Time and money are a spectrum. We often hear a saying that “Time is money”. But there’s a lot more truth to this than I think people realize.
Not to say that you can’t have both; once you get to a certain level of wealth, you can have lots of time, and lots of money. But at the level of most of the populace, you’ll generally be trading one for the other a lot, if you’re lucky enough to even have that option at all.
For a long time, I was of limited financial means after I became an adult. And while I did do my own personal things, often I would review things in ways that prioritized saving money, over spending time. I’d often take flights that had more stopovers, take bumps on flights, or make decisions that required me to wait. I could save money by doing this, and since at the time I had unstable jobs, it was feasible to spend time reading in an airport.
These days it’s the opposite. I have more things I want to do, than time to do them, and I often prioritize the efficiency of doing something. So I might drive a bit further for a flight to get a nonstop, for example. Since I have to now spend PTO to get these trips…it matters.
Recently I considered applying for a job higher up in my company. I think I could have done it (and later I was told by another tech that he was surprised I didn’t apply because he thought I would do well!), but I didn’t this time, because it was a bad time for me, personally, and the higher job would come with more money, sure, but it would also mean more hours working, and I am in the fortunate position where I can cover my bills and have money left, and marginal value of additional money needs to be considered in context of the time. And I decided I valued my current time more than more money.
I think this is something missing from the discourse in the US. People in other countries (some in the same team I’m in!) get far more time off and I can see the impact. Furthermore, while I am salaried, I also have a general idea how many hours I work, and thus a rough estimate of what my hourly wage is. If I’m not making at least that much (or saving that much) at some alternate activity, I am falling behind.
My mom once asked me when I was going to start volunteering my time for a cause. I responded I already held several volunteer positions in some organizations, and she said that she meant “something that helps people” and listed off organizations I would not want to support. It was jarring, because I had barely even landed a full time job at that point, and she just…expected me to go give up my time for free to a cause I didn’t have interest in. If I’m giving my time away, it’s going to be something that I find worthy, not you.
This is also missing from the discourse in the US about so-called “unskilled labor”. (No job is ‘unskilled’. The job has been dictated by society that it should exist, and as they’ve said the job is necessary, people should be compensated appropriately for doing it). With the recent purges of immigrants by the nascent dictator, some farms are trying to attract people to work for them, and offering the same wages the offered those people, appealing to patriotism. No, that’s hard labor, and I’m not going to do it unless I’m compensated at the same level as I am at my normal job, at least. I can’t get that time back once I’ve spent it.
Don’t have a clean wrap-up for this and if I try to find one I won’t post this today. I do need to make better conclusions.
-Arrow