Wednesday February 15, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Do you live to work or work to live?

Poll Nov. 01, 2009 - 02:06PM JST ( 31 )

Order by Time Order by Popularity

31 Comments

0

DenDonNov. 01, 2009 - 05:22PM JST

that's an easy one
0

smartacusNov. 01, 2009 - 05:49PM JST

I'd like to work to live, but unfortunately, with a reduced salary and longer working hours this year, I am being forced to live to work.
0

Mark_McCrackenNov. 01, 2009 - 07:44PM JST

I don't do work I don't enjoy, so I suppose I live to work.
0

ShiyournNov. 01, 2009 - 08:53PM JST

Anybody who works to live is in the wrong job.
0

thehedonistNov. 01, 2009 - 09:05PM JST

Neither. I live.
0

BrainiacNov. 01, 2009 - 09:08PM JST

Most of the foreign execs I know in Tokyo seem to live to work. They stay at their offices until 8 or 9 p.m. and claim they are too busy to go home earlier. In fact, I know very few people - Japanese or foreign - who leave their office at 5 or 6 and actually go home to spend time with their family on a weeknight.
0

BholderNov. 01, 2009 - 09:09PM JST

First of all: what is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. The second kind is capable of indefinite extension: there are not only those who give orders, but those who give advice as to what orders should be given.

Bertrand Russell

In praise of idleness

(1932)
0

BholderNov. 01, 2009 - 09:11PM JST

Let us take an illustration. Suppose that, at a given moment, a certain number of people are engaged in the manufacture of pins. They make as many pins as the world needs, working (say) eight hours a day. Someone makes an invention by which the same number of men can make twice as many pins as before. But the world does not need twice as many pins: pins are already so cheap that hardly any more will be bought at a lower price. In a sensible world, everybody concerned in the manufacture of pins would take to working four hours instead of eight, and everything else would go on as before. But in the actual world this would be thought demoralizing. The men still work eight hours, there are too many pins, some employers go bankrupt, and half the men previously concerned in making pins are thrown out of work. There is, in the end, just as much leisure as on the other plan, but half the men are totally idle while half are still overworked. In this way, it is insured that the unavoidable leisure shall cause misery all round instead of being a universal source of happiness. Can anything more insane be imagined?

Bertrand Russell

In praise of idleness

(1932)
0

HephatsheputNov. 01, 2009 - 09:11PM JST

Where's the "neither" option?

I live to trust fund.
0

donkusaiNov. 01, 2009 - 09:14PM JST

I used to live to work, but now I work to live (or is it the other way around?)
0

SargeNov. 01, 2009 - 09:23PM JST

Neither. If you love your work, it's not work.

"I used to live to work, but now I work to live"

Does that have anything to do with the high cost of your private health care?
0

nandakandamandaNov. 01, 2009 - 09:42PM JST

To work is to pray (My family motto).

I work because I have to provide an income for the family. I know it's wrong and I am an unfortunate idiot. It would be great if I had a job so absorbing that the money coming in was just an added bonus.
0

anderstungtwistNov. 02, 2009 - 01:51AM JST

If I hadn't gotten married, I'd be retired and living in Chiang Mai by now.
0

ppayneNov. 02, 2009 - 02:37AM JST

I run my own business (J-List), and get a lot of joy out of seeing it do well. Hence, I live to work. I work my butt off but I love it. Was doing customer emails til 1 am again...
0

Triple888Nov. 02, 2009 - 04:14AM JST

I'm still young, of course I live to work to explore the meaning of life. But I know when I get older I will work to live.
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kumasan1969Nov. 02, 2009 - 07:28AM JST

I work to live my life fully, to provide food/shelter/entertainment to my family. In addition to that, to do my part to help this society/country to keep strong and healthy.

... and yes I am fortunate and I enjoy my work.
0

noboritoNov. 02, 2009 - 11:48AM JST

the majority of people here work 12 hour days 6 days a week. and would answer this question like this? dream on people. Japan is made up of people who would not know what to do with themselves if they weren't at work or school.
0

AltriaNov. 02, 2009 - 11:53AM JST

Next question: Are you hard at work, or hardly working?
0

BholderNov. 02, 2009 - 12:50PM JST

or are you working hardly or hardly working (at all)?
0

USNinJapan2Nov. 02, 2009 - 04:54PM JST

And what about house-wives and house-husbands? How should they answer?
0

dr_jonesNov. 02, 2009 - 07:23PM JST

I value time higher than money because ultimately time is something you never can get back. It trickles down second by second and your amount of time becomes less and less. Money helps life but if you have no time left besides work, you have no life!
0

gogogoNov. 02, 2009 - 07:23PM JST

Neither, I live how I want to live...
0

dolphingirlNov. 02, 2009 - 07:31PM JST

Right now I'm not working, just living! But I've always had work that I enjoyed and if I didn't like a job, I soon quit. Life is too short to spend time doing something you don't like to do!!
0

CosNov. 02, 2009 - 10:31PM JST

I work as a hobby. I sleep to live, otherwise I'd never close the eyes. I live to have fun and eat.
0

flammenwerferNov. 03, 2009 - 03:50PM JST

if I were an F1 driver, porn star, astronaut, extreme skier I would live to work...but alas those jobs are beyond my reach so I join the majority who work to live.
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sirgambleNov. 04, 2009 - 09:29AM JST

I work so that I can have fun on the weekends ;)

Doesn't mean I don't enjoy work... but... my weekends + family are more important than work.
0

BrainiacNov. 05, 2009 - 09:51AM JST

Dear, oh, dear. I'm one of the 16% who live to work. What am I doing wrong? I must have a word to my boss to let me go home earlier and pay me more.
0

rajakumarNov. 06, 2009 - 06:13PM JST

Next question to this question.

What do you consider work,in the future will be,in relation to your field of work.
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humblesamuraiNov. 07, 2009 - 02:02AM JST

Do you live to eat? or eat to live? do yo work to live? or live to work? were you born to live? or live because were born?