Oprah: Young People Shouldn't Expect Work-Life Balance

[gagzus 23,127]

Honestly I think America’s attitude towards work is absolutely insane. If you told anyone here that you work more than 40 hours MAX (and even then sometimes people are like what!?) they’d think you were insane. 
 

I recently watched Sex & The City again from the beginning and when Miranda said she had to reduce her hours down to 70 hours at her law firm a week bc she needed to be with her kid and they acted like she was awful for that… actual insanity. 

[niccolo 57]

At least fake empathy and say that this truth sucks and is harmful and destructive to mental well-being. 

[Junko Enoshima 4,580]

Shut the f uck UP.

[27monster27 15,859]

Yes, you do have to work for a living. We all know that. The problem is that the US billionaire oligarchy is making it so working class people have to suffer under a "balance" that favors the work side waaaaaay more than the life side. Like @PartySick said, the fact that there are people in there 30s who are still struggling (this is "supposed" to be the "you have it figured out" time) speaks volumes about how expecting a good work life balance is not possible, unless you're rich.

Honestly, with so much said about her, I think the reason why Oprah had so much reception (and still does) is because she knows how to do PR very well. She knew how to portray herself as down to earth, and as a funnier/memey person to be more likeable.

[Wolf Boy 3,582]

I can understand what she means, but it’s also a very old skool mentality. Work life balance should be a given from everyone from day 1. 

[Economy 52,853]

I dont think this is an awful thing to say. This seems more like advice on individual levels than a commentary on whether it should be this way or not

 

Theres a difference between thinking something should be a certain way vs acknowleging how the system works.

 

I happen to be a big believer that we need work life balance and that were unnecessairily worked to death but i still would not give advice to someone trying to make in life to get picky with schedules, life balance etc because the ideal world vs reality are two seperate things and insisting on it may just end up holding you back tbh

 

And if thats the context shes saying it in, I get what shes saying. It just sounds worse coming out of a billionaires mouth because of what people associate it with

Edited Tuesday at 01:48 AM by Economy
Typo

[Knife 7,079]

Oprah: "There are still generations of young people, older people, who were born and bred with notions of a work-life balance, and they just have to die."

 

[Mirrion Rizzons 12,684]

2 hours ago, gagzus said:

Honestly I think America’s attitude towards work is absolutely insane. If you told anyone here that you work more than 40 hours MAX (and even then sometimes people are like what!?) they’d think you were insane. 
 

I recently watched Sex & The City again from the beginning and when Miranda said she had to reduce her hours down to 70 hours at her law firm a week bc she needed to be with her kid and they acted like she was awful for that… actual insanity. 

the fact that americans get like 14 days PTO a year is insane

[bxr 2,165]

[JoeCool 1,007]

2 hours ago, Economy said:

I dont think this is an awful thing to say. This seems more like advice on individual levels than a commentary on whether it should be this way or not

 

Theres a difference between thinking something should be a certain way vs acknowleging how the system works.

 

I happen to be a big believer that we need work life balance and that were unnecessairily worked to death but i still would not give them advice to someone trying to make it to get picky with schedules, life balance etc because the ideal world vs reality are two seperate things and insisting on it may just end up holding you back tbh

 

And its thats the context shes saying it in, I get what shes saying. It just sounds worse coming out of a billionaires mouth because of what people associate it with

Yeah people around her age had that mentality toward work: my parents and my present boss now.  I will hear a story every now and then how when my boss started her career she would drive 1.5 each way and one time through 2 feet of snow.  

 

I do respect that but part of me thinks working is such bull shat as well.

 

You're correct about the optics of it all: She's a billionaire and well probably too a good amount of decent starting jobs now have been eaten by A.I. 

[PartySick 172,537]

1 hour ago, Mirrion Rizzons said:

the fact that americans get like 14 days PTO a year is insane

I didn't even get sick time at my last job. I just missed work and didn't get paid lmao. 

Americans seriously need to wisen up and CEOs need to realize the whole "vote for politicians who'll implement changes" thing is a courtesy the working class affords them. Back in the day they used to just drag their bosses out into the street and beat them to death if they were mistreated.

I mean sh*t, people are already lighting warehouses on fire  

[PartySick 172,537]

2 minutes ago, JoeCool said:

Yeah people around her age had that mentality toward work: my parents and my present boss now.  I will hear a story every now and then how when my boss started her career she would drive 1.5 each way and one time through 2 feet of snow.  

 

I do respect that but part of me thinks working is such bull shat as well.

 

You're correct about the optics of it all: She's a billionaire and well probably too a good amount of decent starting jobs now have been eaten by A.I. 

Ew, one of my old bosses was like this. She had an hour long commute both ways each day and worked a 9 hour shift 5 or 6 days a week. 

You sleep for 8 hours, 9 hours are spent working, 2 hours are spent traveling, say an hour is spent getting ready in the morning, that leaves you with a WHOPPING 4 non-consecutive hours of "free time" in your day.

How tf can anybody think that's acceptable? She was in her 60s too but always gave me sh*t 'cause I prioritized my time off and personal responsibilities over a stupid retail job.

[Madame Goo Goo 4,132]

I sort of agree. Not that I think it should be this way, but that Oprah is correct that if you want a successful career you do need to focus more on work than your personal life at that age. So it is good advice. But unfortunate that it works this way.

[LGAte 810]

9 hours ago, amourssauvages said:

stupid rich people who needs the poor to stay miserable and shut up opinion

Oprah Winfrey is not a stupid rich person. 
 

She literally spent her entire early years in poverty and survived systemic racism and sexual violence. 
 

she ain’t perfect but we’ve got to pick our battles. I don’t think she meant “never take a break”. 
 

I think she is calling out a very real problem right now which is where unmotivated people are using the greater problems in capitalism as a means to excuse themselves from putting in any serious type of work. And I think she knows how hard she had to work and it probably is disheartening to her. 
 

This idea recently that you should not work hard is not leftist. It is corporate. They want people to be lazy so they have an excuse to replace you with a bot they don’t have to pay. 
 

Real leftism is being able to work at a reasonable pace that contributes to a community which 99% of you don’t actually want to do. You want the safety of performative slactivism on the internet while you sit in your safe little middle corporate democrat echo chambers and let republicans completely destroy the environment all so you can pretend you care. 
 

Hard work needs to come back. It just needs to be for the People and a better great purpose, not for billionaires and corporate interest. 
 

there is nothing wrong with understanding when you are beginning in life that you should expect some adversity to get to where you want to be. No one owes you ****. You deserve rights, access to healthcare and food and shelter, freedom, and handouts here and there to help you get there. But alot of you want most of the work done for you. Like….you seriously don’t want to go through any sort of hardship at all and that’s just not how you get somewhere. Expecting it to be some nice path all the time is just as crazy as billionaires expecting to exploit you.
 

which actually justifies billionaires. It doesn’t fight them. 
 

oops.

[steven 6,538]

I understand where she's coming from, but this is a very delusional and out of touch thing to say, regarding of today's work reality and the instability of the economy.