Ashley Vaughn79 said: 08/19. Is it better to be successful professionally but have poor spinal flow, or to be less successful at work but have good spinal flow? That's the question.
I'll just make a copy from my inbox. 🙂
Our lovely moderator asked me to expand this into an intro post for the topic of the day.
To be honest, I don't really remember what I intended to say.
Maybe I wrote this quite literally.
Basically, people spend a lot of time sitting at work.
It’s well known that life energy, or "chi," flows through the spine and circulates through the body. People who sit a lot have their spines compressed for most of the day, which stifles that energy flow.
The result is that professionals with desk jobs—which is almost everyone these days—start looking worn out and aged pretty quickly, often dealing with various physical ailments and mental struggles...
But because they are so dedicated to their careers, they earn a decent amount of money.
So, the question could be framed as whether it's worth sacrificing your health for the sake of your career and reputation. Have you ever been in a situation where you were offered a chance to sell yourself out to an employer for great money, but at the cost of ruining your health? Poorer health, better pay.
Is it worth it or not?
Then again, the thing about the spine could also be a metaphor for one's integrity, self-respect, or honor.
In other words, would you bow down and humiliate yourself for good money?
That's roughly how the topic could go.
However, the moderator mentioned she might enrich the thread by sharing an uncomfortable story from her own private life. If she feels like it, she can add that story to the thread. It would make things more interesting.
If not, here are the questions:
Is it worth sacrificing your health for your job and professional reputation? Have you faced situations where you could sell yourself out to an employer for big money, but only if you ruined your health? Is it worth it?
Would you humiliate yourself for good money?
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I left the original version after all. 😁
Thanks, Tomislav B. ____________________________🙂
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The topic was pulled from 65. posts in Topic of the Day.
Let me frame it this way: you’re going to have to swallow a certain amount of nonsense at any job, which inevitably spikes your stress levels and starts taking a toll on your health. I suppose the real question is how long you can sustain that exposure.
For instance, a few years ago I worked for one of the major banks, and what I noticed is that most people working there are basically forced to sacrifice their lives. It isn't even about chasing huge salaries; it's more because they’ve gotten married, started families, or taken out those high-end mortgages, and if they leave, they might end up owing a massive difference in interest rates—money that could take a couple a whole year of working just to pay back. For anyone who hasn't worked in banking but is thinking about it, I would probably suggest avoiding it entirely due to the sheer volume of stress involved.
As for being a contract employee at a large private corporation (over 1,000 employees), it's a bit of a mixed bag. There is stress, sure, but maybe not quite as intense as the banking sector. Your nerves and your health mostly depend on how you manage your daily schedule. Some days you might find time for the gym and healthy eating, while other days, you simply won't. Your salary is largely determined by how well you handle negotiations.
Working in the private sector: my income is higher than the average American salary, but the stress seems to scale directly with my workload. Sometimes I'm working 8 hours, but other times I'll be stuck at my desk for 14+ hours straight without even a moment to breathe. When you factor in the pandemic and the lockdowns, I ended up gaining weight like a pig and completely burned out from the stress; two packs of cigarettes a day didn't even seem like enough.
So, I guess the bottom line is: you're going to have to deal with some bullshit. The real question is whether you can dose it so it remains manageable, or if you'll just burn out completely (I've been there). Money is actually the smallest factor here. And yes, sometimes swallowing a bitter pill makes sense—for example, would you sacrifice three months of your life to earn enough to pay off five years of debt and lift a massive weight off your shoulders? I personally did exactly that.
Anyone claiming they've been perfectly satisfied with their job conditions and worked strictly eight-hour days without a single hour of overtime throughout their entire career is, I suspect, lying, because such a person practically doesn't exist. I've worked for various employers across two continents and four different countries. Or am I just lying myself? 🤔 ?