AIBU?
The modern workplace and modern life in general.
malificent7 · 24/09/2022 17:54
I've always worked in high pressure jobs like teaching and health care ( currently nhs)and I'm enjoying it but obviously it's challenging due to staff shortages. Despite said shortages of staff, we are still expected to deliver the same high standard of work for less cash given inflation.
I work ft as a mum as so many of is do but atm there is pressure at work for the reasons outlined above and pressure at home to make enough to cover bills.
I don't think i could be a ft sahm but it would be nice to be pt. The Tories however, have contributed to the relentless pressure of modern life.
One income was enough years ago.
So i guess my question is...does anyone else feel a bit unsuited to modern life?!
Yanbu- modern life is relentlessly stressful.
Yabu- modern life is a walk in the park to life in the past.
Disclaimer...i'd have hated to live in Tudor times, during Ww1 and 2 and would prob have been burned as a witch!
Am I being unreasonable?
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Haus1234 · 24/09/2022 18:01
Every time has its advantages and challenges surely - being rich in a Jane Austen novel era (or indeed Tudor times) would be great, and not being rich would be much tougher than today.
Midnights · 24/09/2022 18:03
I am fuming that past women protested for the right to work, vote, own property etc. I'd have loved to be a Jane Austin wealthy lady type, in my fancy dresses just reading and painting all day.
(Please note said in 80% jest)
Lawazzalawoo · 24/09/2022 18:11
People always bang on about more people have autism these days (in a condescending manner to imply that people are faking). I wonder if it is just more noticeable because of how we live nowadays. Everyone is busier, everywhere is busier, kids at school are forced down an academic pathway and there is little alternative for them if they don't fit into that nice tidy box. There are less decently paid manual jobs compared to a generation or two ago.
My DC is autistic and already being written off as not academic. My DM (who is suspected to be autistic but cant be arsed being assessed) was taught how to run a house and how to work in the typing pool at school. She went into a well paid job in the typing pool when she finished school. Yes, a lot of her generation were not given a choice. But I sometimes thing that there were better opportunities for those on the bottom than their are now.
Chdjdn · 24/09/2022 18:13
I think the expectations of modern life are why people suffer so much with mental health. I don’t think we were made to raise children in isolation (firmly believe the takes a village approach) and we weren’t made to work like we do.
sst1234 · 24/09/2022 18:14
Yes pesky modern life with rights for women, opportunities to travel, explore the world, leisure and all that.
First world problems.
Dishwashersaurous · 24/09/2022 18:18
Being rich is always better than being the majority in any time period.
For most of human existence the entire human effort has been focused on trying to keep oneself alive.
Now we have an expectation that there should be more to life than a grid to not being dead.
wb3 · 24/09/2022 18:22
There is no simple yes or no answer to this.
Pretty certain the workplace and worker's rights were better many years ago. Life with and for teenagers was better before social media. Target setting has ruined many jobs.
There are many benefits to the modern era, pretty certain good mental health isn't one of them though.
CaptainThe95thRifles · 24/09/2022 18:28
A lot of jobs have no tangible outcomes these days, which I don't think is great for mental health. If you're a farm labourer, a fletcher, a blacksmith (etc), you produce something real that you can take pride in, even though the work is hard and unending. I do think there's something astray in the modern workplace, in many sectors.
I'd probably be more useful 500 years ago than I am today, which is a slightly depressing thought!
SquirrelFan · 24/09/2022 18:39
@CaptainThe95thRifles I do agree. The number of days I go to bed not having created something other than perhaps a meal... It's easy to say, learn how to do xyz but it's not the same as being brought up learning /doing.
And I don't think it's either/or. There are a lot of great things about modern life!
MaChienEstUnDick · 24/09/2022 18:40
There's no 'perfect' time to be alive though, is there?
The Mumsnet community would have been tiny even 100 years as half of us would have died in childbirth and the other half would be up to their elbows in prolapsed uteruses and nappies. That's after watching our sons march out to war...
SirChenjins · 24/09/2022 18:44
I’ve been in the workplace (NHS) for thirty years and the pace is relentless compared to when I first started. When I think back to what people at my pay grade were doing back then for their money it doesn’t begin to compare - they were working at a much slower pace at a much lower level, with far fewer kpis (any, in some cases it seems!) to worry about.
Lunar270 · 24/09/2022 18:48
CaptainThe95thRifles · 24/09/2022 18:28
A lot of jobs have no tangible outcomes these days, which I don't think is great for mental health. If you're a farm labourer, a fletcher, a blacksmith (etc), you produce something real that you can take pride in, even though the work is hard and unending. I do think there's something astray in the modern workplace, in many sectors.
I'd probably be more useful 500 years ago than I am today, which is a slightly depressing thought!
Definitely. The rise of bullshit jobs is a curse of modern society.
I think David Graeber was spot on.
WonderingWanda · 24/09/2022 18:49
There have always been difficulties in life, some which have been eradicated in many countries but some new problems which have been created by modern life. I think high cost of living means many families must have both parents working, the much higher numbers of women who have gone into further education and more professional jobs means more people live away from their families so don't have that support network. The Internet, emails and mobile devices means we never switch off. Whilst that technology can be time saving it seems to me that it just means we try to cram more in. I find the pace of modern life is just a bit relentless.
bigbeautifulmonster · 24/09/2022 19:30
Dishwashersaurous · 24/09/2022 18:18
Being rich is always better than being the majority in any time period.
For most of human existence the entire human effort has been focused on trying to keep oneself alive.
Now we have an expectation that there should be more to life than a grid to not being dead.
So so true. Well said.
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