the NEVER ending workday

no i am not talking specifically about today (although i could be because today seems to be never ending). i am talking about how the 9-5 work day is officially dead. not only is it dead, but everyone seems to be okay with this idea. I AM NOT.

i remember being in school and thinking that homework sucked. you spent X amount of hours in school only to bring work home. blasphemy! i dreamed of work, a day that had an end, no homework. but alas, there is no end to a work day. work is a 24 hour beast. if someone would have warned me that boss's text, e-mail, and call all hours of the morning/night, i might have stayed in school forever.

i understand that sometimes there is an urgency to get something done. and late nights or early mornings are necessary sometimes, but do you think that the client is waiting for your e-mail at 330am? the answer is NO, and neither am i. 

calls at 11PM, texts at 630AM, e-mails at 330AM. when does the madness stop? (this example to the right isnt even the worst ive gotten, it just happens to be from this week) the thing is, that once you open the flood gate of any time = work time, you are forever screwed. if your company is not paying for your phone, there is no need to give your number, because that allows them to use it after hours and be able to reach you 
w-h-e-n-e-v-e-r. i once answered a text at 10PM on a sunday, and have regretted it ever since. i made it okay to interrupt ME time. and i dont care if that sounds selfish.

the real problem is, that everyone is just totally accepting of this new reality. i once went to a head hunter who told me that if i wanted a job in the "creative" world i should be willing to accept a smaller base salary because with the 14+ hour work days i would be guaranteed over time. im sorry did i really just hear 14 fucking plus working hours! kill me now. and that 14 hours does not include the 2+ hours that most of us are commuting into the workplace.

the new norm is to skip out on lunch, in fact if you take a full lunch hour, your co-workers will likely sneer at you. why aren't you hovering over your desk, shoving a sandwich in your mouth that you ordered from Seamless (because you are even too busy to go downstairs to the deli). you're taking vacation? psh, i havent taken one in 12 years! (i literally know people who have been forced to use vacation time, FORCED!) but it's almost like a badge of honor, to spend all this time at work. it makes you feel insane for wanting to get home quickly, take your lunch hour, use your personal days. the shame i carry with me for using sick days!

im not delusional, i know that everyone has to work. and yes there are people that love their jobs (although i hate that argument, do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life, yea super easy - find a job where i can travel endlessly, answer to no one and make 6 figures a year), but even the job loving folks are working insane hours. you often spend more time with co-workers then in the presence of loved ones. which to me is ridiculous. when people refer to someone as their "work wife" or "work husband" it makes me sick. you have an actual husband/wife (if you do) and you should be going home to them at a decent hour. and if you have no husband/wife, go home to your family - no family, go home to your cat (because you definitely have one).

so please vow to yourself to use your sick days when you're not feeling well, take a vacation - you've literally earned it. need to go to a doctor - skip out no more, that's what personal days are for! take your lunch hour to eat, slowly, and enjoy your meal, maybe even make a phone call to mom. leave on time! pretend that there is a bell like system, like in school, and at 5 it rings. shut down your computer, dont answer that phone, and leave. strut the fuck out of the building.