Ugh, cont'd

Get up at 6:30am. Leave for work at 7:15, arrive at work around 8:15. Leave work at 4:30, arrive at home around 5:30.

I need to go to bed around 10pm if I want to get any decent amount of sleep. That means I have the time between 5:30pm and 10:00pm, that’s 4.5 hours, of non-working non-sleeping time. In that time, I need to eat dinner and shower and shave, so make that ~3.5 hours. 3.5 hours of life per day.

That is so sucky and depressing. It’s not that I don’t love my job -- I do. I’m incredibly thankful to have any job at all right now, and especially this job in particular. The pay is spectacular and the other engineers I work with are the nicest group of guys you could ask for. But 3.5 hours of life per day is no life at all. Curse Adam for cursing me thusly.

My options are:
1. sleep deprivation (not an option)
2. move to Europe where the work week is ~30 hours (looking better and better every day...)
3. move closer to work (probably the best/easiest option, but it requires graduating first and saving up money to get a house/apartment)

In the meantime... ugh.

Posted by Anthony on May 22, 2003 | 7 replies
Filed under: General

Comments:

01. May 22, 2003 at 2:13pm by Mom:

My Anthony,

Welcome to the grown-up world! All the college grad’s who have found a job as well as everyone old enough to work at a full time job knows exactly what you are feeling. It does get better. It is just a shock to your system coming from a college schedule. Even tho your school day is really full, it isn’t the ’9 to 5’ routine you’ve always heard about. Now you know what that cliche’ really means and how it feels. Make the most of it; have some fun in those off hours as well as establishing new vistas at Unisys.

02. May 22, 2003 at 2:22pm by Anthony:

It’s not the 9-5; I’ve worked every summer for the last 9 years so I’m used to that. It’s the 2 hours per day wasted to driving that really get me.

03. May 22, 2003 at 4:26pm by Rolly:

I’m right with you A, and then some. I’ve been doing the grown-up thing for lots of years now, and it IS a drag working for the American corporate machine. I realize this more and more each day. It could get better, or it could get alot worse, like when there’s a big project deadline and you’re expected to "do whatever it takes". Then your "life" per day could quickly diminish to zero hours. Somewhere along the line in our history, American industrialization and capitalism started to take much more priority than the personal aspects that are still valued by EMPLOYER & employee in places like Europe. Not only are the work weeks shorter, but people typically get a crapload of vacation time when they start a job. I won’t see a 3rd week of vacation for another 5 years if I stay at this company. Even if you move right next to Unisys, you’d still only be gaining 2 hours a day, so now you get 5 hours of life per day. Now factor in the time you’re supposed to exercise per day, the time you should spend to relax and decompress, keeping up with friends and family, etc.. and this time will be chewed up very quickly. In my opinion this system of ours is very broken and manifests itself in many ways like dvorce, latch-key kids, unhealthy and obese people, and very high stress levels. All you have to do is the math to realize something has to give....I’m supposed to get 8 hrs of sleep per day, I get paid to work 8 hrs per day(even though my boss would like me to spend 10 here), 2 hrs of commute per day, 2 hours spent cooking/eating per day, and 1 hour exercise per day. That’s 21 out of 24 hours, and I haven’t even mentioned things like spending time with family, friends, enjoying a hobby, & giving back to the community. It just doesn’t seem possible to maintain all this, and today’s American society shows it. One solution would be to move to Europe, the other is be your own boss. That’s what I have my sights set on, and I think you should too with the talent and smarts you have. Maybe someday we can put our heads together and come up with something good to base a business on. Until then, it’s off to work I go...

04. May 23, 2003 at 1:14pm by Anthony:

Ah, resonance. I knew I wasn’t the only one.

It’s true that moving close to work would only gain me 2 hours per day, but that’s still 50% more than I have now, so that would certainly be nice. But from the big picture perspective, I agree that the machine is badly broken, and our culture quite obviously manifests the negative effects of that.

Between holidays and vacation time, I’m fairly happy with the amount of days off I have. (Not that I wouldn’t like more, though...) But I’m more concerned about the amount of hours in the working days. Working 8 or 10 hours and commuting 2 hours equals 2/3 of your waking life spent on work. That is out of hand, and you have to be a cyborg to not realize that... but I still constantly find myself saying "Am I the only one who understands these things??" I see these old guys around here, they come in earlier than everyone else and who knows when they finally leave, and you walk through the halls and hear them almost-cheerfully talking about how late they stayed ON SATURDAY? That is just sick.

That’s a good idea about running your own business. We should absolutely work on that. Maybe we can get hired by Nick in his skate shop.

Holy cow Rolly, I just realized something. You and I are the only ones who got suckered into this "higher education" thing, and almost everyone else in our family owns their own business!! What the heck! Nick’s got the shop. Tasha runs her own real estate gig, Brian... well, he’s working for the Greenleys now (which is practically like being self-employed) but he’s planning on starting something of his own if/when that gets slow, and dad of course owns the roofing business... WHAT THE HECK! Why didn’t someone tell me??

05. May 23, 2003 at 1:30pm by Joseph:

Goodness, I feel so young... I’ve just graduated high school and am starting my freshman college year when I get back from Fort Sill. I actually intend to never truly work for a big company. I am planing to start my own business, now I’m just dreading getting past school. You ever see the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks? Yeah, I don’t want that to happen to me. I know starting my own business will mean 0hrs of free time, but at least it’s MY work. That leaves a little glimmer into my pathetic hope for a life. (Everyone here says I need to get one :p)

06. May 23, 2003 at 2:38pm by Rolly:

I hear you about the "heroes" that brag about their overtime expolits at the office. Just keep in mind that everyone needs fulfillment, and these people get theirs by being the best "company man" they can be. I know this sounds absurd to people like you and I who actually value things like free time and hobbies and such. We work to live where some live to work. I realized the same thing you did about everyone in our family when I was writing my last post. Funny. Sometimes I ask myself "why didn’t anyone tell me....", but I always come back to one basic reason(besides the parties and girls) why I will always treasure my college education and never regret it, and that is it really does teach you how to think. You will realize this more as you get older. I used to hear that and wonder what the big deal was. But it’s true, you learn how to look at things in a more objective, big picture kind of light and make your own decisons and seperate the real from the crap. Knowing this gives the realization that you really can do anything you want, if you have the vision, confidence, and drive. This tidbit is what keeps me thinking positive when I feel so bad about becoming a corporate drone. One day....

Happy Friday!!

07. May 27, 2003 at 11:09am by Anthony:

I hear ya about the college education. I started my "learning how to think" process more in high school though, through seemingly-endless debates about religion and other things, and also from my chem teacher who I had for 2 (or 3?) years. He was one of those "everything you know is wrong" kind of people, and he was really a jerk a lot of times... but his harshly critical attitude, both towards his students and the world, was really a benefit to me (some of my friends feel the same, but others absolutely hate him).

I do value my college education highly, and oddly enough it’s because of the things I’m learning. Not that most of the things will be useful in whatever career I go into (because many will not), but some of them certainly will, and most of them are interesting at least.

Happy.... not-Friday : ( But at least it’s not Monday!

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