The Ugly Truth About 9–5 Jobs

The statistics about traditional jobs do not look good

I’m at a point in my life right now where my future is still totally uncertain. I’m currently studying and don’t know exactly what I’m going to do afterward.

The thought of working in a 9–5 job doesn’t really appeal to me, to be honest.

After reading books like “The Millionaire Fastlane” by MJ DeMarco and doing some research on the topic, I found some reasons that push me very strongly in the entrepreneurial direction. Being my own boss is clearly more appealing to me. In this article, you’ll find out why.

First of all, I would like to say that I don’t want to judge anyone and I don’t want to condemn 9–5 jobs in general. On the contrary, there are countless 9–5 jobs that keep our society running and for which I have a huge respect.

I just want to share my thoughts and think that many people can relate. In my case, after my studies, it would probably come down to a classic corporate office job.

85 Percent Of People Hate Their Jobs

According to this poll 85% of people worldwide hate their job or are not engaged in it. In Japan, it’s even an alarming 94%. In the US, it’s “only” 70%.

People especially seem to hate their boss, as described in the linked article:

Employees everywhere don’t necessarily hate the company or organization they work for as much as they do their boss. Employees — especially the stars — join a company and then quit their manager. It may not be the manager’s fault so much as these managers have not been prepared to coach the new workforce.

Do 9–5 Jobs Cause Heart Attacks?

The risk of suffering a heart attack increases enormously with stress. Many people are particularly stressed on Mondays when they have to go back to work after the weekend. In fact, so much so that most heart attacks occur on Monday mornings.

This article confirms this.

Research dating back decades reveals that Monday mornings are prime time for heart attacks. A study published in the American Heart Journal, which looked at more than 156,000 hospital admissions for heart attacks, confirmed that the most “popular” day was Monday; the fewest heart attacks occurred on Saturday. The researchers reported that this was likely related to “psychosocial stress levels,” which tend to increase with the onset of the work week.

Most heart attacks, therefore, occur at the beginning of the working week. The fewest occur on a day when many people are off work. This is probably not because everyone enjoys their job so much.

A Negative 60% ROI

If you are one of the majority of people who don’t like their job, you spend 5 days every week doing something you don’t like and get 2 days of free time back to pursue your passions. 5 for 2? Not a good deal in my opinion. A loss of 60% to be exact.

Would you invest your money in a way that you are sure to lose 60% of it? Probably not. Unfortunately, a 9–5 job forces many people to enter into this trade with their time.

Only 3h of Productivity A Day

Research shows that the average worker is only productive for around 3 hours a day. Regardless of how long they sit in the office.

This means that if they are working 9–5, they are spending 5 hours a day sitting around unnecessarily.

Time Now> Time Later

Would you rather have a million today or in 3 years?

I think the answer is obvious. You would take it today. Money today is worth more than money tomorrow. In economics, they call it the time value of money. A concept they teach you at university.

On www.investopedia.com, the concept is described like this:

The time value of money (TVM) assumes a dollar in the present is worth more than a dollar in the future because of variables such as inflation and interest rates. Inflation is the general increase in prices, which means that the value of money depreciates over time as a result of that change in the general level of prices. A dollar in the future will not be able to buy the same value of goods as it does today.

Changes in the price level are reflected in the interest rate. The interest rate is charged by financial institutions on loans (e.g., a mortgage or a car loan) to individuals or businesses and TVM is taken into account in setting the rate. Also, the interest rate is what individuals earn on their money by investing it, rather than letting it sit idle in cash, hence another reason why a dollar today will be worth more than a dollar in the future.

In fact, one dollar today is worth half as much (in terms of purchasing power) as the same dollar two decades ago and just one-third as much as three decades ago.

Makes sense, I guess. However, through MJ DeMarco, I became aware of a funny paradox regarding this concept. I highly recommend checking out his books.

When it comes to our time, almost everyone, including teachers and parents preaches doing the exact opposite.

Namely, trading our time now for time in the future. Working a job most of us don’t really like in order to retire in our late 60s.

In my opinion, time is much more valuable than money. So there would be enough reasons not to exchange time today for time later. To apply the concept of the time value of money to our time.

After all, we probably won’t be able to do as much in our late 60s when we retire. And who knows if we will even make it that far.

Of course, becoming financially free is easier said than done. But those who achieve this at a relatively young age are usually entrepreneurs. Therefore, I will definitely try to go this way.

A business gives us the opportunity to decouple our income from our working hours. This is essential to earn enough money to become financially free relatively early. After all, working hours are difficult to scale.

The Internet has given us an incredible opportunity to escape the rat race of the classic corporate job. I am sure that most of those who really try can build a solid internet business with a little trial and error.

I, for example, have managed to earn $4,000 in my fourth month on Medium, even though I am neither an experienced writer nor a native English speaker and am still a student. I hope to increase this number and plan to build more revenue streams.

I hope this motivates you.

Thanks for reading!

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