Toxic Office Culture
I’m not complaining, I swear!
Most of us work more than 8 hours a day — even more than 16 hours a day. It has already become a norm for us to work more than normal office hours. At first, you may feel that it is fine to work overtime — until you didn’t get paid for that.
I didn’t say that it is a bad thing to work overtime. Sometimes we can’t avoid that. But what if that’s happened Monday to Friday from January to December? Are you still ok with that? I don’t think so.
Some of my friends from different companies said that they forced to work overtime (and didn’t get paid for it) mainly because their senior or manager ask them to stay — even when they already finished their work. What the manager usually said is: “ I’m still working in the office. Why do you want to go home early?”
Seriously? What’s the point of keeping your staff around when they finished their work on time? Just to accompany you to finish your work? And the worst part is when their bosses didn’t allow them to charge it. I know it sucks. But it happens all the time. And every company must have at least one manager like this.
When I got my first job after graduated, I don’t mind I have to do long hours work. I could earn more money and also get experience or knowledge about my job. Working from 9 to 1 AM? I don’t mind. But it didn’t last long. I started to feel burned out.
In the first month, I was feeling OK. Didn’t complain about that because I’m still a newbie in my office, I need to learn more to catch up with my colleague. In the second month, I started feeling tired. My body was aching, I got sick easily. I become a short-tempered person because I didn’t get enough sleep. But I endured it. I knew my place, I need to learn more and more.
After 3 months, I started to complain — a lot. And also cried for no reason. Just in case you’re wondering, my job was actually not that hard. It was the insane working hour that makes me wanted to give up.
Every time I want to give up, there’s a part of me that says I have to be grateful for this: I have a job when other people are still looking for a job. But it didn’t help much, I still complaining — until this day.
I’m the type of person that can be bored easily. If I have to deal with a repetition job for a long time, I feel suffocated. It’s like I didn’t grow. And if I have to work more than 12 hours a day, I don’t have time to do other things for myself. It was like I fulfilled my responsibility to my employer, but I don’t give something valuable for myself.
After working for 4 years (worked for 2 different companies), I started to feel that working long hours is not good for employees and also the employers — if it’s happened for a long time (more than 2 months).
I’m trying to see it from both sides, the employees and the employers. Here’s my list:
Minus (for the employer):
- If your employees are experiencing burnout, their working performance may not be good — which can be damage to the company.
- Sometimes, your ex-employee will badmouth your company. (Actually, this happens all the time. Especially when they feel like your company didn’t treat them well).
Minus (for employees):
- You lose time to do other things. Not mentioned about binge watching Netflix or hang out with friends. What I mean is you lose time for self-fulfillment or time with your family.
- If you’re not allowed to charge your actual overtime hours, isn’t it better for you to do side hustle? You can write articles on Medium (or any other platform), or take freelance jobs like editing and proofreading, online tutoring, graphic design, or anything that suits your skills and hobby. You earn money by doing your hobby.
- You get tired and sick easily. No joke. If you didn’t get enough sleep, it can affect your overall health. And when you work more than 8 hours, you tend to eat sweets and drink caffeine to boost your energy — which can cause obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure.
- Working for more than 48 hours per week increases the chance of experiencing depression and anxiety. And yes, I have been there before.
- It can ruin your relationship with your family and your loved one. When you have to work like that for a long time, more likely you will become a short-tempered person. With that attitude, you will push them away from you.
It’s been 2 months since I tried to do a side hustle. I teach a small group of cooking class and write articles on Medium. I teach my cooking class on weekend only and write articles whenever I have time. Even though I haven’t earned much from these jobs, I feel much better than before.
I’m exploring different areas besides my main job by doing other things such as writing articles and teaching cooking classes. I got distracted from my main job, which is auditing. I’m growing by letting myself learn other things than auditing.
Please don’t get me wrong, I still have to work overtime on weekdays. I tried to finish all my work before 6 PM, so I can write articles after office hours. If I have to work until 1 AM on weekdays, I’ll take a day off on Saturday or Sunday to take some rest.
While some of my colleagues claimed that they’re a member of the sleepless elite, well, I can assure you, I’m not one of them. Even if I deeply in love with my current job — which I’m not, I don’t want to work more than 60 hours a week anymore. I’m getting old, you know.
When I got enough time to sleep and do other things, I feel much better when I’m back again to the office. No more grumpy auditor, no more pissed off easily, no more acne on my face, and I become more productive.
If you said that working like that makes you earn more money, yes it’s true. But let me make a simple salary calculation. FYI, this is not my salary. I’m just trying to give you a simple overview of the average salary calculation in Indonesia.
I know some of you will be surprised after seeing this and maybe start questioning why the pay rate in Indonesia is so low. Please remember, the pay rate in a developing country will be different from the pay rate in a developed country. The cost of living is one of the reasons why developing countries have a low pay rate compared to developed countries.
If we see it from the table, if you only work 8 hours a day, you will still earn $2 higher than when you work overtime at the office. Even though the income from side hustle may vary, I still think that having side hustle will bring more benefits than having no side hustle. Besides, we all know that we can’t charge it in actual overtime hours. So, if we can’t charge 84 hours of overtime per month, the gap will be wider. So yeah, I choose to work in normal office hours and do side hustle.
I’m not trying to convince you to resign from your current job (if your current job makes you work for long hours every day). I just hope that we all can spend our time wisely. Remember, we only live once.
“We’re all put on Earth for a limited amount of time. Am I using in a way that is great, or good enough, or wasteful?” — Max Levchin
