Vapid. Soul sucking. Dream crushing. There are a myriad more words and phrases that can be used to describe what it is like to have to work within the corporate world. And the same can be used to paint what it is like to live within a world that is run by corporations. A world that allows for the rich to become richer, trampling the poor and using whoever is left as a cog in the machine. So how can we survive, as the bottom of the totem pole? How do we live as just another cog in the machine?
Many of us numb the pain with drugs, alcohol, or other detrimental vices that are only a band-aid on a bullet wound. But this article does not exist to judge, but to try and provide other outlets of frustration or help pull you from burn out and dissociative episodes. Unfortunately not everything will work, so I highly implore you to investigate other avenues and possibilities, anything that comes to mind.
You don’t matter. Act like it.
There is something we have to get out of the way first. Corporations do not care about you. Not only do they not know you exist, but they will replace you within a second, and will not care if they have to stamp you out to get what they want. Which is very bleak and depressing, but if we choose to focus on what we can control, and the positives within our own lives, we might just be able to survive a little longer.
Do not give corporations any more time than you need to in order to survive. Be it the work you do as a cog in the machine, or as an active or passive member of the society that they have built, give them as little of your time and freedom that is possible. This does not mean that you completely give up all pretenses of doing anything, since that is only going to hurt you. But you only have to interact with it for as long as it benefits you. Working eight hours, five days a week? Give your job nothing more. You have to buy groceries from a mega-conglomerate? Buy local when and if you can, as well as get as many second hand, long lasting goods as possible.
Working no more than your eight hours a day, five days a week might be nothing more than a pipe dream. A lot of the time, especially when you are salaried within the corporate world, you don’t really get a choice to work up to the forty hour mark, you blow right past it. That is why they make you a salaried employee, so you can work fifty hour weeks and they can pay you the same. Sure, the benefits can be nice (especially in America when your health insurance is tied directly to your employment), but are the extra hours ever worth it? I have never found that to be the case. That is why you need to fight back when and where you can, scratch tooth and nail in order to get out as close to forty as you can.
Recently there was a coworker of mine who raised hell about the current state of the work and what we were being asked. The offer letters we received upon being hired at the company were for forty hours a week, but over the last year there has been an increase to the number of hours the company wants us to work. With support schedules that bleed deep into the evening and night with tasks, along with back to back weekend support tasks, we started seeing time sheets hitting sixty plus hours a week. But we were only being paid for forty. So my coworker set meetings with his manager and vocalized his disdain, which I didn’t think would get anywhere. But lo and behold, the conversations on evening and weekend support has slowly changed, with a lot of positive outcomes to be explored. Now time will tell if the changes will come to fruition, but don’t believe that your voice is to small to make a difference. Your choice to speak up could cause a chain reaction to flip company culture on its head and make work more bearable.
There are way to many factors that determine where you live, which grocery stores you buy from, and what access to farmer’s markets, second hand stores, and other places you have. From your income levels, to the hours you work compared to the hours the establishment is open, all the way to your transportation and infrastructure of the city you are living in. But it doesn’t mean that all hope is lost if you don’t have access to the things you need. While some people may be able to say no to ordering items on Amazon and can get all of their food locally sourced and find all of their clothes and goods at thrift stores, it does not mean that you are a failure if you can only do one of those, or can only do half of one of those.
This is not me saying that you should not purchase something that will bring you joy. All we have in life are the little moments of elation that are flanked by pain and misery. You deserve to treat yourself. This is me saying that you might be able to find that same item somewhere else, which won’t create the drudge work that Amazon imposes on their employees. It is not always possible, but finding where you can cut out the middle man and directly contribute to a small business or a trade with a neighbor not only can build a sense of community, but that money can be invested right back into the community that you live in.
Find Your Outlet
We aren’t talking electrical outlets here, but those are definitely important to locate within your abode. In this context, you need to find an outlet that you can pour your energy into outside of work. It truly is as simple as what hobbies can you do to distract yourself from reality.
A hobby can be anything. Walking? It’s a hobby, plus fantastic exercise. Playing videos games? Pretty common hobby and great for catching up with friends. Painting miniatures for a tabletop war game? Fantastic choices to get away from screens. The main point of the outlet is to get yourself doing something that can pull your mind away from work and life. Let yourself get lost. I find that a creative outlet, such as writing, is the easiest way for me to get out of my own head and speed up the decompression after work or on the weekend. The next step is finding time for your avocation.
The two biggest obstacles will be time and energy. It is easy for someone who has no kids, or doesn’t have to work two or more jobs, or take care of their parents as they age, etc. to say “just find a hobby that can help you decompress”. We barely have enough time to decompress most days, and the more you stay up late to try and wind down, the more energy and time you are stealing from the next day. It isn’t sustainable.
Unfortunately there is not a one-size fits all solution in this scenario. The only blanket advice that can be applied is to set a routine and carve out time. Which is much easier said than done. If you are unsure of the hours your second job is going to schedule you, or your family has an unforeseen issue, you can’t really build a pattern for your hobbies. Which if you cannot make a regimen, then trying to carve out time for hobbies is the next best thing. This can look different depending on the hobby, and can be much easier for some activities than others.
Living in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, I have a one hour commute to the office in the morning, and upwards of a two hour commute in the evening. Which is a ton of time that I am wasting away in the car, trying to decompress on the drive so that I can be present when I arrive home. I tried adding a few new albums to my phone to keep the commute interesting, but I found that I would either forget to find music the night before, or I would be to tired to want to give my attention to new music.
But then I made a shift. I was itching to write more, from articles on this blog to short stories on Wattpad or six word stories on bluesky. So I started to storyboard in the car. I would churn through ideas in my head, thinking of plot points, topics to blog about, just anything and everything that came to mind. And I found that I didn’t dread my commutes as much, I started to look forward to them. Even though I wasn’t actively writing anything, I felt less like a failure. It helped focus the time I do have to write to be more efficient.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not always productive on my commutes. Most mornings I am still waking up and I don’t have the mental capacity to think of new things to write. But when the drive is productive, I feel more energized by the end of it, which helps me hit the ground running when I delve into my hobbies.
We only have a set, limited time of living on this planet. Do not allow for the corpotocracy to steal anymore of your life than they already are. Fight back as much as you can, and help others take their life back as well. If enough cogs slow down the machine, we might be able to break the machine for good.
What hobbies do you have for helping you decompress after work? Let me know in the comments, and who knows, you might inspire someone else to pursue that hobby, or find a new one yourself!
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