I have heard people talk about work-life balance but I think it's a scam. To put it bluntly, I'm tired of working so much and not enjoying life. There is no such thing as a work-life balance when you have responsibilities and have to pay bills to live.
I worked 38 years as a government employee and retired but I am working harder and more now than I ever did before. I'm convinced there will never be a true retirement for me. The politicians are going to totally deplete any social security I have been paying into it my entire working life. So, I will be working until I can't anymore.
Depressing? Yes, it can be. I try not to think about it or get too worked up about it. There's not much I can do about it anyway except to continue to play the lottery and try to enjoy my life as much as I can between working hours.
I don't know what a work-life balance is supposed to look like. I think the traditional Monday-Friday 9-5 job is ridiculous. You shouldn't have to work so many hours. There are 168 hours in a week. If you work 40 hours of that week then sleep an average of eight hours a night then you are only left with 72 hours at the most to enjoy life. A person should NEVER have to work more than living their lives yet that's the world we're in and some, sadly, have less non-working hours because they are working more than one job just to support their families and to survive.
Don't come at me with a work-life balance. It's a scam.
So, you may think I hate my job by writing this. Not true. I love my job, the company I work for and my co-workers but it shouldn't be my life.
What would the ideal work-life balance look like to me? Let's start with a 4-day, 8-hour workweek. At least get the time close to half of our weekly lives. I have found that I usually need one day to run personal errands and then another day to enjoy myself. A weekend isn't enough to do that.
The idea of the 40-hour work week was coined by Robert Owen in 1817 during the Industrial Revolution. The phrase "eight hour labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest" was the ideal with those who worked in factories. At the time, individuals worked nearly 100 hours a week. In 1936, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act which established the standard full-time employment of a 40-hour work week.
Somewhere that work-life idea has gotten out of balance. Eight hours of work expands to 9-10 and if you have a commute, that adds another hour or more. By the time you eventually end the work part of your day, you are mentally, emotionally and physically wiped out. There is nothing left for anything else.
Somehow I am stuck in this place where I have other work to live. I know I am not alone. There is more to live than this yet here we are. Getting ready for another shift. I don't expect the work-life balance to be 50-50. That's unrealistic but I would like to see more flexibility in the work-life management. Our companies depend on us to get the work done and we should be committed to that but we must also do a better job to find a better balance.
