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Whose back to work??

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
First morning back, a ton of emails, a load of engineering issues that I'm picking up that I didn't before Xmas due to the fact that I basically made everything a January issue.. well it's now fucking January :-(

Got hardly any sleep last night as my body has gotten used to being an alcoholic who stayed up all night gaming for the last 2wks.. fuck this shit, think I'll go hang out in the Sidney Sweeny thread to keep the mood up until 5pm

How's your first day back going fellow gaffers
 
Feels bad man




Having two weeks to be with friends and family, read books, take walks and generally only do things you enjoy almost makes you think working 40+ hours a week is not the peak of the human experience.
 
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I feel your pain.

I left my job after 6 years in 2025 because it was eating away at my soul. The money did not make me happy. In fact, I have never been more upset in my entire life and I didn't feel like a real person anymore.

Where the hell is this going? I am still struggling with these thoughts.
 
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I wish I would be back to work today. Kindergarten isn't open until Wednesday 😭.

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First day back and I'm a grumpy ass mother fucker.

My boss is also a grumpy ass motherfucker and is already throwing his mood around the office like wrecking ball.

I am going pedal to the metal this year with dividend stock investing so I can early retire and opt out of this shit as soon as possible.
 
Feels bad man




Having two weeks to be with friends and family, read books, take walks and generally only do things you enjoy almost makes you think working 40+ hours a week is not the peak of the human experience.


I don't mind working 40 hours a week, but I don't want to work 5 days a week.

Let me squeeze those 40 hours into 4 days and I'll be a lot happier.
 
I am back, but it isn't too bad. My kids both had late-night meltdowns yesterday, though.
18 days off straight, and I was actually looking forward to work, even though I half forgot what I even do for a living...
 
I left my job after 6 years in 2025 because it was eating away at my soul.
Enough is enough. Letting go of the familiar is hard, even when it makes you miserable but staying would've been worse I suppose

I walked away after ten years with a good deal, the last seven months have basically been a vacation. That place I worked at was cronyism galore: being good at the job didn't matter nearly as much as who you knew. But that is pretty common I learned

Two months left. Trying to enjoy the downtime
 
I don't mind working 40 hours a week, but I don't want to work 5 days a week.

Let me squeeze those 40 hours into 4 days and I'll be a lot happier.

I switched from 5 x 8 to 4 x 9 and don't regret it at all. 9 hours a day can be pretty spicy (still just an office job so what are we even talking about) and my manager wasn't pleased but ultimately it gave me an extra day off and that shit is golden.

I like my job very much but working 5 days only to have 48 hours to recover and recoup and live your life is just an unbelievably bad deal no matter how you slice it.
 
I switched from 5 x 8 to 4 x 9 and don't regret it at all. 9 hours a day can be pretty spicy (still just an office job so what are we even talking about) and my manager wasn't pleased but ultimately it gave me an extra day off and that shit is golden.

I like my job very much but working 5 days only to have 48 hours to recover and recoup and live your life is just an unbelievably bad deal no matter how you slice it.
I bailed out of corporate life after just three years of working in an office. Went freelance and WFH and my life improved immeasurably. I'm still technically freelance but I have a long-term gig with a company as a full-time contractor. I don't make great money by any means but the work-life balance is amazing. Unfortunately, AI scares the hell out of me and makes me wonder if I can keep this up long-term or even for just a few more years.
 
Enough is enough. Letting go of the familiar is hard, even when it makes you miserable but staying would've been worse I suppose

I walked away after ten years with a good deal, the last seven months have basically been a vacation. That place I worked at was cronyism galore: being good at the job didn't matter nearly as much as who you knew. But that is pretty common I learned

Two months left. Trying to enjoy the downtime
That's right. We're human beings not human doings.

I'm glad you got out.
 
Shockingly quiet on the phones today.

Expected far worse
It's because we all collectively don't want to be here and don't want to talk to anyone and just wanna be hung over in peace
 
I bailed out of corporate life after just three years of working in an office. Went freelance and WFH and my life improved immeasurably. I'm still technically freelance but I have a long-term gig with a company as a full-time contractor. I don't make great money by any means but the work-life balance is amazing. Unfortunately, AI scares the hell out of me and makes me wonder if I can keep this up long-term or even for just a few more years.

Covid really did me a solid because it forced the company I work at to deal with WFH and since then I've been WHF for 75% of the time.

it made life in general so much easier that in hindsight it is almost unfathomable that I did that dogshit commute + all the other downsides of office work 5 days a week for so many years. My overall enjoyment of life increased dramatically since then.

Wouldn't worry about AI too much. Unless you're in the immediate danger zone (translators, scribes, lawyer-adjacent stuff) large language models won't take your job in the foreseeable future. 9/10 companies are literally too inadequate to implement these models in any meaningful way.
 
I feel your pain.

I left my job after 6 years in 2025 because it was eating away at my soul. The money did not make me happy. In fact, I have never been more upset in my entire life and I didn't feel like a real person anymore.

Where the hell is this going? I am still struggling with these thoughts.

why? what was so bad to make you feel this way?

I used to love my current job, nights were long, quiet mostly. Then we got a new large client who is a major asshole. He nitpicks like crazy, forgets things and blames other people, thinks he knows how to do everyones job and expects 2x the work to be completed in half the time it realistically takes and complains daily about how slow the work progress is going.

I just have to accept the guy is an asshole, beneath me despite his paying our bills, and it is hard at times. A lot of co workers want to quit because of him. I am trying to stick it out while stacking the funds because he pays well, the engineering team are struggling.
 
I bailed out of corporate life after just three years of working in an office. Went freelance and WFH and my life improved immeasurably. I'm still technically freelance but I have a long-term gig with a company as a full-time contractor. I don't make great money by any means but the work-life balance is amazing. Unfortunately, AI scares the hell out of me and makes me wonder if I can keep this up long-term or even for just a few more years.

what do you do exactly?

AI is not going to take jobs at scale any time soon. Don't believe the hype of the prompt warriors on X dooming everyone with sensationalised 'content' designed for engagement farming..
 
Had to be up at 3AM to catch a flight to Chicago for my first day of a new director role job.

Day went well! All my colleagues are good dudes, much smaller company compared to the giga corporations of the past, and my new president isn't a zombie corpo speak. Seemed like an easy to talk to down to earth guy.

Pays almost $30k more a year to boot with REAL bonuses I can hit.

Feels good man.
 
why? what was so bad to make you feel this way?
I went 6 years years and 36 hours in a week without a break. That does something to your psyche. You work so much that you lose your identity as a person. At first it was fine, and then you slowly lose your mind as one year blurs into another. The money is there but you are miserable person. I hope that helps answer your question.
 
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I still need to understand how that all works.
In principle it's very easy. You download a brokerage app, set up a tax efficient account depending on your country (here in the uk they are called Stocks and Shares ISA's, I believe the us equivalent is a Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Arrangement)

Then you can either buy a dividend ETF (a basket of hundreds of dividend stocks, safer, less risky, steady cash payouts each quarter or month depending on which you buy) OR buy a basket of like 25-50 invidual stocks that pay dividends if you want a bit more risk / reward potential. Essentially they just pay out a dividend each month or quarter and you reinvest and invest extra capital as much as possible and watch the snowball grow bigger and bigger.

It is slow as hell at first but I was able to grow my dividends to cover 75% of my bills within 4 years, I absolutely ploughed every penny I could get into there. Another year or two and I should be able to cover all exepenses from the payouts, It's a good goal and I cant wait.
 
if anyone else is interested, this is a great video that shows you a way out of the rat race. It takes time and patience, and a lot of consistant saving and investing, but it works.

I never in my life earned more than 75k a year, but I did save as much of it as possible and invested it in 4-5 years time your entire life can change forever.

 
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the last 2 weeks were 3 day weeks so 4 day weekends. i had a holiday not long before christmas too but yes everything is back to normal.

applied for a new job so hope to hear something next week. my current job is stressing me the hell out and it's at the point i want out. part of me is seriously considering quitting if i don't get this new job. i don't expect to get it and i know it's stupid to quit my job but i need to think of my mental and physical health. i'm lucky to have some money saved up as a safety net but i'd rather try hold out this job while i find a new one.
 
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