Whining aside - since that is the point in this post, at least so far - I ended up seeing a documentary about the poor people of India called Nero's Guests (this was actually already last summer, but never mind, and I think everyone should educate themselves with that kind of documentaries but that, too, is not the point here). One of the people portrayed there was a single mom of I think 3 young kids who worked a long way from home. She woke up around 4 am, washed up, cooked breakfast for the family and went to the train station at 6 am. After the day of low-paying hard work she returned home on the train after sunset around 23 pm (her kids obviously had had to take care of their own dinner since they were already asleep by the time their mom got home) and went to bed. I don't remember the details anymore, but I'd guess that went on seven days a week (or maybe she was lucky and was able to have one day off from work per week). Compared to that, the discomfort of having to work 37.5 hours a week with occasional hours hitting outside of the oh-so-convenient 9 am to 5 pm window is minuscule.
That is not by far the only example. Like the farmers of yesterday, the poor of the world today do not have a separation of work time and free time. And I think farmers still have the same schedule that nature dictates (work when needed, rest when you can). Not exactly the most prominent role models of today, but what is it that they seem to actually cope better with their circumstances than me with my own?
Actually the habit of having to be at the office from 9 am to 5 pm was inherited from the days of industrialisation in the 19th century, and has not much to do with the current ICT work that is not tied to place or time. In a factory it was - and to some extent still - is crucial to have the people at the conveyor belt (or the monitoring console in a more modern factory) all the time, otherwise the production will likely suffer. Since that is not the case with modern information work, we have things like flextime (ok, that's rather old thing already), remote work and flex work. Basically the information workers of now can put in their effort at the time they feel most comfortable and sometimes even in the amount they feel comfortable with at that particular time. Working in cafés, park benches, sofas etc is kind of trendy these days, and even the less-trendy companies start allowing that kind of work.
I've been doing flexitime all my career, and I appreciate the freedom it offers. I also appreciate that my current employer does allow occasional remote work days when I need it (although I do have better ergonomy at the office, so working a full day at home is rather heavy physically). This clearly shows that I have absolutely nothing to whine about in my working circumstances - so far I even got the luxury of a private room at the office (remains to be seen how long) - something not so trendy but yet so beneficial for concentration.
I've been working with my mindset some time now to mend this mental issue of mine. As I'm interested in yoga I like to view it also from the karma yoga angle - some things just need to be done due to that being my duty (applies also to the multitude of things not so pleasant yet mandatory in life in general). If I was as enthusiastic about my work as some are, things would be easier. I wonder whether it is about having a "perfect" job for oneself or whether it is about the mindset, or both. Nevertheless, not all can have a "perfect" job. In fact, "perfect" is something that likely does not belong to the domain of material life, so it must be about the mindset. It is rather ironic that if one sees things in a positive way, everything is so much easier.
After all, I'm being pretty darn lucky.
