I’m at that point in my where most of the people I know and the friends I have are hustling in one way or the other to make ends meet. Some are hustling for themselves, others are simply just trying to provide for their families. As a result, they are willing to go to any length if it’s going to pay the bills.
A number of them are employees, working 9-5 across various fields. There are those who are self-employed, doing their own thing and on their own time. These are mostly the people who have to struggle with traffic every single day, battling other pedestrians in their daily chase of the bag. And then, there are those like me, who do most of our jobs from the house. Working remotely and having total control over our time and schedule.
Where am I going with all these? It’s actually a friend of mine who works for a restaurant all the way on the Island in Lagos. This restaurant is somewhere close to Eko Hotel, so it’s one of the bigwigs in the area. They work in shifts and being a chef, her shift starts in the afternoon and does not end until well after midnight. She then uses the mornings to sleep and rest in preparation for the new day.
But then, the restaurant provided them with accommodation that was close to the place, allowing them not to bother about pesky issues like transportation. They worked every day and had only one weekday off. It wasn’t even on the weekend.
So, my friend has been working there for a few months now and she has been complaining about it, the stress of the work, having to stand for long hours without getting any rest, then coming home knowing that in a few hours, she would have to get back on the road again. The work was stressful, draining her of just about everything, she didn’t have time for family anymore, and she didn’t have time to do things that she wanted to do. It was as if her life had been taken over by the damn job. And for how much?
You see, my friend loves cooking, she loves being a chef. And she loved it to the point that she was willing to spend well over a million naira getting better at the craft. However, with all this work she’s been doing, it’s been taking the fun and joy out of the entire thing for her. She told me about how no one was ever happy anymore, they were only turning up because of the money and it could show with the way they were going about their jobs.
It’s sad, really, but this is the stark reality of most of the jobs today. These institutions don’t care about you. They simply know that you need the money that they have to give, and if you have to work yourself to stupor, so be it. despite everything, they’ll still look for a way to reduce the amount of money that they pay you. It’s stories like these that made me swear off 9-5. A long time ago, I saw just how stressful they were and I said, hell no! Thankfully, my sojourn into remote work has been favorable and I’m sure that with time, there will be more to come!
My heart really goes out top everyone who has to go out there every day, putting other aspects of their lives on hold because they have to make a living. I hope that it gets better. Because it’s very important!
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