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Work Life balance slows careers

pathtostaff.com

111–120 of 122 posts

Re: Work Life balance slows careers

#111
post #4

Slows careers, but I guess "what's the point" of rushing through your career? You'll likely earn more money, at increased levels of stress, and while giving up on other things life has to offer. I kind of resonated with the author when I was in my twenties, when I was really focused on work and gave up a lot of 'leasure' time to do so. Nowadays, I think a healthy balance is actually needed to live a full life. Today…

The rush is to be able to have enough money to retire on, which brings up that parable about the Mexican fisherman and the American entrepreneur.

You're a Staff-level IC, but is it at a company doing something you're in love with, in a manner of how you want to change the world and leave the tiniest legacy? or are you just collecting a paycheck?

Re: Work Life balance slows careers

#112
post #32
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s assume you can save half of that. In two years, you’ll have 500,000. Is that enough to never work again?

That depends on your expenses, obviously, but if you're serious you should check out the FIRE movement. There's viable strategies even for lower incomes.

FIRE only works if the economy doesn't collapse.

Re: Work Life balance slows careers

#113
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres a reason why everyone in the US is driving a $40k Pickup and people in EU are struggling to even get air conditioning lol.

As much as I love the US, now that I have lived in both paces, I bet that quality of life in EU is much, much better for 90% of the population. 40k pickup or not.

Did I mention I have a jet ski, hot tub and home gym?

Re: Work Life balance slows careers

#114
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting to include the sales tax. Makes sense I guess. Where I live in Europe it's like 45% income tax + 21% sales tax (more like 75% on fuel) + 5% wealth tax.

It is not 10% on most purchases. All the largest purchases one makes are almost always not subject to sales tax. Land, money (debt), equities, healthcare, education, insurance, medicine, and groceries (unprepared foods) in almost all states. And 10% is a high sales tax rate, most jurisdictions are ~7%.

Also, even if you did hypothetically spend 100% of your money, and all of it was taxed at 10%, with a 50% effective income tax rate you'd be having a 55% overall effective tax rate - the money taxed for income isn't also taxed for sales.

So you can't add tax rates like that.

Re: Work Life balance slows careers

#115
post #101
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah there's a very serious bias when an E9 is telling people to work 18 hour days like he did when he was getting promoted every year at Microsoft. Of course an E9 has a latent interest in seeing more lower-level Facebook ICs put in longer hours. If every Facebook IC put in 12+ hour days, that would be a terrific success from his leadership. ... but what are the chances of every Facebook IC getting promoted to E9? I…

How many Sergeants Major are there at the FAANGs? More seriously, I've never heard the E9 designation outside of the military. What does it mean?

[dead]

Re: Work Life balance slows careers

#117

At what cost? A career is just one facet of a fulfilled life alongside relationships, health, personal development and joy. Putting everything aside aiming for promotions may look like a success on paper but it often leads to burnout, loneliness and unfulfilled goals in other areas. You can climb the ladder but if you ignore the rest of your life you may reach the top, only to realize once alone at the summit that yo…

Some people are just socially inept. As far as I remember, groups have turned against me for no reasonable reason. Saw therapists for years, the best one I kept a dozen years but she grew irritated. Some people are just born to bring taxes in. (And before you bring up the smug: Did plenty of sports, windsurf, judo, snowboarding, racketball, plenty of travels, lived abroad, tried both genders, had all sorts of friends…

In my opinion, this reflects more on the groups you've interacted with than on you personally.

I don't want to put you in a box, but consider this example:

"There is no significant difference in the effectiveness of how autistic and non-autistic people communicate, according to a new study, challenging the stereotype that autistic people struggle to connect with others." https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/autistic-people-communicat...

This highlights how much of our perception is shaped by context and societal bias.

Our society is unwell and the idea of a "third space" (a place outside of home and work where people can connect and thrive) has largely disappeared.

Working a lot can be wonderful when it brings you joy. Think of the Japanese concept of Ikigai (生き甲斐), which refers to having a sense of purpose: something that brings fulfillment and makes life feel worthwhile. If your work gives you that, then that's amazing, and you're fortunate.

It could be that you were born to bring nothing but profits and taxes to the community. And that's perfectly fine if it genuinely makes you happy.

The issue, in my view, is that in our unbalanced society work often becomes that default third space. But it's not designed to support human flourishing in that way. By design, it is meant to extract the maximum amount of profit from human resources, with little to no concern for their well-being. This often leads to burnout or disillusionment, especially when decades of effort go unnoticed or fail to make a meaningful impact on society.

Imagine if we had more spaces where we could do meaningful work, not necessarily for profit, in safe and supportive environments that foster connection with like-minded people. Many of us who quietly struggle on our own while still performing at a high level would finally feel like we belong to a supportive group.

Re: Work Life balance slows careers

#118
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends on your expenses, obviously, but if you're serious you should check out the FIRE movement. There's viable strategies even for lower incomes.

FIRE only works if the economy doesn't collapse.

That's fair enough, but then again, we're all boned if that happens so you might as well enjoy the fruits of FIRE until the bang. I wouldn't build up to it starting today though.

Re: Work Life balance slows careers

#119
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you don't have kids, then you don't really need that much money is what I find at least...

If you don't have kids, whats the reason to take some 100% corporate job? Life is darn too short and world is so beautiful and amazing to explore. I've seen few setups that work long term like that and none involved office time. No need to hoard wealth rather live in the moment(s). That really starts to make sense if you need to settle down ie for kids.

Some people work better with more structure? I feel I do at least.

Re: Work Life balance slows careers

#120
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I love the US, now that I have lived in both paces, I bet that quality of life in EU is much, much better for 90% of the population. 40k pickup or not.

Did I mention I have a jet ski, hot tub and home gym?

So? You still have to work 80 hours per week, don't get health insurance, and if you get really sick you go bankrupt.
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