[Agent Steel]

I retired almost 30 years ago at age 50. I got involved in volunteer work to help kids. It has been some of the happiest years of my life.

Right, which is what I'm saying. Without having that volunteer work you wouldn't feel very happy, would you? It's still work, you're just not getting paid for it.

Not all work makes money, and not everything that makes you money is work.

[Pants-of-dog]

It is not desirable, and I know because I've been there.

Without some form of work you will become very depressed after a couple of months. You need something to make you feel worthy, even if it's only 5-10 hours per week.

You cannot have a 0 hour work week. You would lose your mind and your sanity. It happened to me. I will never go back to that.

You did not do any house work?

Never washed a dish? Swept a floor? Scrubbed a bathroom?

Maybe the depression was tied to the unclean surroundings.

[Agent Steel]

You did not do any house work?

Never washed a dish? Swept a floor? Scrubbed a bathroom?

Maybe the depression was tied to the unclean surroundings.

At the time I wasn't doing much and my apartment was very dirty. And yes that definitely contributed to being a bad mood.

These days I clean up after myself a lot more than I used to, and it definitely helps the mood. It's just one of those good habits to get into. You always feel better about yourself when you keep things clean.

But yeah that's kind of what I'm saying here - you need to have some task to do, no matter how small, to keep you feeling sane and healthy. At the time I had a lot of trouble motivating myself to do anything at all. It was a very tough habit to break.

Jordan Peterson talks about this concept. He mentions how everyone fantasizes about the day when they will be able to retire and go on an extended vacation, and he points out that life actually sucks when this happens. For a short while it's actually great. But you cannot have an extended vacation for too long or you will start to feel like a worthless loser.

[MistyTiger2]

I need to work. I'd rather have a flexible work week. Like suppose I have 2 off days per week to use for my stuff. Like we could have more off days than the current system.

Like I have 2 weeks of vacation until I have been an employee for 5 years. Then it increases to 3 weeks. That's so small. I can't guarantee I will only need 2 weeks of vacation. I could have a lot of emergencies that year.