for me at least, 8 hours any other time of the day is less bad than the constant awful grind of 9-5
you’re always commuting right when everyone else is commuting, you have to be up early every morning (and it always FEELS early – if you’re naturally waking up at noon but have work at 1 that doesn’t feel as much like a boot stamping on your face forever), many things are only open during those hours so there’s always a time crunch if you have errands
and it just feels worse. you feel like a depressed office worker in a movie. by 5pm the day’s already over, the sun is setting in winter. and the most insufferable of all, imo: once it’s evening, you start feeling dread for tomorrow. so it’s like you’re never truly off work because you know you have to go to bed early to be up early to go right back.
somehow these standard hours are the most offensive possible to personal autonomy and mood.
i’m extremely lucky to have a WFH at the moment where i can make my own hours; when i work approx 9-5 like that, i just feel so trapped. i don’t want to go to the store before work because i just woke up and can’t be bothered, i can’t go after because traffic is a nightmare and i’m exhausted by then. it just sucks. there’s no mystery or magic to it. working food service until 2am felt cool, it felt cool getting paid to stay up late and make pizza and have a ‘good reason’ to have a weird sleep schedule and be out super late. 9-5 makes me feel like jim from the office except less charismatic
After working in factories for most of my life on this miserable planet, being in an office is a great thing. I think people forget or don’t know how bad it is when you’re working in a non climate controlled building basically being told to work harder and harder, breaking your body AND your spirit. Not feeling well that day? Too bad, the production line won’t slow down for you, so you eventually get taken into the office and chewed out, possibly getting a write up. You would’ve stayed home that day, but your factory only gives you 4 points, and two weeks vacation that you HAVE to put in months ahead for it to be even considered.
Needless to say, I’d much rather 9-5 office and commute than to ever go back to breaking my body and soul at a factory or food establishment.
Stay humble.
This is why unions exist. Unions put power back into the workers hands.
I’m all for unions. I’m also all for people not having to work back breaking jobs such as I have. No one should be put through anything like that in this day and age.
I can’t stand working til 5. After work I still need to go to the gym, cook dinner, eat, clean the kitchen, walk the dog, spend time with my family, and relax. How is that possible?
I got a job that allows me to set my own hours and work 6:30-2:30 and it has been a godsend. Feels like I have a life again.
I have similar life but I cheat a bit. I have 4 days work from home per week, and often I stop working at 4.00 pm so I have a couple of hours to shop or do other things.
Not having to go home from work also gives me another hour of free time, so I feel like life definently is a lot nicer now than before covid.
9-5 sucks very much and we should all try to escape it.
We should be working less, like maybe a few hours a day. Most of an 8 hour workday is unproductive time anyway. We’ve got decades of automation improvements, they should be serving to free us from constant labor instead of lining the pockets of the rich. But alas.
Amen!
I work from home an average of 4ish hours per day, with plenty of breaks whenever I feel like it, and I’m one of the most productive people at my company of 50 employees - many of whom go into the office regularly.
Very true. A majority of days I create work for myself so I’m not caught idle by the time lunch comes around.
Amen!
I consider second shift to be worse - I worked 3-11 for awhile and its just depressing. You wake up and can do things, but you’re just waiting to go to work. When you get out, it’s pretty late and most people are going to bed.
9-5 allows me to have my relaxation time at the end of the day, along with everyone else. Any other shift feels lonely, and like you’re off-sync from the rest of society.
Worked a 2-10pm shift and actually loved it. Its definitely lifestyle-dependent but it suited people who were younger and single. A group of us would go out to bars/clubs right after work and the be able to sleep in. The best part of this middle shift is that its not hard on your circadian rhythm AND you get to avoid most management presence for your shift.
The 9-5 became mainstream about a century ago and, somehow after the vast technological progress we’ve made, we’re still stuck with so many hours of work. Hell, it’s actually more like 8-5 if you have a solid lunch hour (unpaid, of course, even though you have to be at or near work to get back to it on time). Given how much productivity has increased, we’re owed 3-day work weeks. 3-day work weeks also make it easier to raise children if you can align it so that the parents’ workdays don’t overlap.
