No Stupid Questions

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

Go get a PhD and an academic position. The pay is shit but nobody will care whether you show up or not.

I have a hybrid schedule with 2 days wfh. I shove the errands into those days. My boss is also very good about me needing to do things like doctor's appts on office days. In turn he gets to do the same.

I don't have kids so I just work like 6-2 and the occasional weekend in order to keep afternoons open. It also helps that I'm basically unsupervised and nobody really keeps track of what I'm doing. Maybe once every six weeks I intentionally work like 4 hours on a Saturday and make a big fucking deal about it to give the perception that I am both busy and productive.

I worked 6-6 M-F for a year, and 6-3 M-F for a few years

social life existed because of having no kids and getting little sleep. I didn't waste time with doctors appointments or important stuff like that. I'd pop out "early" at 2 or 3 pm if I needed to for appointments.

now, I'm an office worker, but with a flexible schedule that lets me get that "business hours" stuff done when I need to. it's wonderful and benefits both me and my employer.

Same question. I just recently started an 8-6 job and I have NO time. I’m out the house by 6:45 AM every morning and end up getting home close to 7:30PM every day. I used to work a far more “unorthodox “ schedule for 1/2 the pay, but this “normal” work schedule ain’t worth it, even at almost double the pay. I won’t be doing this forever, just long enough to find something more flexible that pays at least similar.

IDK how hourly workers do it.

In theory it should be no problem for salaried workers. The point of salary is that you are supposedly being paid for your work output rather than your time. I know that isn't always the case; companies love to control workers.

I have been lucky. At every place I worked for the last 20-ish years the salaried employees come and go as they please. It's normal to leave for a mid-day appointment and then come back to the office. All that matters is shit gets done in a timely manner and we're available when people need us. I wish everyone had that level of flexibility.

I just tell them I'm gonna be late one day. No PTO necessary.

I’ve had both sides as well, I’ve had jobs where some weeks I worked 7 insanely busy night shifts in a row from 10.30pm to 9.30am. Those weeks you don’t get anything done because you’re just sleeping all day and too tired to do anything after. Not to mention having a commute that was 50 minutes to two hours. That is where I learned I did not want to do that.

And then I also worked 5 days a week working only day shifts 8-6, which bored the shit out of me.

And then I had a much calmer job where officially I worked 8-5, five days a week, but I had to had to figure out how to keep myself busy and I could basically do what I want because my supervisor was fine with whatever because he only cared about the results and I kept those coming. But that was too little structure too.

And I worked part time shift work because that is what was offered at the time and shifts were much shorter and more doable. At that job I had a little too much free time on my hands. I think I just gamed a lot back then. Also not what I wanted.

So now I have something in between, where I do work some weekends, evenings and nights, and I’m compensated during week days, but most of my job is 8-5:30.

And lastly, I want to mention how crazy it is that there is a cap on your sick days. If you get sick, you get sick, right? It’s not really a plannable event, but maybe I’m too European and weak-willed for that.

It ain't easy. You just gotta muscle through though. I do it through arthritic pain, and complain about it at length. But I don't really have a choice in the matter.

I say "X day I come in late" and that's it

You don't you have to be constantly exhausted and have no time for everything because you have no choice in capitalism.

Most appointments get handled with sick time or talking to the manager to see if they will let you adjust your schedule to accommodate your appointment.

I work 9-6, go to yoga, eat supper, hang out with my husband awhile, sleep 11-7, have a leisurely morning because my commute is a short bike ride, have 4 weeks of PTO at this point and I USE it. Weekends I have free most weeks. I can come in late or leave early for appointments.

But honestly it works best when one or the other of us are working from home, to take care of some of the household stuff & pets, and we have someone come really clean the house fortnightly, so we don't have to spend weekends doing that. And I like gardening so that's not such a chore.

There's no other life other than work, sleep and stress.

Late shift--- no social life but I'll be damned if it doesn't make appointments a breeze

I worked an average of 12 hours a day last month, 251 hours. Had zero life.

Make up for it in the winter when I work 4 days a week 😆