Are You A Wage Slave?
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- Ch: 08 of Wage Slave -
As children we can’t help but dream of all of the amazing things that we will accomplish.
What we will do, the places we will see and the people we will meet.
Then life happens.
We get a job, we get a house, and we get into debt. We get used to the level of luxury that we can afford, and then define ourselves by our incomes, positions and possessions.
We settle.
We trade away our youth, for security in old age. We spend countless hours performing mundane tasks that leave us depleted and empty. Our souls crave meaning, but we are too afraid to make any change.
We work for the weekend. Work for the holidays. Work for retirement.
We live to work, rather than working to live.
…
It’s not ‘just work’, it’s your life. It is how you define yourself and it’s where you will spend a significant proportion of your time.
Do the math.
After you finish school and play for a year or two, you will eventually want to specialise. Either through further education or apprenticeship.
You are now 25 years old and retirement is over 40 years away.
If you are lucky, your work week will only be 38hrs, and you will get four weeks off each year.
If you are lucky.
Assuming no overtime (as if right?), over your life you work a total of 72,960 hours.
That’s 3040 days straight.
It’s not ‘just work’ it’s your life. It is your identity. It is your contribution to society. It is your legacy.
How much time will you spend with your spouse or your child for that matter?
Even when you are with them, how much of your mind is present for them? How often are you thinking about work?
If you are not careful, work will consume you.
…
Your weekends are just long enough to allow you to recover and begin again.
The coffee is just strong enough to pick you up each morning. The alcohol is just potent enough to help you forget at night. The doughnuts are just sweet enough to bring forth that midday smile.
Your new car is the perfect reward for all your hard work. With the new promotion, combined with overtime bonuses you can afford the repayments.
You can’t complain. You get RDO’s and days in lieu. You get work place benefits. Dental and private health have got your back. You are insured against loss.
But something doesn’t feel quite right, does it?
This is not what you thought life should be. You have everything you need to survive, but nothing to really survive for.
Other than continuing the existence of you and your family, your job provides no immediate value, nothing directly necessary for survival. Worse still, it brings you no joy.
Despite what you tell yourself at night, you are replaceable. The company has contingencies and entire departments dedicated to continued productivity.
They can and easily will find someone else.
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Productivity.
The art of making 1 + 1 = 3. The ability to create more, from the same about of inputs. Taking an exacting look at all processes.
Celebrating at a tenth of a percent of a savings.
Pushing employees harder. Motivation schemes and reward packages. Continually implementing new technologies. Driving people to outperform one another. Fostering competition.
Logically there is an upper limit. Some place of perfect efficiency that we are always approaching, yet never quite reaching.
So we push onward. Or are pushed onward.
And our reward for productivity increases? A new benchmark to never fall below.
…
Are you a wage slave?
‘Are you a wage slave?’ is part of Wage Slave
Out now: eBook, Paperback & Audible
