National Post

Steve Murray: Extremely Bad Advice: The Work / Life / Death Balance
Hello Steve, I’m a 34-year-old professional who needs advice on how to find that work-life balance everyone seems to be tweeting about. Over the years I’ve put in hundreds of hours of unpaid overtime to ‘get where I am,’ which isn’t really that far above where I started. At the end of the day I’m exhausted and don’t have the time, energy or money for things I want to do. I’m working 50 hours a week, I’ve had one 3% raise since 2008, and don’t expect things to get better soon. Should I find work in a new field or do I hang tight and hold on?

STEP ONE  The most telling thing in your email is what you left out. Not once did you say if you actually, y’know, enjoy your job. Look, I get it. You’re old. So very, very old, and you don’t think you’ll find anyone better so you’re staying with your partner who is a draining, unattractive force in your life and shows no signs of getting better. Well, I guess there’s always your next life to do the things you want to do, right? Wrong! Quit! Screw it! Get out of there! It doesn’t sound like you have a family to support or anything, so just leave! What could possibly happen if you “hang tight and hold on?” The Payroll Fairy will visit you one night and magically, drastically, increase your salary? The Earth’s spin will slow down, giving you more hours in the day to do #$@* you don’t care about? Go! Go! Go!