Why You Hate Modern Work

Why do we all hate work so much? And why does it seem to have only got worse in the modern era? Well, according to philosopher Byung-Chul Han, our psychological attitude towards work and productivity has fundamentally shifted in a disastrous direction for our mental health, our happiness, and our long-term fulfilment.

00:00 The Burnout Society
01:27 Discipline and Achievement
08:07 Isolation and Individualism
14:53 No Rest for the Wicked
20:33 Means, Ends, and Self-Hatred

[nineten]

I’ve reached a point where I hate competition, I just wanna live my life without scheming around to get ahead of people.

[denedennie]

When i tried to start leaving at 6 ( they only pay me 8 to 5) this was frowned upon. Not by management. By my colleagues who wear their burnout as a badge of honor. Working weekends, evenings, 60-70 hours a week for FREE does't make you a hero. It makes you a clown.

[FarmingUnclear]

In a job interview, they ask you what you do in your free time and they expect you to say that you spend that time learning new skills that make you a better employee.

Update 10/17/24 (2 months later): my boss just asked me to start reading books and videos for work on my own time.

[asloii_]

It really sucks for creative people. I feel so empty and void when I haven’t written any music because I need to work to just stay alive. Life fucks all of us in the ass

[AnaViolinViola]

I think the pandemic was quite badly planned in that sense….everyone, while staying at home, realised that life is not only about work and started thinking a lot about work-life balance. Because, in order to start thinking, you need to stop what you are doing for a moment …and this is what happened

[cherryhazard]

I truly don't like how modern work has made people lose their visions, their hobbies and soul. Imagine how different and lively everyone would be if they didn't have to work on a 9 to 5.

[williamarthur]

I've always taken the view an employer pays me just enough to stop me leaving and in return I do just enough to avoid getting the sack.

[aeixo]

"Is being a slave bad for our health? The answer is definitively yes" ...Shocking 😮

[alexkaen]

My parents are Excessively Positive, and raised me this way. My whole life has been a race with a finish line ever moved out of reach. Nothing has ever been good enough, no success or victory ever worth celebrating, because there is always a higher peak to reach. I live miserably in hell, where my nightmares are lived out while awake.

[Thebeekeeper]

I quit my job because it was making me an angry person. I wasn't myself. My salary was 70k a year. Now I don't have much but I'm happy.

[TheMrEcks]

"what do you do?"
"Perpetually fight to survive in the face of insurmountable odds"

[Iron_Wyvern]

I've always said it is literally *insane* that we have normalized working at LEAST 40 hours a week, 5 days in a row. That is so much time taken up to just pay for shit with fiat currency. Then, oh wow, the weekend. A whole two days that are spent ALSO WORKING on stuff around the house, maybe a second job, doing chores etc etc. barely any time whatsoever to do anything else or actually rest. This is lunacy.

Also, the concept of "vacations", where you must spend thousands for a few days, stress about packing, stress about travel, stress about itinerary, stress about check ins and check outs etc. Hardly relaxing. Modernity is essentially just a stress simulator.

[ChakatStormCloud]

"is work slowly killing us" No, no... by all accounts it's actually quite quick about it.

[Kyrgizion]

As a 40-year old with two degrees and still working an "entry level" job, I kinda needed this. Thank you.

[starboard]

I quit my job this week. It was a well paid, high status job. It was everything I could wish for as I set up for this career, yet I was extremely unhappy and unfulfilled. I don't know exactly what I'm doing next, but I decided to give myself some time to rest and think.

[dzaesonp]

Man this helped me realized that I am being cruel to myself. Thank you

[MoreImbaThanYou]

I REALLY noticed the difference in how people treated and interacted with me. When I went through several years of depression, I often encountered a "get your shit together"-mentality, getting judged for how unproductive and "self absorbed" I was.
That drastically changed after graduating from university into a "respectable" field of work.

And you know whats the common nominator? In both cases, I am not judged for the person I am, but the role I play in society. With the difference being that I learned to not give a fuck about people who think that way and instead hold my true friends close.

[kayleighdriessen]

Now I understand why I've generally always been a little jealous of my pets' lifestyles like no bills or soul-sucking 9-5 or feeling burdened by modern society's suffocating expectations.

[poppipoppipopoppipoo]

the burnout society actually starts the moment you attend school, slowly and one by one, middle school, high school, college, and university, and at the very last, a corporate 9 to 9 job. it's so frustrating. i do study stem in college and i appreciate how it improves society, but i miss art and literature terribly. i often think i have sacrificed my passion and love for literature for the sake of some economic relief. i love this channel on youtube; i love how you talk about classic literature and philosophy. it feels so close to home in the heart, nurturing feelings. personally, i am also depressed by how modern companies are so boring. nobody wants to sit down and read poetry. it makes me feel so sad every day, as if i am self-wrecking my true personality and passion. i wish i had a person like you in my life who would make me feel inspired and help me get back to my roots.

[chonkychonk]

This made me realize how cruel i’m being to myself, again. Just because I watched a video on it doesn’t mean I’ll do anything to fix me. It’s like a snake squeezing my heart.