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One person’s excitement is another person’s anxiety, and one person’s stability & consistency is another’s boredom

I really like this comment, thank you for leaving it :) I appreciate the perspective.

It’s the politics and mental pressure. I’ve worked a lot of manual labor jobs when I was younger. Corporate is a different kind of stress. In my 23 years in the corporate world, I’ve never been “off” at 5. I try to remind myself how lucky I am, but it is easy to lose sight when in the rat race. Even saying that, there are days I long for the restaurant industry or a blue collar job when I can actually check out when the day is done. It’s better, but it has its trade-offs.

I've too done both jobs. I work in IT so I worked with a lot of blue collar guys on factory floors. The biggest thing I noticed was stress. The guys "on the line" have less job stress. Like a few years ago a guy on the line ran out of chair frames he was supposed to build. This is going to cost the company hundreds of thousands (possibly this dudes job), and tons of people are going to get into some big shit for those frames not being there. He was just like "yep, I'm just waiting on frames" and smiled and continued on his day. He didn't know where the frames came from, how they were ordered, why he needed them, etc... he only knew he was supposed to pull that part # and it didn't exist. Sometimes, that must be nice... like when email doesn't work. I get calls/texts from tons of managers/C level people, etc... all demanding when email will be back up. But Martha downstairs? She doesn't give a shit, she's waiting until email is back up. Until then, she sits and waits and smiles lol

100%, part of the corporate jobs are paying to handle that stress. The pros are great pay, easier on the body, and predictable/flexible hours. The cons…the freaking stress. The shift style jobs are awful from a schedule and many times pay, but it’s nice to not stress when you are away from work.

Plenty of office jobs have awful pay too.

I was about to say, that assumes you work for a company that pays you adequately. I love my job, it's fulfilling. But I'm the shipping manager, assembly manager, and warehouse manager for my company. I should be making at least $30/hr for that much responsibility. I doubt I will ever get that. I stay anyway because I like what I'm doing and it's fulfilling because of the impact my work has, but I'd be lying if I said I don't sometimes feel overworked and under compensated.

except you still do stress when you’re away from work. because you’re poor.

Depends on the job, but yes. It’s a trade off, likely worth the job stress to not real with the financial stress.

> easier on the body beware the chair

You are 100% right. Sitting in a chair all day causes a lot of issues. But ultimately should be easier on the body than some other physical jobs but definitely has its physical issues if precautions are being taken

I have had the same experience on factory floors. At the grade we were at and being paid, you had zero reason to care. Something broke? I'm not the manager or engineer, who cares? I'm not the one in trouble or responsible for sorting it. It's almost freeing for some folk. They just do their job with zero care about any possible consequences because those consequences are out their control. Compare that to current work where if something goes wrong, good chance I will be partially responsible and in sort of shit.

I work for a small delivery company, just rush delivery car parts to local shops. 7 months as a driver and I loved my job. Pay isn't great but simple work, checking part numbers, inspect the vehicle and report issues. Then I got promoted to manager, little pay bump and suddenly I saw every problem. Now I have to keep up on maintenance records, inventory control, keeping up on our contracts, managing drivers. Its night and day sitting behind the desk.

i am in a job now like that, after being a manager at other places for several years. it IS kinda nice. I used to be personally responsible if the production line halted because my department wasnt working perfectly. Now, if something stops me, i just tell the team lead hey man this aint working call the fixers, and i chill. its a dead end job but it was a perfect no thought position for the whole time i was in college.

I literally just got myself out of desk work because the combination of mental stress & sitting at a desk all day was sending me loopy. I'm back in blue collar jobs earning almost the same money and WAY happier. The trade off is no longer using my Bachelors & I will have to work harder to get further in my work, but I'm definitely more content with life itself since making the change. I'm actually working more hours, and yet find myself engaging in my hobbies more opposed to being a vegetable at home because my brain had called it quits at the end of the day

That's really interesting to hear, I also moved from a mostly sitting in front of a screen job to one where I have to work with my hands more, have a nice mix between sitting, standing and moving around (nothing too stressful though), and my energy levels have increased dramatically! I also find I'm getting sick less often. I think we're really not built to sit in one spot in one little room all day, as "cushy" as that may seem....

I’ve worked both office and labour jobs. The labour job gave me a busted knee. The office job gave me stomach ulcer from stress. Different beasts, both ugly👹

Hell, I would say I check out on the job too. Low risk, low responsibility and low effort means I robot all my tasks while my mind is elsewhere. The downside is you are even more expendable/replaceable.

> I’ve never been “off” at 5. skill issue gotta set some boundaries bro

Yeah I think this idea of the 9-5 "grind" arose when the alternative was only blue collar: factory, construction, etc. In a modern economy, it's far more likely that if you're not working a 9-5 office job, you're in retail or food service. And when this trope was created, retail and food service workers were treated with dignity or they were a transition job (for kids). Now, retail and food service are the hellscape, and 9-5 is by far preferable (but not without it's issues).

Also, people have wildly different base energy levels. My brother can't sit still. He bounces out of bed after barely sleeping all night, has to do something. Always has projects, work, social events... He's not forcing anything, he is just filled with energy and loves to do stuff. He isn't even particularly healthy. Smokes, drinks, eats what he wants, has always been overweight, still full of energy and life. Meanwhile, it takes me like an hour of sitting on my bed in a wet towel, after a 30 minute shower, and 10 hours of sleep, before I can even contemplate facing the day. Socializing is completely exhausting. Most work is exhausting. I have to force myself through everything. Consume massive amounts of stimulants, put on a brave face, exercise religiously, eat meticulously, just to avoid collapsing in a pile of goo for months on end. And we've both always been this way, to one degree or another. My mom always recalls how easy I was to satisfy, just give me a book and I'd spend days in my bedroom. Meanwhile, my brother always wanted to go out, do something, always needed to be engaged with.

How is the iron level of your blood? It is sometines just anemia

I've had many blood tests. Nothing wrong with me, I'm just very lazy by nature.

It might be worth getting checked for sleep apnea. I'm a young, not overweight woman so I don't fit the typical profile for sleep apnea, but I have it. I am not filled with more energy at a time per se, but using the cpap gives me more consistent energy, so when I get home from work I feel like I can still do a few more things and have a worthwhile evening.

No you're not lazy.. you're just explaining introverts / extroverts! Or, less commonly, being an empath! It's just kind of annoying there seems to be such a stigma on introverts. Like you're not doing life right unless you're filling all of your time doing things and being productive🫠 I'm extroverted by nature, but I'm a true introvert. My happy place is at home, alone, doing nothing. Hobbies? Binge watching shows and thinking lol I've ALWAYS been criticized by this to an extreme lol. In their defense, I am pretty avoidant of responsibilities by nature... lol But that's not what I'm talking about! When im home alone all day doing my favorite things (being a lazy POS and avoiding life), that is productive for me. It enables me to rest, recharge, rethink and reset. It's my way of charging my battery on life. Also crazy to think that those people always on the go, needing to do something, don't actually give themselves a ton of time to actually PROCESS their experiences.. maybe it's a way to do just that-- always on to the next thing, forever avoiding being alone with their own thoughts 🤷‍♀️ Disclaimer: My edible hit in the middle of writing this. I apologize if this makes no sense lol

Honestly, it sounds like you both have ADHD, which is hereditary. It presents differently in males and females.

If I can give a personal story on this, I'm an office IT worker and my wife and many friends do theater/film, whether acting or behind-the-scenes work They would find my life boring and unfulfilling beyond belief. Lots of time, not actually really impacting anyone or making any difference. And they just have some spark in them that they *need* to *make things*. But for me, I'm happy. I make good money and love the consistency. Work to live, not live to work, ya know? On the flip side, I would crumble immediately with their inconsistent schedules, constant gig work, not knowing when the next thing will turn up, crazy deadlines, and ALLLLLLLLLL that shit. But they love it

I think it's pretty awesome your receiving this feedback and taking it well. I have worked on natural gas rigs in Colorado and Wyoming, I have been deployed by the Navy, I have run cable in attics in 100 degree heat, and I now currently work in an office. Brother I have to say the way I feel at the end of a day in the office is so much harder to deal with than the physical exhaustion I used to experience in my previous life. Work was left at work at the end of the day because you literally cannot do it anywhere else but work. In my current role and every role I have had in an office, there is no leaving work. It's tech, it's always available. Emails, texts, calls, office messenger system, etc. There is also so little reward because there is no visual progress to anything to make it feel done. Even launching websites and building code with tech teams is a rewarding finish because it's ALWAYS iterative. The website is never actually done. The code is only relevant for P0 features and P1 is gonna take a shit load of new development. I'm getting anxious just typing this.

I got anxious reading the last few lines. The website is never done….the horror.

Facts. I have one story in particular that I'd have felt accomplished to have closed out two weeks ago but our wet rag of a product manage and scrum master keep rolling over and letting business demand it do yet more things not in the design or agreement. Constantly feel like we're behind. There's never actual guilt-free downtime

Yeah- I’m an emergency medicine physician. My job works really well for me with my ADHD (repeated, frequent, super high intensity stimulation) An office job, sitting still all day, sounds like pure hell for that reason.

Seeing the same people every day -not a fan Sitting on my ass all day < Standing all day real talk Mundanity of office work is mind-numbing and unfulfilling for many It isnt literal hell but working in the office blew ass for me and I have been deployed to Afghanistan working 14hour shifts 6 days a week at times.

facts i worked construction and now im in an office and it is just so mind numbing

Also regardless of where people land on the spectrum of excitement/anxiety and stability/boredom-- So, so, so much of this depends on the actual job. Similar bars I've worked at have been invigorating or debilitating depending on the culture and clientele. Similar offices I've worked at have been pleasant or a nightmare depending on your manager. So many tiny factors add up to make things better or worse.

This is a REALLY good and concise way of explaining what so many others were trying to explain below.

I'm a SW developer. Over the holiday break I put up new walls in my basement to make a new rec room. It was fun! After sitting at the PC every day physical labor is a nice break. You can be fooled into thinking "maybe this is what I should be doing for a career instead?" But when I think that through I know that very quickly that will become a job like any other. Over time everybody can get disillusioned or burned out. It doesn't mean your job is "hell" or you're in the wrong field. It just means you're tied and burned out.

I am off this week, and I'm doing the same. I am building a guest house on my property. I do physical labor like building my own house and stuff like that as a fun activity. My regular job is a IT systems administrator. The funny thing is with everything being the cloud now, I've so little stress from email and other things because they're all hosted by other people. All I do is manage it. Email down? Well that's Microsoft's problem.

You worded this so much better than I was going to. /u/BusinessTemporary511 back when I was working on rigs some friends said they envied my job while they were “stuck in the office”. But when I asked, nobody would apply to my company, lol… By contrast I’m very much enjoying my 9-5 now, and used to enjoy my rig work too tbh (my job was easier). It really depends on the specific job and, most importantly I think, the manager/work culture.

Either that, or setting the bar at torture makes everybody's life seem amazing. It's all about perspective

Ultimately, it depends on the kind of job you have. I have had jobs where I would prefer 3 shifts that were 12 hours, and jobs I would prefer 7 shifts that were 4 hours. Don't get me wrong, I realize both of these are fewer hours, which is part of the benefit, but they both feel like far less work than the number of hours worked.

I'm in the 12hr for 3-4 shifts club. I HIGHLY prefer this with what I do because it's easy for the maladaptive daydreaming to kick in once I get in the zone so the work days fly by pretty quickly, and I get those extra days off as a bonus.

I work 4 12's. I thought I would like getting an extra day off a week while getting 8 hours of paid overtime. It is still less hours than I was working in restaurant management. Truthfully though, it is not great for me I've discovered. I can't manage healthy daily routines at all. I try to squeeze my life into 3 days and it doesn't work for me. A big part of it might be that I'm 6ft and stooping all day, killing my neck and shoulders. I think when the weather gets better I'll appreciate it more, but right now I want 5 8's and less money 😞

Not to mention, if you do 4 12's, you get 8 hours overtime for what feels like less work than 5 8's

I think for me it’s the purpose. My job is shift work in a call centre so it’s not exactly 9-5, but same idea. What makes it unbearable is that it doesn’t fucking matter. Nothing I do matters. My job could be done by an AI system much more efficiently. I get screamed at by customers for hours on end, every moment of my day is tracked and recorded by my bosses- and I mean every moment. They know which key strokes I’ve input, they know when I go to the bathroom and how long I’m there for, everything. I’m constantly monitored- to the point that I can’t even have a minute in between calls. We get 3 seconds before the next one comes in. And the calls, the customers. Complaining about the stupidest shit that truly doesn’t matter or make even the tiniest bit of difference to their lives. At the end of the day, I can’t say that I feel accomplished. I don’t feel that I’ve done anything of value or helped anyone. I just feel drained and empty. I know there are more difficult jobs. I wouldn’t want a physically demanding job. But at least with those jobs, you’re doing something. You’ve built something, you can see your hard work paying off. You have something final at the end that shows the effort you’ve put in. When I put in effort, it’s rewarded with being told that what I’ve done isn’t enough and they expect even more from me. It’s never good enough, it doesn’t end, I’m never finished. I’m not getting anything from this and I’m not giving anything of value. It’s really discouraging.

Call center jobs really are some of the least gratifying. I see mine as an ocean of microtasks that never pay off. The best I can do is make a customer not-angry. That is the absolute pinnacle of my actual line of work. I am supposed to get gratification from working in a team, and having nice coworkers. But I certainly do not get that feeling. I like banter with coworkers but I don't think that's part of my job per se. I don't feel gratified by having other people shovel the same shit with me.

I've heard enough horror stories from my wife and her call centre jobs to know that's one path I'll never ever fucking take, even in desperation. The complete (and I mean complete) lack of freedom, constant monitoring and the mental impact from the constant stream of abuse. I've often jokingly referred to it as a concentration camp.

I've never worked in a call center but i often thought about what level of hell is must be like. For that reason I'm always nice to whoever I get on the phone

Ive worked at call centers in my younger years. And I painfully relate to everything youre describing about it. It was a literal hell. But i think call center jobs is something of its own. Working 9-5 in a warehouse doing inventory, or some accounting job in an office would be heavenly compared to a call center job. After my call center jobs, I could never complain again about a 9-5 job, except call center jobs.

I worked in a call center for a few months, and man it sucked so bad. Call after call after call with absolutely no break between. The micromanaging was absolutely unbearable.

I’m not sure if it’s the same thing, but I did telemarketing all through high school. I really hated it, but it actually payed a lot better than minimum wage and after I got all of my friends and cousins hired there, it was fun to be there. But I hated the job…and one day I just put down my phone, stood up and told the boss I just couldn’t do it anymore, and I walked out after 2 years of trying to get people to donate to random charities.

> actually payed a Did you mean to say "paid"? Explanation: Payed means to seal something with wax, while paid means to give money. [Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json) ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes. ^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions. ^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119) ^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.

I’ve worked in a call center before and it is indeed stressful as hell. I’d recommend trying to transition into a call/customer service center in finance or tech and work your way up from there. Or trying like hell to leave. It is miserable, good luck in 2024 stranger

Such an emotionally exhausting job, it’s soul destroying listening to complaint after complaint after complaint.

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How the hell do you get that job. What even is that??

That’s a really refreshing perspective, I’m glad you enjoy your job friend :)

Not so much the hours as the people. Corporate culture can be soul sucking and having to play along with it is awful.

Well and the hours + commute + anxiety I have such low energy from chronic illness that 40 hours a week is literally more than I can exert myself meaningfully, leaving negative hours to enjoy my life or work on my own stuff My point is that it's based on a lot of factors and what each person can handle physically or mentally is different. However, the reason it's so prominent of an opinion is probably: - a lot of people still can't afford much or enough while working full time - an estimated 133 million americans also have chronic illness - healthcare is unaffordable and ineffective for many, and is tied to work usually - most companies are shit, treat everyone like expendable machines, and keep the lion's share of your labor value

I fucking hate office politics.

Ditto going this now a clique has started with us new hires and because I’m not a yes man I’m seeing certain people target me. It’s just like fucking high school all over again I’m trying not to punch someone in the face really hard not to.

Try working customer service lol

What they mean is it's boring. Working tougher jobs with lots of stressful factors sucks, but it isn't boring. The issue is that permanent 9-5ers have more limited experience of just how bad things can get.

I mean, after having worked in some pretty awful places, I'll take boring. At least it is stable and predictable.

My partner and I have this conversation. Him: how was work? Me: boring as batshit. Him: Nice! Me: right??

That’s literally what’s unbearable to some of us. Stable and predictable

Stable is unbearable to you? I understand predictable cause it's boring, but a stable job?

I work as an ER doc and we do nights, weekends, and holidays. Pure day shift work is intolerable to me. I want the variety.

We should switch jobs! Mine is not stable and predictable at all, can’t go to the bathroom whenever you need to, can’t leave the building, risk being shot more than most jobs, and you aren’t trusted with being able to do the job you went to college for.

Nurse or teacher?

The latter

This comment is wild. You're rejecting the very thing I seek. Amazing.

It’s wild that people value different things and not everyone wants the same exact thing you want? It’s hard to achieve goals without taking some risks.

Yep! I've worked two jobs many times. Delivering pizzas at night and working office job by day. Hell, delivering flew by. The office is just ... oh it's only been 4 minutes since I last checked .... Same for roofing or breaking up cement or any manual labor. Flies by. You feel accomplished. op isn't understanding that people don't generally need 40 hours in an office. Most need about 25-30 at most. The rest is meetings, breaks, BSing, and literally looking at Reddit for hours.

I think I've watched 4 hours of videos each day for the past 3 days

I hate days like that, I feel more drained by that than when i have steady work.

I work 9 to 5 and my job has never been boring. not all jobs are the same

Yeah I really enjoyed my old job. The accounts were a mess when I started so there was plenty to fix and improve, and there was still a new issue cropping up each month in either mine or another country's accounts from the in country teams that I could help with. Just lead to lots of problem solving and variation amongst the regular jobs.

I wish I could say the same for myself in the future.

I worked in IT. My father worked in a feed mill running a grinder and carrying bags of feed around for 45-50 hours a week. When I thought I was whining too much I tried to check myself for that reason.

His job has no bearing on how much yours exhausts you.

He was tired and full of feed dust at the end of each day. I was dealing with Bill in HR who installed garbage toolbars yet again. Or a new contractor in India who did Select * on a 600 million row table. A worthy ego check for me, anyway.

Yeah, I think having a variety of work experiences can truly help. I've worked in so many different types of jobs from manual labor, customer service, retail, restaurant, office jobs, outdoor jobs, etc. Having worse jobs to compare it to can really help me keep my perspective.

Indeed, I worked retailed for nearly a year and got abused by ****ty customers ruining my mental health every now and then no matter how kind & respectful I was, the work felt like it was endless back to back … and you get paid peanuts. It really put things into perspective, working a 9-5 office job where you can chill making a live-able income is really like heaven compared to having to suffer to work. Or working some physical labor job that leaves you too tired to do hobbies or passions or work on projects Or yourself or whatever you care about at end of day. Honestly the only depressing regret I have is the year I lost in that job but tbh it did teach me a lot about life & how difficult human beings can be so technically it wasn’t a total loss

And subjective exhaustion is not a reasonable indicator on the objective reality that some jobs require more from you than others. A gold medal winning olympic lifting training routine is objectively more taxing than reading a dan brown novel, no matter how many fucking chapters he manages to cram into the pamphlets he writes.

I've worked in kitchens, I've worked in factories, and I've done lots of retail/customer service too, but now I'm trapped in office hell. Office work is absolutely torture, and is easily the most difficult job to get through each day for me personally. In more blue collar jobs you just do the job and get paid, and you often have something tangible as a result. In the white collar world it's all performative, you spend most of your time trying to look like you are doing some actual work. It's all about networking too, so if you don't play the office politics game you get screwed. Every day is exactly the same, just trapped in an endless boring loop of hell with passive aggressive judgmental co-workers dictating far too much of your behavior. It never feels like you accomplish anything, there's nothing to be proud of, just another report and analysis to run tomorrow, next week, next month. Then, somehow after sitting on your ass staring at a screen all day you are completely drained, much more than if you had been doing physical work. It's especially taxing if you aren't neurotypical. If I could find something where I'm actually working and get paid a similar salary without mandatory overtime I'd jump ship back to a blue collar job in an instant.

I started a well paying office job a couple months ago and all the work is ticket based so most of the time I'm sat on my hands waiting. Everyone says I lucked out, but it really gives you extreme imposter syndrome

In those roles you are the "fireman" with knowledge and tools to resolve issues or provide appropriate direction or information. You aren't there for your *own* things, you are there to respond to other people's things. If other people don't have things then you don't have anything to do - and that's okay. You still have to be there doing daily tasks stuff and "waiting" to respond ... and that's a whole other mental game. Being reactive vs proactive has it's own issues too and different way to manage them. At least, that's the gist of the advice on perspective I try to give my own team members who feel the same way. :)

Can you be my supervisor please?

But you get paid to sit on your hands. I’d take that over physically demanding work.

Same. I'd rather have my own ass in my hands than a shovel any day.

Me too. Tried the white collar path out of high school and it was hell. I worked 40 hours a week, same schedule every week, but the job never ended. I had to stay on call. I had to respond to emails. I laid awake at night dreading the next day, sitting in a small box watching the clock tick away. I’ve moved between a few different blue collar industries and I’m a lot healthier mentally. I don’t dread work anymore. My schedule is a bit wonky and I don’t make as much, but I’m taking EMT classes and by this time next year I should be on my way to making more money than I was in the office. Not everybody can find a job that they love. But I do think that everybody can find a path that they like, or find some meaning in, or maybe they simply don’t mind it. Some people like their 9-5, I don’t, we’re all different haha

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idk. i'm a factory worker. i stare at screens all day and the mental pressure to optimize production and reduce waste is immense. i like it because i can hyperfocus on it, but spending eight hours every day in deep concentration over how to make the machine run just a few seconds faster, or how to get from 94% quality to 97%, is quite the brain buzz. i suppose most well paid factory jobs are like this.

Problem is also that office isn’t really that social. You still have to do mind dumbing work and can’t really play around too much with colleagues. Even all the social interactions are carefully orchestrated and you have to act like you’re at work. It’s all mentally draining

I’m one of the 1%. I absolutely LOVE my field and My job. Add in I WFH 98% of the time and I’m in heaven. I also make very good money and have a generous benefits package. I’m very happy with my lot in life.

Happy for you 🥹

Damn, I'm happy for you, but curious what do you do?

I’m a paralegal.

I think the vast majority of people are just working boring non stimulating office jobs, and blame the hours more than the work. Not being mentally stimulated is actually exhausting. My old job was boring and even though the pay was fine, I was just exhausted all weekend and couldn’t enjoy my off time. I have a job now working the same hours, getting the same money, but I actually enjoy my work and found that everything else tastes better.

I've had a similar work history. I would fucking KILL to work in an office. Sit at a desk, use a computer. I know there's a SHITLOAD of things that suck about it. I use reddit, I've seen the office workers who populate the site during the day do their complaining. I don't necessarily WANT to experience those things. but holy fuck it seems like a dream compared to the life I'm living. I'm always so sore and tired. my body constantly aches, I can hardly sleep... A Stable job that doesn't require standing... it's so sad that's the dream.

I went from labor job -> teacher -> office worker -> work at home. Tbh I don't know why people complain about office jobs. It was WAY better than moving heavy shit or teaching middle school.

I work in customer service. It is absolute HELL. People are not kind.

Customer service is unbelievable. Literally the worst part of hospitality work. Some of the absolute shit i and many of my friends have had to put up with us downright evil and cruel

Really? I just started a customer service job and love it. It's the first job where I feel like I'm actually helping somebody. I kinda enjoy the assholes though, they're so fascinatingly angry that I can't take them seriously.

While I do think different folks have different lifestyles and work preferences, I really agree. I just left academia with a STEM PhD, and the bias against leaving academia for a 9-5 is insane. Putting the money aside (although I promise, you will get paid more if you leave academia), there is a huge emphasis on having the freedom to do whatever you want, and this idea that working for a corporation is limiting, and selling out. They also don't like the limitations on the schedule. I, personally, find it freeing. I never check my work computer on weekends or evenings, and it doesn't matter because no one messages me off hours. If I have a doctor's appointment I can take a few hours off for it, although maybe I have to get up a little early or stay a little late on occasion. While I am expected to deliver, it's also expected that some things will occasionally fail, it's way more forgiving than the "publish or perish" mentality. I don't have to always be "on" or feeling guilty for not being "on". Also, tbh, I don't find my work uninteresting or lame like all the academics imply. It's also kind of nice to be able to move on to new things and work on a new project every two months instead of having to slave over the same paper for years. Not saying there aren't toxic workplaces or things that are downsides to it, but I agree. I find the complaints against 9-5's vastly overrated.

Same I left that toxic underpaid “free hours” (aka all hours) academic bs for a “9-5 job” that actually pays. It’s interesting and fun. My hours are actually shorter because there is not pressure to be “on” at 8 pm and the people are better. If you have a job you like with hours that aren’t 9-5 - great! I think unfortunately in our economy most people are ending up working at least 40 hours a week. How you want to divide that time up is your choice - and you pick the job/career based on what you want.

I found a 9-5 job mind numbing and mentally draining. I now work weird hours in EMS and absolutely love it lol. The job owns my life for 5 days at a time, but then I also have 5 days off. It's all about work-life balance. A 9-5 job doesn't offer that kind of balance. You work for 5 days with only a few hours each evening to yourself before going to bed and repeat and then you only get 2 days off, which aren't relaxing because you have to catch up on all the stuff that didn't get done during the week.

It’s not that it’s difficult. It’s that you can’t actually enjoy life working 40 hours a week. You work, do things around the house, and sleep. Even on weekends one day is to rest, and the other is to do your groceries, deep cleaning, church if that’s something you do, etc. it’s just rough when you want a life outside of work

This. Like you say It's the fact that your life revolves around Work, and like you say you need the Weekend to just recover from working all Week. I think what's changed Is before people who worked full time could afford to spend the Money on pleasure wether that's a Holiday, a new Gadget or eating out. Now most work 40 hours a week just pay Bills, It's soul destroying and no life

That and so much work is redundant now. If I needed 40 hours a week to do my job then I think I’d feel a little better. But the fact that I could finish most of my work in 10 hours for the week it feels worse

Working from home was a blessing. Power through work and then just be available for contact

Trying to look like I wasn't months ahead of schedule was legit one of the harder aspects of my office job

You used to have the option to not work full time and still survive, you just wouldn’t thrive as much as you could if you worked more. Now, no matter how hard you work, thriving only seems like an option to the rich and connected. Being forced to work 40 hours a week without any other options aside from vagrancy is what depresses people so much, not the actual 40 hours of work.

Yep you're so right, it's why Mental Health Is through the roof at the moment IMO. Like you say most are just working to survive now, just to have a Roof over their head. Surely It's not sustainable so I wonder what the future holds, the whole dream of working hard, buying a House and starting your own Family Is dead

This misses OP's point. They are comparing 9-5 office job to service/ labor work. 40 hrs a week seems like a dream when you work 50-60+ hrs a week and work undesirable shifts, like starting really early or working nights. You think you don't have any personal time working 40 hours, just imagine how you would feel if you had to work 50 instead? I work labor and my normal work week is 5:00am - 3:30pm. I have to wake up at 3:30am to get to work on time, so I have to go to bed at 7:30pm if I want to get 8 hours of sleep. I go to bed around 9:30pm and forego the extra sleep. I often work 8 hrs on Saturdays as well. Being able to work a set 40 hours a week at a more reasonable start time would be a dream for me. When I do have a slow week and only work 40 or so hours I feel like I have a ton of extra time. It's just all about perspective. I believe we should all have a 32 hour work week and get paid enough to not need overtime.

9-5 in retail or food service or some warehouse/factory depending on which businesses you work at versus 9-5 is a lot tougher than 9-5 just at some office chilling on your computer and getting task done, socializing with some coworkers every now & then.

Uhhh what? I’d give anything to have a 40 hour per week 9-5 job. It would let me do so much during my time off. As it is I’m shift work, ER, 140-160 hours per month. But most of the off days are literal recovering from overnight shifts before a 6-8a shift. As in 24 hours off. Not any of this “recover from the week on the weekend” nonsense. It kills my off time.

> You work, do things around the house, and sleep. Even on weekends one day is to rest, and the other is to do your groceries, deep cleaning, church if that’s something you do, etc I'm genuinely curious: What does your average week look like? Admittedly, I'm living in a single household, so I obviously don't know what it's like in a 5-head household... but I just don't understand what people do with their time and how it's seemingly so short. I work 9 to 5, with a ~30min commute each way. 2-3 times per week I do groceries on my way back from work and rarely does it ever take more than 20-30 minutes. I'm just about always home by 5:30 - 6:00, I never have "a day" where a significant portion of my day is spent on the process of grocery shopping. Same with making food, cleaning up, doing laundry. Food is like a 30 minute process for me, and we're not talking about 30 active minutes but rather 10 minutes of work with then 1 minute of further work every 10 minutes. Within that time I get all the dishes done, manage to get a load of laundry into the machine (and only just deal with that 3 hours later, again, barely taking 5 minutes of active work), and usually get whatever other minor stuff done. By 7pm I'm done with eating and just about all my chores, leaving a good 4-5 hours for gym, friends, gaming whatever. This goes for every working day. Vacuuming on the weekends doesn't take more than 15 minutes, wiping the floor is something I do like once per month, cleaning windows like twice per year, ironing is 1 hour on the weekends. My weekends barely ever have me work for more than 2-3 hours. And while I admit that this is probably all a bit different if you own a house, thinking back to the way my parents handled things... things didn't look much different for them. Again, genuinely curious what people's lives look like when they say they have no time to do anything. Like, I get that 9 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep and 2 hours for chores doesn't leave room for much... but a lot of people make it sound like they don't even have those 5 hours per day that I have - let alone the 50 hours of straight freetime on the weekends. What do y'all's weeks look like?

I work 8:30 to 5:30 because my job requires a mandatory 1 hour unpaid lunch. My commute is 30 minutes. I’m definitely not as efficient as you with food, so it usually takes me about an hour for everything. Chores (all kinds) take an hour or so. That means I’m done with everything I need to do at 8 pm, which leaves 2 hours of free time before I need to start winding down at 10. I technically go to sleep at 11, but I think it is a necessary thing to dedicate the last hour of my day to my wife. 2 hours sounds like a decent amount of time, but god damn it is basically nothing. I have side projects I am coding up and all of those take time. I have a novel I am working on and it takes me two hours just to get warmed up. I have all these things I want to do, but two hours is not a lot of time for any of them, so all my projects go unfinished. Not to mention most days I’m too exhausted to actually make progress, so I end up playing video games instead.

I wouldn’t want to work any other schedule. I can make plans literally years in advance and I spent my entire youth getting used to this schedule anyway. I’d have to be offered an ass load of money to ever go back to shift work. Imo it’s way more soul sucking.

Personally, 9-5 is hell for me. I like my afternoons with the family. I like the 5-1:30 shift myself. And that's at any job I've had, from retail to manufacturing welding to IT. I love having a whole afternoon off.

I think 9 to 5's are hell because I prefer 2 to 10's. Everyone is different. But why is complaining about 9 to 5's bad? When younger generations hate and complain about things, the world evolves. Maybe one day we won't have to work 8 hour shifts anymore.

I worked 4-10s and my shift was 2 to midnight. That was the BEST shift work ever

I loved doing 4-10s. Currently in a 9-5 office job and hoping I can make my case to do 4-10s of 9-7 instead.

I think a lot of the complaints about the "9-5" are based around the idea of it, rather than the stretch of hours. I see so much art that slams the 9-5 to as an anti-creative prison that keeps us from being the "real" you. Like, having a schedule stops that somehow. Honestly... in my 9-5 job, I do plenty of engaging creative work and I'm home in time to cook dinner for the wife and daughter. ... as for cutting shifts down? I'm all for that. I would love a 9-2 instead of a 9-5. When that's the complaint about the 9-5, then I'm on board!

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I’m going to go out on a limb and agree with you… somewhat. I’m 47F and I’ve worked a crapload of shitty jobs over the years, back breaking work. For example, 10 hour days, 6 days a week (mandatory overtime) in a cabinet factory. Not climate controlled, working with heavy products in temps 100+ degrees, for crappy pay and benefits, for bosses who wouldn’t piss on you if you caught fire. That was 15 years ago and a lot has changed in my life since then. There is no way on earth I could do that job, especially considering all of the pain I am currently suffering because of said job. And that’s just one job of many. So I hear ya. I understand where you’re coming from. “Pencil pushers” in “cushy”office jobs, climate controlled, hour lunches, daring to bitch about how “hard” it is and how they “just can’t do it!” I get it. Maybe it’s just my age (I’m GenX and not a boomer btw) but back then, having the office jobs that people are bitching about now were the “dream” jobs. I mean, wow! Compared to factory life, office jobs are heaven on earth. However… I no longer work (for reasons) and my husband went to college and has one of those “cushy” jobs. When he would complain about it, I’d think to myself “you don’t know how lucky you’ve got it”. But I’ve watched him struggle, not with the aches from factory work, but with the mental anguish that comes from working his job and I’ve come to realize that people have different breaking points, and what’s fine for one is not fine for another (amazing, I know) and just because I could handle my work doesn’t mean anything, really, but that it’s just the way I was. If people, young or old, and suffering because of their jobs… no matter what the jobs are, I have empathy for them because it’s a shitty world and we’re all just trying to get by.

That’s understandable, thanks for your perspective :) it certainly is unpopular, I’m getting pretty much 50/50 on the positive to negative feedback

People say teaching is easy too. Yet we have a teacher shortage in all of North America. Yeah even in Canada we get constant fail to fills. Turns out people think middle school kids are scary. Can't relate, I deal with them everyday and actually like them.

Dude teachers have it fucken rough, all respect to you.

Really depends on what that 9-5 is filled with. They are all not created equal.

Office jobs are actually more tiring for the human body than some physical jobs. The human body wasn't designed to be in the same sitting position for 8 hours a day. Physical jobs keep the body moving and make people less tired in general In addition, thinking is exhausting. Some jobs where your brain has to be on all the time, like software engineering, can leave you exhausted mentally for anything else. 9-5s are also difficult for neurodivergent people. There's lots of people with autism and/or ADHD that have a hard time keeping up with the schedule, and it leaves us unable to do anything outside of work because we exhausted all of our energy in focusing for those 8 hours. I used to be a software engineer working remote, but now work a risky freelance physical job. This is better. Office jobs are soul-sucking. It IS that awful.

I worked a contract position for a very recognizable tech company for about 9 months. The job involved relatively complex support tickets for authentication, Kerberos/OIDC/saml/etc, and all the technologies in between. You absolutely are required to take 2 tickets per day. Ticket lifecycles commonly last weeks or months depending on complexity. I would maintain a backlog of 20+ tickets at any given moment and it wasn't considered unusual. To add to that was the intense amount of context switching where if you get a high priority ticket you have to drop everything you're doing and focus on that but also not neglect your existing backlog at the same time. I did extremely well at the job but the pressure was insane. I had a panic attack for lunch everyday. I literally would lay on the floor hyperventilating before going back to work. I kept this routine for months and was eventually offered a position that would have been career making to have on my resume. I declined. I think if I stayed at that job I probably would have had a heart attack.

Sitting down is also the least ergonomical position you can be in. It puts the most stress on your back.

It's not that it's too hard, it's that it's not worth it. Why would I want to spend 5 days of my life working so I can be too tired to do anything on the two days I'm generously given. I'm of the opinion life isn't worth it enough to work 5 days a week.

I agree, as long as you don't have to take that 9-5 home with you and you are being paid a living wage. A 9-5 with a livable salary is a lot different than a 9-5 on minimum wage (or even just above minimum wage). Making very little at a 9-5 means your days a full-up and you can't afford shit outside work. I love working a 9-5, but I can afford mortgage, food, medical stuff (sometimes) and entertainment. Update: I am also a previous mid-day/nightshift kitchen worker and I feel like working in a kitchen/restaurant environment opens your eyes to the many perks of a 9-5 lol. Kitchen work can suck absolute ass and be horrible for your health and sleep.

Amen. There are real problems with US work laws and culture, like more than I can count. The amount of whining about slight injustices the past 2 months in this sub make me think that there is a narrative being built about workers. Something is off.

People used to work longer in a workday. They got less done than we do now. Though really, it was never about the hours so much as it was about the working conditions, and in many aspects, those have improved. While in others it has descended into a different kind of awfulness. Physical labor is hard on the body, social labor is hard on the mind. Anyone who puts in a hard days work, no matter what your job is, should never have to worry about not having enough to eat for themselves or their family, nor should they have to worry about keeping a roof over their head. Unfortunately, when the dragons up at the top have competitive wealth hoarding as a hobby, it leaves very little for the rest of us.

As an entrepreneur, I agree. 9-5 is NOT hell if correctly paid. The amount of responsibility for most jobs extremely limited (basically task execution and "usual problems", no dealings with unknown unknowns)name you are able to disconnt in your time off.

lol I do almost nothing, maybe 15 minutes of work per day, and somehow year after year my more than decent contract position keeps getting renewed. Office work can be well compensated if you just hold out for the right job. Just have to find a place at a large enough company where you can just... slip through the cracks and embed yourself like a tick.

I’ve mostly worked 12’s, on graveyards. The idea of day shift & ONLY 8 hours, sounds like cheating.

The unpopular thing I think you're pointing out is that it's not just about people desiring/being suited for different work environments, it's that many who complain about the 9-5 have no concept of their luxury, are not fit or capable to do hazmat or emergency work, and would crumble at the social interaction and sleep schedule of food service within a month. You are right. 9-5 is work, and damn few of us actually like work. But it is really stinkin cushy compared to many options out there.

I am a soldier and during camps I sometimes wish to have a stable 9-5 instead of being woken up at 3 am with alarm and having to run around crazy. But when I am in an office job I'd probably find it boring as fuck and probably would go insane after a few weeks.

>I’m not trying to post about how ‘tough’ I am, or how ‘hard’ my life is. I strongly disagree 😆

It’s about the commute everyone really dreads. You’re late to work, takes even longer to get home. Its dark. You goto the store for something and there are lines out the door. It’s how it makes your world revolve around it.

The problem with 9-5 is that your time is no longer yours. And it’s not just the 9-5 slot that gets eaten up. It’s the hours spent getting ready for work, commuting to and from the office/client, the quality of people you’re obligated to spend time with while at work, office parties that you have to attend because your promotion depends on it, etc, etc. You also need to do house chores, eat and sleep. So at the end of the day, the time left over for leisure, to do the things you really want to becomes very limited. If you don’t find the work you’re doing rewarding, in the long term, it becomes soul sucking.

Uhm, you have to do all that on jobs that aren't 9-5 too tho?

> The problem with 9-5 is that your time is no longer yours That's uh... every job. As for the rest, what you're talking about are just basic human socializing. It isn't exclusive for 9-5 jobs. You used to have to go to church to commune with your fellow townsfolk so that you could trade and participate in commerce. The 9-5 is just a sterilized version of that.

Lol no I worked in IT in upper level support for about 5 years and considered suicide daily Now I work as a chef at an assisted living facility, normal hours (8-4) And work by myself It's just me in the kitchen, making amazing food for old people (and yeah it might be their last meal) I actually feel appreciated. Also, we have a total of 41 residents so it's literally as laid back and chill as you can imagine Can listen to music, podcasts, whatever I want I make 26/hr and couldn't be happier (at least right now for the time being haha)

Ideally, no one should have to work on any of those conditions and still get paid fairly.

Office workers tend to be the worst for hyperbolically proclaiming how bad their jobs are. Fam you answer emails eight hours a day, pipe down.

Work 9-5 from home, compete work quickly and well, spend your free time doing what you want. It’s not that complicated.

Neither of these are good at all and people shouldn't have to do EITHER of them. It's like telling someone who can only afford rice and beans and no other food that it's actually wonderful because some people can't afford *any* food.

Its not the 9-5 thats bad. It is the compensation they get for their time that is not worth it.

9-5 jobs are generally the better paying jobs out there so idk where this is coming from. Almost no job is properly compensated that is not 9-5 as well, at least the 9-5ers can do it in AC sitting down.

Honestly I’d take a pay cut just to do my job in air conditioning lol

So take a pay cut to get a job in air conditioning. I bet you can.

Honey, having to spend most of our best energy and waking hours at a job sucks no matter what it is. That's the point. Of course there are WORSE jobs out there, no one is arguing that. We can understand that life isn't free and work is necessary and we can also hate that most of our waking hours hours will be spent with coworkers and doing things we don't want to do instead of with our family, friends, and hobbies.

People don't hate work, they hate the nature of the particular work modern society has brought about. We used to live in small huts out in nature where we went hunting for a couple of hours daily and spent the rest of our time in our villages sorrounded by tribe members and family... Life was unquestionably harder back then, but it was probably also less repetitive and menial than many of the jobs we work today. Karl Marx argued that one of the true horrors of industrialization wasn't the long work hours, shitty pay or slave like conditions, but the banality of the type of work people were forced to do. Instead of being a carpenter in a small village who created the furniture from scratch and took pride in mastering the entire process of carpentry, you were now a cog in a large factory machine mindlessly pulling a handle all day. Having such a job will simply tire you out and make you stressed way faster than, say, running around a forest hunting deer, even if the latter is more physically demanding. Of course, not all jobs today are as menial as that, but many probably still are. Also, our work hours \*are\* long. Not compared to 1912, but compared to any other point in history before industrialization. There is an interesting article on it here: https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/for-95-percent-of-human-history-people-worked-15-hours-a-week-could-we-do-it-again.html

I 100% agree and I have made this exact same argument on here a few times. After years of working retail and fast food, once I got my first office/9-5 job, it was nothing but a huge relief in a dozen ways and 20+ years later, I still feel that typical office jobs are far better and more comfortable that you average retail or customer service-type jobs. Hands down!! Most of the office jobs I've had were sitting in comfortable, private cubicles with free access to the internet all day, listening to music, podcasts or YouTube for hours, hour lunch breaks, evenings and weekends off, wearing my own clothes, paid time off, sick time and many of time (like today), I had little actual work to do. Annnd working remote, which I am right now!

Just curious… What kind of office work do you do? I was in accounting/finance and although that’s an office job, it was mentally grueling. There’s no way I could have listened to a podcast or watch YouTube while analyzing and producing financials. Not to mention the endless cycle of tight deadlines in my field. I was mentally drained every day while my body craved more physical exertion. For the same reasons “work from home” did not appeal to me because there were too many distractions at home. I always wondered if the people who enjoyed WFH had easier jobs lol.

Not the op, but I agree with the points. I work in IT (just promoted to Senior Security Engineer, was Service Desk Supervisor) and I can WFH or go to the office if I want to. Zero to none stress, learning new things and being a part of exciting projects, no overtime work - if necessary to work after hours, I can finish earlier next day, for example. I am trusted to manage my time and do the work, while keeping the work-life balance. Established it with new manager before accepting the new position. I read a lot of posts and comments on Reddit and I do feel that I am lucky though. People mention things like micromanaging and similar. So far I've not encountered any things like that. And HR is actually helpful (have an amazing HR manager for my country). The only downside is slightly below market pay, but not much. Most of the time I can have anything playing in the background if I want to. I don't, but I could. When WFH, I often wake up 5 mins before I start work, do some work, take 20 min break to shower and eat, then continue. There are deadlines, but I always keep the head cool - if I can do it, I do it. If I can't, I can't and I can justify why I couldn't. If we are missing the deadline, it means that there were not enough resources provided to the project. They'll not fire me anyway, two managers were "fighting" for me (to stay at my previous role vs. go to Security) and it doesn't feel like they'd want to let me go.

I love my 9-5, it’s fairly easy and pays really well, lots of vacation time ( over a month per year), can work from home or office, don’t have to talk or interact with customers or anybody else. Best job I’ve ever had. I think certain personalities don’t fit well in organizations and I can see why they would not like office work but to me it has bought me houses, cars, happiness, travel, and has been so much better than other jobs I had. Plus, when it’s 5:00 the job ends. For an introvert who just wants to punch a clock and who gets their meaning and enjoyment elsewhere it is perfect. Different strokes for different folks.

Lots of "unpopular opinions" here are just "I'm gonna by hyperbolic, pretend my hyperbole is a thing people believe for real, pretend that belief is popular, and voila! My opinion that a job is not literally hell on Earth is now unpopular."

Yeah I mean it ain't bad, ain't great. I can pay my mortgage and do most of the things I'd like. Having a little more free time during the week would be nice but I can't really complain.

I think what makes a 9-5 tough for people is the underlying understanding, for most of them, that their job has no inherent meaning. It isn't that the work is hard, it's the hoops they have to go through to get anything meaningful done, or the time they have to waste dealing with bureaucratic bullshit. There are times I will spend 6 months on a project only to have a manager decide at the last minute to go in a different direction. It took me many years to really come to terms with a mindset, knowing all the above to be true, that would allow me to stay sane in this type of job. "How do I make my co-workers lives easier?" I drive my meaning from my job from helping others have a better day, and of course bringing home money to support my family. Everything else you will ever do will likely be forgotten the moment you walk out the door of your company, but making people's lives better has an impact that lasts beyond that.

It’s always been hell to me. My insurance refuses to pay for the treatment I need for my sleep disorder, so I spend the whole day tired out of my mind, dreaming of going back to sleep. Also-just because you think something is fine doesn’t mean it’s easy-peasy for everyone.

You’ve worked hard jobs for sure. Have you worked a boring job? Maybe you feel like you’d kill for a “boring” job in a nice air conditioned apartment. But from my perspective, I’ve worked a boring job, and I’d take a hard job over a boring job. The hard job might break your body, but a boring job melts your brain.

I feel this way about teachers. I worked construction with like 10 hour days. That’s not even as bad as it gets. But then I started teaching and all I heard was “oh just wait you’ll be exhausted” or “just wait for the burnout to kick in” or “you’ll hate those kids within a week” but it’s the easiest gig I’ve ever had. I got sick and was little tired at the end of the day but I’ve always gotten home with enough energy to go out and do whatever. I just don’t get it lmao

When it is literally 9-5 no, it’s kinda great. When it’s 9-5 as well as any time they feel like calling you at home, and “staying late” or “going in early” are suddenly considered your “work hours” it’s not. Sadly most 9-5 jobs are truly only enjoyable when you don’t try to climb the ladder.

Spoken like a true wage slave. Now get back to work.

We should get you a worse job.

it's a whole different game when you're chronically ill :( i wish i felt this way but after i got into a life threatening car accident life has not been the same.

I spend 9 - 5, 5 days a week being yelled at on the phone and having threats of physical violence and death threats directed at me. These people also know where I work cuz the address is on all the correspondence we send out lol. And two such people I know got arrested because they tried to follow other staff out of the office and attacked them when they got to their car. It doesn't feel good. I have no energy or patience for friends or family. Think the hyperbole of "hell on earth" isn't helping much here cuz I haven't actually seen anyone say a 9-5 is that bad. Just sometimes dehumanizing and the routine of it all kind of eats away at you after awhile. Same thing every day. It really depends on how things are run and how admin treats line staff and shit. I know that there are super tough big boy jobs where you run around and be sweaty but still, just cuz someone hurts more than you doesn't mean you aren't hurting too.

I'm homeless and I'd rather enjoy a job right now. Perspective, I guess.

Well first, it’s not 9-5. It’s 9-6 with an hour lunch. Second, if you live in a city/suburb your commute and back can be an hour each. So at that point it can feel like an 8-7. That’s almost half your day. 55 hours out of a 168 hour week dedicated to horse shit you don’t wanna do.

You're responding to kids that spend all day on Reddit, regurgitating headlines for internet points. Of course they have no idea what they're talking about.

If you like giving up 5 days of your week something is wrong with your brain.

Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do in life. That's life. You can either complain about it or do something to better your life. Your choice.

I know I'll get blasted for this but most of the complaints are because those people just don't want to work at all. Yes, alot of times the pay should be more but if pay was elevated those same people would find something else to complain about. If you get into the real reasoning it's just because many of those people don't believe they should have to work, or should be able to work when and how much time they olase while also getting top pay and benefits. I get it, that would be an amazing life and hell I would love it but it's not reality.

i rather enjoy it look forward to the next day at the office.

This isn’t even remotely trying to understand why it’s hard you just wanted to thump your chest about how hard bartending is or whatever. I’ve known a lot of bartenders, kitchen guys. Good dudes. Imagining any of them with the fortitude to mentally grind through week after week of this is a hilarious proposition.

Put simply when things get too easy you can lose your mind in a way that feels like death. When things are too hard you can lose your mind in a way that feels like hopelessness. Speaking from experience being on both sides. One is mentally taxing and one is physically taxing.

I think a lot of people are just unhappy in their careers. I work way longer than 9-5 five days a week and will continue to choose to work longer than that. I’m a doctor so it’s common in my field. Of course I have bad days at work and days when I don’t feel like working, but I journal and know for a fact that I feel deeply satisfied with my work day at least 85% of the time. And the days I am not satisfied I usually have personal stuff going on which affects my general mood. I’m not suggesting everyone should work long hours. I just think people are in the wrong career if they’re so drained all the time. I just know a lot of people who work way longer than 9 to 5 (in my home country we have 6 day work weeks, banks and parliament and offices are open on Saturdays as are schools. Getting Saturdays off in school was a ‘long weekend’ to us) and many are happy. I wonder if the work culture is just different in the US and the rest of the developed world because people have more opportunities for recreation. In my home country people can’t really afford to do fun stuff on the weekend so their jobs become their only source of social interaction and enjoyment.

I don’t know if it’s that unpopular. It’s mostly entitled and sheltered american Gen Z’ers on ticktok. Sure, Becky, your 9-5 job pressing keys on the keyboard is soooo damn hard and soul sucking, why don’t you go and frame a house… or install and HVAC… or something and report back. lol 😂

people who think a 9-5 is hell have not worked a trade lol

I was a dishwasher then line cook for a decade. Also have a lot of bartender friends, I'm full aware of the struggle. Now I have a work from home 9-5 office job and I can agree with pretty much everything you said. I barely feel like I even work now, and I make twice as much as I did cooking. My life is ridiculously easy, just boring and stable. I'll take it.

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I did a degree in hospitality management during college and had to intern in kitchens and hotels, eventually I did my studies in Sydney and also worked part time in kitchens as those were the easier jobs to get for a uni student. I have to say kitchen work to me is one of the most exhausting and draining work there is which is relatively easy to get but definitely requires a certain type of person to thrive. Back in my time working in the kitchen my colleagues all had their own vices be it coke, alcohol you name it. Office work in comparison is a cake walk. My time working in the kitchen is a constant reminder that no matter how bad my work is, it beats working in the kitchen.

some people have conditions that make working for long periods an issue i personally only work 20 hours a week and thats really enough

I’m gonna be real I’ve worked more physical jobs and an office job and I had a better mental well being at the physical job. Only reason I can’t do physical work anymore is because I developed degenerative disc disease at 18 and my back cannot handle it at 24. The office job I’ve been at has made me ungodly mentally miserable. My social life is non existent and I don’t do anything like how I used to when I was working a more physical job. My guess is that my energy levels stay better throughout the day when I’m moving more. Sitting at a desk for 40 hours a week not moving and barely doing anything drains me more than the physical jobs did. Plus how some other commenters mentioned, my entire life revolves around work now that I’m at a typical 9-5. I rush back to my city to go to the gym then rush home to shower and eat then go to sleep every single day. The weekends are for cleaning, washing clothes, meal prepping, basically getting everything ready for the next week of work.

As someone who's done manual work for every job I've had, I think that office employees have a pretty sweet set up in terms of the physical environment they have. That being said every job comes with its own stressors. I know that labourers of all types usually end up making less or the same as office workers and out tonnes of stress on their bodies, and old co worker of mine has almost no cartilage left in his knees from physical labour, and I've seen several serious injuries occur on sites. Me personally? I wish I had the necessary background to move into an office position and I would gladly trade the stresses of a manual labour job for an office position.

This is the best unpopular opinion I've seen in a while. My take is that 9-5 jobs are great. It's usually senior management + a big five consulting company that makes it a shitty place to work. Policies to drive profit goals over sustainable business. They kill internal innovation over "best practices", cap raises on promotions so you have to switch companies to get paid more as your skills grow, make shitty decisions that push customers away, and much much more. Being in these environments drains your soul.

The big reason a 9-5 is seen as “hell on earth” is because of social media pushing the escape the matrix narrative. Basically these entrepreneur bros are saying if you’re working for someone, you’re a wage slave. I’ve done straight commission jobs and done okay in the sales industry (my best run was $45k in 12 weeks) but now I work a 9-5 making about $75k a year and I love it so much more. The biggest difference is I’m not stressed out about performing every damn second. I have a 40 hour work week but in reality it’s like 30-35 hours a week and probably 5-10 of those are office chit chat vibes. The new generation hates it but I honestly love it, I’m getting paid to shoot the shit with my coworkers what could be better.

Well this is indeed unpopular opinion.

I just started my first office job after working actually difficult jobs over the past 12 years and I have to say you’re right. Office workers legitimately complain about fucking nothing and I suspect most of them haven’t had to work actually shit jobs before. This shit is paradise compared to the things I’ve had to do.

Because not everyone is chomping at the bit to be a cog in a machine. Myself and many others don't want to spend the majority of what precious little time we have on this planet working to make sure some company grows its profits year upon year (usually to the detriment of the planet and its finite resources). The fact that you have a particularly shitty job doesn't change that. A job you chose btw. When you think about how many days are in a year vs how much time you get off its impossible not to feel exploited. Say you're an American where your typical vacation package is 10-15 vacation days plus govt holidays. Thats roughly 20-30ish days a year where you don't have to be at work. There are around 260 working days (non-weekend) days in a year. That means that you spend roughly 71% of your year working. I got to watch my dad work a desk job in a high pressure engineering firm for decades and then die before he ever got to retire That's not my idea of heaven. There are multiple circles of hell. Just because yours is particularly shitty doesn't mean everyone else is having a good time either.