I think we're doing it wrong.

As someone who's never held a 9-to-5 traditional job, not even for a day, not even for a second, I gotta say I've never understood them. No, no, hear me out. I'm a proponent of work - not excessively, of course, not to the point where it comes to replace your social or personal life, but I do believe there is value in work. There's a certain satisfaction, a sense of self-ownership that only work can provide you with. So, I'm not saying I don't get work, at all.

Generally, my aversion to certain things, like work, occurs on a logical level first. It was the same with a university education, a few years back. My main question then was, why should I pay for someone to teach me what I can teach myself? Hailing form a homeschooling background, I considered myself highly capable of taking control of my own education. I still do.

And I tend to apply the same philosophy to work. I am, as they say, self-employed, which means I provide freelance content creation online through various outlets. I've been doing this for about three years now, so roughly since I was 20, and am quite happy with how it turned out. I have a set list of clients, and usually when one leaves, I can count on another one turning up soon enough to take their place.
I've been lucky in that regard, I know plenty of talented people who've struggled with finding freelance work, before settling in a more traditional 9-to-5. I do think this sort of working schedule would be beneficial for a lot of people (though of course, less secure).

What I wonder is, why can't all jobs be like this?

For instance, and I know I've written on the subject before, so I'll be brief. I usually don't work more than 2 hours a day. In normal times, I take 2-3 days off per week, as well as some consecutive free days at the end of the month if my earning goal for the month has been accomplished. During unusually busy times, like now, I work daily, or take one day off a week, if available. However, during times like these, I usually manage to hit my earning goal for the month pretty quickly. So there are advantages to that, as well.

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

I'm not a unique case. I know that most people who work traditional jobs could have their assigned tasks done in much less than the allotted 8-9 hours they spend at work. So why don't we do that, instead? I've always refused to be paid by the hour, since I work fast, and that wouldn't be fair. And I don't understand why we focus on paying people by the hour, instead of by the output. If someone's able to deliver the same material in half the time, why not pay them for that, and let them use the remaining hours as they see fit?

Wouldn't that be easier for us all? Imagine a work week where you have your tasks for the week outlined from the get-go. And maybe they're easy, and maybe you can be done by Wednesday. Or maybe you only really need to dedicate about three solid work hours each day to your tasks, not 8 loose ones. Why don't we do that, instead? Everyone wins - your boss got what they needed, and perhaps more quickly than they would in a traditional working rhythm, and you get 5 hours or a long weekend to enjoy as you see fit.

Seems like a win-win to me.

It seems to me that the sole benefit of spending long hours at the office would be to socialize and interact with your co-workers, and hopefully form some meaningful bond that way. But now, with the steep rise of remote working, that's off the table, as well.

So what's the point?

I suppose the long hours are a natural continuation of the era of the industrial revolution. Then, presumably, you worked for X hours straight, doing largely manual labor until you were allowed to stop. But realistically speaking, that's no longer our world (largely because we've delegated a lot of those nasty manual labor jobs to third world countries). Much of the work force right now is online, and is usually assigned on projects, tasks, articles, and various quantifiable goals.

So why then am I still expected to spend 8 hours on a project that would really just take 2 or 3?

Then again, there are downsides. Personally, I'm a fast writer, and tend to exhaust myself mentally in those 2 hours of work, since it's concentrated, very compact work. As such, I need several hours to recharge enough of my mental powers to be productive in my other writing ventures. At the same time, a lot of the tasks that make up our daily life are perfect recharge times. I go out for walks. I work out. I watch the occasional TV. I do the shopping. Self-care. Shit like that - things I'd have to do anyway, but which now also serve as a time to disconnect, and recharge.

What about you? How long do you work, and do you think you could do it in less?