Job, satisfaction and the six day work-week

If money wasn’t a consideration, I would spend my days in a mix of leisure with family and friends, playing sport, writing, watching movies and travel. None of the jobs I have had so far provided these in significant measure. Some of them did involve writing and traveling, but not of the sort I would happily choose to do. I can’t recall that any of them actively encouraged the pursuit of leisure, sport or cinema.

When people in the corporate workforce profess a great passion for their jobs or satisfaction derived from it, my eyebrows involuntarily rise in skepticism. I can understand a musician, sportsperson or social activist being able to happily combine making a living with living a fuller life, but struggle to see what paper-pushers or sellers of products that people really don’t need find so exciting in their jobs.

Early in my career, I learnt that very few are blessed with jobs that provide the satisfaction one seeks. A job is of course enormously important in that it finances one’s necessities, but it is also vital that one’s job does not leave one “money rich and time poor”. It is only when one is left over with sufficient time to indulge in personally satisfying pursuits, that the drudgery of the everyday office routine seems worthwhile.

How much personal time does one need? At the start of my career, six days of my week i.e. 86% of my waking hours were pledged to my employer. Thankfully, things have progressively improved, or perhaps, I have sub-consciously sought out employers who are less greedy for time. My second and third employers had a five and a half day workweek, while the fourth had half Saturdays with alternate Saturdays off, which was even better. Eleven years and four job changes into my career, I finally found an organization with a genuine five day work week, and none of that “half day” nonsense. Not having to pledge that extra day or half day to one’s employer is literally like getting a fresh lease of life, something that is immeasurable in monetary terms.

Having two out of seven days to oneself is the norm in the Western world, but unfortunately a luxury to many in India. Having tasted blood in the form of the five day work-week, giving up any more of one’s time to the organization seems unthinkable. A positively backward career move.