I have had numerous experience in working in all kind of places either private or public sector, multiple jobs at times, that is where I got the nickname jobber from. Every employee have a desire which depends on the person or the job, there are some jobs that are honourable and desirable to some people that they wouldn't mind working for free but then there are others who are more concerned about making an honest living on this chaotic earth. This factor dictates which one will be more preferable to an employee either longer working hours or shorter working days.
From my own standing point either of it doesn't really matter, not that I don't find some jobs desirable. For example, occasionally I do some charitable job but then if I'm being realistic I would not say I'm not concerned about making a reasonable income to sustain myself and family. For few months now I have been working in a school in a remote village in Oyo state, well it is not by choice but by design. I was posted here as part of the requirements necessary of fulfilling my NYSC service.
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Settling down here was tough, I mean I have always craved village life but then where I found myself is beyond my expectations. I have never liked being a teacher, I consider it to be the most underpaid and underrated job in my country. Thankfully I was posted in a public school which kind of reduces the work load a lot compared to my colleagues that were posted in private schools, well that is a story for another day.
Working schedule here is a lot different to what I'm used to in the city, we work Monday to Friday but the working hours here are a lot shorter. We close from work by 1:30 on Monday to Thursday, while on Fridays we close by 12 noon. Which is fine by me because I know what time schools closes in the city. As amazing as it might sound, if I'm offered to work longer hours and increase in pay would I say No? I don't think I would because after we close from work, we all head home and do nothing.
For most corpers there is nothing else for them to do, either roam about, watch movies e.t.c You might be wondering, why can't we find something more productive to do, we could but In a village like this there are limited opportunities, what made it worse us lack of electricity, what about network issues? Let me not even get started on that, an impediment that has affected my hive activities significantly for the past few months. One of the only available option here is farming, a right only reserved for the indigenes because they have lands and they are very sceptical about giving their lands to outsiders. It caught be by surprise that such deranged perspective about ownership of land is still existing in this modern era, the concept of civilisation is indeed ironical.
Lucky for me I have hive blog to occasionally cover some financial needs but this is not a luxury enjoyed by all. At the long run most corpers end up lamenting about our financial troubles due to the salary we are being paid, it used to be of high value but as prices of goods and services increases, the salary became ridiculously low. I mean we are even lucky to serve in Oyo state that pays corp members an estimated amount of $30 per month. This wouldn't have been the case if Oyo State government didn't chose to add extra $10 to the $20 being paid by federal government.
To workers in my category, it wouldn't matter if working hours are longer while the numbers of working days are shorter. As long as the pay remains the same, it is just same old story, same old trick. But if the case was different in terms of pay, in a case whereby we have shorter working days and longer working hours with increased salary, then it might be worth considering. They say time is money but it is only applicable to some circumstances and location, most people are just trying to survive nothing more.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Four day work week" in hive learners community.
Cover image - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺
All pictures are mine or else stated otherwise