I’m lucky I have some flexibility and plenty of options and a wife who could support us on her own salary.
But the vast majority of Americans schlep into jobs they hate merely to sell their time in order to pay rent and not starve to death. Add in commute and child/home responsibilities/chores and they get like 1-2 hours of the day for “balance.” That’s stupid.
Then add in companies that guilt you for only working your standard hours, reject or shame PTO use or that expect you to always be checking email/texts/phone, etc.
I’ll never fault anyone for loathing selling hours of their life to make somebody else money.
I'm thankful that I've been gainfully employed my entire adult life and appreciate that I can help support my kids, Co-parenting with my ex.
However, as we get older it gets harder to keep pushing yourself to play the games to move forward in a company.
I was once a fresh faced youngling who moved up quickly in corporate America only to have the rug pulled out from under me early on. I kept pressing on throughout the years, hoping I could catch that big break again but as you age it just gets harder and harder.
I love it that many on HROT have achieved great success in their careers and some have found careers they love. However, that's probably not the case for the majority of the working class that just feel like they've been beat up and left behind.
There's a reason so many people are resigning from their jobs because there's only so much they can take before they break. If companies can't start realizing this, how do they intend to keep motivated and hard working employees?
Allowing a flex schedule is just one little thing a company can do to say thank you to their employees and show they trust them and value work is not priority #1 for most of us. For those that belittle that option and act as it is some ridiculous entitlement employees are asking for, remind me never to come work for you. 😉