Maybe you just got assimilated? I can't imagine going back to 9-5, it's a waste of day, you spend all time where there is some sunlight inside office and your free time is purely about recovering from this.
I work in a 9-5 environment and am at my desk 9-5, but I don't feel like I am "wasting days". Some of that depends on the environment you put yourself in though.
I do some personal stuff during the day at the office. I end up also doing some office stuff during the evening at home. I am responsive to emails... close to 18 hours a day, but am also not inherently always "on call"... If I get to an email in my personal time, I get to it. If not, I don't, and obviously it depends on how urgent the email is.
The key thing, IMHO, is that you need to find an employer that values you, and knows you put in the amount of work that earns your paycheck. If you're earning your keep, generally an employer should be flexible with how you do it.
I do not, however, work eighteen hours a day. I am reachable for eighteen hours a day. There's a significant difference.
People hoping to avoid a 9-5 block of time being locked for work, will probably end up similarly: Still needing to do about eight hours of work a day to make a living, just ideally spread out better or in a more relaxing format.
It's terrible to be reachable 18h/day. It's like those poor Amazon employees that are forced to have pager all the time with them because Bezos likes it that way. What kind of life do you have when you can't even make a trip to forest without thinking about not being reachable? No hour awake without being completely off... How is your health? How long do you think you can handle it? Any hobbies where you can make your own mark? Or just survival?
I'd much rather know about something that's about to be a problem then find out about it at 9 AM when it is a problem. I would argue staying on top of my work life throughout the day prevents stressful issues. I'm proactive instead of reactive, and when someone up the chain wants to know what's going on, the chances are, I already know, and it's already partway resolved, and those are very comforting answers to be able to give people.
I have a number of hobbies! I'm writing a home automation system, it runs in my car now as well. I play a fair number of games, am a pretty regular movie theater goer, etc. Don't mistake being reachable for being in a constant state of panic, I actually used to have a job where I'd have to duck out of a movie theater if my phone went off when I was on call, and now it's really not a big deal, I can get to it when I have a few moments.
This exactly. Sure I could go do the undergraduate business thing and live what many would consider a more than comfortable life making 80k a year, but most companies that I would do that for would own me and I would only ever be a pencil pusher. The problem with this, for me, is that I would not really have a life of my own.
I would argue my pets tie me down more and cause me more stress than my job. My job doesn't interfere with my ability to take trips much, but having to board my pets does.
Exactly. Most of my coworkers are very satisfied with their low-effort/low-risk jobs. I do like the stability it offers but it's so depressing selling my precious time for cash.
This is the feeling I'm getting recently too - as I grow older time seems to be getting a lot more valuable. I'm fine now but in a decade I might try something else.
