Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

Abstract

y looked broken today.</p><p id="e10c">He kept staring at his cup of coffee.</p><p id="cd2d">We had like 3 seconds of eye contact after meeting for 10 minutes.</p><p id="11bf"><i>“Jay, come on. Stop stirring the cup. It is cracking.”</i></p><p id="551d">He finally looked up.</p><p id="fd5c"><i>“Oh, did I? Apologies. I got distracted.”</i></p><p id="6d59">I dragged his cup away from him. Slightly.</p><p id="df5a">I wanted to speak to him.</p><p id="70f2"><i>“No worries, man. I know something is wrong. What is? Can share? My ears are yours. <b>For free!</b>”</i></p><p id="0f9f">And finally, he braved a light smile.</p><p id="3d72"><i>“For free? Wow. Knowing you… that must be a huge loss on your P&L!”</i></p><p id="7a86">Jay is finally back.</p><p id="5752"><i>“Precisely. You better talk!”</i></p><p id="9a6a">And talk, he did.</p><h1 id="3f3a">It Started with Financial Economics</h1><p id="4e68"><i>“It was about money.”</i></p><p id="f563">That was his opening statement.</p><p id="e9d1">And then, he followed up very quickly with the second one.</p><p id="8833"><i>“Gosh, I really hate to talk about dollars and cents. I’m so embarrassed of myself.”</i></p><p id="c54b">I assured him that all was fine. We <b>[just</b>] need to get comfortable talking about the dollars and cents.</p><p id="e0a2"><i>“Hey, look, look. <b>[I snapped my fingers at him]</b> Money is a real issue. We cannot avoid it. Learn to get it off your chest. You will overcome this.”</i></p><p id="95df">By now, I got worried.</p><p id="c7c5">Did he gamble away his money? Or did his wife run away with his life savings? I mean, regardless, it sounded serious.</p><p id="4061">I prepared myself for it.</p><p id="6b1e"><i>“My twin sons are attending university next year. And my wife is sick. She needs long-term medical care. I cannot do any of those. I have no money. I am suffering from the inside.”</i></p><p id="f759">He choked a little.</p><p id="1cd4">I went silent.</p><p id="76d8"><i>“The current job I have? I love it. I love everything here. But the salary is not enough for me. I spoke to Jim* and asked him to increase my salary. He declined. He said the budget is tight, and I did not bring business.”</i></p><p id="19d8">Jim = My ex-company CEO</p><p id="8c74">I was shocked. I covered my mouth. I never expected things to come to this stage.</p><p id="f234"><i>“Jim declined? After all these years? Did you try to take on more work to justify a pay bump?”</i></p><p id="8dfe">Jay looked defeated.</p><p id="ea3b"><i>“I did. But Jim said times are bad. The company is in cash-preservation mode. So… I thought about it for very long. I decided to leave.”</i></p><p id="64f2">His eyes got wet.</p><p id="c73c">I choked.</p><p id="1ed9">Slightly.</p><p id="1953">This is how a guy who worked for 26 years got treated. It saddened me.</p><h1 id="56ce">“What’s Next? Why Are You Retiring When You Need the Money?”</h1><p id="a4d3">This is the part where logic fails to follow emotions.</p><p id="6059"><i>“Jay, if you need the money, why are you walking away from it? Earning something today cannot cover all your expenses,

Options

but it helps, right? No?”</i></p><p id="b828">He got emotional.</p><p id="c415"><i>“I thought I had a bond with the company and vice versa. I never knew it boiled down to money. I guess… I felt betrayed. I want to leave. It’s too tiring. And my wife needs me.”</i></p><p id="c848">As far as I can tell… this is the point of no return.</p><p id="1cc7"><i>“I am just too tired. Maybe… I will do my own thing when my wife is out of the woods. Maybe.”</i></p><p id="95c0">I said nothing.</p><p id="f96b">I wanted Jay to know that he had my full attention.</p><p id="9e5d">In truth, I didn’t know what to say.</p><p id="c8a2">I was caught in the moment.</p><h1 id="360c">The Close</h1><p id="fdd5">Not all retirement stories are happy ones.</p><p id="e8d4">I have seen too many.</p><p id="ffbe">Jay’s story is unique.</p><p id="113a">He does not hate his work. The opposite is true. He loved it. He loved every single minute in the office. But reality drove a wedge between him and his work.</p><ul><li>He needed more money to keep his family going.</li><li>He needed more time with his wife.</li></ul><p id="e694">Jay is tongue-tight when it comes to money and compensation.</p><p id="284e">He never fought for his pay increment and performance bonus for years. And when he had to — He got thrown under the bus.</p><p id="8fc1">He felt betrayed.</p><p id="1dec">I hope this is not happening to you.</p><p id="aff1">Retire with happiness in your heart. Not grudges.</p><p id="52d1">We deserve better.</p><p id="0e5e"><i>Like this story? Hit <a href="https://aldric-chen.medium.com/subscribe"><b>Subscribe</b></a>!</i></p><p id="b69b"><i>Oh, oh, you can buy me <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/aldricchen">a cup of black</a> too! Thank you!</i></p><div id="4efb" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/i-had-unfettered-access-to-my-vcs-executive-assistant-for-3-days-she-impressed-me-b7d370acf2ec"> <div> <div> <h2>I Had Unfettered Access to My VC’s Executive Assistant for 3 Days — She Impressed Me</h2> <div><h3>In short, she is [really] amazing.</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*fpWAOGRUKC3seVXCzWEoYA.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="d2c0" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/i-saw-my-ceos-salary-everybody-s-faces-what-happened-next-is-unbelievable-e10d7d5b83a6"> <div> <div> <h2>I Saw My CEO’s Salary [& Everybody’s Faces] — What Happened Next is Unbelievable.</h2> <div><h3>Transparency leads to open mouths</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*ytoNjO3z9FHYu9GrprDI4g.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Quotes About Work for Labor Day

Musings on the role of work in our lives

Happy Labor Day! I hope you are enjoying the long weekend away from work and recharging your batteries to begin anew tomorrow. Work can be something that fulfills us, or it can be something that drags us down emotionally. Either way, work is a necessary part of our lives and it takes up a large part of our lives. These quotes are about work and the role it plays.

1. “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” -Rumi 2. “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” -Alexander Graham Bell

3. “Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you’re willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.” -Lou Holtz

4. “No man goes before his time — unless the boss leaves early.” -Groucho Marx

5. “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” -Douglas Adams

6. “The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” -Lily Tomlin

7. “Without labor nothing prospers.” -Sophocles

8. “Let us realize that: the privilege to work is a gift, the power to work is a blessing, the love of work is success!” -David O. McKay

9. “Either you run the day or the day runs you.” -Jim Rohn

10. “I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” -Henry David Thoreau

11. “If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter.” -John Gotti

12. “Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could.” -Charles J. Sykes

13. “A man should never neglect his family for business.” -Walt Disney

14. “Do not whine….Do not complain. Work harder. Spend more time alone.” -Joan Didion

15. “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” -Samuel Goldwyn

16. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” -Thomas Edison

17. “Build your own dreams or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” -Farrah Gray

18. “Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.” -Peter Drucker

19. “I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” -Jerome K. Jerome

20. “You are not your resume, you are your work.” -Seth Godin

21. “All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.” -Aristotle

22. “Working hard and working smart sometimes can be two different things.” -Byron Dorgan

23. “Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.” -Dale Carnegie

24. “The more I want to get something done the less I call it work.” -Richard Bach

25. “It is better to have one person working with you than three people working for you.” -Dwight D. Eisenhower

26. “I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.” -Charles Lamb

27. “Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” -Theodore Roosevelt

28. “Hard work betrays none.” -Hachiman Hikigaya

29. “We pretend to work because they pretend to pay us.” -Unknown 30. “When people go to work, they shouldn’t have to leave their hearts at home.” -Betty Bender 31. “People who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for any more than they do.” -Elbert Hubbard

32. “All happiness depends on courage and work.” -Honoré de Balzac

33. “If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.” -Ray Kroc

34. “There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time.” -Coco Chanel

35. “To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.” -Pearl S. Buck 36. “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” -Abraham Lincoln

37. “Work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do.” -Oscar Wilde

38. “Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.” -Gustave Flaubert

39. “A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn’t feel like it.” -Alistair Cook

40. “Without hustle, talent will only carry you so far.” -Gary Vaynerchuk

41. “Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.” -Stephen Hawking 42. “Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.” -William Patten

43. “Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.” -George Carlin

44. “Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

45. “The wiser you get, the less you take yourself seriously, the more work looks like play.” -Maxime Lagacé

46. “The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” -Vince Lombardi

47. “Talent means nothing, while experience, acquired in humility and with hard work, means everything.” -Patrick Suskind

48. “It’s a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can’t eat for eight hours; he can’t drink for eight hours; he can’t make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work.” -William Faulkner

49. “In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” -Leo Tolstoy

50. “Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?” -Edgar Bergen

More from Kiki Wellington:

15 Favorite Quotes From ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’

Examples of the Peanuts gang at their Charlie Browniest

medium.com

25 of My Favorite Quotes About Love for Valentine’s Day

How do I love quotes? Let me count the ways!

medium.com

25 Quotes for National Underwear Day

Embrace your underwear on August 5

medium.com

Sources:

155 Hard Work Quotes. Wisdom Quotes. https://wisdomquotes.com/hard-work-quotes/

Edberg, H. (2021, March 8). 87 Inspirational Quotes for Work (Motivation to Work Hard and Smart). The Positivity Blog. https://www.positivityblog.com/quotes-for-work/

Liles, M. 100 Funny Work Quotes That’ll Make Your Daily Grind More Enjoyable. Parade. https://parade.com/976021/marynliles/funny-work-quotes/

Marr, B. (2019, February 19). Inspiring Quotes to Help You Get Through Your Work Day. Entrepreneur. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238267

Reddy, A. 45 Inspirational Quotes That Will Get You Through the Work Week. The Muse. https://www.themuse.com/advice/45-inspirational-quotes-that-will-get-you-through-the-work-week

Work Quotes. BrainyQuote. https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/work-quotes

Work Quotes. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/work