Work Reform

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.

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.

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.

9-5 going into the office is horrendous. That's peak traffic both ways so the commute is longer than almost any other time.

9-5 working from home is okay.

I have to go in 3 days this week for a special meeting /event. I spent an hour and 15 minutes in my car this morning and 50 min on the way home. That's 2 hours and 5 minutes I didn't get to spend with my baby or walking the dog, working out, cleaning the house, etc.

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.

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.

Give me the 4 day work week damn it

Logically speaking regardless what hours are picked as the "popular" hours, they will feel like shit due to association.

Because almost everything operates on a 9-5 schedule, it makes a 9-5 schedule feel gross because you associate it with working hours.

It's a feedback loop.

The main things I've found that make it 2ay worse though:

1. Caffeine. By a huge margin, becoming dependant on caffeine fucks up your schedule and makes you feel like you are perpetually in a funk. In the morning you are exhausted, during the day all you want us a nap, and at night it is hard to sleep. Repeat.

2. Not having a proper breakfast. It's a meme but it's fucking true. It's easy to skip or half ass breakfast, but it leaves you feeling like shit all day long.

3. Phones in bed. It's incredibly hard to resist. If I leave my phone on my office desk and go to bed unplugged, I sleep so much more. It's just way too tempting to sit up and plug into those endless dopamine hits and not fall asleep til 1 in the morning.

4. Hydrating before bed. Waking up feeling like my mouth is full of sand and my body dried our isn't Nirmal or healthy. When I started bringing a water bottle to bed to sip on, my sleep improved a tonne.

5. Early morning pass break. It's super tempting to ignore your bladder abd stay in the warm cozy confines of your bed, I get it. But I found if I listened to my body and forced myself out of bed to go take that super early morning / late night piss, wgen I crawled back into bed I would sleep way harder and wake up feeling much less achey.

I work in a tech-field and for most jobs I've been on there's been core business hours that you're expected to be in your office which gives all the workers a little bit of flexibility. Core business hours are usually around 10am to 1pm. How it works is you do your 8 hours however you want, so long as the building is open, and you are in the office during core hours. We have a good-sized early morning group, also a smaller group (usually younger) that comes in later in the morning and hang out til 6 and then go out for drinks afterwards. Most of the jobs also allow people to flex their hours within reason. So you can work a 8+ hour day to work a shorter day later.

This little bit of flexibility is so great - allows parents more time with their kids, going to appointments, avoiding traffic, etc. Literally saves you so much in PTO and $$, as well as other residual benefits to your health and wellbeing.

EDIT - For clarity, they usually don't show semi-flexible/flexible work schedules in job postings, but definitely ask during interviews. Let's be real, a 4-day, 8-hour/day schedule won't manifest in this lifetime, so this and WFH are the next best things.

I like 6am to 2 if I get to work 8 hours. But I work construction so it’s never just 6-2. I’m lucky if it’s not 6-6.

I work 10 to 6 but I've been lucky enough to continue working from home (for now at least).

Regardless of the time of day, what kills me more than anything is total hours worked. Like others have said, it's not a fully productive 8 hours.

Anything past 6 hours and my brain mentally starts shutting down. During high stress or high productivity days that can be shortened to 4 or 5 hours of actual productivity and then I slow down

Try 9-6, and I have mandatory meetings Tues/Thurs at 7:30 am. Every week.

I've worked 3pm-11pm that's nice because you can get up at about 6 and do tonnes in the morning before work. I've also worked 4am-12 that's nice because you've got him midday to going to bed at about 10 to do shit you want.

9-5 or thereabouts sucks because you don't really have much time in the morning or the evening.

My job is 9-5 but I work from 8:30 to 4:30, and I work from home most days but visit the office every month or two. I do miss my previous job that was 7:30 to 3:30 though...

Spoken like someone that's never had to work night shifts in a production environment.

Smell the roses.