A young American graduate who has been working full-time for less than a year described how her 9 to 5 was an ordeal in a letter to American media outlet Business Insider.
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Piper Hanson, 23, of Louisville, Kentucky, is committed to and hopeful for a better lifestyle.
Here is an excerpt from the letter she sent to the media in the hope of adding her voice to the debate about the working conditions of young people entering the workforce.
“I work in a YMCA office and find my job very rewarding, but it takes up most of my life. I’ve only been working full time for a few months since graduating from college in the spring and I’m feeling so depressed about it all.
How can I make sure I eat well, see my friends, and make time for my hobbies? How should I fit my entire life into my work schedule?
I usually wake up around 7 a.m. and am at work from about 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. When I get home, I barely have time to walk the dog and make dinner before it gets dark outside. Next, I need to make sure I can pack something for my lunch the next day. I’ll only be home for a few hours before getting ready for bed at 11 p.m.
Does life have to be like this?
Recently, a viral video of a Generation Z worker crying because she no longer had time to live her life with the demands of a 40-hour work week has sparked many thoughts. Some people were sympathetic, saying they felt the same way and were angry at the system after decades of work. Others disagreed.
Some said that Generation Z is not “strong” and that young people need to buckle down and get used to it because that is life.
I just want to say: we know that it is so. But does it have to be that way? It’s really depressing to live like this.
I try to make time for activities with my boyfriend who lives nearby, but one of us is always exhausted from the work day or has to get up early the next morning.
It feels like we just work and come home to rest before going back to work – that’s hard. People shouldn’t live like that. And that’s what I love about Generation Z: We see the reality of the world as it is, but we also see that there is an opportunity to make things better.
If enough of us realize this, perhaps we can make a difference. Living better is possible.
I wish there were more options for organizing working hours
It’s not even that I don’t like my job, because I like it. But I feel like it takes up most of my life. There was a problem at work the other day and a colleague turned to me and said, “Are you ready to deal with this for the next 45 years of your life?” And my stomach dropped. I am not ready.
I wish there were more options for schedules that allow you to have a life outside of work. I don’t want my next 45 years to be the same as the last few months: going to work, coming home for dinner, resting, and then going back to work.
I also want to live my life.
I don’t know if full-time work is in my future for the rest of my career. I want to live a more flexible life where I can maybe go to the office for a meeting in the morning, then have lunch at home, and have time to run errands in the afternoon. I want to be able to work remotely more.
I see other people in more flexible situations that allow them to travel or enjoy other things outside of work, and I want that too. But in the meantime, I’m trying to fill this gap by meeting my friends and developing hobbies in what little free time I have.”