As I get older, something has begun to weigh heavily on me: the sheer number of hours I spend working on other people’s projects—pouring energy and time into companies that are not my own. Of course, I’m not advocating for abandoning society to live off the land. We live in a capitalist world, and earning a living is necessary. But I think it’s worth pausing to reflect on just how much of our lives are consumed by work that may not fulfill us, and worse, how often the best hours of our day are spent not for ourselves, but for someone else’s goals.
Let’s take a typical UK workday: the infamous 9 to 5. That’s 8 hours, right? But it’s never really just that.
Say your office is an hour away. To arrive by 9 a.m., you probably aim to be there by 8:45. That means catching a 7:30 train. Add an hour to get ready in the morning, and you’re waking up at 6:30 a.m. Your workday hasn’t even started, and you’re already two hours in. At the other end of the day, you may finish at 5, but between wrapping up, catching a train, and commuting home, you’re realistically not walking in the door until 6:30 or 7:00 p.m.
If you’re trying to be responsible, you’ll be winding down for bed by 10:45 p.m., leaving you with maybe 3–4 hours of personal time—just enough to cook, clean, eat, shower, and maybe exchange a few words with your partner. And that’s a best-case scenario.
Meanwhile, most people don’t receive equity or ownership in the companies they work for. According to some figures, only around 1 in 5 employees in the UK get stock options. So we’re spending 8+ hours per day, plus commuting time, on something that offers little personal fulfillment and even less long-term reward.
In a globalized, hyper-connected world, it doesn’t have to be this way. Why not coordinate across time zones to give people more control over when they work, not just what they work on? For example, early morning work in the UK could be outsourced to someone in East Asia working in their afternoon. Tools and platforms for global collaboration already exist. What’s lacking is the will—and maybe the imagination—to use them differently.
This leads me to my own fortunate situation: I work from home, as does my partner. We share our space with our cat and our routines. It’s a life I feel deeply grateful for. If either of us worked from an office, we’d easily be spending more time with coworkers than with each other.
Let’s do the math.
8 hours/day with colleagues, 5 days/week = ~173 hours/month.
Evenings and weekends with your partner might add up to ~196 hours/month, but that assumes you’re always together in your free time—which rarely happens. Factor in errands, solo downtime, gym sessions, or social commitments, and you start falling behind.
One rough breakdown of a “balanced” lifestyle might look like:
Colleagues: 179 hours/month
Partner: 153 hours/month
Friends: 26 hours/month
Even if you’re in a loving relationship, working full-time can put you on par—if not behind—when it comes to quality time spent with your partner compared to your coworkers.
And none of this even accounts for time spent on personal projects, side hustles, or hobbies. Nor does it reflect your energy levels at the end of a draining workday. It’s not just time we’re losing—it’s also the quality of that time.
We need a better system. One that aligns with how humans actually live, thrive, and find meaning. Not because it’s idealistic, but because it’s practical. Data shows that happier employees are more productive and engaged. So if we can’t shift for the people, can we at least shift for the profit?
It’s time to rethink not just what we work on—but when, how, and why we work at all.
