As regular monday approaches, most of us will probably dragged our feet out of the house – the dreadful “Monday blues” at work.
Monday blues exists mainly because of work, or it could be due to any regular set of activity that you are required to engage in but dread.
But why do we dread work so much?
Or rather, why do we hate it so much?
According to a report back in 2014, nearly 50% of Singaporeans don’t love their job. Wow, that’s quite a number. It’s almost equivalent to saying that half of your co-workers who are seated at their desks right now hate what they are doing.
Further more, according to the same report, 75% of local employees also view their current job as just “a way to make a living” and nothing more. Michael Smith, country director of Randstad Singapore, said he’s not surprised by the current attitudes giving the rising cost of living and additional pressures employees face. Well obviously there are lots of reasons why you might hate your job (micro-manager superior, terrible co-workers, mountains and loads of endless tasks) but it seems like stress levels and increasing cost of living makes one feel like you are at the mercy of your job, and hence fostering the hate attitude.
And that’s what life is about isn’t it? It’s a trade. You are trading your time, skills, know-how for a monthly salary. It’s similar to buying things. You are trading your money for stuff.
You hate your job, but you can’t avoid it, because you need it to “pay the bills”. Unless you strike a windfall. But what are the odds?
What about you don’t have bills to pay instead?
Theoretically speaking, that is not quite possible, since we still need to put food on the table, pay rent or mortgage to have a shelter over our head.
What might be possible though, is to reduce the “bills”.
If you stay in a big house, obviously the mortgage is higher.
If you own a car, obviously there is the monthly instalments.
If you live a lavish lifestyle, obviously there is more to upkeep and more spending that is required to maintain that lifestyle.
If you insist on annual holidays to exotic locations, obviously you will be pinning for the huge bonus at the end of the year (or maybe not).
What if, you minimise all of that?
Downsize everything. Your house, car, lifestyle, etc.
You might have to compromise some stuff, but hey, it comes with lesser bills.
And with lesser bills, probably less debt as well.
And with less or everything, you probably won’t feel so strongly that you are at the mercy of your job.
And you probably will hate your job a little less too.
This is great! I agree with it. If you simplify your life you don’t need to completely rely on a job you hate. It opens up some more options. I actually was very passionate about my job when I first started but the stress of it all got to me. I didn’t look after myself enough.
Having the job pays the bills but it shouldn’t stress us out and compromise our health etc. The sad thing is when the passion gets killed because of the stress as well.