Struggling to adjust to full time work

My dad, who has a tendency to say things like this a lot, says that if work were fun, you would have to pay them to be allowed to do it, and to an extent, he is right. I remember my first year of proper work was so horrible that I left and did a PGCE instead just to be a student again. Then I had another 'first' year of work all over again. However, you do build up an immunity to it. You do develop a routine and become a bit more robust. If your job makes you wretched, find something else that doesn't - the day I walked away from my first job is up there in the top twenty best days of my life - but remember that work is work, whatever it is, unless you are very, very lucky.

So do you teach now??

If you hate it then get out while you still can - while you're young and don't have bills to pay/massive financial responsibilities tying you down.

All the people who tell you ''welcome to the real world'', ''this is adult life'', ''reality check'' etc are brainwashed. Sounds harsh but it's true - people are enslaved into the system because they're led to believe it's the only way to survive - it's false. You do not have to hand your life over to a company for 30+ hours a week of your life, is it really worth it to spend that amount of your time in a place that doesn't fulfill you for around 50 years until you retire, have a couple of years of peace then go to a nursing home and die? People just try to stick their head in the sand and tell themselves ''that isn't going to happen to me'' but of course it will if you work in an office/shop full time and don't pursue a way out. Follow your passion - you have to be hungry for it though. Companies really don't care about individuals - as much as they'd like you to believe that they value you - they don't. You could be made redundant at the drop of a hat if a company went bust/had to downsize and then all of those weeks/months/years that you gave your life to a company will seem even more meaningless - you should have given those years to your own dream, not someone else's. Everyone is just a cog in the machine, a number.

I know how soul destroying it is sit in an office/run around a shop for 8+ hours a day for a crap wage - I've done it. Then I woke and realized - I was only doing it for the money and the money didn't even mean a thing to me. The joy of seeing my wage slip once per month wasn't enough to make up for the fact I was handing my life over to a faceless company and getting nothing in return but meaningless money that disappeared as soon as I had it - and got taxed like ****.

Some people tell you to stay in a full time job because that's what they did and they can't stand to see someone making a success of their life doing something that they actually enjoy rather than rotting away in front of a computer/behind a till. Do what you want to do - you've only got one life.

Yes. Been doing it for 30 years.

Finished uni in May and have been fortunate to get a full time 9-5 job (pay is £18000 which I guess is alright for a first job)

I've been there 3 weeks now, and am struggling like hell with it. As a student I've been so used to lie ins, pubbing it till late, and just generally enjoying life. I worked weekends, so had money to spend too.

But since working 9-5 I find I'm struggling to fit in much around work at all. I have to get up at 6, and don't get home till gone 7 due to the commute I have to make. I'm struggling to sleep as I'm so aware I have to be up early then I find myself checking the time at crazy hours in the morning.

The job itself isn't quite what they sold to me at interview either, it's a lot more targets based than I was led to believe and already feel stressed by them.

I seem to have been struck, rather fiercely, with a reality check about what the working world offers. I went to uni to get a degree to get a job, but mainly to have a good time and now feel like my life is going to be very boring and rather depressing!

A lot of my friends are working in retail still part time and I'm already envying them, not sure whether I should go back to that and have fun while I'm still young and at home with the folks with no responsibilities? And maybe rethink what to do career wise. Thoughts??

Oh wow, wasn't expecting that! Teaching seems like a rewarding career so I can see the appeal, plus its not sitting in front of a pc for 8 hours a day. But it's also a hell of a lot of work for many more hours a day than 8... No, I only do that when I come home and get on TSR I'm trying to cut down....

It's tricky. I'm not lazy as such, I've always worked alongside sixth form and my degree, I think it's more the boredom of the routine and the job itself that is already making all that revision and hard work feel like a waste of time. Just a very bad time to be stepping out of uni I guess.

Adjusting to the world of work is a tough thing. It's a rite of passage because even though you are young (and trust me, you are!) you are closing the door on the carefree life of childhood and adolescence, and there's a kind of mourning for the loss of freedom which is natural and inevitable. But once you've got over the shock of work, you'll find there are also rewards to the adult life. To mess about with Spiderman, along with great responsibility comes great power.

Haha! If only we could be paid to sit infront of tsr all day eh!

Yes I guess that's it, it's a shock to the system going from those carefree uni days and being able to skip the 9am lectures...to knowing that's no longer an option!! And also being the first of my circle of friends to get a 'proper' job is hard as they're still living that fun lifestyle im craving. I am getting used to it more already though, I now automatically wake up really early even on weekends (which is annoying!) but I would still like to go travelling or something in a years time as I'm not exactly in a job which will lead me anywhere within the department I'm in. So I would have to leave at some point eventually, might as well have some fun at the end of it!

Depends though... if your doing a career job then atleast you know youre going somewhere. . I have a job a monkey could do, minimum wage and I do in the region of 50 hours a week and do 2weeks straight no days off! And my company thinks Im happy and do not care about over working me and paying me peanuts. I cant wait to finish my studies and hopefully leave.. but tbh I could be at this job for years... as it was hard enough finding a darn job..

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Finished uni in May and have been fortunate to get a full time 9-5 job (pay is £18000 which I guess is alright for a first job)

I've been there 3 weeks now, and am struggling like hell with it. As a student I've been so used to lie ins, pubbing it till late, and just generally enjoying life. I worked weekends, so had money to spend too.

But since working 9-5 I find I'm struggling to fit in much around work at all. I have to get up at 6, and don't get home till gone 7 due to the commute I have to make. I'm struggling to sleep as I'm so aware I have to be up early then I find myself checking the time at crazy hours in the morning.

The job itself isn't quite what they sold to me at interview either, it's a lot more targets based than I was led to believe and already feel stressed by them.

I seem to have been struck, rather fiercely, with a reality check about what the working world offers. I went to uni to get a degree to get a job, but mainly to have a good time and now feel like my life is going to be very boring and rather depressing!

A lot of my friends are working in retail still part time and I'm already envying them, not sure whether I should go back to that and have fun while I'm still young and at home with the folks with no responsibilities? And maybe rethink what to do career wise. Thoughts??

I posted my reply on a similar thread on this forum, but ill post again:

People just try and make themselves feel better and delude themselves they have more free time than they actually have to soften the blow. Its just not the case. There are even books like Vanderkams 168 hours that show you how you can alledgedly have some sort of fulfilling life around work because a week is a long time.

Its just not. People will say 40 hours work and 56 hours sleep still leaves 72 hours in a week free.

It doesn’t at all. I have to travel to work and back. If its busy in the city, that’s 2 hours travelling, so theres 10 hours gone. Work wont pay you for lunch, theres another 5, and the time before work is going to be spent on next to nothing useful. Showering, breakfast, getting ready for the day? Id guess that’s 7.5 hours a week youd say? That’s not too bad an estimate?

So now, without doing any more time at work, your “free time” is 49.5 hours. But really, is it? What about having to eat? Go shopping? what about having to clean the apartment? What about having to do all of your laundry and iron all your clothes? This is going to take your free time down even further, if you loosely class these activities as “free time”.

Vanderkam would just say to hell with it. Outsource all these areas of your life. Pay for a cleaner. Pay for someone to launder your clothes. Yeah right, you cant afford to do that. As if that’s realistic to suggest that to anyone other than someone on a significant salary, who is probably working longer anyway.

So by my calculations, even with working a 40 hour week which most would say is short or “normal”, and not wasting any time, youre still left with what, 45 hours a week?

That might sound reasonable, ish, but what happens if you have to do say 5 hours overtime? What about having to travel to things and back for a hobby? What about those things ive not scheduled, doctor, dentist, all of those?

Im saying youd have realistically 40-45 hours “free” if you didn’t have one single minute of NON SCHEDULED TIME. Youd have that amount of time if you never sat down for a moment and reflected. Or never just spent some time recovering on nothing in particular. Or never had a lie in a little bit longer one day as you were tired.

Its simply not realistic to think that youll utilise all your time non stop, by doing something non stop. People don’t function that way, and a certain amount of time will be wasted by necessity for this reason. Especially if your job is in any way active, youll have to take some time out just to gather yourself.

So your work life balance will become like so many peoples…….work 40 hours, probably more, do all the travelling and such, in return for a few hours on a Friday night in a nightclub. Or all your work time for a few hours at football on a Saturday.

If that’s a balance, then it doesn’t fit what my notion of a balance is.

The reality is, that ive found since working full time, is that your mates will probably do the same, and youll just give up on having a life or the activities within it you used to do, because you cant do them. You cant go to the gym, play football, watch tv, read a book, play an instrument, browse online, maintain a happy relationship and work. There isn’t time. So you just start giving things up. Soon enough, you get exactly what you didn’t want, work is your life.

Id like to say there is a way around it. The one hope you’ve got, is if you GENUINELY like your job. Not many do.