man-made problems require natural solutions
let's talk about how poor work-life balance has stripped me of my humanity
Since beginning my full-time job while being out of school, I often find myself scrambling for any semblance of normalcy. In reality, nothing feels normal or natural about working 40 hours a week. Please take all I am about to say with a grain of salt; I am extremely grateful to have a full-time job and understand the position of privilege I am in. I recently read something that said, “what a blessing it is to be tired from the job you once prayed for” and I absolutely agree. Yet in that same breath, the only shifts available at my position are 8 hours straight. Meaning whether I open or close, I spend my entire day working. For 5 days out of the week, I feel that going to work is all I do, with no time to nurture my goals or hobbies outside of it. Let me add, this is not criticism toward my current place of employment (since y’all like to be messy), but rather a reflection of the current routine I have.
8 hours a day at work for 5 days out of the week has not only made me cherish my off days, but I would go as far as to say it has created a sense of anxiety surrounding how I spend those off days. One one hand, the exhaustion of the work week makes me crave a good “bed rot” with Hulu and deli sandwiches. On the other, I feel a suffocating anxiety to use the time productively, as if resting isn’t more than productive, it’s necessary. I find myself spending those off-days with loved ones as much as possible, but where does that leave time for my hobbies? My interests? My personal goals? Any free second I have, I attempt to journal, read, or write for this publication. Yet at a point, it begins to feel forced. Like I’m not doing it for the love of it, but to meet an imaginary productiveness quota no one is enforcing. I began to resent my hobbies a bit, opting to nap on my commute home rather than read.
Hustle culture, one of many man-made problems we’ll be discussing today, is the most prominent stressor which contributes to my anxiety. The idea that we must always be on our toes, working towards something, with the expectation of constant progress is extremely harmful. We are not and were never meant to be machines in the way that capitalistic society wants us to be. Let me preface that, having drive and motivation is not the same as falling victim to this toxic culture. What I mean is feeling crushed under the weight of productivity expectations that don’t align with your actual goals. Hustle culture is a dream I won’t be buying and I will happily admit that going to the gym at 6am and then working an 8 hour shift, while doing homework on my lunch break, then maybe going to Italy to read a thought-provoking book about Marxism on the Amalfi Coast, does not sound appealing to me. Why are we trying to cram so much into our days to feel good about ourselves? Hustle culture is quite literally a man-made problem that requires a natural solution.
What do I mean by a natural solution exactly? I quite literally mean touching grass. For me, that was going to Kismet Beach for a day with no cellphone service, no cars, and a digital camera. An entirely walkable beach town was exactly what my soul needed. It reminded me of exactly what life is about, to experience this world surrounded by people you love. For once, I wasn’t panicked about numbers in an account or how to split the remainder of that to last me the rest of the week. Do y’all remember those poetry books Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul? Kismet was the chicken noodle soup my soul was craving, as I’ve come to realize money and credit scores don’t feed me in the way a ripe mango on a hot summer day can. I was chasing this high in the days following, so much so that I went to Kismet again the weekend after, and brought two more friends.
But this begs the question- how do I achieve that feeling everyday? How do I feed my soul when our society is structured to feed our wallets above all else? Well, the truth is it requires balance. Days like the ones I spent on Kismet Beach, unfortunately aren’t free. Working is necessary to afford those experiences. Whether or not I agree with that idea or rather, structure of our current society is flying a little too far to the sun for a Substack article. Feeding my soul to that scale requires saving up and time off, the exact stressors causing my soul to starve. However, I’ve found through discipline and a little bit of extra planning, I am capable of nurturing my creative goals and hunger for human experience while working 40 hours a week.
It started with bringing my journal with me to work. The goal was to concentrate all of my workday frustrations into a page while on my lunch break, allowing me to return with a clean slate. Journaling is a creative hobby of mine I take extremely seriously not only for the fun of it, but because of it’s actual impact on my ability to regulate my emotions. I abandon it in times of stress, which is ironic considering it’s the healthiest coping method I’ve developed over the years. Mandating myself to write on breaks not only makes me feel productive on work-days, but also has improved my mood at work. It serves as my creative outlet on days where my creativity is left at the door. To me, that is work-life balance. Leaving slightly earlier for work to just have even 30 minutes of a matcha and a book does wonders for my humanity when working all day can make anyone feel like a machine. It helps me remember I am a well-rounded human being with hobbies, goals, and aspirations- not a robot with 5 programmed phrases to serve any employer.
Work is inevitable. Burnout is inevitable. Yet finding those pockets of joy on those days, speaking to my humanity and creativity in even the smallest ways, has done wonders as I navigate this work life balance. The largest takeaway here, the thesis, the main idea, the chicken of this soup- is that work-life balance does not mean working only on work days and life-ing only on off-days. It also means breathing life into those long, difficult, sometimes dehumanizing work days, while finding a healthy medium between rest and pursuing personal goals on off-days.