THE SAD TRUTH ABOUT 9AM TO 5PM JOBS

In the world we are today especially in Nigeria, there is a kind of slavery that hides behind neat shirts, corporate logos and monthly salaries. We call it the 9am to 5pm job but in reality it is a kind of modern day slavery.  A young man who leaves his house in Lagos at 5am, his shirt is ironed, his tie is tight around his neck and his stomach is empty because there is no time for breakfast. He then squeezes himself into a crowded bus, fights through traffic for two hours and finally reaches the office by 8:45 am just in time to sign the attendance register. From 9am to 5pm, he is glued to a desk, answering emails, preparing reports and attending meetings that feels like forever. His boss calls him “staff” but the bitter truth is that he is a servant because he cannot leave when he is tired, he cannot eat when he pleases even in some workplaces he cannot even visit the restroom without asking for permission. When the office clock finally strikes 5pm, he dares not stand up immediately because loyal workers are expected to stay longer. By the time he leaves, it is almost 8pm so he gets home late, too tired to talk to his children or pursue his personal dreams but unfortunately, tomorrow the cycle begins again. If that is not slavery, please tell me what else should we call it?  The difference between ancient slaves and the workers of today is the chain, for the old slave the chain was made of iron but for the modern worker the chains is made of salary. At the end of the month, an average worker receives his salary which is within the range of 30,000 to 100,000 thousand naira or maybe 150,000 thousand naira if the person is lucky. However, the money disappears within days on expenses like rent, transport, feeding and other bills, yet the worker must return again next month and the month after that. He cannot quit because he has dependents and he cannot complain because he may lose his job. So he endures, trapped by fear of hunger. The salary chain may look invisible but it holds tighter than any metal. The saddest part of this kind of slavery is not just the long hours or the low pay, it is the way it kills dreams silently. Like in my country Nigeria, we have brilliant young people with talents in music, art, fashion, writing and business but how can those dreams survive when someone spends all their waking hours inside an office?, by the time most workers get home, they are too exhausted to practice their craft or build their side hustles. Weekends are swallowed by office assignments or endless sleep and like that passion dies slowly, creativity dries up and a once vibrant soul becomes a dull machine, programmed only to work and collect salary. This is how modern slavery robs people of their destiny. However, our society also fuels the problem. We are trained to admire suits, briefcases and office chairs. A man working in a bank with 60,000 thousand naira as salary is respected more than a woman frying puff puff and making 100,000 thousand naira profit monthly. This obsession with white collar jobs makes people willingly submit themselves to modern slavery just to look respectable. What people in our society do not know is that true freedom is not about wearing fine clothes and sitting in an air conditional office, it is about having control over your time, your talent and your life, it is about waking up excited to do what you love not dragging yourself through traffic to build another man empire. Modern slavery may not have whips or chains but it is just as deadly, it steals years silently. Some people will just wake up one day in their fifties realizing they gave the best part of their lives to a company that replaced them with someone younger and cheaper. Now I'm not saying 9am to 5pm jobs are very bad but people have to wise up, it should be a means to an end not a end in itself. You can do a 9-5 job just to gather resources and experience to start your own dream, don't wait for your old age before you wake up, wake up now, strategize well and break free from this slavery before it breaks you and your generation. Thank you so much for staying this far, hope you had a good read with me, see you again next time 🤗