The 9 to 5 falacy

Internet Hero

alot of people work 9 to 5 jobs 5 days a week and dont enjoy there work. But the thing is a 9 to 5 job takes up your whole life, not just the hours if work. Outside of sleep work commute and preparing for it you have about 50 hours a week of life at the most.


you have to be up at 7 or something to get in on time so you cant stay up late or go out. you get home tired and have not much energy for something else, or maybe you have one thing you can fit in like gym or a film but the its late again and you have to be ready for next day.

a 9 to 5 takes your life. Faust got a better deal. you work to stay alive so you can work. working a 9 to 5 to life job in something you dont like is a self imposed prison sentence. or maybe not cos you have to do it no choice, life just isnt as good as people told you as a child, get over it?

gbee

Came to that conclusion when I was twelve in 1966

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

don't have kids, then you wont need that much money just to have a decent quality of life

Shenshen

Er... what?

I have to admit that I'm not sure I got the gist of the OP, but what's wrong with working for a living? And depending on what kind of a living you want, put the hours and the effort in?

humanji

Is that not the same for any job?

kfallon

Internet Hero wrote: »

alot of people work 9 to 5 jobs 5 days a week and dont enjoy there work. But the thing is a 9 to 5 job takes up your whole life, not just the hours if work. Outside of sleep work commute and preparing for it you have about 50 hours a week of life at the most.


you have to be up at 7 or something to get in on time so you cant stay up late or go out. you get home tired and have not much energy for something else, or maybe you have one thing you can fit in like gym or a film but the its late again and you have to be ready for next day.

a 9 to 5 takes your life. Faust got a better deal. you work to stay alive so you can work. working a 9 to 5 to life job in something you dont like is a self imposed prison sentence. or maybe not cos you have to do it no choice, life just isnt as good as people told you as a child, get over it?

I don't even having the ould pisshorn at that time, 7am indeed :P

balkieb2002

Thinly veiled I have a job thread

Big Nasty

Shift work FTW OP.

mickrock

Only fools and horses work.

Irishcrx

All pretty true , but in general 9-5 pays better than shift work and I get my weekend's free to play and watch football on a Saturday and do as little as possible on a Sunday rather than not having any weekends to myself. I'm happy with this arrangement.

SteelyDanJalapeno

Move closer to work?

I roll out of bed at 08:40 and i'm in work for 09:00

miamee

Move closer to where you work - am currently getting up at 7am to be in for 9 but will be moving soon to combat all the time-wasting of waiting for and being on buses. Not to mention having to bail on nights out like a pumpkin to make the last bus :P

Cee-Jay-Cee

Yeah because shift work is so much better where you can't get into a sleep pattern, your constantly tired and have next to no social life. OP you should try it sone time maybe then you might appreciate what you have and quit crying like a little girl about it.

Tar.Aldarion

If you like your job you are all good. Work should be your fun as Stephen Fry says

SiegHeilNosey

i work 9-5:30, alot longer most days, but i get up at half 8, and get home 20 mins after i finish. 1.5 hour commutes are silly, dont know how anyone could do one.

GavRedKing

9 - 5?

Pfffft, 8 - 4 is where its at. :cool:

Where To

9-5 x 5days = 40 hours per week. That leaves 128 non working hours per week. That would be my idea of hell.

SEPT 23 1989

As a self employed person

9-5 means nothing:D

keith16

Weekends, bank holidays, annual leave etc only means you work about 220 days of the year. That's 60%. The other 40% is yours.

Hardly prison.

jester77

No one is forced to work in a job they don't like. If you don't like your job then get off your ass and get a job you like, and if you don't have the skills for the job you want then get off your ass and get the skills/qualification needed.

Plus no one needs to be commuting stupid distances either, live close to work. I've been working over 15 years and I've never had a commute more than 30 mins.

Life's too short as it is. Stop making excuses and just do it.

Brain Stroking

Internet Hero wrote: »

alot of people work 9 to 5 jobs 5 days a week and dont enjoy there work. But the thing is a 9 to 5 job takes up your whole life, not just the hours if work. Outside of sleep work commute and preparing for it you have about 50 hours a week of life at the most.


you have to be up at 7 or something to get in on time so you cant stay up late or go out. you get home tired and have not much energy for something else, or maybe you have one thing you can fit in like gym or a film but the its late again and you have to be ready for next day.

a 9 to 5 takes your life. Faust got a better deal. you work to stay alive so you can work. working a 9 to 5 to life job in something you dont like is a self imposed prison sentence. or maybe not cos you have to do it no choice, life just isnt as good as people told you as a child, get over it?

One thing i am certain of is that the OP does not have a 9-5 job

Internet Hero

balkieb2002 wrote: »

Thinly veiled I have a job thread

i dont have a job im studying and have plenty of time off and live near college so I have time to enjoy relaxed walks nice meals late at night cinema trips and having no strict routine. I am just Lookin at the future and thinkin how a 9 to 5 is the end of all of that and my life would be a long drawn out misery if that happened. even the 10% of time you had free would be lived with the weight if the 90% misery hangin over it. don't want that

SpiceWeasel

Pfft. I like my job. It satisfies my male need to kill and win. Yes I am a matador.

Shenshen

Internet Hero wrote: »

i dont have a job im studying and have plenty of time off and live near college so I have time to enjoy relaxed walks nice meals late at night cinema trips and having no strict routine. I am just Lookin at the future and thinkin how a 9 to 5 is the end of all of that and my life would be a long drawn out misery if that happened. even the 10% of time you had free would be lived with the weight if the 90% misery hangin over it. don't want that

In short, you dislike the thought of having to work for a living.

Not all that uncommon, while I like my job, I probably wouldn't be doing it if I didn't need the money. So my advise to you would be to go and win the lottery.

Btw, one thing I did find when I left university and started working : Your free time actually DOES BECOME your free time. While in education, your free time is always overshadowed with all the things you really SHOULD be doing (revising, writing papers, studying for exams, etc.), whereas once you leave work in the evning, that's it. No guilty feelings about all the things your really should be doing.
So I find I've got a lot more free time now, and it is more free than it ever was in school and university.

tmc86

Having worked weekends and bank holidays for years and through college I much prefer 9-5 and having the weekend off.

I live 20mins walk from work so I leave @ 8.40 and I'm back home by 5.30.

I usually go to bed around mindnight so that leaves me with 6.5 hours in the evening - that's practically your 9-5 day's work so I look at it like I have 2 mini days for every weekday!

6.5 hours a night is plenty of time to live your life!

Bruthal

jester77 wrote: »

No one is forced to work in a job they don't like. If you don't like your job then get off your ass and get a job you like, and if you don't have the skills for the job you want then get off your ass and get the skills/qualification needed.

Plus no one needs to be commuting stupid distances either, live close to work. I've been working over 15 years and I've never had a commute more than 30 mins.

Life's too short as it is. Stop making excuses and just do it.

If everyone only worked in jobs they like, there would be a lot of necessary tasks never done.

SteelyDanJalapeno

keith16 wrote: »

Weekends, bank holidays, annual leave etc only means you work about 220 days of the year. That's 60%. The other 40% is yours.

Hardly prison.

The evenings and sleep time is mine too though?
From a 9-5
I estimate I work 1860 hours a year after holidays and bank holidays.

thats about 21% of my year spent working, so for 1/5th of my year spent in a job I like, I get to enjoy 4/5ths of my life thanks the fact that I have a job and dont have to worry about much.

pickarooney

Who works 9 to 5? That would mean a 35-hour week or getting paid to have lunch.

jester77

robbie7730 wrote: »

If everyone only worked in jobs they like, there would be a lot of necessary tasks never done.

That's not what I was saying. Lots of people are ok with plodding along in these jobs and getting their pay packet, but you will often hear people moaning about how they don't like their jobs or how they have to commute a silly distance, yet they do nothing about it.

SteelyDanJalapeno

pickarooney wrote: »

Who works 9 to 5? That would mean a 35-hour week or getting paid to have lunch.

;);)

You dont get paid for lunch?

ArtyC

I work Friday, sat, sun.... Til 5am Every week. Had one weekend off this year- no wages that week..... 9-5 would be ****ing great!

HeyThereDeliah

Internet Hero wrote: »

alot of people work 9 to 5 jobs 5 days a week and dont enjoy there work. But the thing is a 9 to 5 job takes up your whole life, not just the hours if work. Outside of sleep work commute and preparing for it you have about 50 hours a week of life at the most.


you have to be up at 7 or something to get in on time so you cant stay up late or go out. you get home tired and have not much energy for something else, or maybe you have one thing you can fit in like gym or a film but the its late again and you have to be ready for next day.

a 9 to 5 takes your life. Faust got a better deal. you work to stay alive so you can work. working a 9 to 5 to life job in something you dont like is a self imposed prison sentence. or maybe not cos you have to do it no choice, life just isnt as good as people told you as a child, get over it?

Most people would get six hours sleep with one early night in the week so going to bed at 1am leaves plenty of time in the evening.
You don't come home from a 9/5 job so tired you can't do anything unless you are lazy in general.

Majority of people have lots of things to do in the evening getting up at 7am and working is not stopping anyone from having a life.

BraziliaNZ

I would rather live in a society where we work less, maybe 20 hours a week. It would just mean a slowdown in society, which would be welcomed by me anyway. Shops not open as much, services not available as much. We probably wouldn't buy as much stuff either, and economies would slow down, not to say that's a bad thing.
We'd all have more time on our hands, but unless it was a worldwide agreement it will never happen unfortunately.

Duggy747

I work 9 to 6 and still have plenty to do in the evenings, and I got loads of animals to look after.

Granted, I don't hit bed until 2am but I don't have to roll out of it until 8:40 since I'm only 20 minutes away from work.

I don't work weekends either and I actually like my job so I got feck all to complain about...............well..................I'd prefer to be paid in gold bars and doughnuts but ya can't have everything, can ya? :pac:

Internet Hero

TiltedBrain wrote: »

The evenings and sleep time is mine too though?
From a 9-5
I estimate I work 1860 hours a year after holidays and bank holidays.

thats about 21% of my year spent working, so for 1/5th of my year spent in a job I like, I get to enjoy 4/5ths of my life thanks the fact that I have a job and dont have to worry about much.

ok thats crazy. you are not conscious when ur asleep and you have to do it to be able to get up for work the next day. also you have to commute and even if that isnt that long it is still part of the job and you cant get around it. then commute home and you have a few hours before you have to get to bed again cos ur up the next day.

there's loads of stuff that takes time on top of ur 9 to 5 that u have to do also and it all takes from your time and stops you having much more to your life


Aaaand you cant forget that if you hate your job it will tire you out and depress you so that ears into other time too. its not just work hours, threres a lot lot more to it that sucks and ruins your life

Internet Hero

Duggy747 wrote: »

I work 9 to 6 and still have plenty to do in the evenings, and I got loads of animals to look after.

Granted, I don't hit bed until 2am but I don't have to roll out of it until 8:40 since I'm only 20 minutes away from work.

I don't work weekends either and I actually like my job so I got feck all to complain about...............well..................I'd prefer to be paid in gold bars and doughnuts but ya can't have everything, can ya? :pac:

Well thats kind of what im on about, life in reality of 9 to 5 sucks way more than you are led to believe growin up. its like a scam haha.

and I cant live with less than 8 or 9 hours sleep. it's bad for you to get less probably causes cancer or something

.jacksparrow.

Duggy747 wrote: »

I work 9 to 6 and still have plenty to do in the evenings, and I got loads of animals to look after.

Granted, I don't hit bed until 2am but I don't have to roll out of it until 8:40 since I'm only 20 minutes away from work.

I don't work weekends either and I actually like my job so I got feck all to complain about...............well..................I'd prefer to be paid in gold bars and doughnuts but ya can't have everything, can ya? :pac:

Do you go to work in the nip,without brushing your teeth,washing your face etc?

Duggy747

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

Do you go to work in the nip,without brushing your teeth,washing your face etc?

I sleep under the desk at work :pac:

elchupanebrey

I thought the thread title refered to a new big bang theory episode

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

Foxwaldo

I work eight to six monday to friday am at the bus stop every moring at half six to catch the luas in town so i am in on time. If i am luck i will get home at half seven at the earlist. Even do i hated the job and my contract is up i will be losing the job at the end of this month. I am just greatfull i had it so i could support my mother father when my dad was out of work with an illness.

steve9859

Internet Hero wrote: »

ok thats crazy. you are not conscious when ur asleep and you have to do it to be able to get up for work the next day. also you have to commute and even if that isnt that long it is still part of the job and you cant get around it. then commute home and you have a few hours before you have to get to bed again cos ur up the next day.

there's loads of stuff that takes time on top of ur 9 to 5 that u have to do also and it all takes from your time and stops you having much more to your life


Aaaand you cant forget that if you hate your job it will tire you out and depress you so that ears into other time too. its not just work hours, threres a lot lot more to it that sucks and ruins your life

Christ, you've a depressing outlook on life! Finish at 5, hit the bed at 12, that's 7 hours to do with as you wish. Dinner with the missus, cinema, run, bowling, museum, beach.....the list goes on.

Those that are too unimaginative or lazy to do anything with those 6 or 7 hours other than lie there and watch the Simpsons on TV are probably those that are unhappy with their lot in life

pickarooney

TiltedBrain wrote: »

;);)

You dont get paid for lunch?

Of course not. Why would I get paid when I'm not working?

marketty

'Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life'
-some guy

I work Monday-Friday and a bit on Saturday.. Generally about 4-5 hours a day. I didn't have work today and was pissed by 2pm cause I met some guys havin beers.

Work's good.. Keeps ya goin and ya enjoy your free time more. I didn't work for 2 months durin the summer and was crying out to get back into a routine.

ShadowHearth

9-5 shift job is a dream job for a lot of people.

Try be a chef OP. start 10 in the morning and finish 11-12 night. Work every weekend and bank holiday.
Social life? What social life? I haven't seen my partner for days or weeks due to her having a 9-5 job and weekends off. And we were living together!!!

I do now 5:00 to 12:00 shifts which is grand. 9-5 is a great shift to be working. First world problems and all I guess...

fishy fishy

OP, if you don't have energy to do anything after leaving work at 5 p.m. then I suggest you go visit a doctor. 5 p.m. is actually only early evening - you have at least 6 hours of free time to go to the gym, AND do other things also.

wilkie2006

Internet Hero wrote: »

you have to be up at 7 or something to get in on time so you cant stay up late or go out.

If getting up early is a problem, just get a job in a brothel and spend the whole day in bed.

bluecode

I worked office hours for nearly fourteen years. 8:30 to 5 with an early finish on Fridays. The fact is the OP is right. It can be soul destroying if you don't like your job and I hated it. But I had a plan that kept me going.

But the actual 9 to 5 cliche is rare these days more like 5:30 officially. But who the hell gets off that early anymore? My wife supposedly works those hours but she almost never gets out on time. Finishing at 7 is relatively common. Someone who said you have 6.5 hours to spend obviously don't have long commute, don't need to eat dinner and never has to work late.

I worked shift for a few years. It's not bad. The long weeks are compensated for by the time off. But then again a lot of people can't cope with time off. They haven't a clue what to do with themselves. Their life is so wrapped up with their job. I note several on this thread.

The really bad thing about shifts is the night shift. I would have worked a month of nights followed by a month of days. It wears you down. If you can help it never work nights.

Fact of the matter is the eight hour day, five day week suits a lot of people. People who have quite a narrow focus in their lives. That's fine for them. They're prepared to settle for a compromise. For the rest of us we know we only get one shot at this life and sometimes you have to do things differently.

I can hardly imagine having to go to work every day and only having weekends off anymore. Been there done that, not going back.

Remmy

ShadowHearth wrote: »

9-5 shift job is a dream job for a lot of people.

Try be a chef OP. start 10 in the morning and finish 11-12 night. Work every weekend and bank holiday.
Social life? What social life? I haven't seen my partner for days or weeks due to her having a 9-5 job and weekends off. And we were living together!!!

I do now 5:00 to 12:00 shifts which is grand. 9-5 is a great shift to be working. First world problems and all I guess...

I know a head chef and he works crazy long hours. It's a tough job that's for sure.

Internet Hero

fishy fishy wrote: »

OP, if you don't have energy to do anything after leaving work at 5 p.m. then I suggest you go visit a doctor. 5 p.m. is actually only early evening - you have at least 6 hours of free time to go to the gym, AND do other things also.

people get home around 6, allot get home at half 6. youve been up since 7 and working 9 to 5. then on top of that you dont like your job, its an obligation. that weighs on you and your not going to be artisticaly productive or able to commit to things that take more than a couple of hours as you have to be thinkin of getting home to get to bed so you can be up the next day.

the point is it isnt just 9 to 5 it is almost your whole life. i dont work im in college now but im wondering what im heading into and whats the point if it sucks as bad as it seems and you just work to stay alive and stay alive just to work. seems like a crazy way to spend your only life.