Life too short for a 9 to 5 job

Life too short for a 9 to 5 job

6 AM to 8 AM: Wake up. Get ready. Kids. School. Breakfast.

8 AM to 9 AM: Commute. Reach office.

9 AM to 6 PM: Work.

6 PM to 7 PM: Commute. Reach home.

7 PM to 8 PM: Unwind. Kids. School. Dinner.

8 PM to 10 PM: Me Time. 20 missed calls can wait.

10 PM to 6 AM: Sleep.

If you don’t have kids, you get couple of extra hours per day. If you live closer to work, you save time on commute. But, the ever increasing work load & agile deadlines can eat away time saved elsewhere.

If you manage to restrict work to office hours, you do get 2 hours everyday for self. You get paid on time, pay your bills on time and save some money. That’s great. But, wait, there are too many things that can go wrong in this setup. And quite often they do.

Layoffs Reorgs Cost cutting Ageism Politics Location Culture Manager Client Salary Work Co-workers Timings Health Relationships

While a 9–5 setup does have some advantages (especially when you have no capital to run your own show), you end up firefighting a lot of issues listed above, in vain, which add no value in the long run.

Instead of reskilling and solving bigger problems year after year, you end up politicking to save your job or to move up just an inch. I can’t see how that is the best use of one’s life.