What made you happy today?

[KevShmev]

But I think that is the hair in the soup: we older Americans have been conditioned to think that we have to work ourselves to death, to where the idea of working six days in a row seems almost normal. To hell with that.  Not everyone is wired the same, but I can't imagine being one of those people who seemingly works all day, every day. 

Meanwhile, we had a guy quit over the weekend with no notice.  I got to work this morning and got the "such-and-such is no longer with the company" email. He had been there 3-4 months doing the entry level job and seemed like he'd be moved up pretty soon, but I guess he found something else and didn't care enough to give any notice.

[TAC]

I am less motivated. 

Seems like getting folks like me out of the way would be a huge benefit to employers.  They can hire new folks at lower wages and less attractive benefits packages.

If my employer came to me today and offered to cover my healthcare benefits until I became eligible for Medicare, I'd gladly retire tomorrow.

Harmony, if that's a recent picture of you in your avatar, there's no way you're near retirement age, unless you and your husband have done very well.

[Harmony]

That's parked domain girl, TAC.   

[TAC]

I'm sorry. What?

[wolfking]

I'm sorry. What?

I had to google it too.

[Harmony]

Look it up!  I'm quite certain many folks on this board have seen her before.

Are you too young?  I thought I saw you posting on the geezer thread.... 

[wolfking]

Look it up!  I'm quite certain many folks on this board have seen her before.

Are you too young?  I thought I saw you posting on the geezer thread.... 

Oh Tim is definitely a geezer. 

I'm 38 and had to look it up though......

[TAC]

Are you too young?

Four words that have never been said to me on this forum...ever!



I just assumed that was you. I have never heard of the parked domain girl. I google imaged it and....there you were!

[Evermind]

I don't post much here nowadays, but I feel obligated to say I'm with Zantera on this, despite you guys giving him shit.

You guys want to work 80 hours across 7 days with consecutive weeks, you do you. My boss is like this too, clocking 12 hour days and doing weekends. If you don't have any other option, it's also fine, but it's not a reason to brag or to belittle anyone who says this lifestyle is not for them. Apparently you're not allowed to complain about overtime if you work 40 hours a week? Is it like this thing that if you don't have children, you're not allowed to be tired? Or if you sleep more than 5 hours a week, you're not allowed to be tired either?

For some people 8/5 is enough, especially if you add commute to it. I sure would like to do some hobbies instead of crunching on some project with deadlines that were set so they can only be met if you're working on it day and night.

Of course my workplace screwed me twice with overtime payments so I might be biased I used to work overtime a lot ~3-5 years ago but I don't do it at all anymore and I'm alright with that.

[Dublagent66]

These days, the things that make me happy can be counted on 1 finger.  My middle finger.

[pg1067]

I'm sorry. What?

I had to google it too.

I had Google Lensed it a while back, but I don't think I've seen or heard of her otherwise.   

[King Postwhore]

But I think that is the hair in the soup: we older Americans have been conditioned to think that we have to work ourselves to death, to where the idea of working six days in a row seems almost normal. To hell with that.  Not everyone is wired the same, but I can't imagine being one of those people who seemingly works all day, every day. 

Meanwhile, we had a guy quit over the weekend with no notice.  I got to work this morning and got the "such-and-such is no longer with the company" email. He had been there 3-4 months doing the entry level job and seemed like he'd be moved up pretty soon, but I guess he found something else and didn't care enough to give any notice.

I think it really depends on if your salary or hourly.  As a salary guy now, I'll work hard to cut time down.  When I was hourly, I'd take overtime all the time.

[Stadler]

I don't post much here nowadays, but I feel obligated to say I'm with Zantera on this, despite you guys giving him shit.

You guys want to work 80 hours across 7 days with consecutive weeks, you do you. My boss is like this too, clocking 12 hour days and doing weekends. If you don't have any other option, it's also fine, but it's not a reason to brag or to belittle anyone who says this lifestyle is not for them. Apparently you're not allowed to complain about overtime if you work 40 hours a week? Is it like this thing that if you don't have children, you're not allowed to be tired? Or if you sleep more than 5 hours a week, you're not allowed to be tired either?

For some people 8/5 is enough, especially if you add commute to it. I sure would like to do some hobbies instead of crunching on some project with deadlines that were set so they can only be met if you're working on it day and night.

Of course my workplace screwed me twice with overtime payments so I might be biased I used to work overtime a lot ~3-5 years ago but I don't do it at all anymore and I'm alright with that.

Well, it's like anything else, isn't it?  You CAN do you, but accept/acknowledge the consequences.   Not so much now, but I worked for a company that rewarded people for working globally.  The entire world doesn't work on "8-5 eastern time, four days a week", so I would get calls almost all hours of the day.  The concept of "40 hours" was a pipe dream.  By all means set your limits, but accept them.   If you don't get that promotion, or don't get that raise, it's not because your boss blows, or the company sucks or you're being discriminated against.  It's because you made a choice to limit your contributions to that company.  Other companies may be fine with that, but that particular one might not be for you.

[jingle.boy]

I don't post much here nowadays, but I feel obligated to say I'm with Zantera on this, despite you guys giving him shit.

You guys want to work 80 hours across 7 days with consecutive weeks, you do you. My boss is like this too, clocking 12 hour days and doing weekends. If you don't have any other option, it's also fine, but it's not a reason to brag or to belittle anyone who says this lifestyle is not for them. Apparently you're not allowed to complain about overtime if you work 40 hours a week? Is it like this thing that if you don't have children, you're not allowed to be tired? Or if you sleep more than 5 hours a week, you're not allowed to be tired either?

For some people 8/5 is enough, especially if you add commute to it. I sure would like to do some hobbies instead of crunching on some project with deadlines that were set so they can only be met if you're working on it day and night.

Of course my workplace screwed me twice with overtime payments so I might be biased I used to work overtime a lot ~3-5 years ago but I don't do it at all anymore and I'm alright with that.

Well, it's like anything else, isn't it?  You CAN do you, but accept/acknowledge the consequences.   Not so much now, but I worked for a company that rewarded people for working globally.  The entire world doesn't work on "8-5 eastern time, four days a week", so I would get calls almost all hours of the day.  The concept of "40 hours" was a pipe dream.  By all means set your limits, but accept them.   If you don't get that promotion, or don't get that raise, it's not because your boss blows, or the company sucks or you're being discriminated against.  It's because you made a choice to limit your contributions to that company.  Other companies may be fine with that, but that particular one might not be for you.

I don't mean to digress, but this got a legit lol out of me.  Such an American/Western way of thinking.  Like people just exist to contribute (their time) to their employer.  Far too many jobs measure the value of the output as a direct correlation of the time inputted.

So uncivilized.

[Stadler]

I don't post much here nowadays, but I feel obligated to say I'm with Zantera on this, despite you guys giving him shit.

You guys want to work 80 hours across 7 days with consecutive weeks, you do you. My boss is like this too, clocking 12 hour days and doing weekends. If you don't have any other option, it's also fine, but it's not a reason to brag or to belittle anyone who says this lifestyle is not for them. Apparently you're not allowed to complain about overtime if you work 40 hours a week? Is it like this thing that if you don't have children, you're not allowed to be tired? Or if you sleep more than 5 hours a week, you're not allowed to be tired either?

For some people 8/5 is enough, especially if you add commute to it. I sure would like to do some hobbies instead of crunching on some project with deadlines that were set so they can only be met if you're working on it day and night.

Of course my workplace screwed me twice with overtime payments so I might be biased I used to work overtime a lot ~3-5 years ago but I don't do it at all anymore and I'm alright with that.

Well, it's like anything else, isn't it?  You CAN do you, but accept/acknowledge the consequences.   Not so much now, but I worked for a company that rewarded people for working globally.  The entire world doesn't work on "8-5 eastern time, four days a week", so I would get calls almost all hours of the day.  The concept of "40 hours" was a pipe dream.  By all means set your limits, but accept them.   If you don't get that promotion, or don't get that raise, it's not because your boss blows, or the company sucks or you're being discriminated against.  It's because you made a choice to limit your contributions to that company.  Other companies may be fine with that, but that particular one might not be for you.

I don't mean to digress, but this got a legit lol out of me.  Such an American/Western way of thinking.  Like people just exist to contribute (their time) to their employer.  Far too many jobs measure the value of the output as a direct correlation of the time inputted.

So uncivilized.

Wow. I'm "uncivilized" because I don't believe my company owes me anything other than my salary?  That's pretty fucking harsh.

A job is a business transaction nothing more.  Just like anything else, I shouldn't expect any more than what I put into it.  If I'm not willing to practice a legitimate amount, I shouldn't expect to be Joe Satriani or Don Mattingly.  Western, Eastern, Northern, whatever, too many people over state the role and obligations of corporations in our existence.   

[TAC]

I don't post much here nowadays, but I feel obligated to say I'm with Zantera on this, despite you guys giving him shit.

You guys want to work 80 hours across 7 days with consecutive weeks, you do you. My boss is like this too, clocking 12 hour days and doing weekends. If you don't have any other option, it's also fine, but it's not a reason to brag or to belittle anyone who says this lifestyle is not for them. Apparently you're not allowed to complain about overtime if you work 40 hours a week? Is it like this thing that if you don't have children, you're not allowed to be tired? Or if you sleep more than 5 hours a week, you're not allowed to be tired either?

The answer is...no! 


So I will humbly plead guilty to busting Zantera's balls.

I don't know him, and have no idea of his posting history. I guess I was posting facetiously, but I must admit that his comments got my back up a bit.
Perhaps he has an extremely draining and high intensity job. If that's the case, then I will take what I said back, but at face value....and guess it's a ME problem.

For some people 8/5 is enough, especially if you add commute to it. I sure would like to do some hobbies instead of crunching on some project with deadlines that were set so they can only be met if you're working on it day and night.

But if that is what your job requires, then I guess you have to.

[Zantera]

It could be a difference in culture too, I know in America working 2 jobs is more common than it should be just to make ends meet, here a 40-45 hour / week job is pretty much standard and it's quite rare for people to be on double jobs or work 70-80 hours a week unless you're a boss or have your own firm, or you're some sort of misfit who is miserable outside work so you just want to work work. I would say my job has its good days and bad days - working in a warehouse so depending on what sort of task I do for the day (like driving forklift/truck or other assignments) I might be drained at the end of the day or feel okay about it.

For me it's not so much the physical side that's the hard part, if that was the only challenge I could probably put in 80 hours in a week just for the flex. What I meant with the 'mental roadblock' of going into a 6 day work week is more the feeling of knowing you gotta wait almost a full week to do something in your spare time that you look forward to. From my own perspective, Saturday is really the only 100% chill day of the week as well because you know the next day is off work as well - Sunday despite being a free day is unfortunately spent mostly thinking "oh crap its work again tomorrow" for me at least - which I know is very subjective. 

I guess at the end of the day you work because you need money to function in society with paying the bills, having roof over your head and food on the table, and after that maybe you can treat yourself to a vacation once a year or a new TV or something else whenever you feel you need a 'boost'. I guess for me when you start talking about working 70-80 hours a week it becomes a "what is really the point with that lifestyle?". If you need it to make ends meet then fine (though that's kinda sad you have to sacrifice so much of your life just to make the hamster wheel go around) but yeah I guess my mindset has always been that time is more valuable than money in some cases.

Heck, here in Europe they're even talking about shortening the 8-9 hour work day to 6 hours in some countries (i think they might even have started).  I know this is a separate discussion entirely but even in a 9 hour work day sometimes it feels like there's a lot of fluff you could trim and the discussions about a 6 hour work day being more efficient is something I can sort of buy. 

[Elite]

I recently decided to work less than I did before and it’s the best work-related decision I made since I started working. I don’t need the extra money and I value my time a lot, so I don’t want to spend it doing things I like less (working) than what I can do with it in my time off.

I’m grateful that I can afford to do this. I realise full well that people NEED to work a lot in order to get around.

[Zantera]

I recently decided to work less than I did before and it’s the best work-related decision I made since I started working. I don’t need the extra money and I value my time a lot, so I don’t want to spend it doing things I like less (working) than what I can do with it in my time off.

I’m grateful that I can afford to do this. I realise full well that people NEED to work a lot in order to get around.

I've always thought that if I had a high paying job - I'd rather work 75% or something and earn a 'normal' salary than work the 100% and earn a bit more. 

[Chino]

I recently decided to work less than I did before and it’s the best work-related decision I made since I started working. I don’t need the extra money and I value my time a lot, so I don’t want to spend it doing things I like less (working) than what I can do with it in my time off.

I’m grateful that I can afford to do this. I realise full well that people NEED to work a lot in order to get around.

I've always thought that if I had a high paying job - I'd rather work 75% or something and earn a 'normal' salary than work the 100% and earn a bit more. 

I'm always in a tiff with my higher-ups. Every year we have to formally fill out our goals and objectives - basically putting together a high level plan of how we plan to climb the ladder. I've basically said that I'm 100% content with where I'm at. I make enough money and never have to work past 4:30, and I've haven't done one second of work on a weekend in the 7.5 years I've been here. Everyone above me works 10-12 hours per day and is regularly sending emails out on a Saturday night or Sunday morning. I have absolutely no interest in that (though I do have a job doing catering on Sundays). I don't care what it pays or what the bonuses are. I've said my goal for the next year is to "maintain my level of commitment to the company, and to continue giving my current position my all while staying up to date on the latest technologies and methodologies we'll be using in the years to come". They absolutely loathe that mindset because they eventually get asked by the people above them "What's with Brian? He's been doing the same role for 7.5 years. Are you not encouraging him to grow?". It makes me look like an underachiever. Maybe I am, but my free time is the most valuable thing in my life, and unless it's 100% necessary to do away with that, I intend to keep it that way. 

[jingle.boy]

I don't post much here nowadays, but I feel obligated to say I'm with Zantera on this, despite you guys giving him shit.

You guys want to work 80 hours across 7 days with consecutive weeks, you do you. My boss is like this too, clocking 12 hour days and doing weekends. If you don't have any other option, it's also fine, but it's not a reason to brag or to belittle anyone who says this lifestyle is not for them. Apparently you're not allowed to complain about overtime if you work 40 hours a week? Is it like this thing that if you don't have children, you're not allowed to be tired? Or if you sleep more than 5 hours a week, you're not allowed to be tired either?

For some people 8/5 is enough, especially if you add commute to it. I sure would like to do some hobbies instead of crunching on some project with deadlines that were set so they can only be met if you're working on it day and night.

Of course my workplace screwed me twice with overtime payments so I might be biased I used to work overtime a lot ~3-5 years ago but I don't do it at all anymore and I'm alright with that.

Well, it's like anything else, isn't it?  You CAN do you, but accept/acknowledge the consequences.   Not so much now, but I worked for a company that rewarded people for working globally.  The entire world doesn't work on "8-5 eastern time, four days a week", so I would get calls almost all hours of the day.  The concept of "40 hours" was a pipe dream.  By all means set your limits, but accept them.   If you don't get that promotion, or don't get that raise, it's not because your boss blows, or the company sucks or you're being discriminated against.  It's because you made a choice to limit your contributions to that company.  Other companies may be fine with that, but that particular one might not be for you.

I don't mean to digress, but this got a legit lol out of me.  Such an American/Western way of thinking.  Like people just exist to contribute (their time) to their employer.  Far too many jobs measure the value of the output as a direct correlation of the time inputted.

So uncivilized.

Wow. I'm "uncivilized" because I don't believe my company owes me anything other than my salary?  That's pretty fucking harsh.

A job is a business transaction nothing more.  Just like anything else, I shouldn't expect any more than what I put into it.  If I'm not willing to practice a legitimate amount, I shouldn't expect to be Joe Satriani or Don Mattingly.  Western, Eastern, Northern, whatever, too many people over state the role and obligations of corporations in our existence.   

Sorry Bill... I should've put that in green, or an emoji besides it.  You really do have your humour filter turned off lately, don't you.   

I don't want to digress the matter any further off topic in the 'happy' thread.  Let's just say we have different views around the employment contract between employer and employee.

[Spiritus]

Just from personal experience I have had guys look down on people/me not working 80 hours a week, but I could see it was more resentment that they had to and some didn't. It's what you want and need out of life I guess. I do not need to work 80 hours a week so I don't. I can complete my projects in 40-50 and doing ok with that, so someone telling me that I should work as much as them? You do you right.
I don't care how much you work, I won't get richer or poorer from that, just don't act like you are better/more productive. Ehh. Sorry, this hit a sore spot cause I just went through this the other day.  Nothing I said is to any of you. Just some people at work.
Saying all that, when shit hits the fan, of course I will work long hours and help the team, but usually I am very organized so I complete my tasks. But alot of these 80 hour guys are either milking it or just not very good at managing.
"Your lack of planning and managing is not my emergency"

[Spiritus]

. , Saturday is really the only 100% chill day of the week as well because you know the next day is off work as well - Sunday despite being a free day is unfortunately spent mostly thinking "oh crap its work again tomorrow" for me at least - which I know is very subjective. 

Get out of my head. Man I so always feel that way. God I am so happy I no longer work Nights. It's like twice as bad.  Think about it, you finish Friday morning, go to sleep wake up in the afternoon.. Ok so you got Friday night off like everyone else and hang out. Saturday is your only free day because Sunday you basically wait until night to go work. Ahh so many Sunday beach days, bbqs ruined because of work. lol

[jingle.boy]

Just from personal experience I have had guys look down on people/me not working 80 hours a week, but I could see it was more resentment that they had to and some didn't. It's what you want and need out of life I guess. I do not need to work 80 hours a week so I don't. I can complete my projects in 40-50 and doing ok with that, so someone telling me that I should work as much as them? You do you right.
I don't care how much you work, I won't get richer or poorer from that, just don't act like you are better/more productive. Ehh. Sorry, this hit a sore spot cause I just went through this the other day.  Nothing I said is to any of you. Just some people at work.
Saying all that, when shit hits the fan, of course I will work long hours and help the team, but usually I am very organized so I complete my tasks. But alot of these 80 hour guys are either milking it or just not very good at managing.
"Your lack of planning and managing is not my emergency"

Actually, I think the saying goes "Piss poor planning on your part does not constitute a crisis on my part".

[TAC]

So much to chew on here on this last page, and I have a ton of thoughts on the matter, but I'd like to give props to Zantera for being a good sport.

[wolfking]

Jesus, I didn't realise throwing my 80 hour a week remark out would cause such a stir.

[wolfking]

I don't post much here nowadays, but I feel obligated to say I'm with Zantera on this, despite you guys giving him shit.

You guys want to work 80 hours across 7 days with consecutive weeks, you do you. My boss is like this too, clocking 12 hour days and doing weekends. If you don't have any other option, it's also fine, but it's not a reason to brag or to belittle anyone who says this lifestyle is not for them. Apparently you're not allowed to complain about overtime if you work 40 hours a week? Is it like this thing that if you don't have children, you're not allowed to be tired? Or if you sleep more than 5 hours a week, you're not allowed to be tired either?

For some people 8/5 is enough, especially if you add commute to it. I sure would like to do some hobbies instead of crunching on some project with deadlines that were set so they can only be met if you're working on it day and night.

Of course my workplace screwed me twice with overtime payments so I might be biased I used to work overtime a lot ~3-5 years ago but I don't do it at all anymore and I'm alright with that.

Firstly, my job entails running 3 public venues 7 days a week and 15 hours a day, so it's a necessity of my job.  Agree with Tim, probably a ME problem but yeah his comments got my back up too.  I just felt the comments were kind of taking the piss to people like myself that sometimes have to do long days and work every day to keep their business turning over.

Sure, I'd love to work 5 days a week 8 hours a day, but sometimes that perfect world just doesn't exist and you have to suck it up and do the extras sometimes when you're needed.

I'm with Bill too, I've get paid fucking well and while I've struggled with my job, I've made it my own, make my own rules, have benefits because I've worked so hard for the company.  They don't really give a shit about me, but I've kind of forced their hand and I kind of do what I want but work hard that everything is in check that I'm not scrutinized.

[wolfking]

It could be a difference in culture too, I know in America working 2 jobs is more common than it should be just to make ends meet, here a 40-45 hour / week job is pretty much standard and it's quite rare for people to be on double jobs or work 70-80 hours a week unless you're a boss or have your own firm, or you're some sort of misfit who is miserable outside work so you just want to work work. I would say my job has its good days and bad days - working in a warehouse so depending on what sort of task I do for the day (like driving forklift/truck or other assignments) I might be drained at the end of the day or feel okay about it.

For me it's not so much the physical side that's the hard part, if that was the only challenge I could probably put in 80 hours in a week just for the flex. What I meant with the 'mental roadblock' of going into a 6 day work week is more the feeling of knowing you gotta wait almost a full week to do something in your spare time that you look forward to. From my own perspective, Saturday is really the only 100% chill day of the week as well because you know the next day is off work as well - Sunday despite being a free day is unfortunately spent mostly thinking "oh crap its work again tomorrow" for me at least - which I know is very subjective. 

I guess at the end of the day you work because you need money to function in society with paying the bills, having roof over your head and food on the table, and after that maybe you can treat yourself to a vacation once a year or a new TV or something else whenever you feel you need a 'boost'. I guess for me when you start talking about working 70-80 hours a week it becomes a "what is really the point with that lifestyle?". If you need it to make ends meet then fine (though that's kinda sad you have to sacrifice so much of your life just to make the hamster wheel go around) but yeah I guess my mindset has always been that time is more valuable than money in some cases.

Heck, here in Europe they're even talking about shortening the 8-9 hour work day to 6 hours in some countries (i think they might even have started).  I know this is a separate discussion entirely but even in a 9 hour work day sometimes it feels like there's a lot of fluff you could trim and the discussions about a 6 hour work day being more efficient is something I can sort of buy. 

Cheers for elaborating and as Tim said being a good sport about us busting your balls.

I totally get all that mate, and as I said, if you can simply choose the 40 hour 5 day week, good on you.

The first bold part, I get it, but I guess that's life.  Again, that's a ME problem, peoples thresholds are different.  It's funny, one summer I did close to 3 months without a single day off.  When the off season came, having 2 days off felt like an entire vacation.    I guess I need to be mindful about others way of thinking, mine's a bit different.

That second bolded part is a concern.  I used to do this when things were really tough, but soon realised it was getting me nowhere.  I was stressing myself and wasting time off when I had to go back to work anyway.  I had to go back so why stress myself when I wasn't there.  Madness.  If you can't do something about this, maybe it's time to look at a different job is making you feel that way, I don't know.

Again, a ME problem and I get it.  Hey, I should be dead right now so my post above is something I'm coming to terms with myself and reflecting on what I've done for years and if it's been worth it and if I do need to change.  So if you have the ability to choose a stock standard work week, go for it, just don't waste the time you're not there.

[jingle.boy]

Perhaps a mod should move some of these over to the work related gripes thread?

[wolfking]

Perhaps a mod should move some of these over to the work related gripes thread?

What, this discussion isn't making you happy? 

[TAC]

Perhaps a mod should move some of these over to the work related gripes thread?

What, this discussion isn't making you happy? 

Doesn't feel that way.

[jingle.boy]

Well, you two just fixed that!  Love you guys

In a totally non gay, non homophobic kinda way.

[wolfking]

Well, you two just fixed that!  Love you guys

In a totally non gay, non homophobic kinda way.

Are you sure?

[jingle.boy]

Well, you two just fixed that!  Love you guys

In a totally non gay, non homophobic kinda way.

Are you sure?

Well, it is Pride month..

So maybe a little bit gay. 

[TAC]

Well, you two just fixed that!  Love you guys

In a totally non gay, non homophobic kinda way.

Are you sure?

Well, it is Pride month..

So maybe a little bit gay. 

So last week when we were in Austin, my oldest son wanted to go to the Lyndon Johnson Museum. He's my special needs guy, and he loves State Capitols, US Presidents...that sort of thing. But instead of LBJ, he kept saying LBG. So he would be like, did you like the LBG Museum? It wasn't on purpose obviously, but I kept laughing because there's no way in hell you'd find an LBG museum anywhere in Texas.