In the wake of Dolly Parton’s death, I have been giving a lot of thought to the traditional 9-to-5. According to Parton, it’s just “a way to make a living” and it’s full of “all taking and no giving.” It wasn’t until I looked at the lyrics for the first time that I realized that this song written in ‘80s demonizes traditional jobs just the same as we do today. It’s not new to hate on the 9-to-5, but I think the hatred has been and is becoming increasingly misguided.
As the older half of Generation Z begins to move into the workforce, we are increasingly hearing and seeing that young people are finding office life much less appealing than their Millennial peers did a decade ago. Gen Z grew up with families impacted by the Great Financial Crisis, saw technology take over the workplace and burnout affect workers at high rates. Instead of joining the workforce, they are aspiring entrepreneurs, a path that has rewarded the likes of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. On top of this, social media only increases the appeal. Trad wife advocates and fans of Andrew Tate’s message to “escape the matrix” push against traditional jobs and even college, characterizing them as some kind of evil scheme meant to keep the little guy down.
What 9-to-5 naysayers don’t understand is that the entrepreneurs and companies we idolize are a product of survivorship bias and a long period of economic expansion full of optimistic investors willing to throw money at any fledgling company. But 25 years later, the seed funding that got businesses like Facebook off the ground is continually collapsing, and that means that aspiring entrepreneurs need to find another way to finance their ambition.
I’m sure you’ve guessed it by now, but an office job is a great place to start. In these positions, you can collect a predictable salary and the skills, network and professional reputation needed to build a company and convince others to believe in it. Most importantly, you can get all of these things without sticking your own neck out. An entrepreneur might own the upside, but the risk always matches the reward, which means that if things go awry, a 9-to-5 employee gets to go home. An owner often cannot.
Beyond the financial aspect, the separation between work and life that a 9-to-5 offers is valuable in its own right. In the right company, when the day ends, you shut your laptop and the rest of your life belongs to you. You don’t have to love your job, because you are left with plenty of time in the day to do what you actually enjoy, and you have the funds to make it happen.
As a society, we seem to look at adult life as one of two extremes. You might choose a job that is deeply meaningful, but you will almost certainly be poor. Or you might choose a job that you hate, but at least you’ll be rich. I just don’t buy it. There is a huge amount of gray area between loving every second you spend at work and waking up each morning full of dread.
To be satisfied with your day-to-day, a job doesn’t have to be great. Good is good enough. You can enjoy the company of your coworkers, find some small wins in your work and make enough money to build a 5-to-9 that you genuinely enjoy. Your passion doesn’t need to lead to a paycheck, and your paycheck doesn’t have to come at the expense of your passion. Sometimes your job is “just a way to make a living.” Sorry to disagree with you Dolly, but I think that is perfectly okay.