No Stupid Questions

That's the neat part. You don't.

Okay but really, you have to take time off.

You're not supposed to do anything other than generate value. Society doesn't care about your DMV needs. Just work and consume.

That's the neat thing, you don't.

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.

We don't. We just exist. And then we die. It's monstrous.

We don't. We come home around 7 and start doing the bare minimum to keep up the household letting daycares and schools raise our kids.

We clean and cook and pay our bills then we go to sleep irritated and tired and sick of the rat race.

We have sex once or twice a month and go to fucking florida once a year. That's it.

Thats the neat part, we dont.

It could always be worse. In much of Asia the standard work week is still 6 days per week. In China for example it's often 9-9-6 which is 9am to 9pm 6 days per week.

This almost feels intentional though. If you're working all the time you have less time to grow and realize how injust much of the world is.

I communicated with my manager and came in late or left early. I'd usually do dental and medical appointments in the morning, and governmental stuff in the afternoon, but whatever I could schedule.

It helped that I was salaried, so the missing hours didn't affect my take-home pay. But also, I could make up the hours by staying late, if needed.

I know this won't work for everyone, and it would be good to change the system to work for more people.

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

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.

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

It doesn't work for anyone. People use up their vacation days.

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 had a boss tell us we should forget about work-life balance.

I simply do not understand managers/supervisors/companies who do not realize that employees with a good life/work balance are more productive and less likely to leave. And be more expensive to replace.

I have three permanent work from home (but who come into the office for special occasions if they want) three that like to leave the jobs at the office when they go home so prefer to work in the office, and two who are a mix depending on what's going on in their lives (both have young kids and bought houses recently).

My department is the envy of all the other exec managers; there is no gossip, no drama, no dissatisfaction. Like not bragging here, but seriously other departments point at mine and say to their boss "but they get to do that!"

But my gals and guys understand we have so much freedom specifically because we get our shit done and always cover for each other. And as long as that happens, my boss, the owner will continue to let me run my departments however I see fit.

Use up vacation days. Yes, really.

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.

I worked in a callcentre for many years and had changing shifts every two weeks. Having to come in at 6am and then getting that switched to 4pm wreaked havoc on my body and after doing this for quite a while, I just crashed and got burnout.

Recovery took me two years, where I basically just slept. Five days a week are just too much, it's a system designed to squeeze the last bit of labor value out of you and I fucking hated it. Nowadays, I'm not able to physically work for more than four days, or else I'll crash again.

I had a lot of luck, so I can now work entirely from home. No commute, Fridays are off. Sounds super cozy and amazing, but the thing is: I need that Friday for myself. A lot of times I'll just sleep so I can have some energy on the actual weekend. 🫩

When it comes to doctor's appointments, I just tell my boss I have one and that's it. As it should be. We are humans, not machines.

Nice office jobs you can slip out for doctors appointments, but you kinda sorta still have to make up some of the time.

I work from home, and I'm paid based on various billable tasks. I work up to three times as fast as they think those tasks should take, and I only really work from 11am-3pm most days.

Chores during work hours

Working from home helps but its also partly why I downsized to a condo a few years ago.

I have to beg to be allowed to come in late, just to treat serious health issues. I guess the people with an actual life, are the ones that are born wealthy, or studied to do an easy-going job.

I don't think you are meant to escape with enough hard work, it is punishment for not being a good student in childhood: You get worked like a slave, your entire life, dreams, passions, dignity, all that you are, is pushed aside, as your health is slowly chipped down, until you drop dead in your 40's-50's, no retirement for you.

Then you get some bs eulogy about how you were a good, hardworking man. One of the few times ever that people will even pretend to appreciate you.

Until recently, I had a job where I could leave whenever I wanted so long as there was nothing urgent in motion and I didn't have anything due/overdue.
My office was closed because the CEO thinks that my office's workload can be handled by a team in Philippines using AI translation tools.

I work 6 to 2. If I need to take a couple hours for a medical, family issue or car appointment, then I let my boss know and he says it's okay. I'm usually able to schedule things so that I put appointments and so on when I don't have big meetings. So long as the work gets done it's cool.

If I'm feeling rotten, I phone in and say I'm either too sick to work or that I'll WFH that day.

Of course, if I have a big vacation planned then I will put in for leave. I get 25 days off a year.

A 9.5 hour work day is insaaane

You don't. That's why I am only working 4 days a week (with respectively reduced pay). But it's worth it, I much rather reduce the money I have available for my free time, but have a much more relaxed work week.

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.

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.

PTO or asking for hour flexibility. Taking off an hour or two early/coming in late because of a dr appointment for example.

Doctor's appointments are considered as showing up to work in my country so people don't go undiagnosed for years before it gets worse. Anyways I don't have a life as well. I just do things that are possible to do in the evening (gym, studying, meeting friends). Weekends are for errands. Fuck life

All in all you're just another brick in the wall.