It really boggles the mind how throughout all of our pre-university education, we are stuck in a classroom, generally with uniforms, told by when to do what tasks, punished with extra work, constantly monitored and told off for the slightest infractions. Unable to go to the bathroom without permission.
Then we are sent off to university. Where, suddenly, we get freedom. Want only afternoon classes? Likely doable. Want to stream all lectures instead of attending (bar attendance requirements, etc)? Sure. Want to complete your assignment at 2am while listening to punk rock? Sure. As long as you get your assignment done on time, no one cares about the specifics.
You gain some sense of freedom. Practically no one has eight straight hours of lectures, tutorials, etc- there are breaks in between, which you can use in a way you see fit. Alternatively, want to pack your classes into a few days to have a three day weekend? Go for it.
Although I acknowledge not all classes or degrees have such flexibility, most at least allow you some choice in regards to scheduling.
But then you graduate. And you enter the modern capitalist hellscape that is the workforce.
Gone is your quiet desk or cubicle in the library or house where you could study in silence, or even have some headphones in. Enter the modern 'collaborative' workspace where there are islands of computers, lined up, no privacy whatsoever. Managers wander around, breathing down your neck.
You are endlessly pushed to finish things early, not just by the due date, and if you actually get there, suprise- you don't get to rest. You will be shunted onto something else that needs doing. Show them the brains that got you top grades in uni? Congratulations, you get rewarded with increasing workloads as they now expect you to work at 110% because you showed them you are capable of it- and they assume you are capable of it infinitely.
Manager hates headphones? Consider them banned! Work at a small company, or some place in love with itself? Welcome back uniforms, those bitterly branded, off-color. tasless unbreathable fabrics you bid an estatic farewell to in high school. Mayve even add a cheer or a slogan to repeat in those morning meetings (once assemblies that perhaps you could have snoozed in), at which your non-enthusiastic participation will earn you negative brownie (bonus) points.
The workforce degrades itself back to the level of high school, and you dream of the freedom of university. Managers being suspiscious of you taking too long in the bathroom. Uniforms. Endless work. No autonomy. No privacy.
What was the point of the uni freedom? To give us a brief taste of what the world could be like were it run by sane individuals, and then just plug us back into the mill?
It hurts so much that I got to experience the freedoms I once did, and now they are gone.
Yes, I know there are some workplaces where they have relatively more freedoms, but few will operate with proper freedom the way they are meant to.
With the rise of anti-telework in corporations, the full nature of micro-managing modern capitalism reared its controlling head. We got a taste of freedom during work from home, and even though more companies may be open to it, few are open to a flexible schedule, to full WFH without having to go to the office, to being given autonomy without reporting your breathing pattern to the managers.
Capitalism is all about squeezing the last inch of productivity from a worker until all that remains is a hollow husk, that gets thrown away to be crunched up by life, by the wind itself, only to find a brand new, shining husk as a replacement- that slowly, or quickly, becomes just as empty as the first. It is also discarded, and the game continues. At the expense of the single, limited life we are given.