Is Anyone Done With Working?

Sounds like somebody has a case of the Tuesdays.

Every single day...

I hear ya. I love my company that I work for. I like my job for the most part - espcially the paycheck part but overall I could do w/out working if I could afford it.

Life's too short to feel that way.

Do what you love, love what you do

I think everyone who pulls 40+ hour weeks feels that way sometimes. I certainly do. I work 10+ hours per day running computer simulations and studying for my qualifying exams (all 5 of them) for my Ph.D. By the time I get home, all the things I need to do like laundry, working in my garden, cleaning up my patio area, etc. never get done because I'm exhausted. I feel like most of the weekday is just one big blur.

I really enjoy what I do, and it's challenging as heck, but it just wears me out completely. I have no time for my old hobbies anymore. Weekends are spent catching up with housework and laundry. When I finish my doctorate, I'll be doing the same thing but (thankfully) better pay for the next 30 years of my life.

Whoever decided that 40 hours (most of the time more) was an appropriate amount of time each week to work can suck it!! I feel everyday like I am working my life away and for what?! I get home there is barely enough time to cook, clean, work out, watch a little TV or have some me time and I don't even freaking have kids. I try to think everyday of a way around it that is still fair to society but nothing yet. Still sitting here. *sigh*

I work 8:30-4:30 with an hour lunch. No 40 hours for me and I'm still considered full time. It's just the hours the company is open and I discovered we do 4:30 instead of 5 because of the traffic getting out of my office park.

I like my job. I only work in the summer, when I work on the beach all week, then on a jet-ski safety patrol at weekends - it's a long week, but I take winter and spring off...

Gonna get on a soapbox for a minute here...

We're all brainwashed into equating having a job with creating an income, but they're not the same thing, or at least they don't have to be.

When you really think about it, having a 40+ per hour week job is pretty dumb.

Your employer will pay you just enough that you don't leave for a competitor position and you will work just hard enough that your employer doesn't fire you. So the needle falls into this crappy middle ground where no one really wins - everyone just scrapes by. There's a reason some people say that "Job" stands for "Just Over Broke".

Security? A total myth. Especially in a country like America where most states are "work at will" and a company that you've poured a lifetime into supporting can dump you in a hearbeat for the most trifling reason.

Having a single job as your sole source of income should scare you. Why? Because if the job stops - so does the income.

So what's the solution? Well, there's no easy way out but there are certainly other routes. With a bit of hard work and smart thinking up-front you can twist your skillset into a source of passive income instead of a job. Say you're a graphic designer (just using my own example)... you could get a job doing graphic design - steady paycheck and health insurance but it's the lowest tier of wage you could earn (your employer profits more from your skills than you do) and if the job dissolves, so does your income. You could start your own design business - great, now you get all the profit, but you work harder and longer and if you can't find the work, again the money stops coming.

Or you could instead put in some hard work up-front and set off a passive income stream - perhaps create a stock graphics website or maybe write a book about a certain niche of graphics that you're good at. Yeah, the income is generally lower but once it's rolling, it's rolling, and you can sit back on your loins and earn your royalties etc without lifting a finger from then on. This leaves you free to set more balls in motion and wait for the results. As one stream dries up - which all streams do over time, you just turn to others.

Notice your job is the same. The underlying skill set is the same. You're still a graphic designer. The difference is you just shook off the "traditional" mode of thinking - being tied to a single job with a single, non-secure source of income. I encourage all of you to try and think this way about your own careers and skillsets.

Okies, soapbox done...

I find this thread interesting? In short, I've been on disability for the past seven years with NO apparent cure for my health issues. Nothing terminal mind you, but not able to work. Through some miracle I was admitted to the hospital and while I was there was cured.

Now, what do I do? Do I go back to work? Do I stay on SSI even though I'm well? I was seriously considering returning to the rat race but all your posts remind me of how I too felt just seven short years ago. I can't even imagine getting hired at 50 years old with a seven year gap in his work history. Even if I say I was sick for seven years, do you really think I will get hired? (Except for maybe a fast food joint) I feel they would see me as a relapse risk.

Sorry to rant it's just that this topic hits right at home for me...thanks for posting it! I've got a lot of thinking to do!

I think if you are well enough to work, you should work and do your best to support yourself even if you're flipping burgers.

It's dishonest (and illegal) to take SSI when you are perfectly capable of working. Those benefits are for people who are unable to work, not those unwilling to work.

It's good to hear that you're well now though!

It gets me when your job is no longer challenging, just tedius. That is where I am at.