I am F44 and my boyfriend is M58. We have been dating for a little over 3 years. We have a fantastic relationship and are best friends. We do not yet live together, but we are working towards it as we both own homes that we want to sell first. We spend the entirety of every weekend together (holidays as well). About 3 months ago, he started a new job, which requires him to work very long hours and lately he has had to work the entirety of every single weekend. The weekends are literally the only time that we get to spend together. We both work during the week (although I have far more flexibility as I am self-employed and work from home). He has been working 6 days a week, 10-12 hours per day as of late. He never worked weekends at his previous job, so this is something that is new and has just started within the last few months. We still spend weekends together, but lately it has only been in the early mornings and when he gets off of work at night. This past weekend was a perfect example; he didn't get out of work until 8 pm on Friday night, worked about 12 hours on Saturday and didn't get back from work until about 7:30 pm, and the same thing on Sunday. We didn't even get to go out for dinner and drinks like we always do on the weekends, which is something that we always enjoy doing. I ended up having to DoorDash a pizza for us because all of the restaurants/bars were either closed or about to close by the time he got out of work. By the time he gets back from work, he is exhausted and is ready for bed within an hour or less of getting home. It's like all we do now is have sleep dates. We now have very little to no time to do anything fun together on our weekends because of this job. For 3 years, up until he started this job, we would always go on little trips/adventures, go out to eat, and would do all kinds of fun things together on the weekends. His schedule now varies from week to week, so it's very difficult to plan things for us, never knowing what hours/days he is going to working from week to week.
To make matters even worse, he is absolutely MISERABLE at this job. Every time we talk on the phone or when we are together in person, all that he does is vent about his job and complain about his co-workers nonstop. It has gotten to the point that it is getting exhausting for me. I am trying so hard to be as supportive as possible, and I have absolutely no problem with him venting and talking about work, but not to the point where it consumes almost the entirety of every single conversation. I've been at jobs in the past that I couldn't stand as well, so I totally understand how he is feeling, but the complaining/venting is now almost CONSTANT and it seems like it's all that we talk about, so most of what little time we have together now is spent with me listening to him rant about work. He keeps saying that he doesn't think that he is going to be at this job for much longer, but he has been saying that for the past couple of months, yet he's still there.
I don't feel like I am being unreasonable, but I don't want to come off as too needy. Our time together is of extreme importance to me. I love him with all my heart, but I feel like he hardly has time for me since starting this new job 3 months ago, which is extremely frustrating and is making me very sad. He does call me a lot during the week and we have long talks on the phone and we text throughout the day, which I very much appreciate, but I need our in-person time together. I plan on talking to him about it this weekend, but I am looking for suggestions on how to approach this. I don't want to come off as resentful (even though I am getting there) and I certainly don't want him to think that I am attacking him in any way. I just need him to know how much this is bothering me and hopefully try to work together to come up with a solution to try and balance our time together.
TL/DR: Boyfriend has very little time for me since starting a new job 3 months ago