I’ve worked 2nd (afternoon), swing (evening), and 3rd (overnight) shifts for the majority of my life. I recently moved into a training position where I’m Monday through Friday, 8am to ~5:30pm (I get OT while I’m cleaning up and writing reports).
As much as the 2nd/swing/3rd shifts screw with your life in other ways, the difficulty in scheduling any kind of life services outside of working hours is maddening. Doctor’s appointment? Nope. DMV? Maybe Saturday, if you’re lucky. Chaperone your kids field trip? Hahahhah no.
I don’t want to burn sick time for a doctor’s appointment (I need to save those for when my kid is actually sick), and I sure as hell don’t want to use up a “vacation” day for it. How tf are you supposed to get anything done?
Scrolling down to this actually made me burst out with a laugh. Well done.
It’s so fucn true though haha
that’s the point. the capitalists want every minute of your life they can get to work for them, then make you scramble to fit the rest of your life in the gaps. they make more profit and you have less time and energy to educate yourself, think, and organize
A tired worker is an obedient one
Especially if you have kids. Who’s going to pay for daycare, insurance, day-to-day needs? You basically become a slave to the company cause you don’t have the choice to quit in order to support family
That’s why we need strong communities, solidarity and mutual aid. Get the burden off of individual shoulders and make space to organize.
It’s as easy as asking your neighbours if you wanna take turns cooking dinner for each other or something like that so you have an hour to spare.
Jobs paid enough so one person could stay home is how it worked. Growing up, dad made all the money and mom stayed home to do chores and whatnot. It’s just how things worked. These days mom’s living off of dad’s retirement fund since he died early and she’s always surprised when I have to ask her for money even though its her generation that made the world what it is. Even when I am able to find work my wife and I are check to check. It’s stupid.
Yep we could have kept taxing the wealthy like we did pre Regan and things would have been good still but both parties became neoliberal shit
Eh, except that was only ever true above a certain income level. There has always been a portion of the working class excluded from those perks.
I think the point is that the income level that could afford a stay at home parent used to be way lower than it is today. My parents bought a house in the hood in the 90s for around $100k in their 20s, got by with 3 kids on a single blue collar salary of less than $40k in the 2000s (like ~$70k today), and are doing great financially today. The oldest of us with no kids struggled to buy any home on a double income in specialized skills with degrees. We grew up qualifying for state benefits and pell grants and somehow us kids who are technically “middle class” are doing so much more for less.
Jobs paid enough so one person could stay home is how it worked
That’s a fantasy. In the 1800s and before there was so much at-home work to be done that it was a full time job for someone (virtually always the wife). She had to do the baking, cooking, mending clothes, cleaning, etc. all without any electrical appliances. That included no refrigerator or freezer, so shopping had to be done a lot more often. There were also no cars, so people either had to walk to do their shopping, or they used a horse. But, if they used a horse, then there was extra work related to keeping the horse alive and in good shape. Clothes were also a lot more expensive, so a lot more time was spent either making clothes at home and mending clothes that had holes, worn spots, etc. It wasn’t “to do chores and whatnot”, it was a full-time job involving more work than a typical a typical job from modern days.
Then there was WWI, then the “roaring 20s”, which is when electrical appliances first started appearing, and then the stock market crashed and the great depression hit. During the great depression, if either the wife or the husband could find work, they were lucky, and probably had to support the whole family. During the great depression, a lot of worker protections were put in place through the New Deal. But, the jobs weren’t there.
Then WWII hit, and for a while the US was manufacturing things for the rest of the world without being in the war itself. That helped the economy get going again. When the US joined the war, the economy was really going, but there was rationing in place so the workers who were earning money weren’t able to spend it. When the war ended, the US was in an incredibly strong position. Workers had savings to spend once rationing was removed. Every other country had had its industrial base smashed by the war. As a result, the US manufacturing was in high demand all over the world. For contrast, even though the UK was also one of the “winners” of WWII, rationing was in place until 1954.
So, high demand for industrial workers, worker protections left over from the New Deal era, labour-saving electrical appliances being available for the first time, cars everywhere… it was a unique set of circumstances that meant for maybe the first time in history a man could work a blue collar job and have a wife who stayed at home and just did “chores and whatnot”. That lasted a few decades. People blame Reagan for a lot of it, but really by the time he was elected that golden period for blue collar workers was already ending.
Also, keep in mind that strong protections for workers didn’t just happen. The government didn’t just decide that it would be nice to workers. Workers had to fight hard for those rights. The 8 hour day is the result of fights that were very violent. Bombs were thrown at cops. Supposed ringleaders were hanged by the government after show trials. FDR pushed for laws to protect workers because the alternative was rioting. If today’s workers want to share in the wealth, they need to riot, they need to be prepared to die. Nothing’s going to change if it’s just complaining that “this isn’t how it should be”.
Jobs paid enough so one person could stay home is how it worked.
Sure, but you get send your stay-at-home spouse to the doctor or dentist on your behalf. They can manage tasks that are more household than personal though.
Where I work, they don’t really give a shit if you have to go to an appointment or whatever. You just let people know you’re going to be out at such and such time and that’s it. No micromanaging of time since we’re all adults and know what our deadlines and deliverables are. It’s a salaried position, though.
If I had no flexibility at all that would definitely be pretty miserable.
I come from a decade of high flexibility and autonomy. I now have a boss who basically breathes down my neck until the moment i need help, then is a ghost.
The “you have to be sitting at your desk the whole day, every day” thing is fucking insane. I can’t believe how much I dislike this job because of it
Same, brother. After working at a job that really doesn’t want you to randomly be absent by any reason to a job where you can come and leave any time as long as you got 40h a week - that is life changing.
Unfortunately, not all jobs can be like this. My previous job, just because of it’s nature, would never allow this freedom.
Yes exactly. And all of those appointments are even considerd work time.
In our company we also get a splndid lunch for €5 every day. I honestly can’t complain about my work life balance with this much planinf freedom.
Same here, middle of the road salary but as long as I can stand on business in meetings people generally dont care. The difference is I’ll finish early to collect the kids and then do an hour or two when they are in bed.
Nice office jobs you can slip out for doctors appointments, but you kinda sorta still have to make up some of the time.
Yeah, this. You schedule of days or you ask your boss if it’s cool if you come in at 10 so you can get a new glasses prescription.
It depends a lot on the work culture where you are.
This is also a big reason people get married. It helps a lot if you have two people juggling this stuff.
I think there was a time, maybe a few decades ago, when it was entirely acceptable and expected for a full time employee to say “I’m taking off early today, I’ve got a few errands to run.” from time to time. I’m very lucky to be able to do that, but it sounds like it’s getting less common.
This is exactly why I’ve stayed working for the same company for the last 6 years. I could definitely go elsewhere and get paid more (job hopping for higher salary is pretty common in my field), but I seriously doubt they’d be as cool with my senior dog’s frequent vet appointments.
I l ove that I call my boss and say i’m running late because my dogs haven’t pooped yet and he’s always cool with it.
The concept of burning vacation / sick time for a doctor’s appointment is weird to me (canada). I just say “hey boss, doc appointment this day” and he says “okay”.
I feel like it depends on the company here, but I don’t think I’d stay long if they made me use my time off for that.
Same thing here in Europe. You can then get a special permit from the doctor to show your employer that you were actually at a medical appointment and not smoking weed
This feels personal… I’ll have you know I can smoke weed AND go to the doctor.
In United States of Shit, you can get a doctor’s note to show employers. Most times I’ll make an appointment and get the date on a doctors card and show my manager. All unpaid of course
Ey! My GP’s notes don’t mention I wasn’t smoking weed. I’ll have to ask them to include it next time.
Honestly? It’s hard. I’d literally kill for a 4 day work week. It’s become ridiculous.
My gf and I don’t even have kids. I can’t even imagine having kids to manage on top.
My weekends I barely have time to socialize or engage in my hobbies or leisure. When I do, my weekend chores overflow on my Monday evening. I’m tired all the fucking time.
It feels like a god damn cage.
Whenever I get a 3-day weekend, it feels like that’s how a normal weekend should be.
When I get a 4-day weekend, it feels luxurious.
Those 4-day work weeks are nearly as productive as the 5-day work weeks. Those 3-day work weeks are tight. But I could make it work if I really had to! Lmao
Agree. 3 day weekends is the sweet spot.
And besides, since I work from home, I spend half my time on Monday just trying to finish the laundry n shit and vacuum during lunch. I still get my work done.
I tried out a 4x10 work week for a while and it was alright, but not as great as I thought it would be. Mostly because I had effectively no time during the work week to get any household chores done, so we ended up just cramming everything into the weekend anyway, largely negating the purpose of having the extra day.
But yeah, if I could do a 32 hour work week that would be incredible.
For sure! 10 hours a day is too much. I’m dead after 6 already.
As someone who also does “8-5” (can’t believe we still call it that), I don’t get any life done. I get home, get dinner done and then I doom scroll until I pass out from the exhaustion.
Given my commute is longer than most, I just don’t have the time or energy to commit to other things I would otherwise be willing to get into. Drives me nuts when I see others being able to get their shit done seemingly whenever they want. With traffic being shit here, no idea how anyone can realistically get to the gym and still make themselves dinner afterwards without going past 10. It’s crazy out here.
That’s the neat part. You don’t.
Okay but really, you have to take time off.
Also depends on the country you’re in. In my case “sick leave” doesn’t have a limit. If you’re sick or you need to take care of someone who is, you just don’t work. There’s no day limit.
Also, if you need to go to a bank appointment or something like that, most places will either not even ask you to “recover” those hours or (at worst) you’ll just work an extra hour a few days.
In addition to what you’ve mentioned, in my country if you have a government job doctor appointments count as work. And works days are 7.75 hours a day in winter and 7 in summer, including lunch.
This is why the rich don’t understand how the poor “can’t work”. They have kids yo. And lower end jobs oftenhave very strict hours. But the upper end jobs have lots of flexibility. And the rich of course just don’t volunteer at their kids school, or they have a parent home with the kids to do all those things.
I have flexible time fortunately, which means I can start later if I have a doctors appointment. I make over hours most of the time so I can use those for these kind of events. Also I reduced my weekly working time to 80%
It’s a privileged situation, but it is the only way to keep me sane. I can go shopping groceries at 3:30 instead of 5 or go to the gym earlier, it makes huge differences.
The job I have now is the first one I’ve had that ever offered flex time. It’s such a treat to be halfway through the day and the boss comes up and goes, “Would you like to leave two hours early?” It’s like being asked if you want free dessert - I have to contain my giddiness, and have yet to say no to the offer.
I had a boss tell us we should forget about work-life balance.
That’s a weird way to pronounce “we’re an abusive workplace and I advise you to form a union.”
The correct way is to say that the company is like family.
Lol fuck that. It was either a really shit pahing job or a really high paying job. If it was inbetween tat company fuck can jump off a cliff.
Burn PTO. Already get up at 6 to get the kids off to school, straight to work, straight to dinner, pick one chore until i pass out, get up at 6
If you have PTO. Contractors do not. Finding full time employment these days is hard. Finding full-time contracts is a lot easier.
Companies love contractors. No benefits to pay and doesn’t count as a full time hire.
If you can’t take time off as a contractor then you aren’t actually a contractor.
PTO, not unpaid time off
our contractors take UTO :/
Eat
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Repeat
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