Freedom is defined as “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.” In a first world, 21st century context, I define freedom simply as “the ability to navigate one’s entire day at a leisurely pace.”
Despite the undeniable evolution of the labor market that is fundamentally changing the standards of productivity, we continue to willingly enslave ourselves in corporate America – a sort of soft slavery without the whips, centered around unchecked consumerism. And because of the all consuming nature of capitalism, where work is the dominant occupier of our time (in a country where up to 75% of people despise their jobs), it is likely a leading cause of depression, obesity, and a dependence on anti-depressants that are used to place the mind in a sort of autopilot mode. For many, this is necessary to keep at this daily grind without breaking down.
The Myth Of Work-Life Balance
Everybody has a passion, hobby, or objective that brings purpose to one’s life, unlocking the potential for great creativity and insight. However, without the time to pursue these ends, we are slaves waking up to the brutal sound of an alarm and miserably dragging ourselves about – not aware and not in the present moment, but simply festering in misery like a rat on a wheel as our life flies by.
A weathered skeptic from a bygone era (dating back to when the American Dream actually was a plausible life model) may grandstand with cliches; “you work your 40 hours a week to support yourself and in your spare time pursue your dream!” Of course, the gaping flaw in this argument is that there is a total absence of balance in terms of time management within the current system.
It is safe to assume that for most the work week is closer to 50 hours than 40, between commuting in rush hour traffic plus unpaid lunches, “voluntary” conference calls, and answering emails from home on your “company phone”. What is left over is 50% of the hours in a week, but humans are most healthy sleeping 30% of the time. This leaves approximately 20% of the week left to pursue one’s personal goals, after spending half the week pursuing someone else’s.
Humans do not have an unlimited supply of energy. After 50 hours per week spent on menial tasks, or simply killing time in fluorescent-lit office buildings, the will to pursue creative goals is drained by the time those 5 leisure hours per day actually come. In other words, you are not likely to be anywhere near a peak performance during your 20% leftover leisure time.
Family men have it even worse, likely dealing with overlap, which is to say sub-zero time during the week – both the boss and the wife/kids want more while he has literally zero time to himself. For some strange reason, both men and your hardened corporate woman wear this “busy” label as a badge of honor, and even deploy it as a humblebrag. But is the perception of being important really worth all of this?
Corporate Detox
I would be remiss not to mention the effects of The Pink Doughnut Phenomenon, office politics, forced socialization, diversity training modules, among many other things that extend beyond the job description imposed during those 10 hours that are designed to break down your creativity such that, even absent all distractions, those 5 hours you have to yourself are unproductive, because your spirit is broken due to this endless cycle of compliance tests at work. All of this perpetuates the ever-increasing ego investment in your 9-5, which has become your entire identity.
We are all players in the petrodollar system whether we like it or not. Most of us are not going to pull a “Walden” and drop out of society, move to the woods, and live on fruit that we grow and fish that we catch ourselves. For as long as we require money to buy food, clothing, and shelter, we have to labor for money. From a personal perspective, what has worked to change my mindset is a conscious detox from the concept of the rat race. There are several ways this can be done – either through intense meditation, philosophical podcasts, solo travel, or some old fashioned reading. I have combined the practice of all four and have made a lot of progress.
It took hundreds of hours listening to the works of Joe Rogan, Alan Watts, and watching those cheesy motivational videos on YouTube to start to internalize opposition to this concept of the rat race. Meditation specifically helped to curtail the anger that I experienced during this daily grind, particularly helping to mitigate road rage during rush hour traffic. Now, even with more stints in corporate America seemingly likely for me, I am in a better position to deal with the stress going forward. I estimate that if everyone meditated for 20 minutes every morning before leaving for work, there would be a lot less noise pollution at 8 am and 5 pm.
Travel was an even greater form of detox, as I learned more about myself during 30 days backpacking Europe than I did during 5 years of college and 6 years in corporate America since. Solo travel is not easy and creates great challenges for a masculine man to overcome. It virtually obliterates your comfort zone. Getting ill with the flu in Spain and getting lost in rural France in the middle of the night, hungry, with no money, and a language barrier in place will humble a man more than any diversity training ever could. Naturally, I also noticed a heightened awareness that I had as I navigated those strange lands by day. I still remember thousands of tiny details from that trip.
How Much For Your Soul?
You might be asking yourself if the concept of a “detox” is melodramatic and really necessary, but it certainly is when I am advocating people leave their cushy $60,000 office job to potentially get a $12 an hour front desk job. The caveat is that of course this only applies if you have minimal liabilities, hate your job in corporate America and have no interest in climbing the ladder for the next 20-30 years, as therein lies the trap.
There is a stigma that better salaries and more promotions leads to an easier workload with less dirty work, because shit rolls downhill after all. However, many who have purged the 9-5 from their routine will tell you that the higher up that ladder you climb the more stressful it is, because the trap never really ends until you’re the owner and there are no more ways to move up. Since there will always be someone who makes more money, has a nicer lawn, or drives a nicer car, you will always be chasing that next carrot and you are not likely to achieve financial independence, because your expense spreadsheets and debts will continue to trend with your salary. This is the way consumerism and mass advertising works.
Understanding that until I am financially independent I still have to work to sustain food, clothing, and shelter, I have drawn up a budget and am seeking out lower stress, lower responsibility jobs that will pay me just enough to live, and am studying different ways to invest and possible entrepreneurial pursuits with all that free time regained.
The “detox” aspect is necessary because it takes conscious effort to undue these paradigms that have been hammered into people’s brains for decades. In the same way New Years Resolutions typically fade in about a week, a cubicle drone could have a momentary epiphany, but unless he builds on it then the adage that old habits die hard usually reigns supreme.
Read More: You’ll Never Find A “Good” Corporate Job Like Your Parents Did
The corporate workplace is soul crushing, emasculating pit of despair. It must burn.
Yes, it is. The 50 hour works weeks and the long commutes only hasten that march towards hell. And having to occasionally eat shit from petty and snotty little people. That is the worst part. But for some of us there is no other choice. To late to shift gears.
Have you completely given up and resigned to this fate?
Good question.
Occasionally I “daydream” about an exit strategy. Usually revolves around winning the lottery. But I suppose I could cash out now and move someplace cheaper and do OK for another 25/30 years or so.
But it is tough. I am an independent IT consultant with 30 years experience. I make a certain level of income that at this point in my life would be impossible to replicate by doing anything else. Despite the money, I am absolutely a peon when it comes to how I am treated. A high paid peon. I realize that with so many out of work or underemployed I shouldn’t complain, but other than the cash, it sucks. I am surrounded by Indians onH1B visas who are 20 and 25 years younger than me, and I am treated exactly the same as them. Many times worse, as due to my experience (and being an American), much more is expected of me. Sick and tired of it, but what else is there? My evil (and I mean EVIL) witch of a mother isn’t going to croak any time soon, and she is almost a mental vegetable. She’ll run the table on the old man’s cash just out of spite. So I guess it’s the lottery or that march towards hell. At least I have hookers & booze to help me forget, from time to time.
You’re not alone mate. In 2012 I broke into the wireless phone industry and made $37,000 a year as a part timer at age 23. By 2014 I made $45,000 at age 25 and was living at home, so I was ballin’ in my time off and well on my way to 65-70k before age 30 if things had stayed the same. My dad died, and the wireless industry decided to compete with the airlines to become the most vile, exploitative, greedy, and dishonest industry in the capitalist west. Salaries were cut in half and continue to be cut. Now I am pushing 30, wages are down across the board, and I didn’t hone my skills in my mid 20’s in any other areas.
I am now resorting to lying on my resume, creating fake references pacts with friends in exchange for doing the same for them. Did I mention I DESPISE technology anyway and would do anything to be able to work remotely from my laptop? Even if I’m working for a company, just give me some REAL leads instead of cold calling strangers and leave me alone. Fire me if I don’t hit numbers. That’s my exit strategy in the short term. In the 5-10 year range, well, my grandfather is 90 and well endowed. I am vested for 1/3 of the equity in his house which might be a 6 figure inheritance. Feels awful to be looking forward to that even remotely.
Dude, I basically started my first career at age 27. At age 41, I’m reinventing myself a second time. In a couple years, I should be totally reincarnated.
Yes, you need marketable skills to do so. And you need real, true dedication and passion. The good news is that America is full of second, and third, and fourth chances for those who are motivated.
Do something man, you deserve better.
Save up, take 2 months off…figure it out.
It’s a process.
Pardner, there are no do-overs in this life. You sound like you’re in a prison of your own making. No one get you free of it but you.
Hi ! If you wanna start IT consulting company and know business clients, I can help you as .NET contractor
If you have nothing to lose, than you have found your freedom. Unless you have children, leave this cushy hell behind and seek your manhood again. It’s never too old to feel alive.
“freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”
Hi. That ship sailed in the late 90s.
Looking back, I had a GREAT opportunity to start a consulting agency.
A Chinese friend/coworker of mine wanted to go in as partners. He had a great idea. He would go to China and get college grads. We would put them up 4/5/6 in cheap Apts that we would rent in Flushing/Elmhurst/etc.., take 80% of the rate, and he swore to me that the kids would be THRILLED to have these jobs as a way to get out of China. Like a moron, I declined for 2 reasons:
1) I was 32 and quite happy with the 6 figure income I was making.
2) I was absolutely against giving American jobs to non-Americans.
Keep in me this was PRIOR to Y2K, when this type of thing was not so common. Would have made a killing. Business owner, hiring and banging hot young secretaries, office in Manhattan, late nights on the town. I could have had it all, save for my complacency + my BS convictions. Oh what…a fool…I am.
I agree with everything except the “cushy” part.
The stress of working in Wall St. IT, the long hours, and the shitty commute are anything but “cushy”.
I am not going to lie to you Slim, changing a career at an older age was not easy. I saved up some “fuck you” money for about 2 years once I decided to make the change. After I got my expenses down, cut the fat from my life and learned to live more spartan I took the plunge. It was terrifying.
I knew I wasn’t going to make the same kind of money I did in the corporate world, but I also knew that I would end up on mood enhancing pills numb to the outside world if I remained.
While I don’t make the same level of income, I can tell you with 100% confidence that I am truly happier, stable and enjoying life on my terms.
Of course, as with any advice; user experience may vary. Planning life changing maneuvers should be done with meticulous care and keen foresight that wisdom provides at our age.
Best of luck.
You listening to your old Janis Joplin albums again?
Its not to late ! Lets do it !
Hahaha! Like your enthusiasm.
But it is too late, at least for me.
The Indians have cornered that market, and huge international firms like YIPRO, Tata, MPhasis, Modis, Accenture, etc.. have the companies locked up. Very hard to break through now. And I no longer have the connections I used to have. That was why my Chinese friend wanted to go into business with me.
Which technologies do you work with ?
Over the years, just about all of them.
But in the last 15+ years mostly C++ (Windows/Unix/Linux), C#, & Java.
I specialize in messaging, high volume-low latency solutions, and STP.
But these days, I take contracts based on the highest rate + shortest commute.
Hi ! Its possible to get new contacts. Its not that difficult! You just need to attend to conferences, IT meetups. We can start small and slowly expand. I’m a member of club of IT companies (includes 35 companies from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus). I can find many experts in mature and new technologies here. Yes, Indians are competitors, but we’ve a thinking mentality. Its a valuable skill. Also Americans are more likely to work with Americans so you can do it better than Indians. So as an American, you’re the best person to do sales and networking. This is just one of your advantages over others. Software market is big and has place for everyone (including us).
Its not late ! Its not risky and could be highly profitable ! Lets do it !
Hi ! Its possible to get new contacts. Its not that difficult! You just need to attend to conferences, IT meetups. We can start small and slowly expand. I’m a member of club of IT companies (includes 35 companies from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus). I can find many experts in mature and new technologies here. Yes, Indians are competitors, but we’ve a thinking mentality. Its a valuable skill. Also Americans are more likely to work with Americans so you can do it better than Indians. So as an American, you’re the best person to do sales and networking. This is just one of your advantages over others. Software market is big and has place for everyone (including us).
Its not late ! Its not risky and could be highly profitable ! Lets do it !
Never too Late, AutomaticSlim!
My Husband’s side of the family just celebrated his Father’s 70th birthday by walking the Camino de Santiago with him (post hip/knee and foot surgeries, over the past few years!); so what if he was a little slower now and then?!
Shoot…remember those Hoveround commercials filmed on the side of a canyon??!! Don’t let that joker in the Hoveround pass you by, Mr. Slim…
“Camino de Santiago”
Where is that? In Chile?
In Spain.
It’s Never Too Late Brother!
No man you can make it out. 6 years ago I was a poor construction laborer. I went to school for IT and got a well paying job. I’d trade it all to be working outside again.
I’m saving every penny I can over the next 10 years to buy enough land to start a bison ranch. I’d rather “retire” as a cowboy than a corporate peon.
” I’d trade it all to be working outside again.”
I hear that!
I think the happiest I ever was at work was when I was driving a fork lift and carrying sheet rock for my father — for minimum wage!
long commutes made longer by crumbling infrastructure. I cant believe how many issues the subways and commuter rails have had in NYC the past few months(Penn St looks like hell on earth)
Word. Took over 2 hours to get thru Staten Island this morning. The Verrazano Bridge is not even included in that time. Too bad I have to pay $17 to go over it and $13 more for the Outerbridge or Goethals everyday.
But, Mexican families of 12 need free healthcare. Sucks for me to have to pay over $1,300 a month, not including my employer’s contribution for my “benefit”. There has to be a way out…….
I was born in Staten Island. I never visit because of how dififcult it is to get there and that outrageous toll. Unless you’re very well off, most of New York is truly a terrible place to live these days. Good luck to you man.
Subway, Metro North/LIRR/Path — they all suck!
It doesn’t have to be; there are free-thinking people in business, trying to help create a better work-life.
I thought of Ricardo Semler, doing just that, while I was reading this article, and found his TED talk from a couple years ago:
Can’t agree with you more!!! Although, there are some solid organizations still around, it seems to be the exception rather than the rule these days. I left the corporate world (mortgage banking) in late ’04. I started a construction business in ’05 and never looked back – Best Decision of my Life!
Burn it !
Just imagine its effect on aging. In most countries, women live at least 5 years longer than men (on average). If we eliminate this stress factor, we can easily gain some healthy years.
Moreover, why suffer today, when we are relatively young and healthy for the elusive promise of a few well-deserved golden years after retirement? It makes no sense at all. Most women instinctively know this and plan their lives accordingly. If they have a job, it is often a low-stress, part-time job, while the husbands work their asses off.
Where did my post go? And why did it go? Seems long posts = spam, so here is half my post. Anyway JD McGuigan, enjoyed reading your article, disagreed with your ‘mindset change’. You need to lift!
If you really want to leave the rat race, try communal living, 4-6 adults living together all on ‘burger flipper’ wages will have a larger income than a corporate couple, and vastly more free time. Food is cheaper to purchase in bulk, and takes less time to prepare. Same for every household chore, and child care. Because of your individual low incomes you can get all sorts of state help/discounts with health, education and leisure expenses.
I have a roommate and we have a decent 850 square foot apartment with everything we need. We each pay about $800 a month. The beautiful thing is that 800 includes utilities, cable, internet, laundry, garbage, gym on site, and a furniture package in one payment.
All of my other expenses combined bring my monthly bills with due dates up to around $1400, and I probably need about $600 for food, gas, and misc. I need about $2000-$2200 a month to sustain an above average standard of living as a single man in a midsize market. That’s only about $15 an hour to break even.
What is CRAZY is these corporations expect you to go above and beyond for the company for that VERY modest salary. At $30,000 a year, I expect to work 8 hours per day, not 8 hours a 1 minute, not 9 hours with a 1 hour lunch, and I do not expect to receive texts or emails on my phone before or after work. When I leave the building, I should be dead to you people. Don’t ask me to go to happy hour, don’t ask me to come to the voluntary meetings, don’t ask me to do overtime if I didn’t ask.
I might be “too old” at 28 to live with a roommate, and I may revisit that at 30, but for right now I don’t need to work 55-60 hours a week like most guys my age. And I have zero interest in doing this.
I agree that lifting helps as well as well as the mindset shift I talked about. They can go together. Thanks for reading.
So true, your perspective is a good reminder that their is another way to live.
When my friend obtained her graduate degree as a CRNA; her stated goal was not to earn $150,000; it was to work part-time and earn $80,000…and she actually did just that.
That’s great for her. $80,000 is a pipe dream for most people, nevermind that salary on a part-time basis. I asked in the article “how much for your soul?” not to suggest you should never have a price, but that we’re being very much underwhelmed with the price tag the corporate world is now offering and the return on investment they expect to get for it. We’re expected to shuck and jive, and participate beyond the job description for $35-40,000 a year on average. Please.
For $80,000 a year, working 25-30 hours a week, I’d deal with everything I talked about. That’s only a 3-4 day workweek and as a single man on that salary, you’re flying first class everywhere, staying in 4 star hotels, and spending $1,000 in a weekend for the classiest escort in your city. But a pipe dream indeed. Your friend is lucky.
I will personalize an old-Irish prayer, just for you, Mr. JD:
May the wind be at your back, and the finest escorts be on your (ahem) arm, of course!
I like that prayer.
Fantastic. My deceased father was very proud of his Irish heritage and used to bop his knee to jigs on his old cassette player. He had Irish blessings all over the house.
*I changed it to CLASSIEST escorts because I figured I was talking to a woman!
hahaha!
When I say “hooker” I always mean “classy escort” too…at least since I was in my late 20s…
A hooker is that girl standing outside the night club in a skimpy outfit who’d do you for $40. A “classy escort” is the girl who starts with a 4 figure offer and then has the bouncer step in to negotiate and “explain the process” while she smiles on the sidelines. 🙂
Here in NY back in the late 80s, the going rate was $100/hr + $29 for the room. The “good old days”…
Remember how the article said to travel? Well, I did in 2015. One of my stops was Amsterdam, where one can wake up, walk 2 miles to the Red Light district, sleep with a 10 for $50 per 20 minutes – room included. That’s $150 an hour, yeah? Pay her $300 instead and get the VIP treatment from a 10 for a full hour. Then one can go to a “coffee shop” and get a powerful cannibis brownie for $7 and share it with a cop.
I want to go back.
Nice!
Now that’s using your noodle!
This website is about self-improvement, and buying hookers isn’t going to make you a better man. Stick with normal women, at least until age 65. Then I might join ya in the brothel.
I couldn’t disagree more. All of this “irrational self confidence”, “fake it till you make it”, “law of attraction” talk is largely hot air. There are some men who are just not in a position to game a 9 or 10 at this point in their lives – the dating game is just too lopsided in the west. If a situation presents itself where it is legal and safe, paying a hot escort a bit more than she’s asking for for the VIP treatment is a good alternative. It should be perfectly legal and regulated. Besides, come on, you pay for it anyway. You can be on a crusade of self improvement and still shag hookers on the side to avoid all the games women play. They have nothing to do with the other. Though I agree it is not a good crutch for men who CAN’T get laid. You should have the option to do both.
$150k / yr for a nurse?!! No wonder health insurance is unaffordable in America!
I definitely want a graduate-level nurse with a few-thousand hours of practical-clinical experience in charge of my anesthesia during surgery.
It’s the Triad of Health Insurers; Hospital Systems and Big-Pharma that are winning at Corporate Healthcare in America; already receiving 67% from the US Government from my paycheck and taxes; Healthcare gets to triple-team my ass, because it is simultaneously-privatized.
Mr. Pabst, don’t let a CRNA’s upper-middle class wage blow your mind; check out the real problem:
King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services Chairman and CEO Alan Miller made more than $51.3 million last year, according to the company’s annual proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/352915/000119312517112413/d363736ddef14a.htm
Health Insurance:
Cigna CEO David Cordani: $17.3 million
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini: $17.3 million
UnitedHealth CEO Stephen Hemsley: $14.5 million
Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish: $13.6 million
Humana CEO Bruce Broussard: $10.3 million
http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/health-insurance-ceo-pay-at-big-five-tops-out-at-17-3m-2015
More Hospital System CEOs are raking it in, also; non-profit, profit…it’s all gravy, baby:
https://www.philanthropy.com/article/CEO-Pay-Is-Nearly-10-Million/237982
http://www.seiu-uhw.org/archives/23934
You probably don’t even need me to put those sons-a-bitches in Big-Pharma up, but they’re part of the Terrible Triad that’s bludgeoning hard-working, tax-paying Americans:
Leonard S. Schleifer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, $47,462,526
Jeffrey M. Leiden, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, $28,099,826
Larry J. Merlo, CVS Health, $22,855,374
Robert J. Hugin, Celgene, $22,472,912
Alex Gorsky, Johnson & Johnson, $21,128,866
Michael F. Neidorff, Centene, $20,755,103
Alan B. Miller, Universal Health Services, $20,427,309
Kenneth C. Frazier, Merck & Co., $19,898,438
Miles D. White, Abbott Laboratories, $19,410,704
John C. Martin, Gilead Sciences, $18,755,952
Richard A. Gonzalez, AbbVie, $18,534,310
Heather Bresch, Mylan, $18,162,852
David M. Cordani, Cigna, $17,307,672
Mark T. Bertolini, Aetna, $17,260,806
George A. Scangos, Biogen, $16,874,386
Robert L. Parkinson, Baxter International, $16,648,750
John C. Lechleiter, Eli Lilly & Co, $16,562,500
Marc N. Casper, Thermo Fisher Scientific, $16,307,079
Robert A. Bradway, Amgen, $16,097,714
George Paz, Express Scripts Holding, $14,835,587
https://www.statnews.com/2016/05/26/ceo-pay-pharma-health-care/
Jeez, $800 for a share is expensive, We pay $200 a month for a 3 bedroom farmhouse, divided by 4 that’s $50 each and utils are another $80 ($20 each).
$200 a month total for a 3 bedroom house? This couldn’t possibly be rent? You must own yes? Do you live in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska or something?
I live in a highrise in a midsize city and yes, $800 a month is expensive as all hell, but we do get $250 in value on the back end with all the amenities I listed. Rent standalone amounts to about $550-600.
I live in a busy area in a midsize city in Florida, population 400,000. It is by no means SF or NYC (if you think that’s expensive check out the costs there), but it is not a cheap market by any means. $1,000 a month for a one bedroom apartment is pretty common here.
Rent, middle of nowhere, but near my rural university, and really run down. We want repairs, we do them ourselves. But loads of land around it we can use.
kibbutz???
Going backpacking alone in Europe is a great way to get fucking killed.
No it isn’t. My life was never in danger once. By backpacking I don’t mean wandering the Swiss Alps in winter. I was staying in or close to major metropolitan cities. I am the author posting under another user name.
Turks all I gotta say one fucks with you push back millions come out of no where maybe it’s luck? No clue I guess.
Europe is not America. I backpacked alone across America when I was 18, and I can attest that doing so can very, very easily get one killed. Europe is a different story. Everybody does it.
What part of America did you have a problem in? I think “Michael Dindu” thinks we mean the “inner cities” at night lol.
Most of Europe isn’t really dangerous. I was in zero danger in Amsterdam. The worst you’ll get in Rome or Barcelona is a pick pocket, a homeless scammer or ripped off by a taxi. London is rough around the edges but no worse than NYC. Paris…well that was an accident. I was never supposed to go to France. I got diverted there and stayed in a hotel by CDG airport. It was a very rural area without much civilization so that was a bit humbling.
Backpacking across America assumes that you’re not going from big city to big city. Since you can easily be armed in almost all states I’d say backpacking is pretty safe in these united States, outside of the few commie hellholes you’ll find on the coasts and in Chicago.
I’ve never carried a weapon as a civilian. Rural areas in America can be very, very dangerous, and hitch-hikers can perish in the desert, simply due to the vastness of it. On a Greyhound bus, the only authority figure for hundreds of miles might be a strike-breaking scab bus driver. All kinds of horrible things can happen to a body in America.
i might going to the more rural places not big cities like places with a population of 1000-3000 people.
meant*
That is the stupidest comment I’ve read on this site.
high rates of crime in some places.. Lots of ISIS cells who want to kill Americans.
If you’re some naive chick, maybe.. If you’re a man, I say do some research, apply common sense and take the gauntlet. Do it.
Hey, I found a cuck.
Nope just some guy who has sense. I mean some people can do it I kind of view it as luck more than anything i would bring a wingman.
Hostel was just a movie, not a documentary.
Exactly. All you have to do is read the reviews on Google and TripAdvisor. When it comes to hostels they are incredibly accurate. I rarely will stay at a place with less than a 4.0 average out of 5 (3.5 is the bare minimum). I actually prefer hostels. Some are upscale and the equivalent of a 3 star hotel and you’ll meet exotic girls AND guys to shoot the shit with. That movie did irreversible harm. Most ignorant Americans hear that I stayed in hostels in Europe and “think of that horror movie”
second one guy get his dicked cut off count me out lol
Totally and completely off topic, but sometimes the scripts that fire up off the ROK site make my ancient PC so busy, I have to go to Amren and click on Disqus to reply to ROK comments.
I have an ancient PC because I am a cheapskate…
My iPhone 4s hates ROK hehe
It’s funny to be reading this article now. I got let go from a corporate job just before the end of my probationary period. This happened about a week ago. I had no warning that it was coming, I got along with everyone and as far as I know, I was getting things done, no complaints. Well anyway, I was let go for not being a “good fit”. No further explanation beyond that. Well in a sense, this was correct, it wasn’t a good fit for me. While I was there I saw a company that was in dissaray. More managers than workers, managers who made decisions on things they knew nothing about, and a few who micromanaged. HR was a complete cluster fuck. Engineering and Architects who sounded more like bankers and stock traders. My job description changed almost completely to something I wasn’t interested in, that I hadn’t agreed to. They just sort of expect you to go along with it. Overall, there was no direction, no leadership, no coordination. Everyone is faceless and there’s no accountability. Not to mention cublicles. No creativity, no collaboration. You’d actually get in shit if you saw a problem and fixed it without going through the applicable manager first. I decided I was there to do a job. I wasn’t going to jump through hoops for the corporate branding and stuff like that. But you can bet your ass that when management fucked up, it was the low end workers and technicians who paid the price. It doesn’t matter how hard working you are, corporations wont act in good faith or give enough of a shit about you to even try. The small business owner I worked for last was always straight up with me.
I’m detoxing now, figuring out what’s next. I’m in no hurry to jump into a similar gig. I’m reevaluating my whole life.
Every thought of getting a trade? Good work and $$$.
I have a trade. You’re right. I’m thinking of going back to it.
If you can’t go fully independent, small businesses are the way to go. But I recommend the life of a freelance 1099 specialist. Keep your expenses waay down, work towards location independence, and you’re good.
I’m sort of working towards that but I’m still relatively early in my career. Need to build experience.
“You’d actually get in shit if you saw a problem and fixed it without going through the applicable manager first”
While I am sympathetic with the overall message you’re putting across, the bit in quotes is actually correct. You do need to follow the chain of command in a company. This is because the company is the property of some person or people, and this being the case the owner wants at all times to be in a position to choose what they want to be done and what they don’t.
You might not know it, but there might be a real reason why the owner wants something that is broken, to stay broken. You can’t take decisions for them.
By all means suggest to management that something needs to be fixed, and say how you’ll do it. But as owners or delegated owners, they need to be the ones taking the decision.
The owners are the ones making 100% of the profits when things go well. So efficient capitalism means that they should be making 100% of the losses when things go badly. So don’t try to bail them out unless they ask you to.
This was the first corporation I came to work for. Previously I worked in small business, and the owner of that business encouraged me to take the initiative in those sort of situations. Just as long as I documented it or told him after the fact. Obviously there are big problems that the manager needs to deal with. What I am talking about are things like calling an architect to get a revised drawing because the original has a mistake on it. Little things like, in a corporation, has to be done by the PM because in a corporation, looking busy rather than being efficient and doing actual work is the priority.
I, too, started my first corporate job last year… I knew something was up when, during the first week, my co-worker told me “dude you need to slow down, you’re working way too hard”.
Had to have been the first time in my life I ever heard that.
Never go too far above and beyond, most of the time it isn’t rewarded, and all you do is set the bar for your self. Skip McGee can get by on 10 projects a day because that’s the bar he’s at, but if you do 20 projects when you usually do 25, watch out!!!
haha … E-books are your friend. I read 30 books last year because there is nothing else to do.
You know, that’s kind of the feeling I had before I got let go. I got through so much work in such a short period, they didn’t have anything else to give me, so they put me on data entry. I guess they figured that they could get someone cheaper if that’s all they had.
“For some strange reason, both men and your hardened corporate woman wear this “busy” label as a badge of honor, and even deploy it as a humblebrag.”
One of my biggest pet peeves is when people do this. This is what happens when Type A personalities go wrong. Really what they’re communicating is that they’re giving almost 100% of themselves to fulfill someone else’s dream, even if the extra work doesn’t make them any money.
I tell you, I’m so glad I quit the 9-5 grind at 23 and began freelancing. I don’t make much money and I do often times struggle to make ends meet, but I have something more important than money: Happiness. I’m in control of the jobs I take on and I can set my own schedules and work from home. Freelancing also afforded me the opportunity to actually have time to go to the gym, to be able to focus on my health, and to do something I love for a living. My worst days as a freelancer are better than the best days at my last day job.
On the flip side, it seems the most miserable people I know are those who make tons of money in corporate rat race jobs. Even though they’re probably making 10 times the amount I am and can afford cool lifestyles, their jobs aren’t things they care for. They literally only pursued these careers for the money and not the love, and the rapid weight gain and aging they have as a result of stress makes it look like they sold their souls to the corporate world.
tl;dr: You’ll never be happy trying to make someone else’s dreams come true.
Amen to all of this and kudos to you for your awakening at 23!
I never could stand the “busy” humblebrag, but couldn’t put my finger on it until I wrote it down. It is a very covert attempt to communicate importance or value while at the same time dismissing you. When you break it down, it really means “I don’t have time for real human interaction”, and that’s a pretty miserable way to live.
“Happiness. I’m in control of the jobs I take on and I can set my own schedules and work from home. Freelancing also afforded me the opportunity to actually have time to go to the gym, to be able to focus on my health, and to do something I love for a living. My worst days as a freelancer are better than the best days at my last day job.”
YES! Over the last 2 years I have spent large chunks of time away from the corporate world, and it was beautiful. In previous stints I got very bored in between travels, was depressed and unproductive, but that was my fault. I could not blame a corporate schmuck, and accountability was a beautiful thing. This most recent 30 day hiatus, I have been in the gym 4 days a week, writing (articles like this one), progressed with a girl, invested in crytocurrency, spend time with family, and read inspiring material online. I have come to REALLY value my time to myself. I hearken back to the first sentence of the article: freedom is now just the ability to navigate your day at a leisurely pace.
I am supposed to go back for another stint in corporate America this Sunday. 45 hours a week working as a call center supervisor for a little under 40k a year. I am DREADING this and am starting to put in applications for a PM position at small hotels. Yeah I’ll make a putrid $11 an hour, but I’ll work alone, at a low stress position, and I’ll never be tired working nights.
Great post! I didn’t write this is my first comment, but I actually lived with a dude who did the busy humble brag all the time. He did all this other shit aside from his middle management job and it stressed him the fuck out. And since he was a real blue pill beta type who didn’t have proper channels to release his stress (I seriously think he had less testosterone than the average woman), when his fuse blew he’d end up taking it out on me and our other roommates. Meanwhile, I was working 10-12 hours a day on my freelancing gigs, but since it was a job I actually enjoyed I was calm and had almost no stress.
(Side note: What bugs me about a lot of Type A people is that they think everyone should live to their standard, which is tough when they make more than you. Any time this roommate got a raise or a higher-paying job, he’d want to get all new status symbols for the apartment and expect us to chip in, and whine and bitch if we didn’t agree with him. Since I made much less than him this meant I often disagreed with him about getting shit we really didn’t need. I realized that his entire reason for earning as much money as he could was to buy stuff to impress people with. Cue Fight Club quotes.)
And you have the idea with taking lower-paying, but less stressful, gigs over higher-paying ones. You really don’t need much to live. You can get all your essentials covered for a low cost every month if you’re smart – A car is just a car, a room is just a room, clothes are just clothes. The only difference between you and a wealthy person is that they’ll spend more on their car, their room, and their clothes. But in the end these items all serve the same function, some just choose to use them as status symbols.
Yep. Learned that lesson from Fight Club, and before I saw that movie from reading Walden’s Pond. For me, earning more money goes towards eating healthier (more organic foods) and towards having incredible experiences.
Also, on second thought, the “busy” humble brag could be covert laziness. Tim Ferris states in the Four Hour Work Week that overwork could be due to the laziness of not properly managing your time.
But I agree that many times it’s used as an excuse to not want to give someone your time. The Type A roommate I mentioned earlier used this a lot. He’d get his panties in a bunch about how the apartment was messy, but he’d always be “too busy” to clean, then blame the messes on me and the other roommates and expect us to clean up. It seems like a move George Costanza would use to get out of doing things he didn’t want to do, AKA a laziness tactic.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
https://i.imgur.com/sSJQgmW.gif
Women, in particular, seem to pride themselves on their meaningless corporate job and being as busy as possible. They wear their exhaustion like a pin on their lapel.
That is I suspect because we still see having a corporate job as something new and exciting. We’re still in the corporate honeymoon phase. Men long ago realised that work was exhausting and the comforts it brought weren’t worth the struggle. I read a few years ago that female executives were starting to suffer heart problems and hair loss just like their male counterparts.
Corporate women don’t submit to men anymore. They need something to fill the void.
Strap-ons.
They’re literally LARPing as men now. It’s a shame.
One of my previous female bosses didn’t care whether we worked, or were productive at all. Her entire life revolved around making sure we all looked busy. That was everything.
The owner of my last day job was a woman, and it completely turned me off to ever working for a female again. She was rarely in the office, but when she was in she’d do like you said, make us do busy work that distracted us from our actual main tasks. Then she’d wonder why nothing was getting done. Imagine that, a business that actually did better when the owner wasn’t around.
Hell, even as a freelancer I’ll usually decline jobs where the client is female because I know I won’t be allowed to complete it in an efficient manner and her approval will be based on her ever-changing emotional state as opposed to objective standards.
“My worst days as a freelancer are better than the best days at my last day job.”
So real, man. It’s about the long game. Life isn’t a sprint. They’ll burn out eventually. Also, the article on taxes really opened my eyes and increased my desire to be my own boss. You can make and keep so much more of your money, time, and energy, not to mention happiness doing whatever the fuck you want. Also, I noticed it’s impossible to be a true alpha when you’re constantly taking orders all day from a dim witted manager.
This article brings to mind something I have realized recently, that Western Europeans are much more free than Americans in reality even though Americans have more freedom “on paper.”
Western European countries greatly limit the power of large corporations in society. As a result, citizens have more real freedom to do what they want.
America, on the other hand, is somewhat of a soft totalitarian state controlled by corporations. Corporate greed is allowed to run amok and unchecked, lowering everyone’s quality of life.
I have achieved a measure of financial independence due to a combination of luck and planning. I must say that it has given me more real freedom than the Bill of Rights ever did.
I don’t find comparison between western Europe and the US very useful, in that the demographic differences make them so inapposite. Western Europe is a collection of relatively homogeneous white populations that care about themselves and one another. The United States is a giant flea market.
Very true. The USA is a “melting pot”, which is to say the white mainland that is most often expected to take in millions of people who openly laugh about the “browning of America.” It’s self-imposed suicide, and if you resist it in the slightest you are a “white supremacist”. Let’s have tens of millions of Europeans immigrate to Congo or Saudi Arabia tomorrow and see how they’re received.
Of course, the “melting pot” expectation is being pushed on European countries too. The ones that comply (England, France, Sweden) are being burned to the ground. The ones that largely resist (Ireland, Norway, Iceland) are still the utopian states you speak of. Similar to how the states that are still 95% white (Utah, Idaho, and parts of the south) are very stable but for the scattered religious cults.
Norway has become quite diverse too. Ever been to the capital?
Allahu akbar, Knud!
Haha
Exactly. America has been turned into a giant marketplace, nothing more. Just like the cantina in Star Wars: just a bunch of people from all over the world selling and buying shit.
I think it was Scott Adams’ comment section where I saw: “In America, there are no more experts, only salesman.
white ? What does “white” mean in Europe ??
do have any idea how many near genocidal wars have taken place in European history amongst “whites” ??
but, within the communities of Europe, people are of the same type – they share a common language, culture and heritage, and a sort of tribal affinity for one another, allowing for a certain level of bonhomie that is relatively scarce in a diverse nation like the US, where levels of interpersonal trust and camaraderie are lower.
Let me both agree and disagree.
We certainly have more rights in terms of speech, protection (guns), and options for the kind of country we want (states rights). Whether you want a large metropolitan city with skyscrapers, a tiny ranch on a farm, a cabin in the middle of nature, or to literally live amongst a religious cult, you have it here in America. English orators like Douglas Murray, Piers Morgan, and Milo speak highly of these sorts of options that they don’t have at home. You also can and do go to jail for “hate speech” in Europe, which is outrageous.
On the other hand, you’re right about the workforce. This is an oligarchy run entirely by cronie capitalists who are unchecked and out of control. European employees have a walk in the park at work compared to the USA. Their tellers and cashiers sit on barstools. Some of them work 30 hour weeks with a living wage and full benefits.
The Bill of Rights itself is just a piece of toilet paper now though except for the 2nd amendment. There is no real freedom in America unless you have financial independence. Everyone else just has the illusion of freedom.
I have lots of creative potential in my Mechanical Engineering job, but it’s snuffed out by constant meetings, meetings about having meetings, and the constant flow of interruptions to help with stupid tasks. At least I will soon have a much shorter commute to my job. I’ve purchased a house nearby, and nearby to other job sites in my field if I switch jobs/get laid-off. I hope to pay down some of my house, then turn it into a rental property/passive income to assist me with relocating overseas within the next 4-5 years.
(((Ivanka))) touches the memorial of eternal zionist control in Berlin – and it’s beautiful:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/04/25/17/3F98665600000578-4444536-First_Daughter_Ivanka_Trump_visited_Berlin_s_Holocaust_memorial_-a-104_1493139383447.jpg
The anti-Semitic TROLL finally shows up. Let’s get this out of the way ahead of time.
No, there is no genocide in Gaza.
No, there is no Jewish world conspiracy.
And Zionism is now a euphemism for anti-Semites like you to attack Jews.
Now please piss off. You bring nothing to the comment section of my articles.
Notice how when a white woman marries out – to a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu etc – she is expected to convert to the religion and culture of her husband?
Ivanka had to convert to Judaism in order to marry Jared. The same thing with Sacha ben Cohen (Borat)’s wife.
That must be the “White supremacy” I keep hearing about lolz
White woman marrying a Sikh puts the stupid little red dot on her forehead.
But when a Jewish woman or Muslim woman or Hindu woman marries a white man, he is expected to accept her as is and not demand she convert to Christianity.
IF there was such a thing as white supremacy, white men could tell all these women that they need to renounce their ooga booga false idols and embrace Christianity as terms of marriage. And yet we don’t see that … it’s almost as if “white supremacy” is a complete myth…
I’ve read that the memorial has actually become a meeting point for nocturnal sodomites.
I mean what hasn’t these days..
Good article.
“…it is likely a leading cause of depression, obesity…”
No, obesity is very low in Japan and South Korea and they hate their jobs and work longer days than Americans. To blame one’s job for being obese is weak and pathetic, by the way.
American men deserve to be cheated on if they are lazy fat asses, which a large share of them are.
Maybe I should have said INDIRECTLY leads to obesity because you’re right, it’s not a problem in Asian countries. But if you are a corporate man working 50 hours a week, you are probably bad at personal time management and use this as an excuse to grab fast food all the time. “I’m too busy to cook” so they bring McDonalds to work or go there on their break because it’s close by. That, AND they just HAVE TO indulge when the managers buy pizza and doughnuts for the office, a whole other degree of pathetic. I literally wrote an ebook on that.
I did the Camino de Santiago from Baiona to Santiago last May. Turn the phone, reconnect with nature, meet people on the same journey and it definitely helped me to re-focus on what matters and who matters. Any long distance trek is well worth a try for some time out.
It is better to live in a refrigerator carton out in the woods than to have a corporate job. “Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither,” as a wise man said. If you have a corporate job and somehow last until you’re 50 years old, you’re on the street, or soon to be. Given there’s a fair chance you could live another 40 years at that point, that’s a lot of time to try to feed yourself with no skills. It’s not like you can go hire on with a crew filling out TPS reports.
If you liked public school, you’ll love corporate America.
I know a few guys in their 50s who are leaving the field voluntarily. In fact, my colleague (54) just tipped me off a few days ago he will be resigning shortly and go back to being independent (kind of him, since he knows I will get saddled with his work). It wasn’t salary or the senior managment, but he is sick of the travel and long hours and that isn’t going to change here soon. So he’s been lining up clients over the last few months and will make his exit.
I plan to follow the same route eventually.
It’s a great luxury to be able to leave voluntarily. Several of my contemporaries weren’t given a choice. The whole HR “Performance Review” circle jerk covers the company’s ass on potential age discrimination actions. (Even though termination due to age is widely practiced.) See, they’re firing you because you’re 53 years old and cost them too much money (obviously your knowledge and experience are of no value to them), but here’s a performance review from 2003 where it says you were reprimanded for having a cup of coffee at your desk. Thus, you were terminated for cause.
I walked off my last suck-ass “job” 29 years ago and never looked back. To me, money has little value if you have no control over your time. Because in the final analysis, your time is your life — and time is all you have. Until you run out.
Well said. Your time is your most preciious commidity. If you don’t control it, some one else will.
I was “down-sized” a couple of times due to the company being bought and chopped, but I have since avoided working for American companies due to the HR hokey-pokey nonsense you describe. The last one I worked wasted everyones time with personality tests, external training programs, mandatory online training (sexual harrasment, ethics, etc..), forced dialogue with team, etc… When the CEO spent an hour blathering on about political correctness and handing out “empowerment” books at management meetings.. nuts to that.
I lived kind of like that until age 32 when my son was born. Accumulating learning experiences as I travelled. But when my son was born in 1996, I realized the need for the stable job.
I need to go seven years , one month and three weeks more for full retirement. But it is comforting to know I could retire early this year with reduced benefits (very reduced). About 1100 per month starting July of this year and medical as a public school teacher. Not enough to live, gotta keep on truckin’……..
I still like my job ok, but I hate not being in charge of my own life. I
They say that all the cells of your body replace themselves every seven years. That means in less than two months, the first cell in my body will appear that will experience the freedom of retirement.
If I didn’ have a mortgage and need to eat high-quality (non-gourmet) foods, I wouldn’t work overtime. My situation is better working for a smaller company with flexibility in schedule. No more arriving at 0600 or 0500 unless I want to.
I worked 3 years at major wall st firm.
Small company, and i was the software guy…
Created industry leading magic.
But fucking hated being in that office…
Prefer having variety of work.
Last couple of days – engine maintenace, sanding and painting.
Small amount of software.
Sitting in one spot is painful and unhealthy…
I woked MBS during the run up to the “big short”
Havent read this but the headline is awesome. here we go again:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-25/fannie-introduces-innovative-solutions-allowing-student-debt-laden-millennials-buy-h
Agreed, not too fond of the cubicle. Still, it pays three times what I would be making with physical labor.
Do you feel 3 times better?
Landing a “coporate gig” or career/salary position is like stumbling upon a river of money. You can jump in and enjoy the security that the money brings you… but you’re beholden to that river and must go where ever the current takes you. Problem is… the more money you’re swimming in, the faster the rest of the world zips by as you look at all your wealth and tell yourself “I’m doing something important.. I can ignore my friends/family just a bit longer”.
Like a few other comments here have stated… I used to have a job where I worked with my hands, then decided to give it up and look for something “in my field” of study, IT. Somehow landed a very cushy job (these skills are in demand, if you’re willing to put up with the BS), but I’m more miserable than ever.
The only thing the extra income has brought me is depression and despair. Sure, I now have money to pursue my ‘interests’, but after a day at the office, my only interest is sleep.
Seriously, the time I’d usually have to myself is instead spent un-winding from all the rigid, forced interactions that happen every 5 minutes in the office. My job isn’t physically more demanding… but it is much more stressful. I spend the entirety of my saturdays recuperating from the week, and the majority of my sundays prepping for the coming week and taking care of chores I’m too tired to tackle during the week. It’s misery… and I too am saving enough money to drop out for a year-and-a-half, two years to see what I can make of myself.
It’s gonna be odd in the future when women look around their office and realize there are hardly any men there.
Great analogy”river of money”. I think I’ll use it.
I would add, though, that the trouble with floating on a “river of money”, is that eventually you’ll go over a waterfall and get smashed to pieces on the rocks below.
Are you in the UK or the United States?
If the UK, you can become a contractor, and earn up to twice the money, and not have to put up with the office politics BS.
The main website for these is jobserve.com so do a search on this to see what contracts there are out there for your skills.
I’m in the UK and have worked as a contractor in the UK for the past 10 years. Yes it can be stressful. And I have certainly had my share of depression and other problems. But I have saved almost a million dollars equivalent, so can enjoy life now aged 47 not having to work at all if I don’t want to.
I work in the US… but it’d be nice to get out and do something somewhere else. I will definitely take a look at job serve and see what it has to offer.
Thanks a lot of the info!
Good luck backpacking Europe these days with violent, racist, Muslims all over Europe.
I’m aware of this and haven’t gone back since. When I do go back,I plan to avoid the countries where this is a bigger problem.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/85efd21500a2a7901343c6f9adb8f39a474dca106e2df88af5af76dfb5373b32.jpg
Going to be starting a kind of corporate detox in a month or so. (Presentation of product to… Investors I guess you’d call em). Already got me out of mandatory overtime. Then two months of r&d in addition to the day job. Difficult? Yeah. Worth it? FSCK YEAH!
festering in misery like a rat on a wheel as our life flies by
thankfully have not spent that long in that state but can see the potential and have also hit eject when I noticed that pattern.. Thankfully have done my best to escape a car commute with peak hour traffic and public transport in the cities which have it is a lot more pleasant
50hrs not including all the prep to eat sht and stay clean so you don’t get fired and end up needing to jobs
Alan Watts is an amazing inspiration.
This article amuses me because it was posted just after another one saying “communism doesn’t work”. The joke goes that in capitalism, man exploits man and under communism, it’s the other way around.
Basically, the first goal of someone with power (with a company or government position) is to get more power. Politics and business are driven by greedy people. One film that illustrates this well is “Outsourced”, a Hollywood feel-good film seeking to humanize foreigners working call centers. The most interesting character, I think, was the “Lumbergh” style boss who, without emotion, lays off an entire American workforce without a second thought and then does the same to the Indian office about a half year later presumably to save a few bucks. Even as the protagonist strives to achieve business objectives while helping others (and selflessly gives away a promotion), the Lumbergh style guy probably LOSES money for his company but appears to be productive and this is a business ethic already in place around the world.
In other words, a tapeworm is the highest form of life according to power seekers and not the lion that or human that it attaches itself to.
This is just a glimpse of what working for corporations means. Read the following book and you will never dare to consider those company´s as an option:
https://www.createspace.com/7045077?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026