Hey guys, how are you handling that 9 to 17 work schedule ?

Discussion in 'The Guru's Pub' started by YetYhunter, Oct 16, 2018.

  1. rm082e

    rm082e Master Guru

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    I felt the same sense of dread when I was in my early 20s. It's a perfectly natural part of the transition from childhood into adulthood. Once I got to 24, I quickly moved past those feeling of dread. Even though I understood life was going to move forward, I hadn't really accepted it until that time. For me, the big factor was meeting my wife. She made it clear she wanted to get married, buy a house, have kids, and raise a family. That's a 25 year long project, and there's no guarantee you'll be successful at it - it's entirely possible to fail. I saw that as a challenge, which turned the whole thing into a game, which made it fun, which changed my outlook. Instead of "I have to go to work", it became "I'm going to work towards a better job, making more money." Once I started accomplishing those little goals, they just made me hungry for more.

    I'm now 38, and I'm much more happy than I was in my teenage years/early 20s. I've got a lot to be proud of, and I'm always working to get better and accomplish the next goal. I'm excited to go to work in the morning, I'm excited to come home in the evening, and I enjoy digging into my project plans and to-do lists. Every time I get through a major project at work, or hit a new financial goal, or come back from a great vacation, it's like a shot of dopamine.

    But it all starts with setting some goals and making plans to achieve them. Find a significant other, develop healthy relationships with friends, don't settle for a crappy job - find a place you really enjoy working, work to get a home you can be proud of, and follow through on plans to experience the things you want to do (travel, events, etc.).

    I strongly recommend two books: Extreme Ownership and The War of Art. You may not have a direct connection to a soldier on a battlefield, or a frustrated artist, but the concepts are universal. If you can read and absorb the concepts in these books, and start to apply them to your life, you'll be amazed at the changes they produce.
     
  2. Anarion

    Anarion Ancient Guru

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    As a programmer we have pretty flexible worktime (you can start between 7-10). Personally I start my work at 7.50 and leave 16.50. I want to get home early. Still, I waste 1,5-2h each day in commuting. In the future I'll probably try to work one day per week from home.

    Sometimes I have to start the day really early in case I have to react quickly to some possible issues. Few had to sleep at office (or more like stay up the whole night) once but those cases are quite rare.
     
    Last edited: Oct 20, 2018
  3. Gromuhl'Djun

    Gromuhl'Djun Ancient Guru

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    My first few jobs sucked, buy I needed money. I think I know how you feel.
    A job that's always fun doesn't exist, but you got to make the best of it.

    The first real jobs aren't usually that great. Once you get more experience, you'll be valued more and you can get more freedom in what way you want your carreer to go.

    Now I'm somewhat more experienced in my field, employers come to me instead of me begging for a job. That way there's more freedom in what job and employer you'd like to work for. This means higher salaries and better conditions.
    Plan your vacations ahead of time, you'll have something to look forward to :)

    Also try to have fun in the workplace. Be professional, but not uptight. Leave some room for joking around with your colleagues.
     
  4. Celcius

    Celcius Master Guru

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    I don't mean to be harsh, or adversarial, but what were you expecting? As an engineer, you must certainly have the insight into how things all around you function, including the working-for-a-living dynamic. You have at least a few synapses functioning, an education and actual employment. In other words, you have the essentials, so put them to use. You, and/or someone who cares deeply for you, probably paid dearly for that education. Prove that it was a sound investment.

    By the way, it's not simply a feeling; you are selling your time to someone. That same someone pays you in return. You're the only one who can assess that it's a fair exchange, but be advised that your employer has their own thoughts and metrics on that matter, too.

    Go get 'em, tiger!
     
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  5. viren

    viren Ancient Guru

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    Dude u have to keep going cos that was the intended choice of your own....now...if u want to get out of it try doing something for your own...which means if u trust in yourself start your own business or something...
     
  6. CPC_RedDawn

    CPC_RedDawn Ancient Guru

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    Sorry to move the thread into serious and gloomy territory but I have felt the exact same way working in an extremely repetitive job, on a production line, doing the same process over and over again which is timed at 36 seconds. So every 36 seconds at the most you are repeating the same boring, mundane movements over and over again.

    Not to mention the people I work with are ok for the most part, 99% of them are other males and other males can be very opinionated minus only a few of them but hearing some of them talk about their views can be mind and soul crushing hearing all the racist views, religious hatred, and hatred towards the LGBT community. This is also not me being "triggered" easily, some of their comments are extremely gross and offensive and they are not joking when they say this stuff, they really do mean it.

    I have been in this job for nearly 4 years now working 7-15 (7-17 with mandatory over time which is basically every day). The hours also move from days to nights each week, now its days to evenings each week. It was 7-15 for one week then 22-7 the next week. Now it has been moved to 6-15 for one week then 14-11 the next week. It pays very well and has enabled me to buy a car, and a house.

    However, I started hitting some serious mental health issues which I have never ever felt before this job, experiencing extreme tiredness, lack of motivation, lack of self worth, feeling trapped, suffocated, and horribly depressed. This mood change was slow but once it hit, it hit hard and the feeling was terrible. At one point I was in such a low and dark place part of me was actually thinking of suicide. I said I was sorry for taking the thread into a gloomy area but I feel its worth it to get the weight off my shoulders. I started to push everyone away, not seeing friends and family, spending more time alone, getting angry at the slightest thing people would do around me like really petty things too. It was a dark place to be in for around 9 months.

    I am still in the same job and it has gotten better, and I have acquired medical help and I am currently in the process of talks with a specialist. I have been experiencing these feelings a lot less now but it still comes and goes.

    I think the thought of being trapped within this job for the next 40 years was getting to me as their is no other job in my area that pays as well, and I didn't do that well at school partly due to a string of serious family death when I was 16 and 17 years old, so getting another job that pays as well is a lot harder for someone in my position.

    All this about the job coupled with the stress of buying a house and a car, and a few other more personal and family issues all led to this deterioration in my mental stability.

    With the little spare time I have, when I am not tired or having these feelings I have started writing as it's something I used to love doing when I was younger, I actually hope to have a full and complete script ready by the end of the year. Which is actually quite empowering and could actually lead to new opportunities. So my advice to the OP would be spend and surround your self with as many friends and family as you can, speak to people before you go down the same path as me. Don't shut your self off, whenever you have time to do anything don't do nothing.

    Once again sorry for the long post, and sorry for taking the thread into a dark place.
     
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  7. Loobyluggs

    Loobyluggs Ancient Guru

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    Why do you think alcohol, cigarettes and drum n bass is legal?

    To stop the populace revolting and the whole 'system' from falling apart...

    Last thing 'they' want is a population not going to work and paying taxes. 'They' want you in a perpetual state of being comfortably numb, so they feed you on a diet of fast food, bad entertainment, polluted air and water to slow down your brain and stop you not 'doing your job'. Feel bad? Not a problem, we'll just give your neighbour a slightly better/bigger/faster car, making you not quit. How about 'well, I know the air is polluted, but at least I got my ipad, iphone, nike trainers, sweat pants...but the new versions come out soon and I gotta keep up with the Jones'...so I gotta play nice with my bosses'.

    All joking aside, there is a way out my friend...

    Work for yourself. And don't work for the money. Money is a number. Numbers are infinite. If you chase the money, you will be chasing forever and achieve nothing, because all someone has to do is add another $ and they got you beat. Chase your dreams. That's something worth chasing. That's something worth working towards. Along the way, help others to achieve theirs. Like' what I'm doing right now. As you read this. Right now.

    I will say this though, the one thing you can get from any job is experience and for this, you gotta keep your eyes and ears open and involve yourself in your surroundings. There are lessons everywhere. Ask people to teach you. Let their lessons enrich you. Let your working life be your new study-hall. Your new classroom. Class didn't end when you left University, it just changed location. Except now you get paid for going and not the other way around! But, you gotta be open to learning and not be all 'like "I know it all now" because you don't. You just don't. With attitude like that, no one will wanna teach you, or even impart the tiniest morsel of knowledge unto you, because unlike a professor, they do not have to teach you.

    Anyway.

    Find a gap in the market, and fill it. Get a business plan together, get a loan and start it up, let it rip.

    If all you want to do is party - I got no words of wisdom for you, because life not a party; it's a portal to understanding who you are. If you don't know who you are, well, this is why you live your life, to figure this out. If it takes your entire life to figure this out, then it takes your entire life.

    As for your 40 years comment, I've always found that number to not be enough time to achieve what I want to achieve in my professional life, and I doubt I will ever retire because I want to keep going, but that's me. As for the working week - man, it's 'like *blink* lunch *blink* "why is it getting dark outside?...oh..." Never enough time in the day...even now, on a Sunday, I'm prepping for a meeting on Tuesday and I just worked out why my stomach is rumbling, because I haven't eaten all day!

    But, that's me, I love what I do and am good at it.

    You're an engineer? Sounds like fun. I recall a conversation I had t'other day about engineers. One of my business partners and I were talking about personality traits, and I posed that you can tell who someone is by how they would solve the Rubik's cube. They said 'really?' and between slurps of hot coffee, I said 'yeah, a gregarious individual will get a group together and workshop the problem. An introvert will take the time to systematically go through the problem on their own, in solitude. An extrovert will find a colorful, pattern-lock and match from Red to Yellow'. He paused, thinking this through. 'What about someone mechanically minded, like a mathematician or say, an engineer; how would they solve it?'. I looked at him and smiled. 'Oh, that's easy'.

    'They will just take it apart, figure out how it works, and then put it back together again! Shazam! Rubik's cube solved!'

    He and I erupted into bursts of laughter...
     
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  8. metagamer

    metagamer Ancient Guru

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    Some of us work 15 hour days. Some probably more. 8-5 is easy. You'll get used to it. Life started for you, congrats. Make the most of it.
     
  9. HeavyHemi

    HeavyHemi Guest

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    "Work for yourself. And don't work for the money. Money is a number. Numbers are infinite. If you chase the money, you will be chasing forever and achieve nothing, because all someone has to do is add another $ and they got you beat. Chase your dreams. That's something worth chasing. That's something worth working towards. Along the way, help others to achieve theirs. Like' what I'm doing right now. As you read this. Right now."

    Har dee har har. While your fantasy land might work for some, it won't for the vast majority for reasons so obvious I don't need to explain them. However, it was kinda funny reading how wonderful you are...you sure made it about you you you. :p
     
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  10. airbud7

    airbud7 Guest

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    I only wish I could write my feelings as good as you do....you definitely have a talent as a writer please stay with it Bro!...if you ever need me I'm here/ just send me a PM!
     

  11. airbud7

    airbud7 Guest

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    now that's cool educational reading....dude you are really cool ....

    ...
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2018
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  12. Netherwind

    Netherwind Ancient Guru

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    I think a 9-17 mon-fri schedule couldn't be better. You know when you're going to work and that you have all weekends free and can therefore plan accordingly. Besides, most of our society is adapted to this schedule anyway. I used to work in the restaurant business and worked odd hours all the time (plus most weekends) meaning I could rarely if ever meet friends who worked office hours. Also, sometimes I worked let's say 18:00 to 05:00 and the next day I had to start at 12:00 meaning I didn't rest much.
     
  13. Loobyluggs

    Loobyluggs Ancient Guru

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    You've never solved a Rubik's cube, have you...:rolleyes:

    And it's all about 'you'. Plural and singular. Besides...

    didn't the OP ask the question:
    "
    Hey guys, how are you handling that 9 to 17 work schedule ?
    "

    Just the question alone tells me a lot about the OP and where they are right now, at the edge of consciousness, peering into the distance and looking over the shoulder at the path they have walked and asking the real question:

    "What now?"

    Or, even, possibly, maybe something more scarier...

    "Is this it?"

    Which dips in the toe into thoughts like:

    "What is my purpose?" "Why am I here?"

    This is something we all face in our lives, but from a working life / professional life, yes, this realisation of what the future holds if one just stays in the same job doing the same thing will inevitably lead to thoughts of existential dread. "I made the wrong decision" and "Now, it will determine the rest of my life".

    This is a great problem for someone who has just left education. Sometimes they can develop cognitive dissonance, but only sometimes. Yes, they are doing something which pays them a salary they can live on and which they studied for, but, they realise this does not feed their inherent desires, whatever they might be. The pressures of society, family, friends are sooooo great and powerful, that one can even convince themselves that doing a job they have no interest in, is good. This discombobulation of thoughts can make people ignore 'natural' positive aspects of their lives.

    I have seen it many times in staff who have recently left University. Blank faces. Lost souls. Never smiling, except at things they think they are supposed to smile at. Going to the movies to watch films that they think they are meant to watch. Laughing at jokes they think they are meant to laugh at.

    It's a shame, because, as I've said many times, the real trick is not to become a job title, or to become someone...people are already someone, and they have been their entire lives. Anything else is just 'stuff' you have learnt along the way. And your name is just a label put upon you. You are not your job title, you are not your name, you were born someone.

    All you have to do is figure out who you are. That's it. It's not complicated or complex.
     
  14. CPC_RedDawn

    CPC_RedDawn Ancient Guru

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    Thank you, means a lot dude.
     
  15. HeavyHemi

    HeavyHemi Guest

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    Solved? I designed them....:p You post so many words and say so little, but you believe you know it all. But enough about you, as I digress.
    Seriously, I comment you on your novel explaining what the OP stated in his first post :

    "I finished ly studies and naturally I started working. I work as an engineer and have the same schedule as most of the European population.

    I can't stop to feel like I am trapped, emprisoned most of the time, like a part-time prison. I feel like I am selling my time to someone and there is none left for me to enjoy my life.

    I don't know how to live like this, not for another 40 years ! How do you handle it ?


    I didn't need you to reiterate what he'd already said and said with far better alacrity and clarity. Do you practice speaking in front of a mirror too?
     

  16. Loobyluggs

    Loobyluggs Ancient Guru

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    This sounds like an attack :)

    I used to dance in front of a mirror, practicing my moves for the floor so I can have fun on a saturday night, but not speaking, no, sorry. I tend to let it rip.
     
  17. D3M1G0D

    D3M1G0D Guest

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    I work as a programmer as well but my company (which is a global hedge fund administration company) frowns on flexible times. We're expect to come in at 9:00 AM and leave by 5:30 PM (although many of us come in at different times - at least when high-level executives aren't in the office :p). It's one of the prime grievances that our employees have (the other is insufficient overtime pay).

    Yup. I always advise young, college-bound people to choose a career that you love, not one that pays well. So many people ruin their lives by chasing the almighty dollar - end up stuck in a job that they hate and trying to make themselves happy by continuously spending money.

    You spend nearly half of your waking life working (8 hours sleeping, 8 hours working, 8 hours leisure time - not counting vacations and holidays). If you choose a job that you hate then you will basically hate half of your life, which is a terrible predicament. Your profession also defines you to a large extent - when you meet a stranger one of the first questions you ask is "so, what do you do?". You don't want to be defined by something you hate. ;)
     
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  18. Loobyluggs

    Loobyluggs Ancient Guru

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    I tend to ignore people like that, but if pushed for an answer I normally say "Oh, the usual...squats...free-weights..." Or, if I am feeling particularly peevish "...Blondes, redheads...the occasional brunette...".

    I'd rather someone ask me something interesting, like what my favorite colour is - but your point is absolutely spot-on, yet completely wrong. The idea is to not let your job/career define you, but for you to define your job/career.
     
  19. HeavyHemi

    HeavyHemi Guest

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    I apologize, I didn't know you were so sensitive... whats that word you use....cuck? ;) I'll keep that in mind and soften my tone for our future encounters. I don't mind if people ask me what I've done, did, or plan on doing. I've done some interesting things and some not so interesting things like you, and every one else. You seem awfully defensive about it for being Mr. Perfect...I mean, you are perfection, right?
     
  20. Loobyluggs

    Loobyluggs Ancient Guru

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    Finally. Some recognition!

    Shame it's not from someone worthy of observation :cool:
     

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