It used to be a popular saying that somebody would go to work and they would be "working 9 to 5."
Heck, there was even a very popular song about it, back in the 1980's.
Welcome to Reality, 2022 Style...
However it seems like that idea has become more of a myth than a reality. The work/life balance in this country — meaning the USA — is increasingly changing to the point where a combination of skyrocketing real estate prices, resulting in longer and longer commutes for those needing a place to live, and just a general work environment is resulting in "working 9 to 5" becoming more like working 7:30 to 7:30 by the time you figure in a pretty common 50-hour work week and the additional time spent commuting to and from work.
Many would argue that we have a "better" life that ever, but is that life really very much better if we don't have any time on our hands to enjoy it?
Is it actually worth the sacrifice?
Golf and its Irrelevance, Revisited...
Some weeks back, I wrote a piece about how the game of golf seemed to be slowly growing obsolete in our world... and, as a result I ended up reading a number of articles about the declining popularity of the game in the United States. What was interesting about this "information dig" was the way the decline turned out to be far more centered around the USA, as opposed to other parts of the world.
One particular article stood out. After covering a number of different aspects, the author ended up asserting that the biggest culprit in golf's decline is simply that people don't have the time on their hands to spend several hours at a pastime anymore... any pastime that requires daylight.
But the implications are much broader.
Married... With Children
Thinking about this again leaves me asking myself the deeper question of what kind of lives are we actually living if the only thing we have time for is work? Moreover, can we truly hope to be any kind of balanced human beings if our lives are so dominated by work?
Again, I'm not just talking about time consuming pastimes here (like playing golf or sailing or things like that), I'm also talking about how about our relationships are working, and how our children are affected. How strong can our relationships really be if we've lost almost half of our non-work, non-sleep time to ever longer work requirements?
By extension, maybe it's not so surprising that marriage among younger generations is on the decline because who's got time for that?
But Wait... Isn't Automation Taking Over?
I keep running into the interesting paradox that the promise (or "threat," depending on your perspective) of robotics and Artificial Intelligence will supposedly render a large part of the human workforce obsolete and thus provide ample leisure time... but it actually doesn't seem to be happening.
Seems more like you have a choice between working ever longer hours... or unemployment and poverty.
One of the interesting "side effects" of the whole Covid circus seems to be that a lot of people got a "taste" of the whole idea of not being at work all the time. Even though "remote work" seemed to function pretty well, a lot of companies are now insisting that people return to the office... IF they have an office to return to.
I'm not sure where this whole scenario is going to end... but I do know that our cost of living is ratcheting up at an alarming rate while we put in ever more work hours to pretty much take home the same amount of pay as we had three years ago. And that's not good...
Epilogue: Earlier today, I was delighted to discover that our local supermarket finally had our favorite sliced turkey for sandwiches back in stock after almost two months of empty shelves.
I was a lot less delighted to note that the "family sized" package we usually get had gone from $8.69 before the shelves became empty to... $11.99 a package.
I guess we'll learn to live with 1/2 slice of turkey per sandwich...
Thanks for reading, and have a great week ahead!
How about YOU? What does your work wee look like? Longer, shorter, or the same? Does it take the same number of work-hours to earn the same level of living, or have you noticed a change? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT cross posted anywhere else!)
Created at 20220926 00:13 PDT
0657/1903
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @lxsxl ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
My work week is 5 days out of seven, but less than 30 hours because of state and federal benefits mandates leading to staffing policies designed around the law rather than what's best for the libraries or librarians.
I recently picked up some yard work adjacent to a golf club and RV park. People still play, but none of that lifestyle appeals to me. Something about the swathes of artificial turf and terrain is off-putting to me. Here I am, surrounded by mountains and forests, and there's this blob of monoculture grass and maintenance-intensive landscaping for acres. Yuck.
We have a single golf club in the library office. Some kid left it behind. No one claimed it from lost-and-found. The Shouty Old Man is lucky I'm not prone to venting my frustration with his obstinacy through violent action.
Congratulations @denmarkguy! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next target is to reach 63000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz: