In our culture the phrase ‘day job’ has become almost synonymous with working for living. Work in the day, sleep at night and enjoy weekend off is like an icon of the western living.
Some jobs obviously occur at night and on the weekend but majority of it is of the week day time type. Even if someone works full time job at night it is still emotionally treated like a day job – in the sense of it being the steady source of income and a place of one’s ‘social contributions’.
The 9 to 5 type of day job is to a large extent a byproduct of an industrial society. In old agrarian societies and before the advent of industrial revolution in 1800s working has often been much more socially segregated. Those in the rural areas were often under a slave like living arrangements – working in the fields from sunrise to sunset while the ruling class in the castles didn’t really do work as such.
These days the day job types of arrangements are comparatively more liberal. Nevertheless the repetitive routine of doing the same thing day in and day out may feel rather stifling – particularly if it has to do with a low paying job (which is the most plentiful type) and performing monotonous tasks that one does not enjoy. Such jobs are often of the manufacturing type, which in North America start at around $10 per hour which is not too terrible. As almost anyone knows, though, the manufacturing base is switching now largely into Asia and particularly China because the wages paid in that region being extremely low. Otherwise, generally the lowest paid jobs are of the service type.
Going up on the day job pay scale usually involves being more emotionally tied and mentally preoccupied with the job involved. Since most people these days do not enjoy what they do for living then the increasing focusing on what is not liked presents a problem mainly because one gets what one focuses on. By that I mean that if the emotions generated are not pleasant then so are the results.
Naturally then most people try to free themselves from the 9 to 5 day job routine, often referred to as the rat race.
