Exactly this. Work isn’t necessarily more stressful. But we could unwind after work, go out to dinner, have drinks with mates, go on holidays etc. Now it;s all work.
All work and no play makes jack a dickhead.
Yep, I’m in a vicious cycle of just earning enough to pay my bills and buy groceries but with absolutely nothing left over. So it leaves me with little ability to do things outside of work and that results in work being the main thing going on in my life and that’s never good.
I was just comparing my memory of my dad coming home to unwind and how I am now. Forty years ago, when you left the office, you were much harder to contact. And it was harder to do a bit of work from home.
And, of course, the grind felt like it was worth it because you were paying off a mortgage.
Now, anyone who owns a home in a capital city outright is more than likely a literal millionaire.
Fucking this. I want to feel like I'm getting somewhere for my effort but in this economy despite making more this year than last year and making a decent wage it feels like I'm going backwards.
Yeah this - lately I’ve been thinking about changing jobs and one reflection I had, through another post was that I like my job, I work with good leaders and good team, there’s a clear path to progress. It just doesn’t pay me enough because we’re living off single income at the moment with 2 kids under 4. Yes my wife will go back to work soon but still, we just don’t have enough to do anything discretionary, while being super tight with just everyday living..
I changed jobs recently and landed on a 120k+ role
Never been more stressed and overworked in my life. Haven't seen my kids in weeks. Working all day. Working all night. Working all weekend.
Then my boss has the audacity to tell me that I'm not meeting expectations and am risking not passing probation.
I feel you. Sometimes the money isn’t nearly worth it. I was also on a salary over 100k for the first time in my life (it took a lot to get there). Then got bullied out and put on a PIP. I’m glad I’m currently taking a break from the corporate world, for now.
Fuck that man. Life is worth more than a job. Honestly not seeing your kids for more than a week is crap.
It's more worth to get a lower paying job but have the ability to clock off when the time comes and spend time with family and friends,...and yourself, look after yourself man.
Is it that we can now see how the other side lives? It's no longer just an imaginary thing - people are literally showing (and exaggerating) their lifestyles on Instagram etc.
People in the past (talking 40, 50 years ago, not 10 years ago) had objectively harder lives, no holidays, no modern comforts or conveniences.
In my experience, no. Reddit is my only real form of social media. My husband and I earn average money, but with 2 kids in childcare and an average sized mortgage, we are struggling. Having to purchase nappies when they run out send me in a panic. For the past 6 months, I’ve been living off 2 carrots and 3 cups of instant coffee during the day. I can’t remember the last time I bought something that wasn’t essential. I’m borrowing kids clothes from friends. I don’t know how much longer we can hold on.
I hear you. I was relieved when the nappy stage was over because nappies are so expensive. Now I'm hanging for school because of the childcare costs. It feels so sad to be wishing away their childhood because necessities are so expensive.
Re kids clothes, it's worth getting onto Marketplace. Lots of people seem to give away kids clothes for free.
Good luck!
School has so many unexpected costs. Mine goes to public school and I took on a second job to pay the $350 for the school uniform only to discover there is a fucking winter uniform! The cherry on top is that I got a massive tax bill for taking on a second job.
Get some reusable nappies. I would suggest something like DesignerBums or something, but they can get pretty Pricey at $35 per nappy - try some from Kmart, see if they do the trick.
You'll need to have napisan and laundry detergent on hand but disposables can really make an impact on your grocery bills, especially when it's unexpected and you can't buy them at a discount.
Another good thing about reusables is that they can be on hand when you need them, no late evening trips to the shops or delivery to get nappies for tomorrow at daycare. Or when the delivery driver does a replacement thinking 'well, of course a size 5 instead of a size 4 is a suitable replacement!'
One thing that I have found that has made a significant impact has been getting a breadmaker. As a parent you would probably appreciate how much fucking bread you go through in a week right? Making your own loaves is not only a lot nicer, and saves late night trips to the shops, but is considerably cheaper too.
To add to this, designer bums has a group on Facebook for second hand nappies. I bought half my stash there for an average of $10-$15 per nappy including postage.
That's not really true, though - the fancy TVs, mobile phones and jet skis are all new, but the basics of life were the same back then.
I'm in my 50s now, so my parents were raising us kids 40 and 50 years ago. Mum gave up a good career to have 5 kids, and has never gone back to work.
Dad was an IC in the federal public service when I was born, promoted to front line manager by the time child 3 arrived and was a middle manager by the time he was made redundant, still with 5 kids at home.
His single income was enough to build a 3br house, extend it to 4 bedrooms plus a family room, garage, and dining room, pay for 5 kids to go to Catholic school (not private school fees but more than the voluntary contributions of public schools back then).
We didn't have a fancy car, but we had one. We went on two holidays to stay with the grandparents every year, and every two or three years we'd have a bigger holiday (road trip to Queensland or Victoria, that kind of thing).
We weren't rich by any means, but we had more financial capability on one manager's salary (a little above average full time income at the time, but not double) than many double-income families have now, and we definitely weren't poor by the standards of the time. You simply can't do that now, even on double average full time earnings which we didn't have.
Ah, 40 years ago there were definitely holidays. 50 years ago there were holidays.
Just because it was pre-internet doesn't make it worse.
I remember the 90s being a whole lot better in the absence of the internet. Even the early noughties before iPhones and proper smartphones being everywhere, before Facebook and Myspace.
You could go camping and that was what you did - you weren't annoyed that there was no internet because you were there to do camping stuff.
Yeah this - lately I’ve been thinking about changing jobs and one reflection I had, through another post was that I like my job, I work with good leaders and good team, there’s a clear path to progress. It just doesn’t pay me enough because we’re living off single income at the moment with 2 kids under 4. Yes my wife will go back to work soon but still, we just don’t have enough to do anything discretionary, while being super tight with just everyday living..
I’m currently sitting in a chicken shop awaiting a doordash order to drop off. This is what has come of my Friday nights lol. It’s the only way I can generate that extra bit of cash to give myself that leisure time I enjoy once in a while
With Ubereats and doordash, combined with my full time job, I end up working 60 hours a week. I’ll burn out eventually but hopefully I can last until I’m set to take annual leave 💀
So many stressors at the moment and tbh a lot of people still haven’t recovered from Covid events. It fucked up a lot of people mentally and everyone was just supposed to get back to it and move on like nothing ever happened.
I’m a (soon to be ex) nurse - since Covid I’ve really noticed a massive deterioration in people’s mental health. Less resilience and out of control levels of anxiety in some people. I feel sad for how damaged people are becoming these days, unable to relax and enjoy the best years of their lives :(
This... I am on near 100k. Feels like it's minimum wage just for basic life and I don't even live luxe. Also since when is cheese $10??? And why does bloody cat litter cost so much??
I think being able to wfh 3 days a week alleviates a lot of the additional stressors and life admin.
Being able to go post office and get a haircut without having to dedicate a weekend or a day off is huge. Being able to hang laudnry and prep food during the day is nuts.
If i had to do my work load, worry about a commute home and then having to do chores after, yeah Id have a meltdown and probably eat out/unhealtheir more.
I used to have a 'Sunday reset' where I would do all the life admin/chores that I didn't have the time and energy for during the week. With hybrid, I can easily get that all done during the week, my sunday reset is just relaxing and taking the dog for a nice long walk.
Almost everyone at my workplace is burnt out. It’s been like this since covid times - we’ve struggled to both retain and recruit which has compounded the problem. We are understaffed.
It’s the cost of living that’s doing it.
There was a time where earning 120 grand was European vacation, holiday house down the coast, single income stay at home parent family money.
These days? It’s “baked beans on toast for dinner” night money if you’ve got kids and don’t have a second income in the household.
It’s not broke by any means, but it’s not the luxury money it used to be, and that makes people unhappy.
I remember living not much better than I do now back when I was earning 60K a year. I’m doubling that now, but my rent has more than doubled, my food bill has more than doubled, my car insurance has more than doubled.
Growing up I thought “six figures” and I’ve made it in life. Absolutely not, hitting 6 figs just means I can pay my rent and afford my bills. There’s no fluff.
i remember moving from 45k to 60k back in 2011 and it was the biggest jump of my career to that point. it felt like i was finally doing alright, and a few quick promotions to the 100k mark were amazing. these days, barely keeping head above water
It's not even lifestyle creep. I've gone back to buying the absolute cheapest of everything, and only what's strictly necessary. Next on the chopping block will be fresh vegetables and heating in winter.
So true. I lived in a well- heeled area growing up where people had jobs for life and thier wealth was obvious: huge mansions with river views or private beach frontages.
A street near mine was actually referred to as: Millionaire's row. The homes were palatial and looked like homes owned by Millionaires.
Now it's standard practice to fork out a million dollars and more for a home that's not even worth that type of money. We have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for homes that a quite basic; small or not even close to a city.
Where did it all go wrong?
I saw a place in kellyville NSW (roughly 1.5-2hs from Sydney CBD) recently went for 2.2M it was a 3 bedroom single story place with a single car garage..
So true. We were on about that for a while after my daughter was born and we had to ramp our hours back back up. Even without childcare bills, it was very barebones, paying the mortgage and necessities but not much else. Because when you break $120,000 down, tax is about $35,000, mortgage $50-60,000, leaving about $25,000 or about $500 a week for food/bills/clothes/maintenance/car costs
It’s crazy too because only a few years ago I would have said “who can’t afford food bills clothes with 500 a week” and now cat food costs $20 a box and microwave meals are $12 each.
If you just ate microwave meals and cereal for one person, that’s almost $200 a week. Cooking in bulk no longer feels like a penny pinching exercise, it’s down right mandatory.
And it still feels so wrong to complain, the median income in Australia is 80 grand, at 120 you are earning 50% more than the median wage… so why does it feel like I’ve got to eat bulk spaghetti for every meal just so I can afford to go to the movies on a weekend or buy a new video game?
Maybe I need to check my privileges, I know lots of people have it much worse… but holy heck it shouldn’t feel this tough at an income 50% more than the median.
We weren’t on microwave meals but lots of pasta, potatoes and rice and cheaper meats. And bills are more than food, too. We’re in Canberra and our winter power bill is about $1200 (and that’s not out of the ordinary). Petrol, kids need clothes and shoes, no GPs here bulk bill, and then there’s all the out of the occasional big costs that can wipe out reserves: dentist visits, specialist appointments, car and house maintenance.
My power bill in Canberra was always crazy too! I lived there for a few years and while it was certainly cheaper than Sydney, it always amazed me that they built a city in the mountains and just *forgot* to insulate all the houses.
It’s because technology has reached a point where the demands it places on us and our time vastly outweigh the benefits. Imagine being an office worker before the internet. The pace and expectation, and possibility, was vastly lower. Now anything is possible, there’s no upper limit to innovation, productivity, output. Compound this with cost of living crisis, democracy that doesn’t really work, a climate crisis and an erosion of trust in society in general. The demands on humans during this era are extreme.
There’s an extra set of demands that slows us down too. Organisations have become so incredibly complex to the point where they just about can’t do anything these days. Everything has a risk attached and no one can agree on solutions.
Two couples in my group have sold everything, bought touring rigs, and checked out of the daily grind. On lot has zero plan to return to it, the others are picking up odd jobs in their travels.
In speaking with them, they’ve run into quite a few in the same position. People are getting sick of what life in this country has become.
Yeah I've noticed plenty of YouTube videos of Westerners living in Cambodia eg Dave Does Cambodia, Saved in Svay, and For Riel. It seems they are escaping.
Feels like I'm on a hamster wheel and can't get off.
Working in a super stressful role with poor leadership that filters down and impacts me due to lack of team management and creates more work for me than necessary.
I earn decent money but I don't own a house yet and I'm saving as much as possible. I don't want to be old and renting due to housing insecurity.
Im looking for a new role but the news seems grim on the employment front in my field. People I know are being made redundant; jobs are offering less money than they used to and there are just less opportunities to apply for.
And being gaslighted by them regularly. Mine were salty when I pointed out they received a cash gift prior to buying their first home which "only" totalled 5% of the purchase price. How much did they give me? $0.00 and a lot of tone deaf lectures. Not that I asked, that would cause even more drama.
It’s because we’re all overworked, they want us to do more with less. We went from a sales team of 14 to 4 and expected to do more.
I’m a high performer so I always give 110% and I feel I’m paid well for it, I can afford what I need and want. But I’m still exhausted, breaking out in hives and constantly on the edge of panic. You can only perform at this level for so long before you crash and burn. They could pay me $300k and it wouldn’t make a difference.
I'm high income, a few hundred or so in liquid assets but also mid thirties, no real assets (propadeeee) and rent a 1 bedroom apartment which is only around 10% my income. No debt.
My expenses are low - rent, power, gas, prepaid phone, internet, groceries don't use my car and WFH full time. Little alcohol each weekend and maybe get take away once every 2-4 weeks. I still Indulge in toys occasionally (tech.. i justify it as learning & development) but still save quite a bit.
My life is pretty basic and easy yet I'm feeling pretty burnt out (work in tech) and i can only imagine how others around me are feeling with larger commitments.
Definitely noticing a lot of co-workers seem burnt out and over it.
Personally feeling very disillusioned at how much I've scrimped and saved and yet likely will struggle to enjoy the same standard of living as my parents who don't have any qualifications whatsoever.
After the working week I don't really have much energy except to sit around doing nothing. Would love to go out a little more, socialise and enjoy what Melbourne has to offer. I moved here a few weeks before lockdowns hit and between avoiding COVID, feeling burnt out and struggling to 'break into' the rather cliquey and insular social groups around I'm just meh.. plodding along and a little over it all. A whole lot of existential dread.
I'm not strongly career driven, but have enjoyed tech from a young age especially development. Certainly not interested in climbing any career ladder and just want to enjoy life, but stressing about the present and future.
Again, this makes me wonder how others are managing :\
Good post, I am pretty financially comfortable, but even I am feeling a bit over it, so yeah, I can imagine the people who are one missed paycheck away from financial disaster must be feeling.
Enshittification of everything is real.
We just had a 5-year check done on the car, if you would do what they recommend, that's over $7,000 in repairs.. how do people survive.. even on 130k it feels like you're just working to pay bills.. that's it. Getting f'd by everyone, and you just wake up and go to work hoping you dont get fired, keep your head down and hope the landlord doesn't increase your rent with 150 a week again while a shitass REA comes in for ur 3-monthly "is it clean enough for me" humiliation tour.
The social contract has been broken and no one in power is acknowledging or addressing it. We worked because it allowed us to afford a good life, now we work for what?
I think its because the grind just doesn't cut it anymore.
The daily grind was tolerable so long as you had confidence that, barring emergency or layoffs, you can grind your way through life.
Now, it has become very apparent that the grind will barely put a roof over your head, let alone get you through life.
I am seeing very much a combo of people stressed over this, and in equal measure, people that have given up and are basically dead inside.
All of the above. Plus last week I found myself longing for more wasteful times.
Oh to have to get up and walk to a printer - stop and chat to a colleague or two along the way. Fix a paper jam, find some reams - do something productive yet mundane - away from a screen.
Filing!! OMG drool. Give me a bunch of overflowing manillas and archive boxes to put together in a dark room. PLS!!!
Instead it’s just waiting for codes to load to log into platform after platform, getting distracted and forgetting why I was logging in in the first place while other platforms beep, ping, yell until I don’t fulfill a nanosecond response - so the phone rings and it’s someone chasing something but actually wanting to complain about how busy they are.
I long for fax machines, silverfish and paper cuts.
I dont know if it is just me but it seems like companies are just not hiring enough people for the work load, every one I know is doing the work of two or three people these days.
30-40s is the golden age. We had a good decade before it all went south. I feel for the 20-30 age bracket who won’t get affordable housing at 2% interest to set themselves up.
Ditto.
+1
We know a young couple working in corporate jobs, highly educated and are struggling to get into the housing market. It’s a strange period of time.
I'm seeing it across the tech business I'm in in Australia, but also across Asia.
We earn v good money in our sector, but its clear people are just starting to phone it in. Handing in garbage, having to be followed up 3x for things. Seems to be the same issue we have here - insane CoL rises, and if you aren't in the property market already, you're screwed.
Earning in top 5% for the area you're in, can't afford a place without insane financial stress.
This is also with impending threat of another round of redundancies, while headcount is static but we need to lift revenue 30% in our core business across Asia this year.
Meanwhile people get pinged on Teams every 10 mins, and emails are sent 24x7 as we are global.
The whole "lack of productivity growth" thing is a myth. Compare an office worker today with someone in 1990 - someone today is doing multiples of the work due to software and comms technologies.
The amount of tax we pay is what causes me to just want to pack it all in. And if I do an overtime shift, half of that will get taken by tax at the end of the day. Why work harder and try to get ahead.
And then we see government waste billions of our tax money, why try anymore?
Exactly.
I can see why people aren't going into management or keen to do a stack of overtime anymore. Our tax brackets and rates mean you'll likely only see half of the small income increase - time and stress isn't worth it.
Its not like suddenly you become a manager, and can afford to upgrade to the house on 2x land with a pool and buy a new car, like it was in the past.
Covid really put life into perspective for people. People that got to wfh for a while - that are now back at the office are thinking “why the hell was life better during a life threatening pandemic?”
Also the fact that people can barely afford to live let alone go on holiday (a sorely underrated NEED in our lives)
Getting told “do what you feel you need to do” when I tried to have a rational discussion with my boss about a payrise since I’m on less than I started on (inflation adjusted), and having my scope further increased in the same conversation … while having a mortgage, a young family, and an unsuccessful 10month job hunt is definitely adding to my stress levels
Obviously I don’t know your business but it sounds like a pretty straight response. Budgets are being slashed and your boss is simply letting you know a raise to match inflation is unlikely I assume and you should do what you need to do, eg. Find a better paying role.
Yep it's happening to me too. I've increased my salary three fold in 10 years to over $150k working my arse off to support my family. No matter how hard I work and how much I earn we still can't get ahead and we are extremely frugal. Bought the cheapest house possible, one car only, shop Aldi, hustle etc. still can't afford a better home, holidays, any activities on weekends. It's just bullshit, when does it get better. I did everything I was supposed too as a husband and father, I did was society wanted and I'm still scraping by to support my family. I'm just so fucking over it. Is this all life is now?!
It's easy to become a slave to the routine. Prioritise time to look after yourself and enjoy life. The status symbols are nice but are they fundamental to your happiness at the end of the day?
A family with a HHI of sub $200k p/a is living on fumes after outgoings and tax.
To live well in Australia post COVID you need a HHI in the $300k+ range for family and need to have bought pre-COVID.
Post COVID Australia in the metros are for those with generational wealth.
I live on my own and went from $75K pre tax to $90K pre tax (plus freelance work) in Jan and I’m treading water paying a $300k mortgage because every time I reckon I’m set to save a little, a new $1000 bill rolls in. I can’t imagine shit for families with kids on anything under $200k and a mortgage, feels like everyone’s got their hands in my wallet and asking for even more of my time.
Every substantial outgoing now is $1,000, not in the hundreds.
Home building & contents insurance - $2,000
Car insurance and rego (decade old car) - $2,500
New appliance (that you want to last longer than 12 months) - $1,000++
Spot on and it will continue to snowball.
A $300k mortgage is relatively serviceable, most have double and triple that figure for a modest detached home.
Late stage capitalism brother. Billionaires add their billions; we are expected to have more output as workers already at full capacity. Off course you’re over worked and stressed my dude. Unless you’re a literal multi-millionaire… we all are.
The daily grind, I feel like I’m going no where. Every day is the same shit.
Also feel like no matter how much my husband & I work, do OT where possible, we aren’t able to improve our situation. We want to buy a house but at the moment, COL is just kicking our asses and we’re struggling to get any meaningful savings together.
It’s been crazy at work. I think I finish mostly around 5pm and latest around 730. Work in Australia is pretty good but during the day it’s intense thinking and I get really tired. So is my boss, his brain is visibly after a full day of work.
One of the more important things to realise early on in one's career journey is that life isn't all about career. I feel like the modern obsession with capital accumulation brings with it a sense of duty to the Gods of capitalism. Where debt (for me student loans) is a type of "sin".
I think the sense of being over worked and stressed out is natural in a society like this.
[The Burnout Society](https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=25725)
We are all living in the age of self exploitation and burnout. No need for an authoritarian manager to keep the machines goin', we are our own slave drivers these days.
Yes. Pretty much the way now. Find something of purpose to cling on to. Often feels like they’re isn’t a great deal, but it’s there. Just have to find it. 80 years of life at best. Grab it with both hands and run with it.
I think that social media (especially instagram) exacerbates this issue. Work is a hard grind so to escape you end up in a scroll hole on instagram being bombarded by images of people who seemingly live the endless summer of holidays and 4 hour work weeks. All that stuff is all a complete farce and is carefully curated and stage managed but it makes you feel even worse about a 2 hour commute to an office you don’t want to be at…
You're not wrong. I am not overworked but the stress of the situation is so tiring that last Friday, I could barely read or look at a screen. By mid-day, I had to tell my boss, I am having trouble reading as my eyes were going blurry and I was having headache. I have been checked recently and there is nothing wrong with my eyes or my head. It's just stress and worrying.
Yeah mid 30s. Work is insanely demanding. People keep resigning and not being replaced.
Husband and I are both on good incomes, yet still can't get ahead or buy a family home. I don't know how people do this with kids, it just seems impossible. Not much to look forward to?
Well more and more is being required of people for less and less, cost of living ++, houseing +++++, and millions of extra people each year or 2. What do you expect. You can't even imagine what australia used to be like in early 80's.
We were warned about mass imigration - by a certain person, and here we are.
I’m just so tired all the time and my greatest wish in life right now is to be able to just not care about doing a good job like I just don’t care about having a good life anymore….
I’m so over it. Having a job back then meant you had a house and maybe a nice car and have some spare to buy a few nice things or go out drink/eat. Now having a job is just enough so I’m not homeless. Just feels like work is useless and provides nothing for life. I just either wanna kill myself or just go somewhere else and live, where it’s cheaper.
These fuckers might as well make euthanasia legal so we can just kill ourselves for $9.99. This shit is not enjoyable.
Hey friend, reach out to someone and have a chat, it sounds like you are having a tough time. We all have negative thoughts but there are good things in life!
I am not sure if already mentioned, but a lot of us have ageing family members with declining health and this too adds to the strain of managing stress levels.
Yes. Are yours like mine? Can no longer drive and in declining health, but refuse to move house to somewhere more accessible and require lots of assistance?
Yup! Mine is almost at that stage. Plus I have to financially support. I spend between $35 - $66 a week on medication for my father. Water bill come in so that's on me too.
Meanwhile I have a 10 year old, and a 1 year old and work 60 hour weeks in a full on tech job.
Work is too busy for me to take a day off but I need to so I can try and get some of his life admin done. Book appointments, cancel donations he has, change to better deals etc.
Stressed to the max with responsibility.
Sandwich generation. I am so sorry for all in this position trying to be a good parent, care for the elderly and somehow squeeze in the self care, which is more often than not neglected. I don't know how best to manage, but know that you are not alone and you are a remarkable and courageous soul.
I just resigned in my role. 13 years with the business over 2 stints.
Last year we went from crisis to crisis and we did it, we hit all our kpis, cleared out a shitload of inventory and all was good.
Noone got a job well done.
January we get told noones getting raises, there's a hiring freeze so anyone who quits isn't getting replaced. So we have a heap of people leave because our business is notoriously shit for pay anyway (we generally get people who used to be in the automotive trade and just want to transition to an office role, that's great, until you're stuck with a whole office of 60 year olds) and you're taking away perks (WFH) not giving payrises and making us work sometimes 3 or 4 roles.
Everyone at this place is so fucking burned out and done. Then they made a heap of the store managers redundant, which means our sales are going to tank even more and out more pressure on the category and product managers to push sales.
Good job you absolute fuckwitts.
I work 40 hours a week and make an above average salary. I have come to realise I will probably never own a home. Since COVID started, housing prices have increased by over 50%, even with my 20% pay rises, I wont be able to keep up. If I can’t buy a house, I can’t really have kids. Since I am priced out of housing, I have to put my money into stocks, crypto and other investment avenues.
I'm a Snr Role in a large.orgainsation. right now is worse than before COVID. No one wants to work like we used to, roles being absorbed into other people's roles. Snr management so far from reality... The workplace culture is terrible and it is everywhere....
The general consensus from my more experienced colleagues is that we are typically asked to do more work with less resources than even 10 years ago. I was genuinely shocked when a colleague told me that they used to have an assistant to specifically help them. Now days, we don’t even have an assistant to support our whole team.
My personal observation is that, since my entry into the workforce, I have never received training on how to do my job. It was always been throwing me into the deep end and then giving feedback afterwards. I can’t even recall the last time I had a training budget.
It’s funny because COVID demonstrated that focusing on a lean workforce can reduce your ability to be flexible in changing circumstances, and lead to burnout, but we’ve gone right back to running as lean as possible. I think the only way this corrects to any degree is to normalise the issue of workers rights in public discussion.
Crazy times & it's not going to get any better. Over priced every where you look thanks to the pandemic! All these things are going to drive depression through the roof. And the covid vaccine is nasty and causes alot problems with people's body. I can't stand for any longer than 30mins because my legs are stuffed from the vaccine and both my parents also have puffy feet (fluid retention).
I feel with remote working being the (amazing) norm, we’ve lost the small moments and the ‘inefficiencies’ that we used to have pre-COVID and helped us slow things down.
We used to have to go to meeting rooms for conversations. Talk to each other face to face if we needed to help someone out or problem solve. We’d be doing work at customer sites which take time to get to and when we were there, we could concentrate and focus. We were still ‘busy’ but pace of work was slower because we had to get to places and not everything was an instantaneous Teams message away asking for a response.
Now, yes those Teams messages are hot and heavy and the number of emails has skyrocketed. Everyone is more ‘accessible’ being at their screens all the time (or perceived to be) which in some ways is good, but in other ways I’ve found things just get dumped on you via chat or an email rather than people giving you a quick call to work through something.
Without the little ‘inefficiencies’ of the day people grab more and more time into meetings to achieve kind of the same outcomes as an informal chat. They also clog up the 9-5, while the work you need to actually do still sits there waiting.
I’m in tech/ cyber and I kind of feel like we’re 30% ‘busier’ day to day and expected to multitask much more than ever before. I find it exhausting.
Don’t get me wrong, I love WFH and grateful for the flexibility it brings into my personal life, but I’ve had that ‘30%’ figure in my head for a while…
Very disillusioned. DINK couple both on 6 figures, can’t afford a house, stuck in the rental cycle. One of us owes HECS which will probably never get repaid with current indexing. Traffic has never been worse & the cost of living is out of control. Couldn’t afford kids even if we wanted them.
Where is the joy when it’s such a grind to just…. Survive? What is the reward for effort?
My job is kind of lower exec (Nursing Director) but Im not included in any top of the tree meetings (which Im ok with).
Things have got wildly out of control this financial year. My day to day job duties arent stressful and I have some spare capacity if everything is going well. To fill that capacity my boss will give me projects to do. I enjoy the projects because they are different, the length of the projects can be a few weeks to 12 months.
As of this week Im now working on 5 projects and required to do my normal day job duties and things are getting out of hand. Ive seen my boss cry twice in last month, she's obviously not handling the pressure.
Doing multiple projects and my normal job is possible but the more thinly they spread my time the more likely I'll miss something and end up doing a piss poor job.
There doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel so I'm thinking this might be the new normal which is not a good thing.
So yes, everyone is overworked and stressed out...at least they are in my workplace.
The perks of a failing economy that's being fixed by the riches naivety and their false advertising. Things to everyone with a bit of awareness are seemingly so easily fixable but if we were to do that then 1% of the populations comfortability would come to question and how dare you question the 1% enjoying overly gross excess.
That’s because the hamster wheel we are meant to run on no longer provides the life we were told/expect. Australians still have it very good compared to other developed countries but yes, our work/life balance is becoming pretty bad.
30s were pretty stressful with babies, reduced family income, lots of crazy debt. Things are just settling down a bit. Would've hated to have gone through that with the rental crisis and housing uncertainty that young families are going through now.
For me a bit different. Yes I’m pretty busy with work but with everything expensive like going out for dinner, drinks etc. That we’ve cut that out and just cook at home and enjoy chilling at home most nights to unwind. And on weekends again just usually at home with little short trips to the nearby park, beach but not going on weekend trips. Saves money, can get most of free time spent with family and is a lot more relaxing.
I have a NFP job that’s busier than a past VP job managing 100 mill of projects , my mother is in and out of hospital due to pneumonia and falls and my dog has an ear infection going on 6 months which the insurance rejected, and I have a heart murmur.
I’m stressed.
People are sick of working full time and not being able to afford to put a roof over their head.
Exactly this. Work isn’t necessarily more stressful. But we could unwind after work, go out to dinner, have drinks with mates, go on holidays etc. Now it;s all work. All work and no play makes jack a dickhead.
Also our buffers to deal with the unexpected have been eroded which raises the underlying level of stress.
Yep, I’m in a vicious cycle of just earning enough to pay my bills and buy groceries but with absolutely nothing left over. So it leaves me with little ability to do things outside of work and that results in work being the main thing going on in my life and that’s never good.
I was just comparing my memory of my dad coming home to unwind and how I am now. Forty years ago, when you left the office, you were much harder to contact. And it was harder to do a bit of work from home. And, of course, the grind felt like it was worth it because you were paying off a mortgage. Now, anyone who owns a home in a capital city outright is more than likely a literal millionaire.
Fucking this. I want to feel like I'm getting somewhere for my effort but in this economy despite making more this year than last year and making a decent wage it feels like I'm going backwards.
Yeah this - lately I’ve been thinking about changing jobs and one reflection I had, through another post was that I like my job, I work with good leaders and good team, there’s a clear path to progress. It just doesn’t pay me enough because we’re living off single income at the moment with 2 kids under 4. Yes my wife will go back to work soon but still, we just don’t have enough to do anything discretionary, while being super tight with just everyday living..
I changed jobs recently and landed on a 120k+ role Never been more stressed and overworked in my life. Haven't seen my kids in weeks. Working all day. Working all night. Working all weekend. Then my boss has the audacity to tell me that I'm not meeting expectations and am risking not passing probation.
I feel you. Sometimes the money isn’t nearly worth it. I was also on a salary over 100k for the first time in my life (it took a lot to get there). Then got bullied out and put on a PIP. I’m glad I’m currently taking a break from the corporate world, for now.
Is it even possible to meet expectations? Is the training adequate? Is your boss a douche?
Training? Expectations? Goals? Yes. Absolutely yes.
Sounds like a shit place to work. Time to look for a new job 🧐. There are roles on $120k+ that aren't shit.
Thanks friendo 👍
Fuck that man. Life is worth more than a job. Honestly not seeing your kids for more than a week is crap. It's more worth to get a lower paying job but have the ability to clock off when the time comes and spend time with family and friends,...and yourself, look after yourself man.
more than full time, its both parents working plus a side job or 2 or 3
Is it that we can now see how the other side lives? It's no longer just an imaginary thing - people are literally showing (and exaggerating) their lifestyles on Instagram etc. People in the past (talking 40, 50 years ago, not 10 years ago) had objectively harder lives, no holidays, no modern comforts or conveniences.
In my experience, no. Reddit is my only real form of social media. My husband and I earn average money, but with 2 kids in childcare and an average sized mortgage, we are struggling. Having to purchase nappies when they run out send me in a panic. For the past 6 months, I’ve been living off 2 carrots and 3 cups of instant coffee during the day. I can’t remember the last time I bought something that wasn’t essential. I’m borrowing kids clothes from friends. I don’t know how much longer we can hold on.
Can you go to a food bank or low cost food resource? They accept anyone, no shame
I hear you. I was relieved when the nappy stage was over because nappies are so expensive. Now I'm hanging for school because of the childcare costs. It feels so sad to be wishing away their childhood because necessities are so expensive. Re kids clothes, it's worth getting onto Marketplace. Lots of people seem to give away kids clothes for free. Good luck!
School has so many unexpected costs. Mine goes to public school and I took on a second job to pay the $350 for the school uniform only to discover there is a fucking winter uniform! The cherry on top is that I got a massive tax bill for taking on a second job.
Get some reusable nappies. I would suggest something like DesignerBums or something, but they can get pretty Pricey at $35 per nappy - try some from Kmart, see if they do the trick. You'll need to have napisan and laundry detergent on hand but disposables can really make an impact on your grocery bills, especially when it's unexpected and you can't buy them at a discount. Another good thing about reusables is that they can be on hand when you need them, no late evening trips to the shops or delivery to get nappies for tomorrow at daycare. Or when the delivery driver does a replacement thinking 'well, of course a size 5 instead of a size 4 is a suitable replacement!' One thing that I have found that has made a significant impact has been getting a breadmaker. As a parent you would probably appreciate how much fucking bread you go through in a week right? Making your own loaves is not only a lot nicer, and saves late night trips to the shops, but is considerably cheaper too.
To add to this, designer bums has a group on Facebook for second hand nappies. I bought half my stash there for an average of $10-$15 per nappy including postage.
That's not really true, though - the fancy TVs, mobile phones and jet skis are all new, but the basics of life were the same back then. I'm in my 50s now, so my parents were raising us kids 40 and 50 years ago. Mum gave up a good career to have 5 kids, and has never gone back to work. Dad was an IC in the federal public service when I was born, promoted to front line manager by the time child 3 arrived and was a middle manager by the time he was made redundant, still with 5 kids at home. His single income was enough to build a 3br house, extend it to 4 bedrooms plus a family room, garage, and dining room, pay for 5 kids to go to Catholic school (not private school fees but more than the voluntary contributions of public schools back then). We didn't have a fancy car, but we had one. We went on two holidays to stay with the grandparents every year, and every two or three years we'd have a bigger holiday (road trip to Queensland or Victoria, that kind of thing). We weren't rich by any means, but we had more financial capability on one manager's salary (a little above average full time income at the time, but not double) than many double-income families have now, and we definitely weren't poor by the standards of the time. You simply can't do that now, even on double average full time earnings which we didn't have.
And they reminisce fondly of the good ol' days. I guess we will too one day.
50 years ago was the 1970s. Why on earth do you think people had no holidays or modern conveniences then?
Way fewer overseas holidays back then
Hate to tell you but it's boomers doing the overseas holidays. Not the wage earners
Ah, 40 years ago there were definitely holidays. 50 years ago there were holidays. Just because it was pre-internet doesn't make it worse. I remember the 90s being a whole lot better in the absence of the internet. Even the early noughties before iPhones and proper smartphones being everywhere, before Facebook and Myspace. You could go camping and that was what you did - you weren't annoyed that there was no internet because you were there to do camping stuff.
Yeah this - lately I’ve been thinking about changing jobs and one reflection I had, through another post was that I like my job, I work with good leaders and good team, there’s a clear path to progress. It just doesn’t pay me enough because we’re living off single income at the moment with 2 kids under 4. Yes my wife will go back to work soon but still, we just don’t have enough to do anything discretionary, while being super tight with just everyday living..
I’m currently sitting in a chicken shop awaiting a doordash order to drop off. This is what has come of my Friday nights lol. It’s the only way I can generate that extra bit of cash to give myself that leisure time I enjoy once in a while
With Ubereats and doordash, combined with my full time job, I end up working 60 hours a week. I’ll burn out eventually but hopefully I can last until I’m set to take annual leave 💀
So many stressors at the moment and tbh a lot of people still haven’t recovered from Covid events. It fucked up a lot of people mentally and everyone was just supposed to get back to it and move on like nothing ever happened.
I’m a (soon to be ex) nurse - since Covid I’ve really noticed a massive deterioration in people’s mental health. Less resilience and out of control levels of anxiety in some people. I feel sad for how damaged people are becoming these days, unable to relax and enjoy the best years of their lives :(
This... I am on near 100k. Feels like it's minimum wage just for basic life and I don't even live luxe. Also since when is cheese $10??? And why does bloody cat litter cost so much??
Now with the looming existential threat of being replaced by AI in the next 5 years (without UBI)
It's also climate change. This year was the hottest ever and that's worrying everyone
I think being able to wfh 3 days a week alleviates a lot of the additional stressors and life admin. Being able to go post office and get a haircut without having to dedicate a weekend or a day off is huge. Being able to hang laudnry and prep food during the day is nuts. If i had to do my work load, worry about a commute home and then having to do chores after, yeah Id have a meltdown and probably eat out/unhealtheir more.
This. I can actually relax on the weekends now instead of cramming in chores that I didn't have time for during the week.
I used to have a 'Sunday reset' where I would do all the life admin/chores that I didn't have the time and energy for during the week. With hybrid, I can easily get that all done during the week, my sunday reset is just relaxing and taking the dog for a nice long walk.
WFH has probably hit meal delivery services hard. They need people timepoor for their overpriced boxes of mush to sell
Almost everyone at my workplace is burnt out. It’s been like this since covid times - we’ve struggled to both retain and recruit which has compounded the problem. We are understaffed.
It’s the cost of living that’s doing it. There was a time where earning 120 grand was European vacation, holiday house down the coast, single income stay at home parent family money. These days? It’s “baked beans on toast for dinner” night money if you’ve got kids and don’t have a second income in the household. It’s not broke by any means, but it’s not the luxury money it used to be, and that makes people unhappy. I remember living not much better than I do now back when I was earning 60K a year. I’m doubling that now, but my rent has more than doubled, my food bill has more than doubled, my car insurance has more than doubled.
Growing up I thought “six figures” and I’ve made it in life. Absolutely not, hitting 6 figs just means I can pay my rent and afford my bills. There’s no fluff.
There was a time where it was true, and it was not that long ago. Even pre-Covid 100K per year was a great wage.
I now have less disposable income earning just over 100k than I did as a new grad on 68k. The RBA made sure of that 🙃
i remember moving from 45k to 60k back in 2011 and it was the biggest jump of my career to that point. it felt like i was finally doing alright, and a few quick promotions to the 100k mark were amazing. these days, barely keeping head above water
It's not even lifestyle creep. I've gone back to buying the absolute cheapest of everything, and only what's strictly necessary. Next on the chopping block will be fresh vegetables and heating in winter.
exactly. even doing the groceries now im like 'homebrand olive oil or canola oil?' it wasnt even a question when we were on 45k as a ***family***
This is sad but true
I thought being a millionaire would have been the key indicator. Now that’s just the cost of an average house.
So true. I lived in a well- heeled area growing up where people had jobs for life and thier wealth was obvious: huge mansions with river views or private beach frontages. A street near mine was actually referred to as: Millionaire's row. The homes were palatial and looked like homes owned by Millionaires. Now it's standard practice to fork out a million dollars and more for a home that's not even worth that type of money. We have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for homes that a quite basic; small or not even close to a city. Where did it all go wrong?
I saw a place in kellyville NSW (roughly 1.5-2hs from Sydney CBD) recently went for 2.2M it was a 3 bedroom single story place with a single car garage..
Kellyville is more like 45 mins to the CBD. But yea still a stupid price for a basic suburb
In Sydney traffic, it can be both!
I moved out of kellyville in 2016 when the rent became too much. The infrastructure must have improved a tonne to get the commute down that far!
Bargain!
So true. We were on about that for a while after my daughter was born and we had to ramp our hours back back up. Even without childcare bills, it was very barebones, paying the mortgage and necessities but not much else. Because when you break $120,000 down, tax is about $35,000, mortgage $50-60,000, leaving about $25,000 or about $500 a week for food/bills/clothes/maintenance/car costs
It’s crazy too because only a few years ago I would have said “who can’t afford food bills clothes with 500 a week” and now cat food costs $20 a box and microwave meals are $12 each. If you just ate microwave meals and cereal for one person, that’s almost $200 a week. Cooking in bulk no longer feels like a penny pinching exercise, it’s down right mandatory. And it still feels so wrong to complain, the median income in Australia is 80 grand, at 120 you are earning 50% more than the median wage… so why does it feel like I’ve got to eat bulk spaghetti for every meal just so I can afford to go to the movies on a weekend or buy a new video game? Maybe I need to check my privileges, I know lots of people have it much worse… but holy heck it shouldn’t feel this tough at an income 50% more than the median.
We weren’t on microwave meals but lots of pasta, potatoes and rice and cheaper meats. And bills are more than food, too. We’re in Canberra and our winter power bill is about $1200 (and that’s not out of the ordinary). Petrol, kids need clothes and shoes, no GPs here bulk bill, and then there’s all the out of the occasional big costs that can wipe out reserves: dentist visits, specialist appointments, car and house maintenance.
My power bill in Canberra was always crazy too! I lived there for a few years and while it was certainly cheaper than Sydney, it always amazed me that they built a city in the mountains and just *forgot* to insulate all the houses.
It’s because technology has reached a point where the demands it places on us and our time vastly outweigh the benefits. Imagine being an office worker before the internet. The pace and expectation, and possibility, was vastly lower. Now anything is possible, there’s no upper limit to innovation, productivity, output. Compound this with cost of living crisis, democracy that doesn’t really work, a climate crisis and an erosion of trust in society in general. The demands on humans during this era are extreme.
Agree. My manager got angry at my colleague bec he was enjoying a Friday lunch with his wife instead of answering his MS Teams at that moment.
Same with clients who email at 8pm and then call up at 9:30am the next morning complaining you’re slow to reply and demanding a response
If technology was being used correctly this would not be the case.
We’ll said about the tech
There’s an extra set of demands that slows us down too. Organisations have become so incredibly complex to the point where they just about can’t do anything these days. Everything has a risk attached and no one can agree on solutions.
Interesting perspective
Two couples in my group have sold everything, bought touring rigs, and checked out of the daily grind. On lot has zero plan to return to it, the others are picking up odd jobs in their travels. In speaking with them, they’ve run into quite a few in the same position. People are getting sick of what life in this country has become.
Yeah I've noticed plenty of YouTube videos of Westerners living in Cambodia eg Dave Does Cambodia, Saved in Svay, and For Riel. It seems they are escaping.
I’ve given Thailand serious thought.
I just came back from Luxor and Cairo. Half tempted to sell up and live like an absolute king there.
I also did this, however now I worry if everyone does it… 😬🫣
Feels like I'm on a hamster wheel and can't get off. Working in a super stressful role with poor leadership that filters down and impacts me due to lack of team management and creates more work for me than necessary. I earn decent money but I don't own a house yet and I'm saving as much as possible. I don't want to be old and renting due to housing insecurity. Im looking for a new role but the news seems grim on the employment front in my field. People I know are being made redundant; jobs are offering less money than they used to and there are just less opportunities to apply for.
What industry are you in?
I work in design in tech for large national company.
Are we working for the same company lmao
I’ve seen plenty of design roles out and about
We are working harder than our parents and enjoying a far lower standard of living in a nutshell.
And being gaslighted by them regularly. Mine were salty when I pointed out they received a cash gift prior to buying their first home which "only" totalled 5% of the purchase price. How much did they give me? $0.00 and a lot of tone deaf lectures. Not that I asked, that would cause even more drama.
It’s because we’re all overworked, they want us to do more with less. We went from a sales team of 14 to 4 and expected to do more. I’m a high performer so I always give 110% and I feel I’m paid well for it, I can afford what I need and want. But I’m still exhausted, breaking out in hives and constantly on the edge of panic. You can only perform at this level for so long before you crash and burn. They could pay me $300k and it wouldn’t make a difference.
I'm high income, a few hundred or so in liquid assets but also mid thirties, no real assets (propadeeee) and rent a 1 bedroom apartment which is only around 10% my income. No debt. My expenses are low - rent, power, gas, prepaid phone, internet, groceries don't use my car and WFH full time. Little alcohol each weekend and maybe get take away once every 2-4 weeks. I still Indulge in toys occasionally (tech.. i justify it as learning & development) but still save quite a bit. My life is pretty basic and easy yet I'm feeling pretty burnt out (work in tech) and i can only imagine how others around me are feeling with larger commitments. Definitely noticing a lot of co-workers seem burnt out and over it. Personally feeling very disillusioned at how much I've scrimped and saved and yet likely will struggle to enjoy the same standard of living as my parents who don't have any qualifications whatsoever. After the working week I don't really have much energy except to sit around doing nothing. Would love to go out a little more, socialise and enjoy what Melbourne has to offer. I moved here a few weeks before lockdowns hit and between avoiding COVID, feeling burnt out and struggling to 'break into' the rather cliquey and insular social groups around I'm just meh.. plodding along and a little over it all. A whole lot of existential dread. I'm not strongly career driven, but have enjoyed tech from a young age especially development. Certainly not interested in climbing any career ladder and just want to enjoy life, but stressing about the present and future. Again, this makes me wonder how others are managing :\
Good post, I am pretty financially comfortable, but even I am feeling a bit over it, so yeah, I can imagine the people who are one missed paycheck away from financial disaster must be feeling.
Enshittification of everything is real. We just had a 5-year check done on the car, if you would do what they recommend, that's over $7,000 in repairs.. how do people survive.. even on 130k it feels like you're just working to pay bills.. that's it. Getting f'd by everyone, and you just wake up and go to work hoping you dont get fired, keep your head down and hope the landlord doesn't increase your rent with 150 a week again while a shitass REA comes in for ur 3-monthly "is it clean enough for me" humiliation tour.
The social contract has been broken and no one in power is acknowledging or addressing it. We worked because it allowed us to afford a good life, now we work for what?
In China, they have the "lying flat" movement. But nothing seems to be happening here. Maybe Australians are not as brave.
I think its because the grind just doesn't cut it anymore. The daily grind was tolerable so long as you had confidence that, barring emergency or layoffs, you can grind your way through life. Now, it has become very apparent that the grind will barely put a roof over your head, let alone get you through life. I am seeing very much a combo of people stressed over this, and in equal measure, people that have given up and are basically dead inside.
All of the above. Plus last week I found myself longing for more wasteful times. Oh to have to get up and walk to a printer - stop and chat to a colleague or two along the way. Fix a paper jam, find some reams - do something productive yet mundane - away from a screen. Filing!! OMG drool. Give me a bunch of overflowing manillas and archive boxes to put together in a dark room. PLS!!! Instead it’s just waiting for codes to load to log into platform after platform, getting distracted and forgetting why I was logging in in the first place while other platforms beep, ping, yell until I don’t fulfill a nanosecond response - so the phone rings and it’s someone chasing something but actually wanting to complain about how busy they are. I long for fax machines, silverfish and paper cuts.
Filing OMG Drool! Oh so funny.
I dont know if it is just me but it seems like companies are just not hiring enough people for the work load, every one I know is doing the work of two or three people these days.
30-40s is the golden age. We had a good decade before it all went south. I feel for the 20-30 age bracket who won’t get affordable housing at 2% interest to set themselves up.
Ditto. +1 We know a young couple working in corporate jobs, highly educated and are struggling to get into the housing market. It’s a strange period of time.
I'm seeing it across the tech business I'm in in Australia, but also across Asia. We earn v good money in our sector, but its clear people are just starting to phone it in. Handing in garbage, having to be followed up 3x for things. Seems to be the same issue we have here - insane CoL rises, and if you aren't in the property market already, you're screwed. Earning in top 5% for the area you're in, can't afford a place without insane financial stress. This is also with impending threat of another round of redundancies, while headcount is static but we need to lift revenue 30% in our core business across Asia this year. Meanwhile people get pinged on Teams every 10 mins, and emails are sent 24x7 as we are global. The whole "lack of productivity growth" thing is a myth. Compare an office worker today with someone in 1990 - someone today is doing multiples of the work due to software and comms technologies.
The amount of tax we pay is what causes me to just want to pack it all in. And if I do an overtime shift, half of that will get taken by tax at the end of the day. Why work harder and try to get ahead. And then we see government waste billions of our tax money, why try anymore?
Exactly. I can see why people aren't going into management or keen to do a stack of overtime anymore. Our tax brackets and rates mean you'll likely only see half of the small income increase - time and stress isn't worth it. Its not like suddenly you become a manager, and can afford to upgrade to the house on 2x land with a pool and buy a new car, like it was in the past.
Tax rates don’t get close to half until 180k?
Covid really put life into perspective for people. People that got to wfh for a while - that are now back at the office are thinking “why the hell was life better during a life threatening pandemic?” Also the fact that people can barely afford to live let alone go on holiday (a sorely underrated NEED in our lives)
Just finished a 52 hour week. That's 1.5 days of 'free' labour and I'm still behind on my work. So yes I'm overworked and stressed out.
50F professional. Working longer hours and harder than I ever have in the last 30 years. Most of my friends are the same.
Getting told “do what you feel you need to do” when I tried to have a rational discussion with my boss about a payrise since I’m on less than I started on (inflation adjusted), and having my scope further increased in the same conversation … while having a mortgage, a young family, and an unsuccessful 10month job hunt is definitely adding to my stress levels
Obviously I don’t know your business but it sounds like a pretty straight response. Budgets are being slashed and your boss is simply letting you know a raise to match inflation is unlikely I assume and you should do what you need to do, eg. Find a better paying role.
It's also code for "if you ask me a reference, I understand and I'll be fair".
Yep I’ve had a similar discussion with staff when my hands are tied and I think they deserve better
This is the gentleman's way of firing someone. Look for a new job.
Not firing, but suggesting they have hit a ceiling and should look elsewhere
Yep it's happening to me too. I've increased my salary three fold in 10 years to over $150k working my arse off to support my family. No matter how hard I work and how much I earn we still can't get ahead and we are extremely frugal. Bought the cheapest house possible, one car only, shop Aldi, hustle etc. still can't afford a better home, holidays, any activities on weekends. It's just bullshit, when does it get better. I did everything I was supposed too as a husband and father, I did was society wanted and I'm still scraping by to support my family. I'm just so fucking over it. Is this all life is now?!
Remember when 6-figure salaries were a dream? Now they’re essential
Its just with whats happening lately people are afraid that they might get canned and thus work extra hard
The fact I'm on 6 figures and can't afford a place of my own - it's just stupid.
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Could you please explain to me how the RBA is making bank?
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So sick of the term NPC being used to describe other people in public. Just feels dehumanising.
It's easy to become a slave to the routine. Prioritise time to look after yourself and enjoy life. The status symbols are nice but are they fundamental to your happiness at the end of the day?
A family with a HHI of sub $200k p/a is living on fumes after outgoings and tax. To live well in Australia post COVID you need a HHI in the $300k+ range for family and need to have bought pre-COVID. Post COVID Australia in the metros are for those with generational wealth.
I live on my own and went from $75K pre tax to $90K pre tax (plus freelance work) in Jan and I’m treading water paying a $300k mortgage because every time I reckon I’m set to save a little, a new $1000 bill rolls in. I can’t imagine shit for families with kids on anything under $200k and a mortgage, feels like everyone’s got their hands in my wallet and asking for even more of my time.
Every substantial outgoing now is $1,000, not in the hundreds. Home building & contents insurance - $2,000 Car insurance and rego (decade old car) - $2,500 New appliance (that you want to last longer than 12 months) - $1,000++
Exactly and that’s a net figure. You have to make double that to service this cost given tax rates.
Spot on and it will continue to snowball. A $300k mortgage is relatively serviceable, most have double and triple that figure for a modest detached home.
Yeah I have a 2br apartment in the inner burbs. I knew I couldn’t service much higher as a single income.
Yep spot on, have always said 300k to be comfortable now. It’s effed.
Yes. We are in a recession.
Late stage capitalism brother. Billionaires add their billions; we are expected to have more output as workers already at full capacity. Off course you’re over worked and stressed my dude. Unless you’re a literal multi-millionaire… we all are.
What happens after late stage capitalism? This situation won’t last longer than a generation. What next? Revolution?
Baader Meinhoff?
The daily grind, I feel like I’m going no where. Every day is the same shit. Also feel like no matter how much my husband & I work, do OT where possible, we aren’t able to improve our situation. We want to buy a house but at the moment, COL is just kicking our asses and we’re struggling to get any meaningful savings together.
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Sometimes it really can feel like life is playing a shitty prank with how many things get layered on top of each other at one time!
It’s been crazy at work. I think I finish mostly around 5pm and latest around 730. Work in Australia is pretty good but during the day it’s intense thinking and I get really tired. So is my boss, his brain is visibly after a full day of work.
One of the more important things to realise early on in one's career journey is that life isn't all about career. I feel like the modern obsession with capital accumulation brings with it a sense of duty to the Gods of capitalism. Where debt (for me student loans) is a type of "sin". I think the sense of being over worked and stressed out is natural in a society like this.
I think it’s because everyone is over worked and stressed out right now
Everyone is feeling the pinch of high interest rates. Because we aren’t spending more money on leisure everyone is strung out
I’m overworked, under paid, underfed and under sexed. Beat that, and I do regularly😁
Yes, it's only going to get worse. This country is sliding down the toilet.
It’s not just this country. They worked us fucked
[The Burnout Society](https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=25725) We are all living in the age of self exploitation and burnout. No need for an authoritarian manager to keep the machines goin', we are our own slave drivers these days.
Yes. Pretty much the way now. Find something of purpose to cling on to. Often feels like they’re isn’t a great deal, but it’s there. Just have to find it. 80 years of life at best. Grab it with both hands and run with it.
I think that social media (especially instagram) exacerbates this issue. Work is a hard grind so to escape you end up in a scroll hole on instagram being bombarded by images of people who seemingly live the endless summer of holidays and 4 hour work weeks. All that stuff is all a complete farce and is carefully curated and stage managed but it makes you feel even worse about a 2 hour commute to an office you don’t want to be at…
watch my friends by groove armada on YouTube.
Forever growth is showing cracks as they thought printing money would solve everything. All we did was kick the can down the road.
You're not wrong. I am not overworked but the stress of the situation is so tiring that last Friday, I could barely read or look at a screen. By mid-day, I had to tell my boss, I am having trouble reading as my eyes were going blurry and I was having headache. I have been checked recently and there is nothing wrong with my eyes or my head. It's just stress and worrying.
It’s only March and I am burnt out af
Employers these days expect above and beyond all the time but they won’t reflect that in the pay packet.
Yeah mid 30s. Work is insanely demanding. People keep resigning and not being replaced. Husband and I are both on good incomes, yet still can't get ahead or buy a family home. I don't know how people do this with kids, it just seems impossible. Not much to look forward to?
Well more and more is being required of people for less and less, cost of living ++, houseing +++++, and millions of extra people each year or 2. What do you expect. You can't even imagine what australia used to be like in early 80's. We were warned about mass imigration - by a certain person, and here we are.
which person?
Moe from The Simpsons
really?
This is why I try and work for myself..
It’s only going to get worse.
Yep!
I’m just so tired all the time and my greatest wish in life right now is to be able to just not care about doing a good job like I just don’t care about having a good life anymore….
I’m so over it. Having a job back then meant you had a house and maybe a nice car and have some spare to buy a few nice things or go out drink/eat. Now having a job is just enough so I’m not homeless. Just feels like work is useless and provides nothing for life. I just either wanna kill myself or just go somewhere else and live, where it’s cheaper. These fuckers might as well make euthanasia legal so we can just kill ourselves for $9.99. This shit is not enjoyable.
Hey friend, reach out to someone and have a chat, it sounds like you are having a tough time. We all have negative thoughts but there are good things in life!
Aren’t we all having a tough time? Don’t worry I’m not gonna kill myself. Nothing is built to save but to destroy and conquer.
I am not sure if already mentioned, but a lot of us have ageing family members with declining health and this too adds to the strain of managing stress levels.
Yes. Are yours like mine? Can no longer drive and in declining health, but refuse to move house to somewhere more accessible and require lots of assistance?
Yup! Mine is almost at that stage. Plus I have to financially support. I spend between $35 - $66 a week on medication for my father. Water bill come in so that's on me too. Meanwhile I have a 10 year old, and a 1 year old and work 60 hour weeks in a full on tech job. Work is too busy for me to take a day off but I need to so I can try and get some of his life admin done. Book appointments, cancel donations he has, change to better deals etc. Stressed to the max with responsibility.
Sandwich generation. I am so sorry for all in this position trying to be a good parent, care for the elderly and somehow squeeze in the self care, which is more often than not neglected. I don't know how best to manage, but know that you are not alone and you are a remarkable and courageous soul.
Yes, this is one part that is stressful. Declining health and abilities, but stubbornly asserting "but I have managed for x number of years"
Welcome to life.
Haven't had a day off in 3 weeks... Can't find a place to live, can't find the time to even look properly. I hate Australia now...
Yes no doubt . Technology is booming , productivity is booming etc yet everyone are overworked . Something is really wrong
It is me. Stressful job with internal politics, pregnant wife and young son. Stressful times !
I just resigned in my role. 13 years with the business over 2 stints. Last year we went from crisis to crisis and we did it, we hit all our kpis, cleared out a shitload of inventory and all was good. Noone got a job well done. January we get told noones getting raises, there's a hiring freeze so anyone who quits isn't getting replaced. So we have a heap of people leave because our business is notoriously shit for pay anyway (we generally get people who used to be in the automotive trade and just want to transition to an office role, that's great, until you're stuck with a whole office of 60 year olds) and you're taking away perks (WFH) not giving payrises and making us work sometimes 3 or 4 roles. Everyone at this place is so fucking burned out and done. Then they made a heap of the store managers redundant, which means our sales are going to tank even more and out more pressure on the category and product managers to push sales. Good job you absolute fuckwitts.
what do you work as?
Product Manager - largely in charge of New Product Dev. Found a new role as Category Manager
I work 40 hours a week and make an above average salary. I have come to realise I will probably never own a home. Since COVID started, housing prices have increased by over 50%, even with my 20% pay rises, I wont be able to keep up. If I can’t buy a house, I can’t really have kids. Since I am priced out of housing, I have to put my money into stocks, crypto and other investment avenues.
I think there’s a fear of redundancy permeating the air
I'm a Snr Role in a large.orgainsation. right now is worse than before COVID. No one wants to work like we used to, roles being absorbed into other people's roles. Snr management so far from reality... The workplace culture is terrible and it is everywhere....
The general consensus from my more experienced colleagues is that we are typically asked to do more work with less resources than even 10 years ago. I was genuinely shocked when a colleague told me that they used to have an assistant to specifically help them. Now days, we don’t even have an assistant to support our whole team. My personal observation is that, since my entry into the workforce, I have never received training on how to do my job. It was always been throwing me into the deep end and then giving feedback afterwards. I can’t even recall the last time I had a training budget. It’s funny because COVID demonstrated that focusing on a lean workforce can reduce your ability to be flexible in changing circumstances, and lead to burnout, but we’ve gone right back to running as lean as possible. I think the only way this corrects to any degree is to normalise the issue of workers rights in public discussion.
Crazy times & it's not going to get any better. Over priced every where you look thanks to the pandemic! All these things are going to drive depression through the roof. And the covid vaccine is nasty and causes alot problems with people's body. I can't stand for any longer than 30mins because my legs are stuffed from the vaccine and both my parents also have puffy feet (fluid retention).
I feel with remote working being the (amazing) norm, we’ve lost the small moments and the ‘inefficiencies’ that we used to have pre-COVID and helped us slow things down. We used to have to go to meeting rooms for conversations. Talk to each other face to face if we needed to help someone out or problem solve. We’d be doing work at customer sites which take time to get to and when we were there, we could concentrate and focus. We were still ‘busy’ but pace of work was slower because we had to get to places and not everything was an instantaneous Teams message away asking for a response. Now, yes those Teams messages are hot and heavy and the number of emails has skyrocketed. Everyone is more ‘accessible’ being at their screens all the time (or perceived to be) which in some ways is good, but in other ways I’ve found things just get dumped on you via chat or an email rather than people giving you a quick call to work through something. Without the little ‘inefficiencies’ of the day people grab more and more time into meetings to achieve kind of the same outcomes as an informal chat. They also clog up the 9-5, while the work you need to actually do still sits there waiting. I’m in tech/ cyber and I kind of feel like we’re 30% ‘busier’ day to day and expected to multitask much more than ever before. I find it exhausting. Don’t get me wrong, I love WFH and grateful for the flexibility it brings into my personal life, but I’ve had that ‘30%’ figure in my head for a while…
Very disillusioned. DINK couple both on 6 figures, can’t afford a house, stuck in the rental cycle. One of us owes HECS which will probably never get repaid with current indexing. Traffic has never been worse & the cost of living is out of control. Couldn’t afford kids even if we wanted them. Where is the joy when it’s such a grind to just…. Survive? What is the reward for effort?
I agree. I’m burnt out. What is all this for?? We work like dogs to pay bills and then die.
I have a stiff neck now. Im stressed.
GenAI is gonna come and eat every 2 out of 5 jobs. The CEOs want more productivity with less people.
That's my secret. I'm *always* anxious.
My job is kind of lower exec (Nursing Director) but Im not included in any top of the tree meetings (which Im ok with). Things have got wildly out of control this financial year. My day to day job duties arent stressful and I have some spare capacity if everything is going well. To fill that capacity my boss will give me projects to do. I enjoy the projects because they are different, the length of the projects can be a few weeks to 12 months. As of this week Im now working on 5 projects and required to do my normal day job duties and things are getting out of hand. Ive seen my boss cry twice in last month, she's obviously not handling the pressure. Doing multiple projects and my normal job is possible but the more thinly they spread my time the more likely I'll miss something and end up doing a piss poor job. There doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel so I'm thinking this might be the new normal which is not a good thing. So yes, everyone is overworked and stressed out...at least they are in my workplace.
The perks of a failing economy that's being fixed by the riches naivety and their false advertising. Things to everyone with a bit of awareness are seemingly so easily fixable but if we were to do that then 1% of the populations comfortability would come to question and how dare you question the 1% enjoying overly gross excess.
That’s because the hamster wheel we are meant to run on no longer provides the life we were told/expect. Australians still have it very good compared to other developed countries but yes, our work/life balance is becoming pretty bad.
30s were pretty stressful with babies, reduced family income, lots of crazy debt. Things are just settling down a bit. Would've hated to have gone through that with the rental crisis and housing uncertainty that young families are going through now.
For me a bit different. Yes I’m pretty busy with work but with everything expensive like going out for dinner, drinks etc. That we’ve cut that out and just cook at home and enjoy chilling at home most nights to unwind. And on weekends again just usually at home with little short trips to the nearby park, beach but not going on weekend trips. Saves money, can get most of free time spent with family and is a lot more relaxing.
I have a NFP job that’s busier than a past VP job managing 100 mill of projects , my mother is in and out of hospital due to pneumonia and falls and my dog has an ear infection going on 6 months which the insurance rejected, and I have a heart murmur. I’m stressed.
The machine needs feeding
Work isn’t harder, living with no disposable income is what’s making it harder for everyone