What were the worst days of a working week when I worked? A recent early retiree’s recollection…
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| Rat race is no joke… |
Lily Tomlin: “The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”
Since my wife and I retired early in August (2020) and got off the rat race, our friends who are still working, all comment that they wished they can do the same. As far as we know, most of our friends do not find fulfillment and/or satisfaction with their jobs.
Talking with them, they all comment how their jobs have gotten even tougher compared to just 10 years ago. Even before the pandemic hit, the quantity of work, and the stress that comes from that, have been building at an incremental pace.
It seems most companies are letting 2-3 people do the work of 4-5 people lately. Far as we can tell, the level of frustration and dissatisfaction with their jobs are at an all time high.
In this post, I’d like to share my thoughts on the worst days of a typical working week, when I worked.
When I started my last job in 2007, I was pumped. I was so happy that I had finally gotten an IT technician/help desk job. It was a steady paycheck (not a commission based car sales position), and had benefits like the 401k/health insurance.
I stayed put for the next 13 years or so. In the beginning, I was just grateful that I had a good job with excellent benefits. My supervisor was awesome and so were my colleagues.
Despite multiple requests to leave the company for ‘greener’ pastures, I somehow felt the best thing to do was to stay. I had moved around from job to job one too many times up until then. I wanted to stay at least 5 years before deciding what my next move would be.
The five year anniversary would mark the most tumultuous period of my tenure there. I found out the IT management was trying to get rid of the IT help desk team altogether, and replace it with a third party call center instead.
I knew something was amiss when management kept telling us to document everything we did: From ticketing documentation, troubleshooting steps, and references to online sources. It was as if they were creating a massive repository of data on what each of us did on any given day.
They were trying to gather this information so the third party call center can take over our jobs…
In the midst of all this turmoil, I decided to look for another job. I successfully interviewed and got the offer letter at a company with higher pay. The problem was there were too many things I didn’t like about the job and the company.
I didn’t like the fact that the employees were not smiling much the two times I went for interviews, and I didn’t like the fact that my hours would vary. They kept asking if I can start by 7 a.m., possibly work after hours, AND work weekends as needed.
I felt this was not the ideal job I was looking for, and I was mulling over the job offer for few days. In between those days, head of our current company’s HR (Human Resources) department, asked to speak with me.
Without getting into too much detail, he hinted that I should stay because changes were coming. In hindsight, I am still ever so grateful, even to this day, that he told me to stay, as cryptic as his words were.
Within the next few days, changes came. The entire IT management was let go, and was replaced. I was glad I had stayed!
Things were looking up for the next several years, as I got into the FIRE movement, and was successfully committing to my retirement. It wasn’t long that I started to get the ‘itch’ to want to change.
By then, work had become more exhausting, with more demands and responsibilities, and I was getting stressed out. I spent many Friday nights and sometimes weekdays, unable to sleep. I wanted to stop this stress of constantly running in place, like a rat in a cage running all the time, and be free from the rat race…
Looking back, I would say there were three ‘worst’ days when I worked:
- Mondays
The work itself wasn’t bad. It was dealing with people that was infinitely more difficult.
When did everyone become the ‘microwave generation?’ I’m going to blame the internet age for this one…Because we’re so used to getting things done quickly on the digital/internet world (buy something/receive it next day, book a hotel room in 5 minutes, meet a date using Tinder, etc.), it inevitably seeped into the everyday/analog world.
Whereas when I started back in 2007, there were around 70% patient people vs 30% impatient people, around the time I retired, that percentage was reversed. I no longer enjoyed the work, and I hated dealing with demanding ‘children’.
2. Sundays
You might wonder ‘why Sunday?’, but the truth is that by the time I woke up on Sunday mornings, I would start to think about the coming work week. I didn’t always do this, but around 2018 (two years prior to my retirement), I started to feel super stressed on Sundays.
I couldn’t focus on the day. I couldn’t enjoy that day off. I was feeling pessimistic and depressed that the work week was coming…
Some Sundays, I wanted to forget, so I begged my wife to go to casinos. I just wanted to mindlessly play/gamble for few hours without thinking about the work week…
I felt great when leaving for the casino, but I felt terrible when heading home. I knew no matter what I did, Monday and the work week was coming. I remember those times when driving back home, my mind would churn over how miserable the work week was going to be…
My mind was elsewhere and not focused on anything…I longed for days when I didn’t have to churn over work, the mindlessly numbing commute, and the difficult to deal with adult ‘children’.
3. Sundays prior to on-call
When I started in 2007, on-call wasn’t bad. It was every 3 months or so, and I would get maybe 1 to 2 calls per week. By 2018, that changed to every 2 months, and I would get around 5-6 calls per week.
You might ask, ‘What’s the big deal?’ Well, it’s not fun having to deal with angry people off-hours who demand replacement iPhones they had just dropped and cracked, or having to deal with people starting their work at 4 a.m. who call in to say the printer isn’t working!
The Sundays prior to my on-call week (which starts Fridays), were like other Sundays, but lot more stressful. In my mind, I would write a whole scenario on what type of calls I would get, which demanding manager or VP would call, and what ungodly hour these calls would come in on…
In the beginning, I didn’t think much of on-call. I just thought it was part of IT. Towards the end of my tenure there, I began to wonder, ‘Why do we even have on-call? We’re not doctors or nurses, dealing with life and death situations. Why does an engineering/construction company need on-call?!?’
I guess everything started to bother me the longer I worked there. The endless meetings, on-calls, learning one technology only to learn another technology a year later, and ever increasing demands from people, all wore me down to a point where I had to quit.
It was either I quit when I did, or my health would’ve suffered. I was suffering from bouts of insomnia on Friday nights, some weekdays as well, and I constantly felt burnt out. Work was really for a paycheck. It was neither joy nor satisfaction, but a constant reminder that I was a rat running faster and faster in a race race…
When opportunity came in the form of a global pandemic, I took that as my jumping off point. Seeing people die out from the virus made me put my life in a whole new perspective. Money was no longer the number one motivating factor for why I was working.
Things like spending quality time with family and traveling (and living with less or no stress), seemed like perfect reasons for my early retirement. The decision to retire early was over two years ago, and we’re still sure we made the right decision…
In conclusion:
I know what it’s like to live the rat race and be totally stressed out. The commute, the empty expressions on peoples’ faces as they drive or the passive miens of colleagues, the impossible demands of people, and doing more with less worker bees, all wore me down…
To get out of the rat race yourself, you must set a plan in motion to achieve financial independence. When you have that, then you can do what you want. You can take your time to get a different job, try a different career, or retire early like we did.
In order to get there, learn to budget, save/invest diligently, and learn to sacrifice. I can’t say enough how thankful we are these days that we no longer need to work. The stress from work is gone from our lives.
I’ve slept better than I can remember since our early retirement. My afternoon naps are also soul cleansing.
Work hard, budget religiously, save/invest diligently, and learn what it means to sacrifice now for a brighter future. In the end, it’ll all be worth that sacrifice when you can finally say, ‘I quit the rat race!’
I wish you luck in your journey to become financially independent, AND/OR to get off the rat race!
Thank you all for reading!
Jake
Wandering Money Pig
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