9 to 5?

I realised something today (not only that, but I just realized that I don't know if I write in American or British English!). Let's call it a re-realisation, because it is something that I have been thinking about for the past 2 years or so.

When you go back to the beginning, I always wanted to run a business. In fact, when I entered the Faculty of Accounting, it was under the advice of an older student that this is where you would learn the most about how to run a business. Initially, this desire was purely entrepreneurial in nature. Over the past ten years (or possibly less??) my attitude has changed from being a person inspired with the entrepreneurial spirit, to a person that is disgusted by the employment regime that we all live under.

This attitude has grown slowly for a few years now, and my interest in "anti-corporation" for the good of mankind (and my own sanity) has grown with it. This has been fostered by watching such films (they weren't always documentaries) about how the corporations poison our society, and most recently (and probably most profoundly) by reading a book called Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn.

Now I am not one of those "giver vs. taker" soldiers that read it like a bible and use its glossary of terms as a dictionary for life. However, the principles in the book really lay out where we went wrong.

But...this post isn't about that book. It is about the 40 days of overtime per year that some people have to work, as shown in this article. Another article claims that residents of the UK average 7 hours and 42 minutes of overtime per week. That is essentially like working 6 days a week. What happened to the five day work week?

Even when it comes to a regular work week, or work day, things have changed. Anyone remember the song, and movie called 9 to 5? What happened to this 9 to 5 idea? And how did it get so easily replaced by 8 to 5 or 8:30 to 5:30 with nobody asking any questions? How did we let this happen?

Today I heard my boss say "I can't right now, but I will have time to look at it tonight." That was it. I was thinking "when does he not work?" I remember one day finding out he got a phone call at 3 am from the USA regarding an issue at work. Is that normal? I mean, if you are in the CIA, maybe then OK, but just a normal manager? Where has his life gone?

I have decided that is the road I am going to avoid. Why should I give up my life for someone else to succeed? Why should I miss out on life to further the life of the investors in the company I work for? The only way that it makes sense to do that is if the investor in the company you work for is you.

Forget safe pension plans, monthly salaries and overtime just to keep my job. I am willing to do overtime, but it has to have a purpose. When it is my place, my bank account and, essentially, my ass on the street if I fail, then the purpose is clear.

And so...

Anti-employment has become my purpose in life; the climax of all I hope to achieve. It is simply really. I don't want to be a slave (so to speak). I don't want to be involved in the politics of the office, or the destruction of the earth for the sake of money.

And I don't want to work overtime for nothing.

This is my goal. I just hope I reach it before I retire!