<p>How do you guys do it? I don’t see myself doing this for the rest of my life, unless maybe if I had a family to support or something. I actually kind of like the job itself, but feel constrained having to go to work. I enjoy being a student, since I have the freedom to do my work whenever/wherever I want (in my room, at home, take a break and pick up where I left off, etc), except it’s not real work. Maybe I’m naturally a bum, or more of a work-at-home type of person, or maybe this is just something I have to get used to. Right now I think I would really like being a college student for the rest of my life : P</p>
<p>EDITED: Sometimes it’s a lot more than 40 hours! And, even if you don’t feel passionately about your job, you should at least try to find something that’s interesting. My job stopped being a challenge a while ago, yet I still enjoy the art of doing it in a professional, competent manner.</p>
<p>When you’re doing something you love, 18 hour work days can fly by so fast you don’t even notice. When you do sleep, you dream of what you will do the next day, and, when you wake up in the morning, you cannot wait to hurry up and go do more of it. You cannot stop thinking about it, even on weekends and/or in recreational situations. </p>
<p>The key is to find something to do that you love. That’s hard to do on command though, so, alternatively it makes sense to create opportunities at whatever work you’re doing now, and look for ways to make valuable, “above the job description” contributions, and look for ways to learn new approaches to work.</p>
<p>Not all careers are 9-5 desk jobs. If the idea of having to work for someone does not make you happy, you can always be your own boss, but then you’ll be working 80 hr/week.</p>
<p>You do what you have to do. Part-time jobs rarely pay enough to live on, and rarely offer essential benefits like health insurance. So while it would be nice to have the leisure time that working part-time affords, the sacrifices and risks would be enormous.</p>
<p>I do really enjoy my work, which helps. And I work for a non-profit with generous vacation days (20 a year, essentially a month off), which also helps.</p>
<p>I’ve never been a big fan of the strict 9-5 jobs. Set schedules like that just feel silly to me. (My current job is like that. I was trying to finish something up today before I left, and I was essentially pushed out of the office at 5 PM when I could have finished up in another 30 minutes or so. Because of that I’m going to have to find my place again when I go back in, set everything up, figure out where I was, etc. It’s inefficient.) I enjoy it much more if I have more independence or have project-based work and can work hours as I see fit. I’ve found myself working from 8 AM - 2 AM without a problem in past jobs, but that eight-hour day always drags for me. I think that I like working my job fully into my life; if you’re constricted to working 9-5 or 8-5 every weekday, work looks a lot more like something that’s getting in the way of the rest of your life. </p>
<p>As LTS said, though, if you love what you’re doing the hours won’t matter any more. </p>
<p>Oh, I’m a student, by the way, but I’ve been working my whole life. I really, really like working, but as I said, that 9-5 has always bothered me.</p>
<p>That’s why some become college professors. They stay in academia through the PhD. and go on to teach at the college level. </p>
<p>They work more than 40 hours weekly, but they control which part of the day they work. Work spreads into the evenings, too, to read new materials, mark student papers, work up new courses to keep it fresh and interesting. But they can also drink coffee or nap sometimes, see their own kid in a school play, etc. Their time is bound by their teaching course schedule, office hours and committee meetings but that’s less than 40 hours, yet the work more than 40 hours deciding when to do so. </p>
<p>The only advantage I ever saw of 9-5 jobs (and I had some of those as low staff positions within research and development firms) is that you can walk away from your job and not think about it until the following morning.</p>
<p>Some people love that division and being able to walk away from their 40 hour work-week. Some get through the boring hours by realizing that time is paying for material things they need or enjoy (rent, tickets to a game…).</p>
<p>Others hate 40 hour weeks and would rather work 60/70 hours weekly at something they feel is a passionate calling, whether in business (to someday make more money than at salary) or social service (clergy) or the arts (symphonic musician whose practice time isn’t paid for, but he can’t keep the position unless he practices plenty on his own time).</p>
<p>EDIT: Long ago I read a book by Studs Turkel called “Working.” He interviewed people in all walks of life, blue collar and white collar. What he found generated job satisfaction was the ability to point to a project and identify which part of it was one’s own contribution. He noticed the highest job satisfaction with a stonemason who could drive his son past a former construction site and say, “I worked on that house.” Least satisfaction came from someone in very high corporate management who could not lay claim to exactly which part of the company product he had helped produce or improve.</p>
<p>P3T - have you ever seen the musical version of Working? D2’s high school did it when she was a sophomore. At first I had no idea it had been inspired by the Studs Terkel book, and wasn’t too excited about seeing it. But it was a show that definitely grew on me. In fact, last night I was goofing around on Youtube and found one my daughter’s numbers she did in it.</p>
<p>But you’re absolutely correct, the story speaks eloquently to the disparity of job satisfaction as it relates to pay. It’s by all means not a clear cut correlation that the big money guarantees a happy worker.</p>
<p>My H was a helicopter pilot in the National Guard and he said that he and all the other pilots always felt like they were really taking advantage of the government. They were being paid to do something that they would gladly pay to be able to do!</p>
<p>I’ve never had a job I “loved.” Well, I DID stay home with my kids for many years, but that didn’t pay, so doesn’t count. I have always worked to make money & that’s about it. I do have a good education, and I have had good jobs. I just didn’t love 'em. I wish I could promise you that work will be great, but I can’t. I much preferred NOT working. However, as I said, that doesn’t pay … so as WashDad so eloquently put it, “Get used to it.” If you are able to steer clear of jobs you dislike, that’s a good thing. However, if you don’t “love” your job … well, you have plenty of company. Try to find something you love, but don’t despair if you can’t. It’s just a job. There really is a lot more to life. :)</p>
<p>Good point Kelsmom. There is a certain danger in investing so much into work that one forgets to develop the rest of a balanced life - making time for friends, family, new experiences, etc.</p>
<p>A major problem in traditional economic analyses is that they usually skip over the economic contribution of household work, which is funny when you realise that the root of economics is centred around the home (oikonomia – “household management”).</p>
<p>Try other lines of work. Oprah, in her commencement speech to the graduates of Stanford, said: “When you’re doing the work you’re meant to do, it feels right and every day is a bonus, regardless of what you’re getting paid.”</p>
<p>The thought of a 9-5 job where Im actually working every minute of those 8 hours scares me to death (Thats basically what ive done in every summer job Ive ever had)</p>
<p>If such a job exists, Id like to be a manager or supervisor and spent large chunks of the day not doing any grunt work.</p>
<p>I want to be productive. I do want to spend every minute working – I can’t imagine lazing around and think it’s highly inefficient use of my labour if a large chunk of my office job consists of web-surfing. But I want <em>absorbing</em> work.</p>
<p>I strongly believe in quality, not quantity. Doesn’t matter how long you stay at work just as long the projects are done. I’ve had internships that live on this philosophy- I could be facebooking for an hour and my boss in another room wouldn’t care as long the tasks were done by the deadline.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, so few jobs and companies allow this kind of philosophy… which is why academia works pretty well for me so far :)</p>
<p>I like my job but I sure would not do it for free. And 40 hours is just starters for most better paying professional jobs. Figure more like 50-60 at least part of the year.</p>
<p>I currently work 40 hours a week. Take plenty of breaks. I’m not talking long breaks, but mini-breaks (5-10 minutes) in-between assignments. Get up and stretch your body. Drink plenty of water. It also depends on what type of responsibility you have. Some people who work in management have less clerical tasks and more travel and supervisory duties in their schedules. If you love your job, the work day won’t seem so long.</p>
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