Non FIREd folks: What is your least favourite part about working

[Aegishjalmur]

The time sink..... I have to leave by 6:30 am, and am generally not getting back until 6:30 pm at the very very earliest, but usually more like 7:30 pm. That means I have vey little time to unwind/do other projects/cook/clean at night. If I stay up longer to try to do more, I needs to try to get more sleep on the weekends to make up for it. Come the weekend, I run out of time and/or ambition when trying to do the projects I couldn't get through during the week(especially if I didn't get enough sleep).

When we go on vacation, I am sleeping on average 3 hrs more per night then when at home/working. It's glorious. I am curious how long after retiring it will take me to fully rest up/recover.

[Lentils4Lunch]

The meetings.

Typical one hour meeting at my job boils down to this:

10-15 minutes of actual substance
5-10 minutes off topic - tangents about news stories, complaints about room temperature, issues with the SmartBoard
35-45 minutes of "adult show and tell" - people just talking for the sake of talking - trying to make themselves sound intelligent, or just to show the bigwigs in the room that they are actually following the discussion... 

[Tris Prior]

The goddamned arctic-level air conditioning. I live in Chicago; it is cold 8 months out of the year here. Can we EVER feel just a little bit warm? Would that be OK?!? I mean, sure, if it's upper 80s/90s and humid, by all means run it, at a normal level. But we all wear winter sweaters at our desks all summer. My boss wears a snuggie. It's that cold.

Have you suggested at your work that they can save a lot of money on not cooling so much in the summer?

Yes, we have. We actually have an environmental committee at work, that I am on, and we recently tried again to get them to turn it down. We were told that the building controls the air conditioning and that there is nothing that we as a company can do to convince them to make the building less cold. It's very frustrating.

[kaypinkHH]

Back again, this weekend was a good example of the lack of freedom...
Went 5 hrs east on a road trip to visit a friend who was visiting that city due to work. Trip was great, and a good excuse to visit a new city.  Stopped along the way to visit another friend, so that was really fun. But it meant we only had 24 hours in the city, so we didn't have time to do a bunch of cool things we could have done. Had to leave that city mid afternoon to be back in town to get ready for work today.

On top of all that, due to previously planned vacation/timing, we are hoping back in our car this weekend to drive the exact same 5 hour route to continue driving for our trip back to visit family. If we didn't have to work (or could work from home), we could have just spent a few more days in that city, and then continued on our journey back home.

One day this will be my life. I'm very much looking forward to the option of slow travel.

[Aegishjalmur]

The goddamned arctic-level air conditioning. I live in Chicago; it is cold 8 months out of the year here. Can we EVER feel just a little bit warm? Would that be OK?!? I mean, sure, if it's upper 80s/90s and humid, by all means run it, at a normal level. But we all wear winter sweaters at our desks all summer. My boss wears a snuggie. It's that cold.

Have you suggested at your work that they can save a lot of money on not cooling so much in the summer?

Yes, we have. We actually have an environmental committee at work, that I am on, and we recently tried again to get them to turn it down. We were told that the building controls the air conditioning and that there is nothing that we as a company can do to convince them to make the building less cold. It's very frustrating.

My work is horrible for this. Despite it being a pretty new building they cannot get the temperature adjusted worth a d*mn. If you walk around my office, you will have 5-6 different temperature zones ranging from 'Need fingerless wool hobo gloves to prevent frostbite chill' to 'Hope your cube mates bathe/apply deodorant heat'

[Tris Prior]

I recently accepted a position at a company where I enjoy working.  The stuff I do is interesting, I'm constantly learning new things, I work with smart and energetic people.  That's all awesome . . . but I'm still saving to FIRE.

It's purely about freedom.  I want to be able to read a blog post about bike touring, stay up all night planning some routes, and then go on a multi-week adventure.  I want to take a look at the crappy rusted shed in the corner of my yard, make up some plans, and then start building a new one the next day.  I want to be able to sleep in, catch up on my reading, and write music in relaxation in between these busy periods.  If I'm full of energy at two in the morning I want to go out for a five km run without worrying about when I've got to wake up.  This will make me happier and (I'm pretty sure) healthier/more productive in the long run.

Yes, this! I do actually like my job and my boss and my team. But, like.... I would really enjoy driving down to the other end of my state to watch the eclipse in a week. Can't. Someone else already claimed that as a vacation day. End of story; can't do it. And I turn down a LOT of fun things, or leave things early, because I know I won't be able to function at work the next day. Or I'll turn down weekend plans because I need to batch cook for the week so food's ready when I come home from

For me it is the miasma of corporate politics.  Having reorgs every year, year after year, followed by being in the wrong group (random luck I ended up in a group that constantly gets reshuffled and frequently ended up on dead-end projects)... it gets taxing eventually.  You wonder what the purpose of the work is.  It sucks all of the passion out of you.  But meanwhile you have to put on the fake smile and be a good worker bee day in and day out.

Yeah, my current company does a lot of this too. Pointless reorgs that don't really improve anything. Also, the random layoffs that don't appear to be based on performance at all. So you're just this sitting duck and someone else is in control of your income, regardless of how much of a rockstar you are at your job.

[Duchess of Stratosphear]

I have a horrible space to work in that others have to walk through to get to their space even though I am supposed to be having confidential meetings with clients. Management seems uninterested in getting me a better space. It also gives me zero privacy (sometimes you just want to eat lunch at your desk in peace) and is very distracting for when I'm working on anything that requires concentration. It's very depressing to feel that you are so little valued that they will just give you the shittiest space they have where you can't even really do your job. If this were better, and if my schedule were more flexible, I think the last ten years or so that I have to work would be bearable. As it is, I just dread coming to work everyday.

[Zaga]

The A/C blows right into my cube, it's the worst spot in the building I swear.  I wear fingerless mittens daily and have a space heater that I often also have on.

Repetitive motion injuries, in my case tendinitis in almost every tendon in both arms.

[catccc]

Having to go in to work so much, and trying to schedule my vacations around cyclical work (corporate accounting).  I don't mind my work, company, coworkers.  I like it.  I just wish I could do it when and where I pleased.  I actually do have some flexibility and telecommute a little, but more often than not I'm supposed to be at work during semi-regular hours.

[GuitarStv]

The A/C blows right into my cube, it's the worst spot in the building I swear.  I wear fingerless mittens daily and have a space heater that I often also have on.

Repetitive motion injuries, in my case tendinitis in almost every tendon in both arms.

In cases like this I will first complain with facilities.  Then if nothing is done within a week to fix the problem I'll block off the vent with cardboard and tuck tape (It pays to get into work before most other people).

[BFGirl]

Not being able to choose how I spend my waking hours. I'd probably still want to do some work if I were FIREd, but I'd like to decide when I do it, and where I do it.

This.

[tyler2016]

Full time work sucks up so much time that I feel like I am constantly behind on everything in my real life. It is always something. I never feel like I have enough time for my family, home maintenance, errands, etc. Anytime I am sitting around reading or something than I feel like I am getting behind on something or neglecting somebody. I don't think I will be bored when FIRE'd.

[avocado lime]

Full time work sucks up so much time that I feel like I am constantly behind on everything in my real life. It is always something. I never feel like I have enough time for my family, home maintenance, errands, etc. Anytime I am sitting around reading or something than I feel like I am getting behind on something or neglecting somebody. I don't think I will be bored when FIRE'd.

Yes! I feel like I'm not even living "my real life"! I literally plan who I'm hanging out with and who I need to call to catch up with a week or two ahead and I'm behind on close friends I should've called weeks ago! I have trello boards full of what my real life will be like when I have the time.

[marielle]

Full time work sucks up so much time that I feel like I am constantly behind on everything in my real life. It is always something. I never feel like I have enough time for my family, home maintenance, errands, etc. Anytime I am sitting around reading or something than I feel like I am getting behind on something or neglecting somebody. I don't think I will be bored when FIRE'd.

And anytime you have to devote a decent amount of your weekend to something important, such as a car repair, you feel like you didn't even get a weekend. That's the worst feeling.