Why 9–5 jobs suck
Day 32 / 365
I’ve run into a dilemma.
This year I have decided to focus full-time on starting my own company. My main motivation was my hatred of the typical 9–5 jobs. In a span of 5 years, I have had 4 different jobs. From big corporates to early-stage startups, I ended up hating them all. Which is why I wanted to start something of my own, something that I would love.
Scaling a business would mean hiring people. Hiring people to work in kind of the same 9–5 jobs that I had hated so much. How do I prevent my company from becoming the same thing that I hated?
To figure that out, I first need to know the things that I didn’t like about my previous jobs
Fixed hours
For most jobs, you would have a fixed time to show up at the office each day and a time in the evening post which it is acceptable to leave. And you are expected to perform at your best in that window of time, each day, throughout the year.
What if I am most productive at 5 AM in the morning? What if I am a night owl?
Even with remote jobs, that boast about being flexible with their timings, you would have fixed meetings daily, and you will have to plan your day according to those.
Inability to choose what you work on
Suppose your team is working on a project, and you want to try out this new cool tech that you read about that you think would improve it in some way. If you are not able to convince your team, or more importantly your boss, you are forced to stick to the same old way of doing things.
No relation between efforts and reward
When you are on a fixed monthly salary, it doesn't matter how good of a job you do, you will be paid the same. Especially in big MNCs, it’s hard to get fired or get promoted. In fact, getting promoted is more about your people skills than your technical skills.
I find that something like freelancing, on the other hand, has a stronger reward-to-effort relationship. I can work my butt off, 80–100 hours a week, and make a lot of money. Or I can slack off and work just 20 hours and make less.
There are many many more things that I hated about 9–5 jobs, but these 3 are the biggest ones. The tough task now is to figure out how I can avoid these as I work on creating my own company.