Finding Freedom in Work Part 1: The Problems With 9-5 freedomiseverything.com /2016/05/04/finding-freedom-in-work-part-1-the-problems-with-9-5/
“Get rid of the 9-5!” This phrase is becoming an increasingly common concept in the modern digital world. More and more people are starting to look for more from their lives than just the plain old rind of a 9-5 job. In this post I will look at some of the problems with regular 9-5 jobs, and will look at some possible alternatives in a follow-up post.
An increasing level of consciousness From speaking with people in a variety of generations and from looking at the sheer volume of personal development / self-help information that is around now, it is apparent that more and more people are thinking about their life at a deeper level. The digital/information age is now in full swing and many people – especially in the younger generations – are able to leverage that to work in ways that are completely different from how we have traditionally worked in the past. That said, the vast majority of people in the western world are still in traditional employment – ie a job. As David Henry Thoreau said: “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”. Why is this the case? What is wrong with a regular job? Working is a good thing. Earning is a good thing. We all need money to some extent to both survive and thrive, and people have always worked. It is a great thing to serve others. What I want to look at is why the traditional 95 job seems to be becoming less and less appetising. In short, many jobs completely remove our freedom and rob us of true choice.
The long hours and commute The first problem I see for the modern worker is the commute. 9-5 jobs might be ok if they truly were still 9-5; but in many cases, jobs are no longer just 9-5. Many people, particularly at the salaried level are working many more hours per week than they would by doing just 9-5. I speak from experience: I would arrive at the office at 7.30 am and work until 7pm, stopping to take a small lunch at my desk sometimes. When you account for the commute, one might leave the house at 6.30 in the morning to arrive at the office for 7.30, then arrive home at 8 or 8.30pm having left the office at 7. This is essentially a 14 hour workday! 14 hours of your precious time spent cooped up in an office (or car) working for what is often a measly salary: that my friends, is ridiculous!
Bullshit rules More and more companies are starting to offer a bit more freedom at work in terms of flexi-time, working from home etc. So there is progress being made, however the vast majority of people working in companies exist under a whole pile of nonsense rules. Dress codes, time-clocks, certain ways to behave, compliance, paperwork. People are constantly bombarded with rules and constraints, which sap the energy, kill creativity and turn many of us into a bunch of corporate drones. We’ve come to think of this state of affairs as normal and we settle into comfortably following these rules.
Trading time for money The classic problem with a job is that people have become used to the incredibly imbalanced trade of their time
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for money. Huge amounts of their time, for often not very much money. Money is an extremely precious resource, but time is even more important. Time is limited, yet there will always be more money in the world. People have come to accept a situation where they trade 5 full days of their precious week, for just 2 days off at the weekend. This would be fine, except for the fact that many people hate their jobs. To take this further, we work 48 weeks of the year (average), in return for 4 weeks of holiday. Again, this is not a problem, except that people spend the entire time between holidays getting steadily more and more excited about the holiday – shouldn’t they spend that time enjoying their life in the moment?? My own Mum is a great example: she cannot WAIT to retire. Recently when she returned from a nice holiday, she immediately stated that she was counting down the weeks (13 at the time) until the next holiday. Whilst I could completely understand why she would say that (I’ve been in that situation many times), it struck me as sad that we should feel the need to wish our lives away. And I know this is how many people view their lives. But isn’t working necessary? Don’t we have to give our time in order to obtain money? Isn’t it a good thing to work and serve others? These are all valid questions, and the answer is yes to all of them (to some degree or another). But this leads me to the final reason why a job kills our freedom, namely:
Working for someone else The final piece of the ‘why jobs suck’ puzzle is the fact that you are always working for someone else. Most employees have absolutely no time, no freedom and no control. Most employees cannot even directly affect their earnings or, if they can, only to a modest degree (perhaps a 2% pay rise each year). This is because you are working for someone else. You are working to make the company money. The other effect of this arrangement is that most of us are completely in a comfort zone. Very few people are testing their own limits. If you are not in business for yourself, then you generally have a ceiling on your income and this means you may never drive yourself to your full potential. This is why sales jobs are so highly paid and so attractive for the driven person – usually they are commission based so to an extent you control your income. In summary, jobs trap us. Once we enter the world of work and subsequently the ‘rat race’, we become slaves to employment and to money. Many people actually enjoy their jobs, but they still need the job to have enough money to live and, to me, this can never be true freedom. My view is that to have true freedom, you have to be working purely by choice. One of my biggest goals is to have enough income coming in passively so that I can choose to work, or choose not to work. To me, that choice alone is worth any effort I may have to put in to get to that point. As I have mentioned in a previous post, I like to work. I like to serve and help others. I love to solve problems. However, I also want the mental freedom to be able to do those things in my own way, in my own time. Believe me, there are ways to begin creating that passive income which can help with this process. Perhaps you feel the same? In the next post I will review some of the ways that we can get rid of our jobs and begin to create the free life I believe we all have a right to. Have fun and good luck!
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