“Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*)
of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers.”
~ Elon Musk, South African American Business Magnate
It’s funny, in a time of material abundance, we are working more than ever before. In this video,
I’d like to discuss six reasons why I don’t like full-time work, and consequently why I don’t fit
in with modern-day society. This is not me saying that everybody dislikes full-time work – I’m
sure there’s somebody out there who likes working all the time, but I’ve never met him.
Number 1. Massive Time Sink. And I don’t use that term lightly. Many people I know spend
most of their waking lives at work. Not only do they spend 8 or 9 hours at work each day,
they spend an hour in the morning getting ready for work, and then spend an hour or more getting
too and from work. Their day is already full by the time they get up. This obviously impacts their
personal life. When both parents work, kids are often forced to go to after-school care. They’re
essentially being forced to work full-time as well. I remember listening to the radio one day
and a girl called up – a teenager – talking about her “perfect” life. She used that word completely
ironically. She had all the latest gadgets. She had an expensive phone, the latest iPad,
a massive house, and an expensive car, but she never saw he father. Her dad was an anaesthetist,
I think, or some other specialist doctor who was always at work when she grew up.
When he was at home, she was always told to keep quiet, because daddy was tired and needed
to sleep. If he wasn’t sleeping, he was in the office studying for some upcoming medical exam.
The only nostalgic memories she had of her father was he would occasionally drive her to netball
practice on a Saturday morning, but he rarely spoke, and mainly listened to classical music.
As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been talking in the past tense, that’s because her father
had already died. It sounded like he couldn’t have been more than about 50. She never mentioned how
he died, but it sounded like it involved stress and overwork. She said she missed her father, but
even when he was alive, she missed her father. She rarely saw him. Although she had all the material
possessions that she could ever have wanted, she was left longing for her father’s company.
Okay, so that was an extreme example, and I’m sure not all full-time workers are like this,
but it does go to show you that there is more to life than work,
and this is the exact reason I quit my full-time job. I was rarely seeing my children.
Number 2. Never Switched Off. Even though you might only spend 8 or 9 physical hours at work,
most people I know cannot stop thinking about work even when they’re at home. One lady I know works
as a domestic violence support worker. When she comes home, she simply cannot turn off. Either
she’s complaining about the bad day she’s had, or she’s miserable about of one of the clients
she had to deal with. She usually resorts to self-medication by having a few glasses of wine
each night. When she finally does get to sleep, she wakes up in the middle of night worrying
about work. Then she has trouble getting back to sleep, and by the time she does, it’s already
morning and she has to do it all over again. Even on the weekends, it’s hard for her to switch off.
On Friday nights she seems happy enough, but by Sunday, she’s already worried about the upcoming
work week. And she feels she can’t quit, because this is what she’s studied so hard to become,
not to mention that she and her husband have a massive mortgage to pay off.
Switching off is important, but unfortunately, many full-time workers simply can’t do it.
Number 3. Office Politics. This is a bit of a catch-all term for all the social antics that
goes on at the workplace involving people striving for personal power and authority. Luckily,
due to the recent events of the last couple of years, I no longer have to go into the office
and therefore don’t have to deal with it anymore. However, even though I work exclusively from home,
I still get all the emails from work acting as if I’m still in the workplace. One such example was
this one regarding the use of personal heaters. This is just an excerpt, mind you: “Colleagues,
It has come to our attention that with the recent cold weather (apparently, it’s the coldest start
to winter in over 100 years), it has been observed that staff have been introducing personal heaters
to the workplace. Staff are reminded that this is against university policy and should immediately
remove any personal heating devices from the building. There are a number of reasons for this:
1. The university has a policy in place to reach carbon neutrality by 2030.
The use of personal heaters greatly increases our ecological footprint, and therefore contributes
to global emissions, hindering our efforts. 2. The introduction of personal heaters presents a
serious fire risk as well as a tripping hazard and may result in harm directly being caused
to your colleagues. 3. The University’s internal temperature controls are set to 21.5°C for winter,
which research has shown is the correct balance between personal comfort and energy efficiency.
The introduction of personal heaters results in air-conditioning systems putting less heat into
the building due to the raised internal ambient temperature creating a spiral of unsatisfactory
temperature levels for everyone. For those who still feel cold in the workplace, we advise that
you wear additional layers of clothing. Remember, we are all committed to managing our social,
environmental and economic footprint. Please join us in creating a more environmentally
sustainable work environment by improving energy efficiency and reducing energy waste”.
I think if they were being honest, they could have summed that up in one sentence:
“Colleagues, Please stop using personal heaters so that the university can save some money.
Thank you”. Another example of office politics that I was lucky enough to witness happened
a couple of years ago, back when I was still in the workplace. I remember one lady who’s desk was
positioned near the office kitchen. People would leave their dirty cups and spoons in the sink,
and she took it upon herself to remind them of the office rules. One fateful day,
a new worker had just started (he had actually been at the university for many years),
but he was new to our building. He was an audit officer, I think. Anyway, he made himself a coffee
and left his dirty spoon in the sink. Just as he was walking away, this lady interjected and said,
“Excuse me, have you read the sign just above the sink?”. (She had personally made a sign stating,
“In the interests of maintaining a safe work environment, please clean up after yourself and do
not leave dirty items in the sink. Thank you!”). The man replied, “Sorry, what’s you name?”.
“Susie”. “Hi Susie, I’m Brian. I’ve been at this university a very long time and I’ve seen hundreds
of signs come and go being posted all over the walls. Quite frankly, I’ve learnt to ignore them.
It’s a waste of my time to read them. So please tell me. What’s so important about the sign above
the sink?”. “Well, it’s just there to remind people to clean up after themselves in order to
maintain a safe work environment”. “Okay, so would happen if I left a dirty spoon in the sink? How
will the workplace be impacted?”. “Well it might attract insects”. “Okay, what sort of insects?”.
“I don’t know, maybe ants or something”. “Okay, what would happen if ants came? What would be the
result?”. “Well, some people might have an allergy to ants”. “Okay, anything else?”. “I don’t know,
maybe the ants will start crawling into office equipment, or something”. “Okay, so you’re telling
me that by me leaving a dirty spoon in the sink, perhaps a regiment of ants might come, crawl into
people’s computers and keyboards, and possibly even bite somebody who happens to be allergic to
them causing them to keel over? Is that right?”. “Well, that sounds like a bit of an exaggeration,
but I suppose it’s certainly possible”. “Okay, I tell you what. I’ll come back 10 minutes before
I leave work today and I’ll take care of all the washing up, okay?”. And then he walked off.
Susie was incensed. Nobody had ever spoken to her like that before. Instead of waiting till
Brian came back, she stomped towards the sink, put on some rubber gloves, and spent the next
10 minutes washing up the spoon and cleaning the sink. She wanted everyone to know what she was
doing. Later that afternoon, Brian did indeed come back. He looked in the nice clean kitchen
sink and said out loud, “Oh, somebody’s already cleaned up! I guess I get an early mark!”, and
then he went home. Susie stormed over to the sign and highlighted the part saying, “Do not leave
dirty items in the sink!”. Yeah, this is what people do when they spend too much time at work.
They get angry at anybody who dares to break their trivial rules. Nah, office politics is not for me.
Number 4. Mental Health Decline. Some of the full-time workers I know, they literally torture
themselves by going to work. They hate it so much, but they can’t find a way out. Of course, most of
them are there for financial reasons. They’ve got themselves into a lot of debt, so they either have
to continue working, find a new job, or win the lotto or something. If they quit, they’ll lose
everything. So they put themselves through untold anguish just to keep a roof over their heads.
One acquaintance of mine literally applied for psychological counselling because work
had been getting to him so much. His work allows him to take Wednesday afternoons off each week
to attend his counselling sessions. However, he has to work an extra half-an-hour on Mondays,
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays to make up for the lost time. His wife also works full-time and
struggles emotionally as well. She works in some highly stressful government job. I don’t
know how they keep it together, but they do, even if it’s slowly killing them emotionally.
When I do meet them, they are always tired, and seem to be in a permanent state of listlessness.
Number 5. Lack of Freedom. Have you ever tried to get holidays when you work full-time? I’ve
always found it funny that you have to “apply” for holidays, and then somebody has to “approve” your
application. To me, that sounds like modern-day slavery. I only work casually, so I don’t get
all those extra full-time perks like sick leave, or whatever, but at least I can refuse a shift
whenever I want to. Sure, I don’t get paid if I do that, but at least I have my freedom intact.
And the final one, Number 6. Life Becomes a Blur. Whenever I’ve worked full-time,
life just seemed to race by. I can barely remember anything from my full-time working life
(except for some of the more memorable negative events that I have mentioned previously).
I’ve seen interviews with hospice nurses and the like who often deal with elderly patients who are
close to death. The patients always have the same regrets. They regret not spending more time with
friends and family. They regret not looking after their health. They regret not taking more time
off work and travelling more. Not one person ever says, “I wish I spent more time in the office!”.
Anyway, that’s the end of my list. What do you think? Is full-time work not all that
it’s cracked up to be? Should we actively do more to enjoy our life rather than just spend
all our waking hours at work? Personally, I don’t think I’ll ever work a full-time job ever again,
even if that means I’ll get a lot less money, so be it. It’s just not worth it in my opinion.