Lately I've been thinking about how absurd everything is when it comes to working full time. Where I'm from, full time is 35h/week. I sometimes hear people boasting about 50h/week like it's a great thing. Maybe I'm stating the obvious here but still, here's my list of absurd things that happen when you work full time VS part time:
– More commuting, so extra money and time that is just expected of you. If you want to be more effective or don't have the choice, you get yourself a car. Then you need to factor in a whole lot of expenses related to insurance, gas, repairs, plus the stress to drive and park your car.
– Less time and energy for house work. Less time to clean, less time to cook, so you pay someone to do it for you, or rely on your partner, or get transformed food that isn't as good for you. Bonus: you don't have time to cook and pack lunch the day before.
– Less time or brain bandwidth to inform yourself, to care about important issues. Climate change is a very complex topic that requires hours of research and few have the time let alone energy to do that because of work, sometimes for companies that contribute massively to the problem.
– You have free time exactly when most people are free, so anywhere you go, anything you do has to be a fight for a free seat at the cinema, a long wait at the grocery store or all round more expensive activities. I'm guessing that's part of the reason why streaming and delivery services have been so successful even before the pandemic.
– You don't have time to care for your children, so you pay someone also working full time to do that for you, while you work… Seriously, this could be a Yo Dawg meme.
Okay, granted I don't really know what I'm talking about, I'm juste a guy on the internet… Still, to me, many of these points underline the absurdity and the exponential efforts that are made to squeeze every last drop of productivity in a working week. It also underlines class struggles. I can't quite put fancy words on it, but something about paying someone to clean other's shit doesn't sit right. Especially when the others I'm talking about are perfectly able to do it themselves. Especially when they are not doing it in the name of efficiency.