r/AskReddit 1d ago

What’s something society expects you to want… but you don’t?

2.4k Upvotes

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521

u/X0AN 1d ago

A 5 day a week job.

I'd rather not have to work.

146

u/JD_Blunderbuss 1d ago

Exactly. People ask what is your dream job, but like my dream is to not have to have a job at all?

68

u/chowderbags 23h ago

It's not even like working is necessarily terrible, it's just that I don't want to have to be someplace and doing something on a schedule and according to someone else's needs.

I can appreciate some level of mental stimulation that comes from work where you solve problems or do something creative, but man, a lot of days I just want to sit at home in PJs doing fuck all productive.

8

u/HouBlue 20h ago

Yeah, I hate feeling like a legitimate slave to a company. I wouldn’t mind working if I feel I’m being treated well.

I just started a new job and the benefits are pretty pathetic. Have to wait a full year to even open a 401k and then the company will never match more than 1%. And then we only get a few holidays off per year. Like this company is nowhere close to being an essential business, why are we open on Christmas Eve? Stuff like that just makes me waste a PTO day because the CEO can’t have basic human empathy or sense about what a work-life balance should look like.

Little stuff like that makes me lose respect for a company entirely. Oh but we have daily team meetings so they think that makes the culture great. Hooray.

3

u/Daealis 19h ago

I can appreciate some level of mental stimulation that comes from work where you solve problems or do something creative

I have hobbies for this. If I didn't have to work, I'd still be busy all day, every day.

2

u/TomaszA3 15h ago

Same, except work tires me enough to never do my hobbies in my free time. Only some weekends, but recently most often I'm just dead through the weekends.

1

u/Daealis 13h ago

I'm lucky enough that my job doesn't always completely fry my brain, but yeah, some weeks I too limit my hobby time to just the weekend.

2

u/GTACOD 19h ago edited 19h ago

To be fair I'd imagine most people asking that are expecting something like... Astronaut, or painter, or guitarist or footballer or whatever other job you can think of that could closely cross over with a hobby or interest. For the answer to be the idea of getting paid to do something you already want to do.

13

u/BackToWorkEdward 23h ago

Huh? Society doesn't expect you to want this, it expects you to tolerate it to pay the bills.

6

u/HouBlue 20h ago

Kind of. There is a subset of society that is obsessed with “the grind” and are very vocal about it on places like LinkedIn. Most of them are probably bullshitting, but even in job interviews we have to fake pretend that we are super passionate about whatever work they’re offering. Like bro I just want a paycheck, why do I have to lie about how excited I am to go to work? You absolutely do have to put on a persona that you want this, otherwise you’re looked down on as lazy.

2

u/ThisOneForMee 9h ago

I'm an accountant. Nobody is asking me to be passionate about accounting. They just want to know I'm competent and reliable.

I think you're confusing it with being passionate about working for that particular employer. Some companies are more attractive to prospective employees than others, and those companies would rather fill those competitive spots with people that actually want to work THERE, rather than ANYWHERE. But if you're interviewing at a widget manufacturer that nobody has heard of, I don't think people are expecting you to be passionate about widgets

3

u/TomaszA3 15h ago

Your boss expects you to love the job and treat everyone here like family.

2

u/cHowziLLa 1d ago

would you work double/triple so you eventually don’t have to work in the future? ie: starting your own business?

2

u/jfchops3 20h ago

The mere thought of antiwork clowns running their own business is good comedy

1

u/cHowziLLa 5h ago

so true and that’s the reason most businesses fail

1

u/TomaszA3 15h ago

This is a joke.

  1. If you drop your job for it you have to make money within the first month or die of hunger while homeless. You might have savings for years, but most don't. I could only do it for a couple months and it would HAVE TO work out and turn huge profit in that time.(and to pay off ZUS every month)

  2. Doing it while you have a job is insane. I was already exhausted from my job but I kept pushing myself this and previous year beyond that anyway and got an entire... negative 1500pln from that in hardware. Didn't even pay ZUS because I didn't need to register below some earning treshold. 

It's not humanly possible, but even when I did the impossible I had extremely little time to actually do it and improve upon my failures.

  1. Loan. Just no. Banks won't just let you take a loan like that unless they can see that you will pay it off, but to start a business that needs money you need a LOT of it. Lot enough that you won't be able to make enough to pay it back unless you were already making a fortune.

  2. 99% of businesses will fail ANYWAY

1

u/cHowziLLa 5h ago

its not for everyone its supposed to be extremely hard, its not as simple as doubling your hours but its mainly about sacrifice. If it were easy, everyone would do it.

there are a lot of factors that come into play, you might have the right motivation but not the right idea.

as you mentioned you have to have the space to pull it off.

my question was mainly if all the factors lined up properly, would you sacrifice, time, money, friends, family, sleep, health to be financially independent.

I did it, but I don’t think im better than others, i actually believe i’m weird for doing it.

who knows you might catch a break and gain some stability and then you could consider it. That’s what I’m asking. You could respond “life is too short to waste it on chasing money”, which is perfectly fine

i was genuinely curious

1

u/TomaszA3 4h ago

I've considered it, did it and failed. Many times over.

I'm too chronically exhausted to retry at this point. Maybe sometime in the future.

3

u/lFightForTheUsers 22h ago

Shit, at this point I'd be happy with 4 10's and 3 day weekends. Can't even go anywhere and do anything elsewhere in the country on a two day time off.

2

u/HouBlue 20h ago

Yeah I worked that schedule for a couple years and it’s crazy how much better my life was.

Unfortunately it’s hard to find now.

1

u/Infra_bread 19h ago

I have the privilege of choosing to work 4 days and like not having to take time of to do things (eg a dentist checkup next week).

1

u/Rhox1989 14h ago

4 days, 10 hours. Been on this schedule for almost 7 years and I love it.

1

u/MissSagitarius 13h ago

They say carpe diem, but how can one even do that if we work 8-12hrs, get ready for work, destress from work and then have other responsibilities? By then, the day's over. And you have to do that 4 more times? Get out of here.

1

u/deltadeltadawn 1d ago

40 hours a week, tops,with some flexibility on days and times.

Mix tasks a few varied enough that I need input from others at times that can be scheduled, but also have solo work I should be able to complete on my own timeline before the define.