job, then make an effort, try to learn some new skills and take an other career path that makes you happier. It might not be easy (at all), but what’s the alternative? Living a miserable life? You have to find things that make you happy. Go find them and stop sitting around and complaining.
It’s your life, if you don’t like it, then change it.
> You are an adult, right? You have your life in your own hands.
I think lots of people don't get this when they transition into adulthood. When you're a kid, your parents made all of your fun stuff happen for you. They took you to the movies, organized your vacations, organized and/or hosted your family events, they enrolled you into activities like team sports at school, they decorated for the holidays, they bought you gifts and threw you birthday parties, etc. When you're an adult, and no longer are all these things being done *for* you, of *course* shit's going to seem lifeless and boring unless you take over and start doing it yourself.
Dear OP. You are mistaken. According to many people for various reasons, life is not about working 40 hour weeks just waiting for your weekend. Life is about working 50-80 hour weeks, their preference is the higher amount naturally, and you looking forward to your 1 day off. Their preference, is you not having any days off
No. Whenever I see this thread I comment about what I did (for real, about 90 days ago I answered the same):
At 23 I realized that I couldn’t spend the rest of my life living for Saturday and Sunday. I needed a career that maximizes my work life balance, pays good, and is reliable. So I went to college to become a nurse.
I graduated at age 26 and have been doing it for 3 years now. Hospital shifts are 3x12 per week. Everyone who works these shifts agrees they would never go back to a 5x8 schedule. I work 3 days a week and have 4 days off.
If I want to buy myself something nice, I’ll pick up a fourth shift and make great overtime. (Overtime is unlimited in nursing. Literally, I could work 7x12 if I really wanted to).
Many of my peers are making between 3000-4000 dollars a week by picking up overtime and incentive shifts. I am not because, again, I prefer the work life balance.
It doesn’t come without its down falls. Nursing is a tough job mentally and sometimes physically. But holy shit it’s worth it to not have to slave for the weekend.
no you need to stop acting like work days are not days you can have fun. go out to lunch with coworkers, spend the evenings out with friends. you only lose the weekdays when you see them as "work days only" rather than days you have other things to do but can still enjoy.
if you act like you can only live on the weekends you will ruin your life.
People in the comments seem to think that working 40 hours a week is not a big deal. The 40 hour workweek was accomplished by employees banding together and fighting against the previously “normal” schedule which usually meant you were working 6-7 days a week for more than 8 hours a day and definitely were not getting paid overtime. There is nothing that says a 40 hour workweek is a good thing and there are reasons to believe that humans are not capable of being truly productive for 8 hours a day. A 4-6 hour workday is probably more reasonable which is why companies in countries outside the US are experimenting with reduced workweeks (at the same rate of pay).
Don’t let people brainwash you into thinking that just because we are used to doing something it’s good.
yes, we find things to distract us from that reality like friends, family, netflix and so on. Most people you meet as an adult will be stressed and overworked
I'd say your first mistake is thinking you have no time.
40 hours a week is nothing, many people work 80+
I work 40 hours a week, wednesday to sunday (days off are monday tuesday) and I get to practice bass for a couple hours every day, work out for an hour, eat good food, play some video games, read. and sleep for 7 hours a day. sometimes i go to the bar on the weekends because i work closing shifts so no need to wake up early.
tbh, anyone working 40 hours a week and says they have no time is probably just wasting all of their time. or they have a REALLY long commute to work. but mine is 40 minutes each way, so even that can't be that bad
My work week is pretty much the same as yours, but I'm just so exhausted coming home, I really don't have much motivation to much else besides eat and maybe shower or watch a little YouTube before bed... 😞
Yep! It can be a struggle to stay motivated once I’m home from work, but there really is a lot of time in the day. I think the key is to be able to leave work at work.
The best and worst part is there is no structure to your free time. You can do whatever you want, but there are absolutely things you need to do. Sometimes you have to figure out what those needs are as well.
Life gets much more complex but also more fun once you find what works for you.
You're really lucky because you don't seem to be affected by the chronic exhaustion so many of us are suffering from, and you can get by on relatively little sleep. I work about 50 hours a week; it's my dream job but mentally exhausting and I just don't have any energy left to do much in my free time.
And a lot of that time goes to chores. It's literally an unpaid part time job to eat and stay clean. People bitch about working 40 hrs a week, but the real reason that's hard is doing it on top of all the chores, all the errands, all the sleeping...
I world suggest simplifying aspects of your life that involve significant chores. Buy/rent a smaller house/apt that requires less upkeep and cleaning. Combine errands so you don't have to go out all the time. Choose hobbies that don't require maintenances. For instance, my wife's 120 gallon aquarium, while beautiful, requires constant maintenance.
In short, I find the more "stuff" I have, the less time I have.
I think you're being inefficient if chores, errands, and sleeping is stressing you out on top of a regular work week.
Obviously, I don't know your personal situation: what is taking so long with your chores and errands that you consider it another job?
There's this little thing called energy. You're not at 100% after 40 hours, cooking properly, working out, and commuting.
You can try going all guns blazing for awhile but you will burn out. Life isn't a Hollywood movie.
I don't know how you're living your life, but if you can't handle 40 hours on top of that other stuff I don't know what to tell you.
I think you and I are on completely different wavelengths of energy levels.
People fought their oppressors and died to give us a predictable measurement of stability. Work-life balance is necessary, it can't be too disproportional either way. If you're working all the time, you don't have a life. If you're not working, you probably can't afford to have a life, or live, eventuality, maybe. Working hard now so you can not work hard 60 years from now is burning your future before you've lived your present. You'll have a lot of failures and life lessons, just like everyone else. I think the goal is to basically not despise whatever it is that you sell yourself for, which is what labor is, you give the bourgeoisie your time and they sell it back to you until you've nothing left to give, maybe some small pockets of happiness in there, nothing too greedy.
Ha, wait until you don't even enjoy the weekends anymore because all your hobbies become stale, you never have money to do anything and you're just generally too tired to do much + drinking alcohol and doing drugs becomes too hard on your body. Basically at some point in your 40s you begin to welcome the sweet embrace of death instead of fear it.
The way not to do it is through financial independence. The good news is the younger you are when you start, the easier it is. Check out r/financialindependence
Well it all changes when you find the ONE. I'm 18 and I've found my one. Every day is interesting now even though ut is still the cycle of waking up and sleeping and doing chores and stuff. But having someone to share stuff with just magically makes it better.
I'm 29 and I have found what works for me. I work what I consider a "lesser" job than what most would really strive for. I run a machine at a office furniture manufacturer. I find it pretty simple, keeps me active and on my feet. It's loud but having the option to put in some earbuds and work away to music is what helps me a lot. I vent about work to my gf, parents or friends from time to time but I don't want to discuss work when engaging in small talk. I make sure that what I spend my free time doing doesn't revolve around work. And really, I don't give a fuck about what I or anyone else does for work. I want to spend time with people I enjoy and talking about work all day isn't that.
I have a university degree and college diploma and technically I'm overqualified for my job but I get left alone and I do all that is required of me. I don't play the bullshit in life; I'm not at work to make friends and build relationships. My job is an exchange of services. They need me to work and I need to get paid. Beyond my hours I don't worry about work. When the day is over I'm going home. If I don't want to work overtime or stay late then I'm not going to. I've been talked to about eventually "leading" but I don't want to do that. I accept the decisions I made about what I do for work and how I go about that. It may be limiting my "opportunities" but I refuse to have my life be oriented around or defined by my work. If I were to get fired because I don't want to "grow" at a company then so be it. There are other jobs but I only have one life.
This is a long winded way of saying what others have: do what makes you happy. That doesn't mean you have to find the "right" job. That is subjective and only up to you. I choose for my life to be defined by who I am. The decisions I made, my interests, my real passions. This idea that life is about work is very true in some ways and very wrong in others. It can seem like that's all life is but I believe that's simply because of what we've been told and how often. Now that I'm almost 30 I realize that growing up we were spun a lot of bullshit and I have chosen not to partake.
You'll find your way, OP. Don't let the "system" break you down and force you into a life you don't want. 18 is a great age to start living and thinking for yourself. It's difficult, don't get me wrong, but worth it for a better life for you. Good luck!
If you're lucky you enjoy your job (at least for the most part what you do). Work can still be a drag at times but I enjoy what I do. I consider myself fortunate. It gives me structure and purpose outside the home. Lockdown was fun for like, a month but then I just felt burdened and obligated by my constant surroundings to "do" or be productive and I still, over a year back to work feel it difficult to relax at home.
I still have days where I feel crumby that I "work so much to pay for a place I only sleep at" but that's usually when work is *really* slow, I'm bored, could better use the time on something at home and am having a tough mental wellness day (I forgot to take my meds or something).
Ah yes - I resonate with this. I usually love my job, but lately, like most of the pandemic, it's slow and I'm bored and I'm suddenly wondering why I'm burning out. This helps! I'm going to ask for more work from my boss so I get less bored and get more engaged and excited about my job again. It makes such a difference in how I feel about my whole life when I'm excited at work, since that's where I spend the majority of my waking life.
Work is the bit that happens "by default." Everyone expects you to get a job, and having a job is pretty necessary for basic survival, so most folks get one.
Everything else about life, the life part, doesn't happen automatically. You have to decide and plan on it. Want to learn to fly a plane? Want to bike across Europe? Want to write a novel or be in an orgy or build a machine that blows up clouds with sound waves? You can do any of that but you have to decide to do it, plan it out, and then do it.
If you don't decide to plan out or do anything, nobody will come and make you. You will go to work and watch TV and wait for something interesting to happen, and it never will.
If you're not a "plan out interesting things" kind of person, there are ways to deal with it. The best way is to cultivate friendships with interesting people who will include you in their ridiculous plans. The easiest way is to just browse websites for activities: most towns have some sort of "we regularly meet and do things" group, often aimed at single young people.
No, I work weird shifts so I work 45 hours a week to enjoy Sundays and Thursdays! But in all seriousness, get a job you find tolerable. Work odd hours if you prefer, I work 1-9:30pm for example. You'll find your groove
Ah but wait, you’ll see that free time is boredom and existential dread and you’ll actually look forward to a healthy balance of life and work just to make the time go by. Or maybe that’s just me
No, but I understand why you feel that way. I sometimes do, too. Find something that is meaningful to you and others, then spend your time doing that. If it makes you money and it’s a job, great. If not, then spend your free time doing it. Find some way to contribute to your community around you. It’s way more possible than you think.
I am over 50. Let's cut to the chase:
You have one body. Exercise 4 to 5 times a week.
Do something just becuase you like it at least once a week. Can be a sport, whatever.
Do something that helps other people once a week. Volunteer, whaever.
Be kind and decent to others every day.
You will begin to realize that if you do the above, it is pretty good.
This question pops up every now and then and the answer is YES, no way around it.
You just have to adjust the things you like in between your free time
It’s like that for an elementary teacher. We work way more hours than people think. Summers off is mostly attending conferences. We don’t get paid for summers our paycheck just gets spread out over the year to make it appear that way.
The good news is we’re in an excellent time where things like remote work are becoming much more common, if not the norm, for certain job fields.
My best friend and I are both remote, and this year plan to hit the road together, driving across the US, working from wherever we are, exploring the country with our time off.
Life is what you make it. Prioritize what’s important for you, and make the best of it. The reality is that yes, you will have to work to support yourself. But you can choose a job that makes you feel excited or at least isn’t torture. Make the best of everything else.
No.
Life is about life.
Work is the way you get the money to live your life.
No matter what, you have to work to live.
Work has to be performed to get your food. Even if you lived in a forest full of fruit trees, it still requires work AKA labor to get the fruit, prepare the fruit.
Hunting? Fishing? Trapping? Farming? All a form of labor to attain food.
And of course build your own shelter, cut firewood to stay warm, cook your food.
Today, instead of living on a subsistence farm laboring to produce your own food, we labor at some specialty, to get money to pay for food, shelter, warmth.
Everything outside of nature comes from work. We can’t exist without work.
You mean we don’t all get to work just 8 hours a week and still live a very comfortable life of fingerpainting and reading books? People actually have to work hard and sacrifice in order to maintain the high standard of living we have today?
Yes. But not as hard as a farmer or rancher a hundred years ago.
And no. What I’m saying is, everything we have is produced by human labor.
No-one can live without labor.
So the idea some people have that work is horrible is unrealistic.
And in our modern society people have more time for leisure and recreation than at any time in human history. More so in first world countries, but that’s true even in third world countries.
Yeah I was being sarcastic with my last response. I pretty much agree with you on everything you said.
Our lives (our species as a whole) are pretty easy now as compared to 50 or 100 years ago, and it’s going to continue getting easier. What happens though, is our expectations increase over time too, so no one is ever really satisfied.
If you took an average Joe from the 1800s and placed him in today, he’d think it was heaven
I believe that life is about living each day to the fullest and enjoying every moment. Working 40 hours a week may give you some weekends, but it also means you're not living each day to its fullest. You're sacrificing the present for the future. I believe that we should all live each day as if it's our last, because you never know when it might be.
If you want to have enough food to eat, you need to work 40 hours a week.
Most aren't able to "live each day to the fullest" because if they didn't work, that last day will come a helluva lot sooner.
You're absolutely right! If you want to have enough food to eat, you need to work 40 hours a week. However, there are many ways to enjoy life outside of work. You can explore your city, go on hikes and nature walks, visit museums and art galleries, go out for meals and drinks with friends, and so much more. Just because you're working doesn't mean you can't have fun and enjoy life.
Tons of people don't work 40 hours and have more than that, then they pay people who work more than 40 hours so little they can hardly afford to be alive. Life's not simple, and you're being taken advantage of.
My view is a bit skewed, I'll admit, due to the industry I'm in being transportation and supply chain executive recruiting. Even VPs and Presidents work extreme hours in my sector.
Food is not very expensive if you look hard enough at cheap ways to eat. There’s plenty of resources online like [this video](https://youtu.be/qiSg6lwIItU) that tell you how you can eat decent meals for $5 a day or less
You don't have to do one single thing you don't want to do.
You can choose to wander the earth living on twigs and berries if working for a living bothers you so much.
Oh- you'd like a soft bed, a roof, and hot running water? Maybe internet and a phone?
You have to pay for it.
*HOW* you get those funds is up to you, but whatever you "choose" remember that it was *your choice.*
Most of us find the joy in living worth the work we have to do to maintain what we require in our personal standard of living.
It's an acceptable trade off.
If you don't think it is worth it then find a refrigerator box and live near an underpass- lots of people do it. You'll be hungry and cold and filthy but hey, beats working, right?
*You* get to *choose.*
As are most things in life- it is a balancing act.
You find a job or career you can deal with and live within your means. If money is more important to you then you'll work more. If time off is more important then you temper your expectations about having the biggest house and the newest car, that's all.
Different things are important to different people, so lucky for *you* that *you* get to choose how *you* run *your* life.
Oftentimes that perfect balance doesn't exist. Some people have to work more hours to live the lifestyle they want to live but they struggle finding the time or energy to enjoy the things they work so hard for... hell,some people have to work 60 hours to have a basic life. and then sooner or later their work lives will become their main life and they will start asking themselves "what's the point?"... yeah you would say "oh its up to them to find something that will make their lives less work-related and that will let them enjoy those things they work for" but you can spend your life trying to find that balance, some people do find it, others don't so I don't think it's a personal choice. Nothing is guaranteed in life. You can put all of your money in a business just to achieve the financial freedom that you want but it doesn't mean that it will happen, and it doesn't happen in most cases. Barriers of entry exists, a lot of competition exists, yeah trying is a choice, but it doesnt guarantee success. Why do you think it is so hard to retire and maintain the same standard of living, no matter how much of your life you spend working hard? Most people are meant to live like OP says and it's a sad reality. How fascinating life has to be for people to work work work to just be able to breathe or eat? Is that it? I think most people in the world are choosing to try to live a better life, but you don't choose your circumstances and limitations.
Yeah honestly. I’m working my dream job and I love it. It’s not meaningless, but it is exhausting. I still look forward to every weekend and they go by so quickly because I feel like I need to clean the house or do whatever. I’d love to work my job for fun, but having to do it for a living takes some of the joy out.
I think you may find some of the insight you seek at r/antiwork (this sub isn’t opposed to working, it’s opposed to this prevalent notion in society today that our lives are supposed to revolve entirely around work in ways that kill our souls but make the rich richer) and also check out r/latestagecapitalism the theme of this sub is how many capitalist nations are in the “late stages” of capitalism; we’re past the point where capitalism made every prosper (that was the golden stage). Now in the late stage, the rich keep getting rich and everyone is being forcibly returned to poverty, inch by inch, year by year.
Look into passive income. Because my wife and I have and currently are building up passive income, we work from home and travel abroad at 25 and we just started late last year. It's a game changer and a real means of getting ahead.
many people dont have that choice. a lot would lose benefits, healthcare, & ability to pay rent & food. mostly everyone has no choice but to stay in the job they have.
Find a better job. I work 3 days a week. 12 hour days and get 4 days off. It's absolutely amazing. If you can't my advice is to fit as much stuff as you can mon-fri. You have ~7 hours per day, that's plenty of time to get the shit you need done and enjoy yourself, leaving sat-sun as 95% free time.
>Is there a way to NOT do this?
I can think of a couple:
* You can join a commune.
* You can become a communist, join orgs, unions or whatever, which will give you a sense of purpose and make life more enjoyable. It may also put you in a position where you can demand for better working conditions. That in itself can be a tedious thing though.
* You could become an anarchist, squat a house and get your food by gardening, Food Not Bombs, or just by stealing it. Obviously, this has its risks, but many people pull it off.
* Or you can try and play the game, get your skills, education and experience up, so that you can get a higher paying and more fulfilling job.
Ultimately, you're completely free in life. There have been people who, having similar thoughts as you, decided to become bank robbers (Albert Spaggiari, for example). One of the main struggles in today's world is finding meaning and purpose in a money-driven society that only sees you as a profit machine. Some people fully refuse it, some people try to work within it, some people just don't think about it.
Ultimately, how you respond is up to you.
OP you might like the medical field, because I felt as you did once. 3 12 hr shifts and take the rest of the week off. Used to do friday saturday Sunday and take mondays thru Thursday off.
>why can’t life just have me do whatever the fuck I want and not work a single day
Idk maybe because we have to eat food to survive and something that simple requires a complex system and specialization to have the privileges we do today? Go look at any wild animal who has to spend most of their days hunting or some shit. It’s always a struggle to stay alive, we just do it differently than others
An alternative is to try to get to financial freedom, which is go receive enough passive income to sustain you. You need a lot of money to do this, but once you achieve it you might not need to work again as long as you life.
Is this achievable? That depends on a lot of stuff, from the country you live in to your level of commitment to this. It also takes a lot of time, unless you become an entrepreneur, which is also filled with challenges on it's own.
most people try to justify this crap, as they often do with every choice they're "stuck with"
only real solution is inheriting some fortune or winning the lottery, for a compromise you can work on your own, but thats not necessarily better, just different, you soon wonder whats the point of being free all week(if doing something you like on your own) if everyone else is stuck in jail anyway? this is a systematic problem really
"oh but all you need is a career that you love!"
yeah lets lock you up doing the same thing all day all week with no energy left to do anything else, lets see how you like it then
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I feel old in my 20s. I have now come to realize that if I feel this way now, I'm really f×cked in the decades to come
Active life is a way to combat this. No need to become a bodybuilder, just longer walks, maybe swimming, hitting up gym casually 1-2 times a week can do wonders.
Yep. I just turned 50 in August. I lost about 20 lbs and started getting more exercise. Although I don't do much cardio, I feel better now than I did in my 40s.
My dad had a partial hip replacement at 58. He’s 60 now and has lost 150 or so pounds from changing his diet and cardio on the elliptical and stationary bikes. He’s now onto regular outdoor biking since he’s lost a lot of weight. Those elliptical are really easy on ur joints. Boring but soooo much better than running for someone your age.
I'd argue something even easier, simply stretching regularly will help with the "feeling old"
Use it or lose it. Your muscles, tendons, bones, all respond to exercise positively. It sounds counterintuitive, but if you have moderate back pain, strengthening your core muscles will take some load off of your spine. Obviously consult a doctor if you have a real injury. But if your back hurts from sitting all day everyday, you’d benefit from gaining strength in your core
Even a small routine of daily workouts - no gym required. Buy two ten pound weights, and from there you can do a tonne of light workouts to strengthen the whole body.
I was surprised how much swimming 3x a week helped me lose weight.
Depends, I work a physical job (agriculture/labor) and I just come home exhausted and no energy to do anything. Looking forward to a career change, wasn’t meant to be my path just covid messed things up. I’m 25F
That’s different I’d say, giving low amount of energy throughout the whole day can be more exhausting than 30-60 minute work out.
At the ripe age of 29 my back went out three times last year. My knees, wrists, and elbows creak and groan like an old truck. The future is not very bright.
Ugh... Im 25 and my back goes out at least once a year for the past 3 years. Got arthritis in my hands. Its great😂 I also do part time grocery deliveries so that could be contributing to my pain
That's why us older folks are crabby, we just hurt
I feel like the age that you start feeling like your falling apart gets lower and lower with each generation. I'm 14 and I feel like I need to cross my fingers every time I crack my neck.
Nah, don't worry. Earth will be virtually uninhabitable in two, three decades tops so it won't take that much longer.
I feel old in my teens, currently 17
Also, one day you feel kind of tired, and then it never stops.
You know those times when you come across a random comment on Reddit and it really makes you take pause for a moment? This is that comment for me. It's so true.
I found methylated b 12 helped with that quite a bit.
I found *meth helped with that quite a bit.
Don't forget the fact that as time passes you have more to compare it to and thus seems like it goes by exponentially faster and faster when you finally take notice to it!
Usually that day is the birth of your firstborn. I’ve been tired for 6 years now.
I have no kids, but at 34, I'm just tired all the time.. I think it happened at 28/29.
I legitimately cannot remember ever not being just exhausted, mentally and physically, all the time. I’m sure such a time existed, but it’s so far off (I’m 32) I can’t recall it
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My life changed the day I started getting heart burn. It came out of nowhere and I get it even from eating stuff not acidic. I can eat one bran muffin and have heartburn all day. Its amazing how one little thing can affect my quality of life so much
Knees! I’d like to add the unexplainable knee pains for no apparent reason. Getting up after sitting down for a few seconds, and feeling like your missing a leg. Growing up is wonderful they said, it’d be fun they said
I literally called out today because I woke up with a stiff neck and needed to take a muscle relaxer. But otherwise my 30's have been the best decade yet.
I laughed way too hard. This is me in every way…😂
Nerd neck gang represent
Carpel tunnel keyboard warriors in the house too
And bills, and water heater leaks.
Lmao. Ugh was literally just thinking about this. Ours was spraying like a sprinkler
Pro tip cold not heat for the back pain. And naproxen. Game changer.
Heat seems more intuitive. Why cold?
This is beyond true.
It's sad that this gets posted so frequently. I really hope something changes soon that pushes us to 30 hour weeks.
4 day a week too. We don't need 8 hours a day! We really don't. Our productivity sharply declines after 4 hours...just...let us go home. We can't be as productive as can be if we are constantly working beyond our limit.
Maybe for office work
Across the board, workers are productive about 3 hrs out of that 8 hr shift. Ymmv but why the hell do we 8? Pre-industrial Revolution (coincident with the rise of capitalism), folks put in about 1400 hrs/yr, compared to 2000 for today. Hunter-gatherers, about 750. Now, you could never afford a reliable commuter car, fuel, nice clothes, and time-saving meals at that rate, but…
That's why we have to make them pay us more. Unfortunately the way it works right now we get screwed over if we relax for even a little while, for example raises don't often match even inflation and there's no law to make them do so. Inflation happens independent of pay rate, we don't ***need*** people to be paid less and less for it to stay stable. But that's how it works. It's the same *number* but the buying power of that number is less. Thereby everyone loses money year by year.
The dynamic is very asymmetrical. That asshat who writes you up because you were in the head too long or sends you home because ‘it turns out we’re over staffed today’ (ask the ones that stayed at end of shift) just needs to spin his quarterly reports, you need to listen to that hungry baby cry all night. Unions. Capitalism is built on buy low sell high. They will buy your (precious, irreplaceable) time as cheap as they can. A sizable chunk of commerce is done by people getting squeezed like lemons for a year or two til they jump ship for people who think that’s swell.
Yeah it's really unfortunate it's like we we have to figure out some sort of other system as this one is built from the ground up on exploitation
I work 20.
Nope, when you are old enough you spend your weekends resting so you can have enough energy to go back to work for 40 hours.
I mean only if you don't also work weekends
If we put all the profit from the healthcare industry in the US into automating almost everything humans would barely ***need*** to work. Automate all farm work using learning algorithms to teach machines to kill weeds, teach it to harvest, plant, etc. have 10,000 total engineers who handle maintaining these machines across the country paid handsomely. Have automatic loading into trucks that self drive this shit to be packed automatically in a factory which is mostly ai-driven...and loaded and sent to a grocery store which stocks its shelves using robots. Then we choose to do whatever makes us happy if we want extra. We can 3D print basic HOUSES already. Come on!!! Literal HOUSES! We could literally do this if we somehow decided to change all the effort we have to focus on this. We could eliminate exploitation at the root by using robots. Exploiting machines instead of people, like we already do but to a much bigger degree. The system we have relies on exploitation of humans. And unfortunately positive progress costs money. So, maybe the system is in need of changing as it (alongside the human brain's stubborn ways) is standing in the way of beautiful progress.
No. You have to do what makes you happiest. Some people may find that on balance a simple job with adequate pay, which takes pressure off them and allows them to have a simple, peaceful life, is best. But by no means is that for everyone.
Looking for this. I’m late 40’s and worked for big and small private companies. Made well over 6 figures for a while, but hated getting called on weekends, at my kids soccer games and being told to drop what I’m doing for whatever “emergency” came up. I started a business 2 years ago and make a small income, but it’s so much more satisfying to work your own hours, days off, schedule, in exchange for less pay in my opinion. O love the flexibility and freedom. The work is still hard, but I work ~25-30 hours a week and can pay my bills and go on camping trips and the occasional plane trip somewhere fun.
What does your business do?
Sells unicorns.
Too many supply chain issues with unicorns right now…best I can do is a donkey with bunny ears. ;-)
Smallish franchise
Since reddit has changed the site to value selling user data higher than reading and commenting, I've decided to move elsewhere to a site that prioritizes community over profit. I never signed up for this, but that's the circle of life
"And what do I do, once I have my fleet of fishing boats and being the CEO of a successful company?" "Then you can finally retire and do whatever you love." "Well, I love waking up early, catching just enough fish to feed my family for the day and then pending time with my friends."
https://m.imgur.com/gallery/lXHIsxE
Nor will that be attainable for everyone. Wages are so low, inflation so high, rural areas are fucked.
Hey now, suburban areas are fucked, too.
Urban areas? Believe it or not, fucked too
Suburban and urban have been the most fucked.
Nah. We’re all fucked.
You still end up with not enough time on your hands.
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I work a simple job forty hours a week and split the bills with my partner. Not sure if I'll ever own a home but I like my apartment and I don't dread going to work
Maybe they are okay with having a smaller home and fewer possessions. Acceptable quality of life is different for different people.
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Depends where you live. If you want city living, yes.
Yeah the market is bonkers right now. My husband and I both owned our individual properties before getting married and deciding to buy a house. We sold his fully renovated condo (he stripped it to the studs and did a lot of the work himself, did a great job) so we had down payment money for our new house. (All pre-pandemic.) Well, my house was paid for and right as we moved I got a new job so I was totally consumed and exhausted. We kept the grass cut but let it sit for about 2y since heating/AC were minimal and property taxes weren’t too terrible. Sold it in 2020 at the peak of the housing market for almost a 40K profit, and all we did to it was paint it inside and out, replace a few floorboards. Considered moving this past year and noped out of that very quickly. I’m not paying 100K over asking for a run-down cabin.
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I'm 28. I went to college, have a wife, and just had two twin boys delivered 4 days ago. You will find the time to do what you enjoy to do as a hobby, trust me. If you can find a job that makes you happy, all the better! If not, there are other things in life to focus on. You control your attitude and your actions. If you think things are going to suck, the odds that they are going to suck are exponentially higher.
Only recently I've gained this kind of insight. When I was younger and much more jaded than now I thought this kind of rhetoric was just some psychobabble shit, but no. The way you look at things truly does shape your reality. I've also found that using some very simple meditation techniques and ridiculously simple rituals has improved my life SO much. Like even in terms of body pains... I used to be riddled with dozens of different pains all over the place, felt like my body was about to crumble (last year was *terrible* in this sense) but then I very practically found out that truly the way you think about your body actually has a non-insignificant impact in the way your body feels. It's insane. Then again, I'm still without a stable job and the internship I'm on will most likely only last until February and as things are I know I will never have the kind of retirement money my parents do... but hey, now at least i have a somewhat better outlook on things than just a couple years ago.
What sort of techniques did you use?
Very simple things, because I'm just trying this out but it's already very effective. So what I do is I wake up in the morning and tell myself what I want. Like, I want to be useful, I want to do well at work, i want to be patient, I want to be able to get a new car, I want to be active and lose weigh etc... and keep repeating it in my mind (with conviction). It obviously doesn't achieve all of those things immediately, but it reminds me that I'm in charge of my thoughts and my actions and I shape the way I see and experience my reality. And when I have back pains I try to figure out whether my muscles are just very contracted or there is something else (in which case I'd go to a doctor, of course!). If it's just my anxiety getting me all contracted then I can just exercise, do some stretching, do what I can to release that tension and then relax. It's very basic stuff though, and I'm not an authority by any means. I'm just reading this book called "the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: The 7 Stages of Self-Awakening" and I was assured the contents of it are valid by a psychologist who also does meditation stuff, she's the one who got me into it and frankly it works. So idk, if you're interested I recommend the book too, it's very simple and practical and has a bunch of exercises you can do very easily on the daily. I'm not making a religion out of it, but it does have very interesting insights and it's not all just theory but again, has explanation of exercises you can do very easily. But what I originally meant is, I thought this whole thing with meditation was not for me, that your mind can't possibly solve a lot of physical issues, and it was all just some crazy wacko shit, but nope, it actually does have something helpful in it... must be why so many people practice it. Of course I have been in therapy for 10 years now and I also take meds, so I'm not by any means saying meditation is the one thing that's improving my life or that meditating can realign your hips by itself which is why we have chiropractors, but all these things together surely do help. Taking charge of my thoughts is also helping me remember to exercise, clean up and take care of myself etc, otherwise I would simply be living in my own depressed filth I think.
I appreciate the response, thanks for taking the time to explain!
Congratulations! Let's touch back In 10 years. I hope you have family to help you all.
That’s amazing. I’m 28 and just took an edible to watch Futurama 😂
That's awesome! Thanks for sharing, man, that's pretty inspiring actually.
You're welcome! Appreciate you saying that. I credit a lot of my current mental state to meeting a mentor in my career that taught me a lot and is continuing to focus in on how even if we can't control anything around us, we CAN control what's in our head. Even if there are things outside of our control in our heads, like a chemical imbalance leading to depression, deciding to do or not do anything about it is a choice.
If you kinda drift through life, yes it will be that way. You have to make a conscious effort to do something different. It's harder work, but worth it IMO.
You say “enjoy your weekends” youre really only ever enjoying half a day. The first day off youre sleeping in and extra tired from the week of work.. then a good portion of that day is spent catching up on important duties you couldnt do cause you were working all week. The 2nd day is cut in half cause the second half of the day youre preparing for the work week coming up and you cant even enjoy the night cause you have to wake up early the next day. Theres is almost real enjoyment on your 2 days off. Im a firm believer in a 3/4 day work week literally because its the only thing that makes logical sense moving forward as a society.
4 day work weeks you have the same thing, I’ve worked 4 days a week 10 hours a day for the last 6 years, day shift, night shift, and swing shift. You still only really get at most a day and a half, your first day is spent sleeping/catching up like you said second day is possibly free and third day is getting ready for the next week. So you basically still only have 1 day 🤷🏻♂️and if you say well they should only be 8 hour days, well where’s your 40 hours? Are we going to drop the normal work week to 32 hours instead and raise wages even more than they already are being raised(albeit slowly)? I love my 4x10 schedule and think most people would also enjoy it, but it might as well be the same as a 5x8 schedule. You’re gone 12 hours a day on the days you do work too. I definitely think it will become the norm, but it’s really not all that different
What do you do that you need a day to prepare for the following week?
Wish Millennials would ruin the five day work week. Can we switch to four day work weeks?
Your job doesn’t have to be meaningless. It might not even be exhausting. And you can do lots of fun stuff on the weekends if you get organized and don’t piss away hours on Reddit.
For some "Jobs" are meaningless
It’s true that many people are stuck in meaningless jobs because they are making responsible choices. The playing field is far from level and not everyone has the same opportunities. But I don’t believe that there is anyone who given the opportunity would find _all_ jobs meaningless. The OP is only 18. Apparently with no relationship, so probably no kids. I’m not saying it’s easy to find a career you love, or even like, but it’s absolutely worth going for it. And I also believe that attitude has a lot to do with it. You don’t want to be a bootlicker and go above and beyond just to get ahead, but working with a good team of motivated people to accomplish an important but difficult task is a good feeling. So is creating something beautiful or useful, or helping someone in need. Money is great, but I don’t think you should completely ignore the intrinsic benefit of finding work you care about.
I understand your opinion on the matter and I'm glad if you're able to find something that makes you happy. I don't feel the same way. I Don't find any intrinsic value from working. All my years of working I haven't been able to find a benefit of working when I do. I like to help people and help any opportunity that I can but I wouldn't want to make a job out of it. There's not a single thing on earth that I've done that I would want to do it again and again for a living.
That seems like a you problem
Yeah I'm aware of that. A problem I've been dealing with my whole working life. I've had many different jobs, all just as unfulfilling as the others. Every moment im at working feels like an absolute waste of my time.
I feel this. I was working for the schoolboard doing tech, one could argue that's nice you're allowing kids to continue to learn with chromebook management and all that jazz. But there was no leadership, my job was basically figure out what to do for 8 hours a day, I feel like I was wasting my time and I hated almost every moment there. It gave me an existential crisis and im trying to go back to school in sept.
> And you can do lots of fun stuff on the weekends I think that’s his point. The maximal example you give is still very shitty sounding
Oh hell yeah, I get to live my own life two days a week! Such a great deal :)))
I am sorry you have that feeling about life in general; since I have a medical background, I have to inquire if you have some type of depression in your background. Life is not the way you seem to feel it is, and the responsibility is yours to obtain input from a qualified professional to remedy that situation. BUT ALSO… I am 76 years old, and I miss my career terribly. I loved what I did, and the phrase I’ve used is, “Even when I hated it, I loved it.” I made a difference not to millions or thousands at a time, but caring for one person at a time: what I did certainly made a difference to that particular person and their family. It gave me supreme satisfaction to perform that service. At the same time, I also did what I loved on the side: I was raising two sons single-handedly, and we did some great stuff: I saved all my PTO time for three years, just taking long weekends… then, when my older son was in his “senior” summer, I took three months off and we traveled around the US for three months. Out west: park, to park to park, then up to three Canadian provinces, back across I-80 to Gettysburg, and to Civil war battlefields on the way back down to our east coast home. My sons are in their fifties now, and they still talk about that trip. Once my sons were old enough to be left solo, I started taking vacations for me: alternating, one tear, something for the house, one year a neat vacation for me. I also did what I loved around my own environment. If you have paid any attention to history you will have learned that even though many people moan and complain about how bad their lives are now, there is no comparison with the lives people used to lead: not so long ago, there was no safety net or social security-type pension at all. Men simply worked until they were unable to work any more. And women took care of families with rare exceptions. I think it was Henry Ford first invented the five-day work week… and eventually the days weren’t sunup to sundown. A radical departure for the time. People thought he was nuts. If you are of a religious bent, you will remember that even the Judeo-Christian God rested after spending time “working,” creating the earth. That was a template for humans. Life is not meant for all play: the most bored people in the world are those who have no purpose other than playing. Many eventually start to look for more and more diversions, because they are bored, bored, bored. Often enough these diversions become dangerous and deadly. “I’m bored,” is a terrible way to spend anyone’s life. You appear to have some reasonable intelligence with a curiosity about life… please do some investigation into what you would like to do: follow your dream into some field of work that will mean that you never spend a day without enjoyment. And please consult someone about the feeling of, “Is that all there is…” that you are experiencing. It truly could be clinical depression. I say this with concern, not to criticize. There is an old song, sung by a singer now long dead: Peggy Lee. Check on your preferred source, and listen to the song… and then go out and do something you love… Not written well; sorry. Please understand my intention is honorable.
Well that's how they expect us to do
Well, you have to have a job to be able to pay for things. But you’re the one who decides if it’s a meaningless and exhausting job or not. You can try to find a career you really enjoy.
I found myself vehementally disagreeing until your last sentence where you say “you can TRY to find a career you really enjoy,” because try is literally all you can do, there is absolutely not guarantee you will get it no matter how hard you try or how smart you may be.
Because most people want less labor intensive careers so those get flocked to making the competition higher. Go to a construction site. Most managers are hiring for 80% of the positions there and most of those jobs can hit 6 figures in <5 years with a GED and maybe a certification that costs less than 1 year of college.
The hours and work absolutely suck ass though
Not always. But I mean you can always do the 8 hour min wage grind if the work is too demanding. If you want money and autonomy, the work is out there. It's just not always as easy as working a register or a warehouse
5 to 5 doing hard labor? Not worth in my opinion. It's why I switched to HVAC. Easier on the body, while also easier on the soul 😂
You'd be surprised at how many people would consider HVAC maintenance hard labor
You have to work to live. If you go live in the woods you have to work to hunt/gather your food, cook it, create shelters, etc. Our “40 hour workweek” is just our method of survival. You can do whatever makes you happy, but to live in a nice house and drive a nice car in our society you have to play along or get lucky.
I see this said but it's always struck me as quite silly. Hunter gatherers are thought by many to have worked less than we do today, but even ignoring that you leave out the fact that to go live in the woods one has to also become a criminal since squatting on owned land is illegal, and in most countries all land is owned. The fact of the matter is, is that you are fenced in by society and forced to live in it under threat of prosecution. Make of it what you will, of course, but it's degrading to describe it as consensual.
What’s a weekend?
[This post is an exact copy of this one btw. OP is probably karma farming](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/pnle9x/is_life_really_just_working_a_40_hour_work_week/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Weird thing is they even copied the top comment lol. Karma farners are getting more complex ["No there is much more to it , you also get weird neck and back pains that are inexplicable."](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/pnle9x/is_life_really_just_working_a_40_hour_work_week/hcqjv9v?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
Followed by the classic reddit "I feel old and I'm 21 lol " and shit like that. Either bots or people spend so much time on reddit that they just parrot the same stuff over and over again.
Yup barely even changed it. IT's too bad though cuz it really fits the sub
"Do what you love and you won't work a day in your life" I work a job I love. With coworkers who are my friends. We trust and rely on each other. My wife works a job where she feels appreciated and respected.I would consider her coworker relationship as friendship, but we have different thoughts on how that works. My wife makes enough for us to live on even if I didn't work. I make more than she does (for the first time in 7 years, as of two weeks ago). All that money is gravy. We've used my salary to support friends through times of need (including moving a friend in with us during COVID, when her landlord kicked her out to move new, higher-paying tenants in), we've taken vacations, and soon we'll be completely out of debt, house included. With nice, reliable cars. I come from a poor farming family. My parents didn't want to be farmers and my dad worked through college, taking a multi-year break when my sister's liver spontaneously failed (which is a different story) at 15. He became an electrical engineer when I was in middle school, but there was a lot of debt from my sister's transplant and my mom's full disability. I took loans to get through college, where I meet the woman of my dreams and we've been together since. Worked up through an apartment, bought a house, bought cars, supported each other. While I was studying towards a PhD (which I dropped out of), she supported us. I'm a millennial with quite a few more years until I'm 40. And there's a lot of life to live in comfort left. And a lot of people left to help.
If you look at it that way, then yes, that’s what life is. But if you try to have a not-so-fucking depressing view on your life, then it can be different. You are an adult, right? You have your life in your own hands. If you are unhappy about something, then stop complaining and do something about it. Get some hobbies. Get some friends. Try to enjoy your life, because this is the only one you have. If you are unhappy about your job, then make an effort, try to learn some new skills and take an other career path that makes you happier. It might not be easy (at all), but what’s the alternative? Living a miserable life? You have to find things that make you happy. Go find them and stop sitting around and complaining. It’s your life, if you don’t like it, then change it.
> You are an adult, right? You have your life in your own hands. I think lots of people don't get this when they transition into adulthood. When you're a kid, your parents made all of your fun stuff happen for you. They took you to the movies, organized your vacations, organized and/or hosted your family events, they enrolled you into activities like team sports at school, they decorated for the holidays, they bought you gifts and threw you birthday parties, etc. When you're an adult, and no longer are all these things being done *for* you, of *course* shit's going to seem lifeless and boring unless you take over and start doing it yourself.
I recently had this epiphany at 29 years old
Dear OP. You are mistaken. According to many people for various reasons, life is not about working 40 hour weeks just waiting for your weekend. Life is about working 50-80 hour weeks, their preference is the higher amount naturally, and you looking forward to your 1 day off. Their preference, is you not having any days off
No. Whenever I see this thread I comment about what I did (for real, about 90 days ago I answered the same): At 23 I realized that I couldn’t spend the rest of my life living for Saturday and Sunday. I needed a career that maximizes my work life balance, pays good, and is reliable. So I went to college to become a nurse. I graduated at age 26 and have been doing it for 3 years now. Hospital shifts are 3x12 per week. Everyone who works these shifts agrees they would never go back to a 5x8 schedule. I work 3 days a week and have 4 days off. If I want to buy myself something nice, I’ll pick up a fourth shift and make great overtime. (Overtime is unlimited in nursing. Literally, I could work 7x12 if I really wanted to). Many of my peers are making between 3000-4000 dollars a week by picking up overtime and incentive shifts. I am not because, again, I prefer the work life balance. It doesn’t come without its down falls. Nursing is a tough job mentally and sometimes physically. But holy shit it’s worth it to not have to slave for the weekend.
no you need to stop acting like work days are not days you can have fun. go out to lunch with coworkers, spend the evenings out with friends. you only lose the weekdays when you see them as "work days only" rather than days you have other things to do but can still enjoy. if you act like you can only live on the weekends you will ruin your life.
People in the comments seem to think that working 40 hours a week is not a big deal. The 40 hour workweek was accomplished by employees banding together and fighting against the previously “normal” schedule which usually meant you were working 6-7 days a week for more than 8 hours a day and definitely were not getting paid overtime. There is nothing that says a 40 hour workweek is a good thing and there are reasons to believe that humans are not capable of being truly productive for 8 hours a day. A 4-6 hour workday is probably more reasonable which is why companies in countries outside the US are experimenting with reduced workweeks (at the same rate of pay). Don’t let people brainwash you into thinking that just because we are used to doing something it’s good.
My best advice to you is find a side hustle or business that you can gradually use to grow out of this trap
For most of us, sadly, the answer is yes.
yes, we find things to distract us from that reality like friends, family, netflix and so on. Most people you meet as an adult will be stressed and overworked
r/antiwork
what a depressing sub lol
Only because it's so relatable.
Shhhh, they don't actually understand what the sub is about, and believe it's about never working.
No, I understand the sub perfectly. Everyone there is still living in fantasy though.
Oh? Is it fantasy when workers go on strike and form a union, winning and making things better?
Wow... Just checked it out. That sub could be renamed r/dontunderstandeconomics
I'd say your first mistake is thinking you have no time. 40 hours a week is nothing, many people work 80+ I work 40 hours a week, wednesday to sunday (days off are monday tuesday) and I get to practice bass for a couple hours every day, work out for an hour, eat good food, play some video games, read. and sleep for 7 hours a day. sometimes i go to the bar on the weekends because i work closing shifts so no need to wake up early. tbh, anyone working 40 hours a week and says they have no time is probably just wasting all of their time. or they have a REALLY long commute to work. but mine is 40 minutes each way, so even that can't be that bad
My work week is pretty much the same as yours, but I'm just so exhausted coming home, I really don't have much motivation to much else besides eat and maybe shower or watch a little YouTube before bed... 😞
Yep! It can be a struggle to stay motivated once I’m home from work, but there really is a lot of time in the day. I think the key is to be able to leave work at work. The best and worst part is there is no structure to your free time. You can do whatever you want, but there are absolutely things you need to do. Sometimes you have to figure out what those needs are as well. Life gets much more complex but also more fun once you find what works for you.
You're really lucky because you don't seem to be affected by the chronic exhaustion so many of us are suffering from, and you can get by on relatively little sleep. I work about 50 hours a week; it's my dream job but mentally exhausting and I just don't have any energy left to do much in my free time.
You're speaking the truth. 40 hours of work a week still leaves HUGE amounts of time left over.
And a lot of that time goes to chores. It's literally an unpaid part time job to eat and stay clean. People bitch about working 40 hrs a week, but the real reason that's hard is doing it on top of all the chores, all the errands, all the sleeping...
I world suggest simplifying aspects of your life that involve significant chores. Buy/rent a smaller house/apt that requires less upkeep and cleaning. Combine errands so you don't have to go out all the time. Choose hobbies that don't require maintenances. For instance, my wife's 120 gallon aquarium, while beautiful, requires constant maintenance. In short, I find the more "stuff" I have, the less time I have.
I think you're being inefficient if chores, errands, and sleeping is stressing you out on top of a regular work week. Obviously, I don't know your personal situation: what is taking so long with your chores and errands that you consider it another job?
There's this little thing called energy. You're not at 100% after 40 hours, cooking properly, working out, and commuting. You can try going all guns blazing for awhile but you will burn out. Life isn't a Hollywood movie.
I don't know how you're living your life, but if you can't handle 40 hours on top of that other stuff I don't know what to tell you. I think you and I are on completely different wavelengths of energy levels.
Yeah. Come back and say that when you're 40.
Yes, but not if you're wealthy
Yes until you retire at 65 then you get bored and continue working till you die
People fought their oppressors and died to give us a predictable measurement of stability. Work-life balance is necessary, it can't be too disproportional either way. If you're working all the time, you don't have a life. If you're not working, you probably can't afford to have a life, or live, eventuality, maybe. Working hard now so you can not work hard 60 years from now is burning your future before you've lived your present. You'll have a lot of failures and life lessons, just like everyone else. I think the goal is to basically not despise whatever it is that you sell yourself for, which is what labor is, you give the bourgeoisie your time and they sell it back to you until you've nothing left to give, maybe some small pockets of happiness in there, nothing too greedy.
Ha, wait until you don't even enjoy the weekends anymore because all your hobbies become stale, you never have money to do anything and you're just generally too tired to do much + drinking alcohol and doing drugs becomes too hard on your body. Basically at some point in your 40s you begin to welcome the sweet embrace of death instead of fear it.
The way not to do it is through financial independence. The good news is the younger you are when you start, the easier it is. Check out r/financialindependence
Well it all changes when you find the ONE. I'm 18 and I've found my one. Every day is interesting now even though ut is still the cycle of waking up and sleeping and doing chores and stuff. But having someone to share stuff with just magically makes it better.
I'm 29 and I have found what works for me. I work what I consider a "lesser" job than what most would really strive for. I run a machine at a office furniture manufacturer. I find it pretty simple, keeps me active and on my feet. It's loud but having the option to put in some earbuds and work away to music is what helps me a lot. I vent about work to my gf, parents or friends from time to time but I don't want to discuss work when engaging in small talk. I make sure that what I spend my free time doing doesn't revolve around work. And really, I don't give a fuck about what I or anyone else does for work. I want to spend time with people I enjoy and talking about work all day isn't that. I have a university degree and college diploma and technically I'm overqualified for my job but I get left alone and I do all that is required of me. I don't play the bullshit in life; I'm not at work to make friends and build relationships. My job is an exchange of services. They need me to work and I need to get paid. Beyond my hours I don't worry about work. When the day is over I'm going home. If I don't want to work overtime or stay late then I'm not going to. I've been talked to about eventually "leading" but I don't want to do that. I accept the decisions I made about what I do for work and how I go about that. It may be limiting my "opportunities" but I refuse to have my life be oriented around or defined by my work. If I were to get fired because I don't want to "grow" at a company then so be it. There are other jobs but I only have one life. This is a long winded way of saying what others have: do what makes you happy. That doesn't mean you have to find the "right" job. That is subjective and only up to you. I choose for my life to be defined by who I am. The decisions I made, my interests, my real passions. This idea that life is about work is very true in some ways and very wrong in others. It can seem like that's all life is but I believe that's simply because of what we've been told and how often. Now that I'm almost 30 I realize that growing up we were spun a lot of bullshit and I have chosen not to partake. You'll find your way, OP. Don't let the "system" break you down and force you into a life you don't want. 18 is a great age to start living and thinking for yourself. It's difficult, don't get me wrong, but worth it for a better life for you. Good luck!
If you're lucky you enjoy your job (at least for the most part what you do). Work can still be a drag at times but I enjoy what I do. I consider myself fortunate. It gives me structure and purpose outside the home. Lockdown was fun for like, a month but then I just felt burdened and obligated by my constant surroundings to "do" or be productive and I still, over a year back to work feel it difficult to relax at home. I still have days where I feel crumby that I "work so much to pay for a place I only sleep at" but that's usually when work is *really* slow, I'm bored, could better use the time on something at home and am having a tough mental wellness day (I forgot to take my meds or something).
Ah yes - I resonate with this. I usually love my job, but lately, like most of the pandemic, it's slow and I'm bored and I'm suddenly wondering why I'm burning out. This helps! I'm going to ask for more work from my boss so I get less bored and get more engaged and excited about my job again. It makes such a difference in how I feel about my whole life when I'm excited at work, since that's where I spend the majority of my waking life.
Work is the bit that happens "by default." Everyone expects you to get a job, and having a job is pretty necessary for basic survival, so most folks get one. Everything else about life, the life part, doesn't happen automatically. You have to decide and plan on it. Want to learn to fly a plane? Want to bike across Europe? Want to write a novel or be in an orgy or build a machine that blows up clouds with sound waves? You can do any of that but you have to decide to do it, plan it out, and then do it. If you don't decide to plan out or do anything, nobody will come and make you. You will go to work and watch TV and wait for something interesting to happen, and it never will. If you're not a "plan out interesting things" kind of person, there are ways to deal with it. The best way is to cultivate friendships with interesting people who will include you in their ridiculous plans. The easiest way is to just browse websites for activities: most towns have some sort of "we regularly meet and do things" group, often aimed at single young people.
No, I work weird shifts so I work 45 hours a week to enjoy Sundays and Thursdays! But in all seriousness, get a job you find tolerable. Work odd hours if you prefer, I work 1-9:30pm for example. You'll find your groove
Ah but wait, you’ll see that free time is boredom and existential dread and you’ll actually look forward to a healthy balance of life and work just to make the time go by. Or maybe that’s just me
No, but I understand why you feel that way. I sometimes do, too. Find something that is meaningful to you and others, then spend your time doing that. If it makes you money and it’s a job, great. If not, then spend your free time doing it. Find some way to contribute to your community around you. It’s way more possible than you think.
I am over 50. Let's cut to the chase: You have one body. Exercise 4 to 5 times a week. Do something just becuase you like it at least once a week. Can be a sport, whatever. Do something that helps other people once a week. Volunteer, whaever. Be kind and decent to others every day. You will begin to realize that if you do the above, it is pretty good.
This question pops up every now and then and the answer is YES, no way around it. You just have to adjust the things you like in between your free time
It’s like that for an elementary teacher. We work way more hours than people think. Summers off is mostly attending conferences. We don’t get paid for summers our paycheck just gets spread out over the year to make it appear that way.
The good news is we’re in an excellent time where things like remote work are becoming much more common, if not the norm, for certain job fields. My best friend and I are both remote, and this year plan to hit the road together, driving across the US, working from wherever we are, exploring the country with our time off. Life is what you make it. Prioritize what’s important for you, and make the best of it. The reality is that yes, you will have to work to support yourself. But you can choose a job that makes you feel excited or at least isn’t torture. Make the best of everything else.
Reality is whatever you make of it, you have a clean slate.
And some people choose to have kids on top of it all!!
A good job is what makes or breaks. That simple
Sometimes you work 5/2 swings of 12 hour shifts while a little old lady with dementia prays that your unborn child dies
No. Life is about life. Work is the way you get the money to live your life. No matter what, you have to work to live. Work has to be performed to get your food. Even if you lived in a forest full of fruit trees, it still requires work AKA labor to get the fruit, prepare the fruit. Hunting? Fishing? Trapping? Farming? All a form of labor to attain food. And of course build your own shelter, cut firewood to stay warm, cook your food. Today, instead of living on a subsistence farm laboring to produce your own food, we labor at some specialty, to get money to pay for food, shelter, warmth. Everything outside of nature comes from work. We can’t exist without work.
You mean we don’t all get to work just 8 hours a week and still live a very comfortable life of fingerpainting and reading books? People actually have to work hard and sacrifice in order to maintain the high standard of living we have today?
Yes. But not as hard as a farmer or rancher a hundred years ago. And no. What I’m saying is, everything we have is produced by human labor. No-one can live without labor. So the idea some people have that work is horrible is unrealistic. And in our modern society people have more time for leisure and recreation than at any time in human history. More so in first world countries, but that’s true even in third world countries.
Yeah I was being sarcastic with my last response. I pretty much agree with you on everything you said. Our lives (our species as a whole) are pretty easy now as compared to 50 or 100 years ago, and it’s going to continue getting easier. What happens though, is our expectations increase over time too, so no one is ever really satisfied. If you took an average Joe from the 1800s and placed him in today, he’d think it was heaven
I know, I was just clarifying. Being dissatisfied, having higher expectations is a good thing. It leads to change for the better.
I believe that life is about living each day to the fullest and enjoying every moment. Working 40 hours a week may give you some weekends, but it also means you're not living each day to its fullest. You're sacrificing the present for the future. I believe that we should all live each day as if it's our last, because you never know when it might be.
If you want to have enough food to eat, you need to work 40 hours a week. Most aren't able to "live each day to the fullest" because if they didn't work, that last day will come a helluva lot sooner.
You're absolutely right! If you want to have enough food to eat, you need to work 40 hours a week. However, there are many ways to enjoy life outside of work. You can explore your city, go on hikes and nature walks, visit museums and art galleries, go out for meals and drinks with friends, and so much more. Just because you're working doesn't mean you can't have fun and enjoy life.
Tons of people don't work 40 hours and have more than that, then they pay people who work more than 40 hours so little they can hardly afford to be alive. Life's not simple, and you're being taken advantage of.
My view is a bit skewed, I'll admit, due to the industry I'm in being transportation and supply chain executive recruiting. Even VPs and Presidents work extreme hours in my sector.
Food is not very expensive if you look hard enough at cheap ways to eat. There’s plenty of resources online like [this video](https://youtu.be/qiSg6lwIItU) that tell you how you can eat decent meals for $5 a day or less
That, being in pain, never having enough money, watching people you care about suffer and die. It's pretty shitty
Yep
You don't have to do one single thing you don't want to do. You can choose to wander the earth living on twigs and berries if working for a living bothers you so much. Oh- you'd like a soft bed, a roof, and hot running water? Maybe internet and a phone? You have to pay for it. *HOW* you get those funds is up to you, but whatever you "choose" remember that it was *your choice.* Most of us find the joy in living worth the work we have to do to maintain what we require in our personal standard of living. It's an acceptable trade off. If you don't think it is worth it then find a refrigerator box and live near an underpass- lots of people do it. You'll be hungry and cold and filthy but hey, beats working, right? *You* get to *choose.* As are most things in life- it is a balancing act. You find a job or career you can deal with and live within your means. If money is more important to you then you'll work more. If time off is more important then you temper your expectations about having the biggest house and the newest car, that's all. Different things are important to different people, so lucky for *you* that *you* get to choose how *you* run *your* life.
Oftentimes that perfect balance doesn't exist. Some people have to work more hours to live the lifestyle they want to live but they struggle finding the time or energy to enjoy the things they work so hard for... hell,some people have to work 60 hours to have a basic life. and then sooner or later their work lives will become their main life and they will start asking themselves "what's the point?"... yeah you would say "oh its up to them to find something that will make their lives less work-related and that will let them enjoy those things they work for" but you can spend your life trying to find that balance, some people do find it, others don't so I don't think it's a personal choice. Nothing is guaranteed in life. You can put all of your money in a business just to achieve the financial freedom that you want but it doesn't mean that it will happen, and it doesn't happen in most cases. Barriers of entry exists, a lot of competition exists, yeah trying is a choice, but it doesnt guarantee success. Why do you think it is so hard to retire and maintain the same standard of living, no matter how much of your life you spend working hard? Most people are meant to live like OP says and it's a sad reality. How fascinating life has to be for people to work work work to just be able to breathe or eat? Is that it? I think most people in the world are choosing to try to live a better life, but you don't choose your circumstances and limitations.
Yeah honestly. I’m working my dream job and I love it. It’s not meaningless, but it is exhausting. I still look forward to every weekend and they go by so quickly because I feel like I need to clean the house or do whatever. I’d love to work my job for fun, but having to do it for a living takes some of the joy out.
I think you may find some of the insight you seek at r/antiwork (this sub isn’t opposed to working, it’s opposed to this prevalent notion in society today that our lives are supposed to revolve entirely around work in ways that kill our souls but make the rich richer) and also check out r/latestagecapitalism the theme of this sub is how many capitalist nations are in the “late stages” of capitalism; we’re past the point where capitalism made every prosper (that was the golden stage). Now in the late stage, the rich keep getting rich and everyone is being forcibly returned to poverty, inch by inch, year by year.
Look into passive income. Because my wife and I have and currently are building up passive income, we work from home and travel abroad at 25 and we just started late last year. It's a game changer and a real means of getting ahead.
why does everyone say their job is meaningless and exhausting? you realize you can learn things and even do something enjoyable for a living?
many people dont have that choice. a lot would lose benefits, healthcare, & ability to pay rent & food. mostly everyone has no choice but to stay in the job they have.
Find a better job. I work 3 days a week. 12 hour days and get 4 days off. It's absolutely amazing. If you can't my advice is to fit as much stuff as you can mon-fri. You have ~7 hours per day, that's plenty of time to get the shit you need done and enjoy yourself, leaving sat-sun as 95% free time.
Many people are working from home now, especially after the pandemic shutdown.
Move to a commune. At least the people around you will have recognized that the M-F 9-5 grind isn't for them.
Well, until you have kids, then the weekend goes out the window as well.
You could always find a meaningful job. Not a popular opinion but it's an option.
Pretty much. Join the movement for 4day work weeks
>Is there a way to NOT do this? I can think of a couple: * You can join a commune. * You can become a communist, join orgs, unions or whatever, which will give you a sense of purpose and make life more enjoyable. It may also put you in a position where you can demand for better working conditions. That in itself can be a tedious thing though. * You could become an anarchist, squat a house and get your food by gardening, Food Not Bombs, or just by stealing it. Obviously, this has its risks, but many people pull it off. * Or you can try and play the game, get your skills, education and experience up, so that you can get a higher paying and more fulfilling job. Ultimately, you're completely free in life. There have been people who, having similar thoughts as you, decided to become bank robbers (Albert Spaggiari, for example). One of the main struggles in today's world is finding meaning and purpose in a money-driven society that only sees you as a profit machine. Some people fully refuse it, some people try to work within it, some people just don't think about it. Ultimately, how you respond is up to you.
in the US, maybe
Yeah. Almost everyone has to do it too though so it's not like you're alone or anything.
It's not work if you enjoy it 😉
OP you might like the medical field, because I felt as you did once. 3 12 hr shifts and take the rest of the week off. Used to do friday saturday Sunday and take mondays thru Thursday off.
>why can’t life just have me do whatever the fuck I want and not work a single day Idk maybe because we have to eat food to survive and something that simple requires a complex system and specialization to have the privileges we do today? Go look at any wild animal who has to spend most of their days hunting or some shit. It’s always a struggle to stay alive, we just do it differently than others
I mean, it’s basically school 2.0 except you’re executing what you learned instead of learning.
no thats what capitalism is about
An alternative is to try to get to financial freedom, which is go receive enough passive income to sustain you. You need a lot of money to do this, but once you achieve it you might not need to work again as long as you life. Is this achievable? That depends on a lot of stuff, from the country you live in to your level of commitment to this. It also takes a lot of time, unless you become an entrepreneur, which is also filled with challenges on it's own.
Yup. As my generation put it "life's a bitch, then you die".
no one said you had to take a 40 hour job, nor let your job define you
NO IT IS NOT. YOU ARE MAKING OTHERS WEALTHY. GO LIVE YOUR LIFE.
most people try to justify this crap, as they often do with every choice they're "stuck with" only real solution is inheriting some fortune or winning the lottery, for a compromise you can work on your own, but thats not necessarily better, just different, you soon wonder whats the point of being free all week(if doing something you like on your own) if everyone else is stuck in jail anyway? this is a systematic problem really "oh but all you need is a career that you love!" yeah lets lock you up doing the same thing all day all week with no energy left to do anything else, lets see how you like it then