What Americans Consider Hard Work?
Posted by DowJonesJr12@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 93 comments
I’m a writer and product designer based in Northern Europe. I consider myself hardworking, and in many freelance projects, clients from North America are often surprised by the speed and quality of my work. When I’m on, I’m fully on, and I try to deliver value beyond what’s required.
I listen to many business podcasts and feel quite immersed in American culture and commentary. I follow voices like Chamath Palihapitiya, My First Million, Joe Rogan, and others who emphasize extreme hard work. Realistically, my maximum deep work (creative thinking, problem-solving, producing) is about 6H a day, with the rest being administrative or lighter tasks. I’m curious what the American definition of “hard work” is?
cookoutenthusiast@reddit
Many blue collar workers in the US wake up at 5 in the morning and work until 5pm, if not later. Does that answer your question?
Fappy_as_a_Clam@reddit
And many how much, much more than that.
Overtime pay can be a game changer for a lot of people.
unknowingbiped@reddit
I got to work at 3:19 am yesterday to make some overtime and there were people already working my machines. Thee audacity of third shift to also work overtime. Anyway I went home and played battlefield.
To OP. When I bought my house (loan) I worked 10 or 12 hour days and then went home and remodeled my house for maybe 4 hours before I basically blacked out.
As a actual laborer, my longest day including driving was 8 to 8pm doing masonry then we went to the hotel packed our stuff and drove home in a blizzard and walked in the door at 1:59am. Working a hard day to me means walking in the door and blacking out on the couch with your boots on for a few hours and waking up to make dinner and go to bed.
Roboticpoultry@reddit
True in my case. I was up at 5:15, out the door at 6 and won’t be home until 5:30-6 tonight
TwinkieDad@reddit
In my US office of a European company we are typically twice as productive as our European headquarters employees.
RageOfDurga@reddit
This is my experience as well. I work for a German company and it’s mostly a difference in attitude rather than quality of work.
Although my German colleagues have many wonderful traits, poor communication is a common theme. They make massive changes to a process, don’t tell essential workers, then act shocked that we aren’t mind readers or psychic.
Another issue is our European colleagues repeatedly take extended time off (which is fine) but rarely use out-of-office replies, or the replies mention an interim colleague who is also out-of-office for the next 3 weeks. There’s no communication amongst themselves to ensure proper coverage in their absence. They leave topics or entire projects to just hang in the balance or become severely delayed until they return. It’s as if when they are on holiday, everyone is on holiday. But business doesn’t just stop in the U.S. and Asia because Germany shuts down for days or weeks at a time.
In Germany, an acceptable lead-time for an essential spare part is 4-6 weeks. In the USA, customers want us to place parts in a time machine and deliver them yesterday. A month is an eternity! Lol 🤦♀️
Honestly, I loved my time in Bavaria though. Great place and great people overall.
CameraVarious5365@reddit
To the spare parts comment, I’m aware of a US company that has contracted with private pilots more than once to fly critical parts in for large machinery that is down. If a critical part breaks, they’ll move heaven and earth to get it from anywhere they can. Failure to do so isn’t even discussed.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
Interesting. Could you give an example or a case study. Like what would a typical US employee achieve in a day, compared to their EU counterpart?
TwinkieDad@reddit
I say that because they need two to three times as many people to get the same scope of projects done. It’s engineering, so we’re talking about drawings, analysis, lines of code, tests, etc.
Normal_Occasion_8280@reddit
I hung drywall for eight years before going back to school.
Traditional-Ad-8737@reddit
… just finished my 7 pm to 9am shift, ER veterinarian. I do 3 in a row per week.
np99sky@reddit
Blue collar work is hard. If you're an investment banker or corporate lawyer in the US, 80-100+ hours a week is expected every week since you're on call all the time. If you're an engineer at an early stage startup, you could be expected to stay in the office (or sleep there) often. It's usually role-specific, but Americans do work longer hours than Europe on the whole. This is wildly subjective.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
Yes, I was thinking about those Wall St jobs, and silicon valley jobs (Chamath) and I'm just thinking how can a person realistically put in 100+ productive hours a week. Or is it more like 60 hours of productivity and another 40 hours of just being there (optics). I'm trying to wrap my heard around this part of the hustle culture.
ruggerbear@reddit
At the startups I worked at (not Silicon Valley though), of the average 100 hour weeks, 90-95 was heads down productive work. 5-10 hours was administrative. Burnout is real and, in many cases, is factored in. The sales pitch was to get paid five years worth of salary in four years, then quit. Take about 6 weeks to recoup/heal, then spend 9-10 months upskilling to the latest cutting edge tech and start the whole cycle over again.
After 3 cycles, with luck, you can land a management role and scale back to 70-80 hours a week and not have to keep upskilling, or at least not to the technical level necessary to be a developer.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
Fascinating, but in essence, that means you have no time for family or personal projects, side hustles. I not against it or for it, just asking. And then what's the benefit of doing this? Are you a millionaire after 5 years like this? (net worth)
ruggerbear@reddit
You make the time. I still played rugby for over a decade, had a wife, bought and maintained a house, etc. The benefit is rapidly increasing your base salary for your lifetime curve. Short term pain for long term gain. By the time I was 30, my salary was a full 50% higher than college friends.
Don't think you are getting the point about the 5 year cycle. At the end of 5 years, I've made roughly as much as someone else in my field at a traditional job, I just did it in 4 years. It's that 6th year where the difference start. If I have picked up the latest trending skill, my salary will jump by 20% from previous. Then another big jump at year 11. All the while, the average annual increase 5% means I accumulate more money than my peers each and every year. By the end of the 3rd cycle, I'm making close to twice as much as my peers.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
Appreciate the insight. My country is not known for this hustle startup culture so those concepts are entirely foreign to me, and overall there's simply less money in wages, capital, and investments to warrant those kind of earnings leaps. Unless we're talking about the top 5% earners of top 5% companies.
$5000 a month is a top 3% salary in most of Europe.
Also what you are implying is certainty that all those circumstances will play out the way you expect. That's not really the case in my experience.
ruggerbear@reddit
You are welcome. Your point about certainty is very valid, there is zero certainty and it is a huge gamble. Lots of things have to come together just right to make it happen. Your health has to hold out, you have to be smart enough to constantly upskill and rapidly learn new stuff, you have to pick the right new skill each cycle that will provide the higher salary, on and on.
But because it is so difficult for the stars to align, the risk can be worth the reward. Tech plays a big role because it is constantly evolving. What was cutting edge 2 years ago is common today. The scarcity of people that know and can use bleeding edge tech will always be in high demand.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
If you dont mind sharing, what is the cutting edge tech, the industry you are talking about. Are you a software dev? Do these carreer trajectories and leaps apply outside tech/finance as well?
ruggerbear@reddit
Started off as as analyst, worked into SQL development, then data warehouse development using HDFS, then data science, now AI/ML.
TheOfficialKramer@reddit
Wait, you guys are cool with only making $5K a month? My mortgage and bills are $4K/month, factory in gas and groceries and I'd be broke. Is it because you only work part time or is that the norm?
np99sky@reddit
No. It is just expected, that is your life. You pay your dues then you move up or move out. You also need it to pay off student loans. That's why they get the initial salaries they do.
sterlinghday@reddit
There really isn't a good definition for this because hard work is personal. However it's general just working enough to earn enough money to live comfortably.
HandyLighter@reddit
You lost me at Joe Rogan, but for many Americans 6 hours a day would be easy. We often work 8+ hours with no healthcare or vacation included. Unless you have a cushy office/tech job most of us are busting our ass in retail, food service, or trade work.
CarloSpicyWeinerr@reddit
you lost me at “you lost me at Joe Rogan”
you hate JRE because you are told to.
Fappy_as_a_Clam@reddit
Me too.
I hear people say this and roll my eyes lol
Joe Rogan has the most popular podcast in the world, and often has the best guests. Am I supposed to believe these people wouldnt listen to a 3 hour conversation with an artist or personality that they love, simply because they are on Joe Rogan? That would be dumb.
GreenBeanTM@reddit
You better believe I wouldn’t
But also, anyone I like would never agree to a JR podcast so I don’t have to worry about that.
HandyLighter@reddit
No, I actually used to like him, but he’s not the same Joe Rogan as when he started and to say otherwise is to be disingenuous.
CarloSpicyWeinerr@reddit
just say that hes a sell out then.
HandyLighter@reddit
Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts (Less than Jake)
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
Don't read into it too much. It's entertainment and funny jokes for me, I don't care about politics any capacity whatsoever.
HandyLighter@reddit
Well it’s time to start caring bc the top earners are trying to destroy the fabric of society.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
I would if I could make any difference. I'd rather focus on building a strong, capable and happy family. That's what I can do.
Cheap_Coffee@reddit
That's a good response until the masked agents come for you. And then it's too late.
Google Martin Niemoller 's poem
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
It's a great one. But again, those things are largely beyond my understanding, or my competence. I can only do what I can do for me and my family.
Cheap_Coffee@reddit
And, of course, you're not personally endangered by it. I understand.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
What am I to do? I am not the protestor type, it's a waste of time and totally unproductive in my personal opinion.
The endgame, is jail or death. Smart people leave where the grass is greener, and if that's not an option, you fortify yourself so that it is.
What exactly are we discussing here? Politics? AI? Dictators? Am now exactly sure who the masked agents are and what exactly are you saying
Cheap_Coffee@reddit
I was just reflecting on your cavalier "it doesn't affect me" attitude. It's pretty common in the States, too. I'm just bemused by how history repeats itself.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
I've read history plenty. You know who wasn't raped, pillaged, destroyed, and genocided? People who got lucky, or people who got out of that place before the atrocities started. That's the options unfortunately.
Cheap_Coffee@reddit
I forgive you.
itsjustmo_@reddit
Joe Rogan will not give you the kind of advice necessary to achieve those goals. Pod casters of his ilk pretty much guarantee their followers will be weak, confused and incapable, and divorced from the families they were making miserable.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
As I said, I only listen for interesting guests or funny comedians, as a past time background banter. For instance, the recent CIA guy John Kiri...something, was a fantastic podcast, and very insightful on a lot of topics.
HandyLighter@reddit
I’ve thought the same as you but silence is worse. Would you rather go down fighting or just live and endure shit!?
MechanicalGodzilla@reddit
The heck are you talking about?
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
I am not enduring shit, because I am in a position where my wellbeing is largely in my control and based on what I do. I still have plenty of work I can do, before I feel like pointing fingers at the top. I'm ok with that.
HandyLighter@reddit
You are ok for now. Do you have kids? Do you worry about them? Do you think they will have affordable housing?
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
I do, and I do worry. However, I believe it is my duty to set them up so they don't need to fall back on affordable housing. That's what motivates me. Also remember I am not American and we don't share the same issues and societal problems.
coldlightofday@reddit
The average hours Americans work is 8 hours a day, even accounting for multiple jobs. https://www.bls.gov/charts/american-time-use/emp-by-ftpt-job-edu-h.htm
“the average working week for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls in the United States was at 34.2 hours.” https://www.statista.com/statistics/215643/average-weekly-working-hours-of-all-employees-in-the-us-by-month/
However, over the span of a year “U.S. workers typically put in 400 more hours on the job every year compared to our counterparts in Germany”. The lesson here being that Germans get more leave and holidays. However, Americans along with Europeans still work less hours than most of the rest of the world. https://money.com/americans-work-hours-vs-europe-china/
kinnikinnick321@reddit
one could have a cushy job in any of those sectors as well.
HandyLighter@reddit
One could, but hundreds could not.
TheOfficialKramer@reddit
Wait, you work part time and consider yourself a hard worker? You may work hard and efficient, but you're definitely not overworked. You could legit get another job and make it a full day.
PaperintheBoxChamp@reddit
I mean I wake up at 5 am, show up at my station at 7 (I’m a postal worker) and more often than not I’m working 11 to 13 hour days. My job is easy in a sense, but long hours and never getting my days off outside Sunday can drag a burden on you to be worn out. But I still show up, do it as efficiently as I can, do my route, carry 2 on another then go help someone out as needed even if I’m tired of it because I choose to be on the overtime list
twelveangryken@reddit
Any American inclined to loudly advocate for hard work A) thinks their job is harder than yours and you aren't doing enough, or B) thinks you aren't doing enough to prop them up. It's a pathology that allows ditch diggers to look down on CEOs, and CEOs to look down on ditch diggers.
In a nutshell, it's performative noise best ignored.
Cinisajoy2@reddit
Sounds like the lady that looked down on me because my dad did air conditioning. Even as a kid I had to secretly giggle because hey lady if my dad hadn't fixed your AC, you would be hot and sweaty.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
I think luck(circumstances) and leverage play a huge factor. Survivorship bias makes one think that hard work got them there, which of course is partly true, but other factors mattered as well.
twelveangryken@reddit
I'm going to take you at face value and accept that you live in Northern Europe. I'm fairly old (chronologically) and lived for a while in the Netherlands, but was born here in the US and have spent 50 years or so living in the Northeastern part of it, which was Patient Zero in the American Work Ethic epidemic.
The problem with this hard work mantra in my estimation is that 33% of the people spewing it have absolutely nothing and never will; another third were born with nearly everything,. The rest are projecting an image of confidence and success in the face of uncertainty - the "fake it 'til you make it" approach. It's like a religion here, with the same kinds of people subscribing to it who embrace actual religion - and for all the same various reasons: seeking control, ritual, conformity, acceptance, hope, meaning, and purpose.
Still, we all meet the same end. Success for me is doing what you love, doing it well, and only for as long as you feel like doing it. You can always make more money, but you can never make more time.
Cinisajoy2@reddit
In one particular field up between 4am and 5am. Quick breakfast, then a 2 hour or so drive/ride to work with 3 or 4 other people. Work 8 to 12 hours in a very physically demanding job, then go back to wherever you are staying. Quick dinner, then bed. Or get up at 4pm to 5pm to do the night shift.
bookshelfie@reddit
6 hour days is considered part time work. 30-35 hours it max part time work. Congrats on working part-time?
WhatABeautifulMess@reddit
Personally I wouldn’t look to podcasters to learn what hard work means.
shelwood46@reddit
Seriously, I am laughing in retired firefighter.
Rdr1051@reddit
lol Joe Rogan
Celestial3317@reddit
Burnout. If you're not exhausted and defeated every day you're apparently not working hard enough from my expierence working in America for 15 years.
Only recently I've learned about doing the bare minimum and I'm still being paid the same. So I quit my manager position and downgraded to just a front desk agent. I need to be able to say no to not burn myself out. If they don't consider the fact that I get my job done well while still setting boundaries for myself. They're not a good employer.
Danibear285@reddit
Can you not come over and get first hand experience?
Ok_Gas5386@reddit
The hardest work I’ve ever done is manhole inspections on busy roads in the winter. It’s the combo of danger, planning, communication, and physical labor.
The work I’ve enjoyed the most is easement maintenance. Walking 5 miles through chest high grass with three layers on and a logging helmet in July to protect from poison ivy, weed whacking around manholes and vents so the guy behind me driving the tractor doesn’t hit them. That doesn’t sound super pleasant but I loved it, favorite job I’ve ever had.
The work I’ve enjoyed the least is being a construction site inspector. Boring as hell, you feel like a nag, the guys all hate you, and the foreman is constantly trying to gaslight you into not doing your job.
Office work is just meh. Having had some experience of what blue collar and healthcare work can be like, it’s difficult to see how sitting in a chair clicking on a keyboard can be considered hard.
cbrooks97@reddit
6 hours? A standard white-collar work day here is 8-9 hours. Blue collar can easily be twelve. But Rogan and company are probably going beyond that -- they are probably talking about side hustles on top of that, so you may have someone working 60-70 hours a week.
All that said, "hard" is a relative term, even here. I absolutely have days when I have to work "hard", but it's more mentally and emotionally taxing than physical. I'm still exhausted at the end of the day. But my sister works on her feet for 12 hours a day. But at least she works in air conditioning -- some people are out doing construction or working on roads in the heat or cold.
Mostly, I think the "hard work" crowd is talking about giving it your all and not just coasting through life, doing whatever you can, whatever it takes to make as much as you can while you've got the chance to make it.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
I do work 12 hour days too, pretty often, but 6 hours of those is producing something new or solving complex problems, that's the limit. I am not talking about binary work, nailing planks, pouring concrete and whatnot. Not that they're worse. I've done my fair share of construction and farming, and I find physical labor much less hard (psychologically) than complex creative work.
amcjkelly@reddit
My dad was WWII generation. Worked 2 jobs till he was 8 because he wanted to. Worked on the house when he wasn't work working.
17144058@reddit
My dad did road construction for 20+ years and would often do 14 hours days but probably somewhere between 10-12 average. I find that most blue collar jobs would be extreme hard work. I myself work white collar shift work with shifts that are 11 or 13 hours. I’d consider that stressful work but not really “hard” work
Bluemonogi@reddit
It is pretty subjective. For me I guess I would consider that someone had worked hard if they were putting in a lot of effort.
I don’t think number of hours worked necessarily means you are hard working. You might be at work but still doing the minimum required of you. Hard working also does not necessarily mean you are a high achiever as amount of effort is not the same thing as quality of work.
coldlightofday@reddit
I posted some stats in this thread. “Hard work” is subjective. How do you define hard work? If it’s by the number of hours worked, then yes, Americans work more hours/days than you do. However, people in poorer countries work even more hours and days than Americans. GDP per capita is another way to look at it but that will only give you an idea of which countries might have the most effective use of their resources, including the labor pool. Physical work might be a way to define “hard work”
Americans work more hours than you do, particularly with your time off and holidays that are generous by comparison. Here is an interesting paper: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/alesina/files/work_and_leisure_in_the_u.s._and_europe.pdf
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
Youre making assumptions about my critical thinking? I was pretty clear in the post that I'm simply looking for an American perspective, not peer reviewed, WEF data. You can't quantify individual experience in numbers and stats.
coldlightofday@reddit
Reddit is going to give you a very skewed world view, just like Facebook or X would give you different views.
I’m an American who currently lives and works in Germany in an international company. People vary like they do anywhere. Some are hard workers and some are not. I wouldn’t say either works harder or less hard when working.
Europeans get substantially more leave, including holidays. There are clearer boundaries in Europe between work and non-work time. Europeans are generally not on call, nor do they take work home. That varies more with Americans, depending on the career type.
Americans tend to have a bit more of a problem solving attitude whereas I can see that sometimes Germans tend to value processes and have a hard time breaking from established process/routine to get things done. This can be good and bad. Americans can be more flexible and efficient at accomplishing end goals but Germans can be more detail oriented and catch things along the way. Both can be important and these are broad generalizations that aren’t always true at the individual level.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
That definition is what I'm trying to pinpoint in this thread.
Because hard work is easy to validate when it leads to desired outcomes, then success was attributed to working hard. But when it does not, its something that was missing. This is a tough philosophical question I think.
MechanicalGodzilla@reddit
Part of their surprise at your efficiency may stem from prior experience working with European vendors and clients, who are not known for these qualities. I have to pad weeks to most of my project schedules if I have to source something from many European nations, and if it comes on time its a mild surprise.
Current_Poster@reddit
It's funny, but I think you'd have an easier time getting people to agree on what isn't hard work than on what is.
ZaphodG@reddit
The El Salvador crew building my cobblestone driveway arrives at 7am and works until it gets dark. They work Saturdays. We had a large rainstorm this week so they worked 7am to 11am on Sunday before it started raining. They’re very skilled and their results are gorgeous.
During the rainstorm that dripped 3” / 7.5cm of rain on Monday and Tuesday, a crew showed up to install my mini split HVAC system. They’re all younger and grew up here. They’re meticulous. They’re also trained to be polite. Every one of them introduced themselves and shook my hand. They were here from 8am. On Tuesday, two of them were her until 6:30 pm to test the system.
I’m a retired career product development engineer with lots of patents. I normally worked around 50 hours per week. I tried to never work weekends so my long days were Monday through Thursday with a shorter Friday. During the normal work day, I was constantly interacting with the development team. After 5pm, I’d do my individual work that required quiet and no interruptions. I was always the top performer anywhere I worked. I received pay and stock proportional to that. I skied every winter weekend and sailed, bicycled, or hiked on summer weekends. I typically had 4 weeks of paid vacation and another 12 bank holidays. I didn’t work on powder days in the winter and never claimed them as vacation time.
When I hit age 50, I switched to a lifestyle job where I telecommuted from my vacation homes at a ski resort and on the ocean. I had a fair amount of business travel and I had projects where I was on the phone to Asia at 10pm in addition to my normal work day but it wasn’t the pace of my younger years.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
Thank you, this was a great perspective!
solidgun1@reddit
I can't say for certain, but I have been surrounded by competitive people most of my life, so it seems like things really get done to achive goals wherever I have worked. Of course I have seen slackers here and there, and those people tend to go quick.
I am an expat living in Korea and Koreans are known for their hard work ethics. But just like anywhere else, there are slackers here too. So I don't think America is any different. It is just that there appears to be more slackers there because of the larger population. I have worked in large corporations and until I graduated university, I worked in restaurants, rental car places....etc. They all had really hard working people that had further life ambitions.
Now if you mean working in terrible working conditions, then I am sure those are a little more limited as we have regulations in places that can cost employers for unsafe working conditions, but I don't think that is what you meant here.
tripledexrated@reddit
Hard work is a balance between focus/skill, labor, and time. Hard work requires all 3 of these things, but requires at least 2 of them in excess.
With what you bring to the table, you don't even have a seat at the pissing matches that go on between hard working professions.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
What do you mean by what I bring to the table?
icekraze@reddit
I don’t think I have worked a full time job that hasn’t had mandatory overtime. My average workday was 10 hours with the longest being 18 hours. During the 18 hour shift I had one pee break, a 15 minute lunch 12 hours in, and a 30 minute break 16 hours in. I worked in a lab where everything was time sensitive. My backup didn’t show and it was the weekend so I was the only person to process samples. I did end up taking a day off the next week just so I wouldn’t have a breakdown.
Also I was never one to sit around and twiddle my thumbs when working. On the rare occasion I completed all my work I would find something that needed doing. Unfortunately that usually resulted in that thing becoming my normal responsibility in addition to my other work. Since the majority of the time I didn’t have extra time it resulted in longer hours and more stress.
Textiles_on_Main_St@reddit
All work is hard. I’ve had a number of jobs. It really doesn’t matter, if you do your best.
DowJonesJr12@reddit (OP)
Agree strongly with this. Doing your absolute best by definition is taxing.
RazorRamonio@reddit
Backbreaking labor from sunup to sundown is hard work. Everything else is a cakewalk.
FeralGiraffeAttack@reddit
In my 20s I routinely worked over 60 hours a week sometimes hitting just over 90 hours in any given seven day period. It was law so I had to keep track of my time to the nearest tenth of an hour so I know those figures are accurate. I still have never had a mere 6 hour workday.
Mtrina@reddit
That's going to be wildly subjective based on where in the states you get your reply .
The_Saddest_Boner@reddit
I don’t even think it’s a matter of “where” you get your reply, but who you’re talking to. This will vary a lot just on a person-to-person basis
Mtrina@reddit
Well different areas tend to have different general consensus. Like having lived in both the north and south both have very different versions of hard work, or even politeness
Even-Fan7692@reddit
Working past their capacity till burnout with no refused for person well being in any industry.
heybud_letsparty@reddit
This is it.
The_Saddest_Boner@reddit
This is going to depend a lot on the individual person and the subjective nature of a phrase like “hard work,” but on average Americans work more days a year, and more hours per week, than Northern Europeans by a considerable margin.
The extent to which you might consider all those hours “hard work” is just going to vary a bit from one person to another. I don’t think there’s an explicit, universal definition of hard work agreed upon by everyone.
I’ve met extremely hard working people who think most other Americans are lazy and I’ve met folks who think we all work way too much.
But yeah, I’d say 40 hours of real work a week is standard here and I know many people who work 50-60. Some work even more. As long as you’re being productive in those hours you’ll be considered a fairy hard worker.
Eat--The--Rich--@reddit
The hardest working Americans are the ones that make $50k and below. Being poor is hard fucking work and it goes beyond the time you spend at your job making money for someone else.
xmodemlol@reddit
Having a boner at the office.