Can’t afford to go down to 4 days a week because COL, but 5 days is making me so miserable that I have depression and I see no way out...
I genuinely don’t understand how people do this forever.
I can’t afford to drop to 4 days a week, but 5 days feels like my entire life disappears into work. By Friday I’m exhausted, then I spend most of the weekend recovering just to do it all again on Monday.
There’s no job I care about enough to want my life to revolve around it. I miss the rhythm of uni where there were actual breaks throughout the year, not just grinding endlessly waiting for one holiday. I feel like I need both regular breaks and annual leave to stay functional.
I’m also so tired of commuting and the constant performative enthusiasm in corporate culture. Pretending to be passionate about KPIs and “circling back” when I’m just trying to survive the week is draining in a way I didn’t expect.
People keep saying “you get used to it” but I’m 31 now and honestly I haven’t. If anything, I think it’s given me depression. I feel permanently tired and flat, and sometimes I genuinely wonder whether life is supposed to feel like this for another 30+ years. Sometimes I wish I was never born at all so I didn't have to do this.
Does this actually get better, or do most people just slowly restructure their lives around conserving energy for work? Because right now I genuinely can’t see how I’m supposed to ever be happy again living like this.