What does it take for you to have time for yourself and do things you love doing it?
The 4th of July weekend for all of us who work either in retail and the travel/hospitality industry means nothing. What I mean by that is, while all of our friends are out to party, enjoying each other’s company having fun, we are stuck inside, serving other people, under neon lights.
We get home so drained, all we want to is eat, be in total silence, and stare at the tv until we pass out to do it all again the next day. Some people do it for 20, 30 years until they are too old to enjoy whatever is leftover from their energy levels.
One of my coworkers and I were talking about this past weekend. He said he loves to play music and read books under a tree, just relaxing and feeling like he is enjoying his hobbies since during his regular workdays there is no time for relaxation. The pandemic gave him time to enjoy his life, as it was not so exhausting to live.
Life shouldn’t be a burden.
We are not all fated to work for a corporation, make someone, which is already probably rich, more money, so they could enjoy their lives, while we hate ours. While the pandemic changed most of our mindsets, there is still someone out there telling you to wake up earlier, work harder and don’t drink coffee, and eat better. Please, stop following the coach of absurdities on social media. They are draining and they are hungry for your constant state of unhappiness.
There has to be a balance between working and having fun.
And I don’t mean to get out on a Friday or Saturday night, get drunk spend Sunday getting ready to go back to work on Monday. That has been happening to me on my days off. Not the getting drunk on a Friday night at a bar. I still have to work Saturdays and Sundays.
I have a day off the next day, go home, and get into that state of mind that I only have a certain amount of hours until I’m back in that place, to work for another five or 6 days, sometimes even seven, and I’m supposed to work part-time. I can’t relax at all.
America normalized being more at work than being at home.
They rather have someone exhausted and with no productivity left in them than have an employee that does well for the company. Time is money and if I can take all your time and YOU make ME all the money, it works. If you die, you die.
Have you ever talked with people that worked for Amazon? If not, you should. The exploitation of people is real. When did we normalize this? At what point it became ok for employees to pee in a cup to not interfere with productivity, while the boss buys a 40 million dollar yacht and is not even getting taxed for it? Come on!
I always listened “but you choose to work in hospitality, get used to it” and I always fought back.
The problem too is the people that accept the work conditions because they need it to work. I have always been a rebel and I got fired a couple of times because of that. Because I fought back for my right and management didn’t like it.
I can’t be quiet when I see people working 13 days straight and when the day off finally comes, they are called in. Please! It’s because of people like you that we end up with no right whatsoever. It’s not hospitality, it’s the overachiever employees that make us look lazy for wanting a day off.
The weekly hours in the Netherlands are about 29 hours a week, which means 4 days a week. That’s why Europeans seem more relaxed, they have a life/work balance. I found my middle ground.
In Brazil, the week is about 44 hours, but it goes to 50 very fast, because you never leave work on time. It looks good on you to show you can stay an extra hour every day. Countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Belgium are the best countries with work/life balance.
Finding balance is important and necessary.
I feel like Americans are mostly unhappy and unfulfilled because they always work too much to get by with all the expenses they choose to have. First, you put yourself in debt with a car, because when you are 16, you start driving, so you have insurance. Next, you apply for college, expensive again, a little further in life you would want to buy a house and if you live in a big city, like New York, or California, probabilities that you get one is small.
At some point in life, people will have a car payment, insurance, rent/mortgage, and student loans and that alone is a lot. An average person makes about 50K per year, even with all the degrees and if you add all the payments, you have the answer to why they have to work so hard. Why are they all a hamster in a wheel? Overworked, stressed neurotic to the bones.
I promised myself I would not do that. I did it while living in Sao Paulo and I promised myself when I moved here, I would enjoy my life. If I can work part-time or work enough to pay my bills, I’d be happy. Life is too short and you are not your job or your position at the company you work for.
You are much more than that.
Another reason why we bought the camper was to get away from everything and have some time to enjoy the outdoors life. I will drop everything and make a youtube channel of our trips. That would be a dream job. Travel, film it, edit and share it. Because I can’t forget why I went to Tourism and hospitality in the first place. Not to burn out by the job, but to not considered traveling a job at all.
And of course, I will keep writing my scripts and participating in screenwriting contests.
My tip for this week is: focus on what you love doing. Don’t give everything to someone else’s company that can replace you in a blink of an eye.
Keep doing what you love and keep yourself grounded, not letting overachiever people drive you insane. You are enough.
See you next week
XXX –
JS
