I started a new job in mid-June 2021, here's what I was thinking about then.
8 hours is roughly the time many of us spend at work per day.
We usually sleep for another 8 and spend the remaining time with our families, friends as well as transitioning between sleep and work.
The 8 hours we spend working is roughly half the time we're awake each and every day. It's certainly the best hours of the day. The sun is out and we're most active during daylight hours.
When we work for someone, we're basically trading our time and skills to provide value to an organisation and in return being compensated in the form of money. Companies pay us to give them slots of our life to help them achieve their goals.
Along the way, we have the chance to sharpen our skills, learn new things and meet new people. Companies try and give us some purpose too, they really try to sell their vision to us because when the times get tough, the money isn't always worth it. A solid vision, purpose and mission is key to inspire the troops and keep them around.
We use this money to barter for our basic needs and live more comfortable lives.
The basic needs would be food, water and shelter. Social interaction is a basic need too but I'm keeping it materialistic for now. Work is great in that it also gives us social interactions with our colleagues. After we have our most basic needs covered, we might want to splurge a bit, think holidays, new car, new phone and new bike or anything else we don't exactly need but we choose to opt in for because disposable income accommodates it.
As we get better at what we do, we'll get compensated better too since our time becomes more valuable to an institution due to the increased value we provide. If we're responsible for making or saving them money, then we'll be compensated in a way to reflect that - ideally.
When we're renting out our time for money, we're actually bartering a limited resource - time, with a virtually unlimited one. Time doesn't actually come back. Money however can be manufactured, which means there could be a greater supply and therefore a lesser value. This is caused by inflation**.**
Let that sink in. If our salaries don't increase then we're getting a worse off deal for our time. If it raises with inflation then we'd still be getting short changed because as time goes on, we're also becoming more skilled.
So we play this little bargaining dance with our employer and call it salary negotiations. What we're doing is putting a price on our time.
I'm not as financially literate as I should be so I'm going to stay away from giving any financial advice and am going to focus more on the how we can squeeze greater value from what's in front of us.
There are a few possible approaches to squeeze more value from your 8 hours.
Make more money. Change jobs, renegotiate your salary - basically find a way to make more money in those 8 working hours. More money doesn't actually increase your satisfaction after a certain threshold in the long term. Over time the elation of your new income dissipates and becomes your new baseline. Money does give you more lifestyle options though.
Align those 8 hours effectively. Changing jobs to something that is more deeply aligned with your values so it doesn't feel like "work" and still having your financial needs met.
Investing time. This could be learning new skills or developing a business that can enable option 1 or 2.
There are pros and cons with option.
Knowing the right answer requires a fair bit of introspection and knowing who you are, what you value and why you value those things. I use the Five Whys approach.
When I had the job offer for my new role, it was as simple as asking "In which role would I rather spend 8 hours a day?".
I also asked myself "Will my 80 year old self regret this?", "Was that risky enough?", "Would I be proud of taking that risk?", "Did I set the right example?" and "Does this help me bring my dreams into existence?".