I don’t get people like this. I’m currently underemployed and it’s one of the worst feelings in the world. It’s almost as depressing as being unemployed for me. I’d much rather be productive and have something to actually contribute instead of wasting my time and my life away.
I was in a position like this once. The first two or three months were great. TBH, I mostly played video games and cleaned the house. It felt like free money. By the six month mark, I quit to go to something else. It’s surprising how mentally draining it is to just do nothing.
I think I took two things away from that experience: One, I think people generally have an innate need to produce something. We don’t want to just sit around and entertain ourselves, we want to contribute. Two, I think the 40 hour work week isn’t quite the right balance. Maybe 30 would be better.
Eh, I have kids, so I already have enough mental drain w/o my full-time job, so I think I’d end up catching up on things I’ve been putting off, like exercise, repairs around the house, etc.
In fact, I lost my job at the start of COVID and didn’t start looking for a few months because nobody was hiring. I got so much stuff done around the house, and I was able to essentially home-school my kids at the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. I really enjoyed that, and I would totally homeschool my kids if I didn’t need to work every day to pay the bills.
So yeah, I’d absolutely appreciate a 30-ish hour work week, especially if I got one whole day off instead of it being spread across 5-days.
In your case your productivity is spend around your house and kids and not on jobs, in OOP’s case they spend their time consume. I know i can take the latter but only for a day or two, but i’ll definitely shift to the former soon after.
Even if I didn’t have kids, I’d have plenty of things to do with my SO: hiking, traveling, cooking, etc. “Productivity” has a lot of forms, and many of them aren’t marketable at all, so I really don’t think I’d need to look for a job if I didn’t need the pay.
If you’re single and/or your friends/SO all still work, then yeah, I imagine you’d get pretty bored after a month or so. But if you already have a lot of fulfilling things you’d like to do but don’t have time for, I think not working could work out pretty well.
My brother didn’t get married until about 40yo and had a fantastic job (made it to VP level as an actuary), so he made way more than he could spend. He ended up being able to retire around the time he got married, and he inherited 3 kids (she’s a widow). He’s been retired for several years now and still finds plenty of things to keep himself occupied. He could totally work if he wanted, there’s just other things taking his time.
Everyone is different. For some people, work is the most fulfilling thing, which is why we’ll see many very wealthy people working into their 70s (or 90s for Warren Buffett). For others, relationships are more important, so they quit as soon as they have enough. And for others, various hobbies fill that spot. So it really depends on what gives your life meaning.
For me, it’s my SO and kids, followed by FOSS. So if I didn’t have to work, I’d spend more time on those, not look for another job.
One, I think people generally I have an innate need to produce something. We I don’t want to just sit around and entertain ourselves myself, we I want to contribute. Two, I think the 40 hour work week isn’t quite the right balance for me. Maybe 30 would be better for me.
It’s good to learn from experiences, but it’s not good to assume that your experience is everyone’s experience.
I’m in a similar situation at the moment where my team is pretty unorganized, most employees are from an external company, and noone bothers to explain shit to me, even after I asked several times already. Plus, because of unenforced rules, it’s basically 100% home office and noone is ever present, even if I go in the office. I COULD just do nothing and pretend like I’m working all of the time, noone ever contacts me anyway. But that would genuinely make me wanna die.
I’m already feeling super useless most of the time and try to chew through old legacy code to at least gain an understanding of the project. It’s somewhat working, but it’s tough to keep up my motivation. Overall I kinda oscillate between feeling useless and frustrated because I’m just not as productive as I would want to be as an employee.
Anyway, I’m already sending out CVs to other job offers. This is not the ideal life for me and I don’t plan on keeping it going for longer than necessary.
I don’t get people like this. I’m currently underemployed and it’s one of the worst feelings in the world. It’s almost as depressing as being unemployed for me. I’d much rather be productive and have something to actually contribute instead of wasting my time and my life away.
I was in a position like this once. The first two or three months were great. TBH, I mostly played video games and cleaned the house. It felt like free money. By the six month mark, I quit to go to something else. It’s surprising how mentally draining it is to just do nothing.
I think I took two things away from that experience: One, I think people generally have an innate need to produce something. We don’t want to just sit around and entertain ourselves, we want to contribute. Two, I think the 40 hour work week isn’t quite the right balance. Maybe 30 would be better.
Gah, a 4-day work week would be wonderful. I might actually work on my side projects.
Eh, I have kids, so I already have enough mental drain w/o my full-time job, so I think I’d end up catching up on things I’ve been putting off, like exercise, repairs around the house, etc.
In fact, I lost my job at the start of COVID and didn’t start looking for a few months because nobody was hiring. I got so much stuff done around the house, and I was able to essentially home-school my kids at the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. I really enjoyed that, and I would totally homeschool my kids if I didn’t need to work every day to pay the bills.
So yeah, I’d absolutely appreciate a 30-ish hour work week, especially if I got one whole day off instead of it being spread across 5-days.
In your case your productivity is spend around your house and kids and not on jobs, in OOP’s case they spend their time consume. I know i can take the latter but only for a day or two, but i’ll definitely shift to the former soon after.
Even if I didn’t have kids, I’d have plenty of things to do with my SO: hiking, traveling, cooking, etc. “Productivity” has a lot of forms, and many of them aren’t marketable at all, so I really don’t think I’d need to look for a job if I didn’t need the pay.
If you’re single and/or your friends/SO all still work, then yeah, I imagine you’d get pretty bored after a month or so. But if you already have a lot of fulfilling things you’d like to do but don’t have time for, I think not working could work out pretty well.
My brother didn’t get married until about 40yo and had a fantastic job (made it to VP level as an actuary), so he made way more than he could spend. He ended up being able to retire around the time he got married, and he inherited 3 kids (she’s a widow). He’s been retired for several years now and still finds plenty of things to keep himself occupied. He could totally work if he wanted, there’s just other things taking his time.
Everyone is different. For some people, work is the most fulfilling thing, which is why we’ll see many very wealthy people working into their 70s (or 90s for Warren Buffett). For others, relationships are more important, so they quit as soon as they have enough. And for others, various hobbies fill that spot. So it really depends on what gives your life meaning.
For me, it’s my SO and kids, followed by FOSS. So if I didn’t have to work, I’d spend more time on those, not look for another job.
It’s good to learn from experiences, but it’s not good to assume that your experience is everyone’s experience.
Happens when you’re not proud of what you’re contributing to. Probably most workers, tbh.
Yeah same here.
I’m in a similar situation at the moment where my team is pretty unorganized, most employees are from an external company, and noone bothers to explain shit to me, even after I asked several times already. Plus, because of unenforced rules, it’s basically 100% home office and noone is ever present, even if I go in the office. I COULD just do nothing and pretend like I’m working all of the time, noone ever contacts me anyway. But that would genuinely make me wanna die.
I’m already feeling super useless most of the time and try to chew through old legacy code to at least gain an understanding of the project. It’s somewhat working, but it’s tough to keep up my motivation. Overall I kinda oscillate between feeling useless and frustrated because I’m just not as productive as I would want to be as an employee.
Anyway, I’m already sending out CVs to other job offers. This is not the ideal life for me and I don’t plan on keeping it going for longer than necessary.
Some people don’t dream of, or need, labor. I know I don’t. I have enough hobbies to keep me entertained forever.
I think the whole “still getting enough money to survive” really makes a difference in how the unemployed see themselves
yeah I am the same as you. I can’t respect anyone who slacks that hard