Unsustainable Life of a Developer

We the developers are living unsustainable lives...

Our job doesn't start in the morning. Not in Pakistan. It starts at 10 sometimes 11 am. Which is half morning half afternoon. Then it goes through 7 pm. Congratulations, another day has gone and you did nothing.

I'm not saying that we were not productive. But when you leave home at 10 and come back at 7, there's no time left to socialize.

I hardly talked to my neighbor in the last 5 years. So, a few days ago, a person came in my neighborhood, and he said, I live here in the nearest street, and I haven't seen you. Why is that?

I said that I go out in the morning and come late in the evening like 7 pm (lied), So perhaps that's why!

He told me that his life is almost the same, we go to work in the morning, come back in the evening (almost 7 pm) but still, we meet each-other (other neighbors) but we have never seen you. Are you a software developer?

I said "yes, I'm a developer"

"Oh so that's why", developers are like that!

I don't know if I should take it as an insult. But clearly, people have a life and I don't seem to have a life like that.

If I look at my working hours, they don't start at 11 and don't end at 8. Actually my working hours start at 9:30. I start to get ready at 9:30 though I had already done that in the morning for Fajr prayers. I'll do that again. Then, I'll have to leave at 10:20 in order to be on time and reach the office at 11. Because it takes about 40 minutes for me to reach the office. Partially because it's a long journey, and partially because of those idiots that run at 40 km/h but occupy the fastest lane. (I've observed that if the roads are clear, then obeying all the speed limits, I can reach in 20 minutes!)

The day silently starts at 11 and ends at 1 pm. 1 to 2 pm is break. Which is the most useless time of the day. I can't go home, I can't take a nap, I can only take lunch and then come back at 2 pm. Besides the fact that Islam doesn't ask us to be like that. It is a sunnah to take a nap after lunch.

When I come back at 2, and because I haven't taken a nap, I'm already feeling dizzy. I doze off multiple times while thinking about a solution, and sometimes receive a bunch of insults for that too.

That dizzy feeling keeps going until 6 pm. The most productive hours are 6 to 7 pm. Then at 7 I start to feel hungry and exhausted again and that keeps going on until 8.

At 8 pm I start packing up, and at about 8:20 I'm ready to leave. So, on my way back, I have to listen to more stuff like what I have to do tomorrow. At about 8:30 when I'm psychologically and physically exhausted, I start my car and again, it's a 40 minutes of tedious driving, and those same slow idiots that occupy the fastest lane and make the driving extremely exhausting.

I reach home at about 9:30 because I drive back slowly home as I'm not in a hurry.

At 9:30, I have my dinner which can go to 10. And because of covid, you try to clean-up before doing anything else, which takes another 30 to 40 minutes. So it's 10:40 now.

Children had been waiting for me and now they're feeling extremely sleepy (because their day started at 7). So, sometimes, they have slept already, sometimes I talk to them. And if I do so, it's 12 am, and they are already late for sleep.

So, in short, I'm living an unsustainable life. I have no social life. No-one in my block knows me. I don't go for exercise, I don't sleep after lunch, and I'm living an abnormal life.

So, I need to figure out ways to sometimes, get a life. For that I sometimes work from home (which is discriminated), sometimes I sleep in the car after lunch and get back to work late (like 30 minutes late sometimes), which becomes a question-mark on my punctuality.

And because I try to bring out life from my no-life scenario, I miss the morning 1115 mark and a lot of other things. So, the company cannot trust me or entrust me with a higher level of responsibilities (promotion in-short).

So, I guess I should leave the promotions for the younger people who don't have to take care of those things. Who are not married and don't have children and don't need to have social lives and are perfect workers. I'm not a perfect worker, and probably I'll never be.

Thanks for reading...