Interview with parasites: How people who refuse to work live. Is there life after work? Earnings, debt or creativity

Singer Ani Lorak celebrated its 35th anniversary and gave an interview to the “Trump Life” program (ICTV channel), in which she spoke about the upcoming grandiose solo concert, reassessment of values, beauty secrets, dreams and marital vows.

Ani Lorak She said that she is not at all afraid to talk about age because she does not feel it. "Me and 35 are somehow very far from each other, - admits Ani Lorak, - It happens that at concerts teenagers come on stage and say that we grew up listening to your songs. But I can’t believe it and I think that they are my peers!”

The singer willingly shares the secret of her excellent shape and youth. “I don’t have any diets, but since my school years I have followed the rule - everything that enters the body after 18:00 will definitely turn into fat. If you like to eat rolls with butter in the evening, then don’t be surprised where your sides come from! proper nutrition, it is important not to forget about sports, creams and masks. Then no one will ever give you your years.", - the artist confesses.

The star also admitted that she calls her husband nothing more than her beloved.

“We made a promise at the wedding that we would treat each other exactly as loved ones,- Ani Lorak shares, - the main thing for us is that we are loved people, and only then the statuses - husband and wife... I probably live the old fashioned way, but for me the really significant things are love, human warmth, kindness and harmony. Praise the Lord that a little bit of this feminine happiness fell to my share, which I never even dreamed of.

From the age of 13, there was only work and stage in my life. I didn’t know what it was like to go to the movies with friends, eat ice cream with a friend, or chat. And now it turns out that I can have a family! And a child! I was able to experience what all women experience. Without this energy, happiness cannot be complete."

The singer said that she tries to spend all her free time with her 2-year-old daughter Sofia, and organizes trips so as not to leave home for more than four days. The baby is growing into a smart girl and even sings songs. And to Valeria Chernenko’s question about whether the singer wanted another child, Ani Lorak replied: “Of course! Here, God willing. If I had another life, I would spend it calmly: I would have a large family, many children. I would spend every second with them - I would live their life.”

At the very end of the interview Valeria Chernenko asked Ani Lorak about how much it has changed in recent years. And did that same reassessment of values ​​occur in her by the age of 35, which psychologists talk a lot about? Ani replied that the revaluation occurred at the age of 30:

“Then I thought: am I doing everything the way I want, what am I really missing? And I realized that I need to hurry to fulfill my dreams, be happy and enjoy life! While I’m in good shape, full of strength and energy, I want to work hard ". Today I am preparing a new anniversary show with which I want to surprise Ukraine and Russia. I thought, Ani Lorak already deserves a show like Madonna and Biense. A grandiose set will be built, dozens of dancers will be involved, many concert outfits will be sewn, and unexpected duets will be prepared."

Who doesn't like to work? Nobody likes to work. At the same time, among philosophers, politicians, academics and writers, it was customary to speak about work exclusively in high, laudatory tones. Like a dead man.

You’ve heard “Work ennobles a person” a million times since childhood. Now think about it: did you really see how a kid who spent all day strumming a guitar, riding a skateboard, putting light bulbs in his mouth and helping you pick up girls in a bar, suddenly went to work at a third-class fittings factory and after that suddenly became noble? Has he got a nice suit, sexy sideburns? Has he learned to tell the difference between a 1982 Chateau Margaux and a 16 year old Lagavulin Scotch? Are there women and orders hanging on it? And all thanks to work? No, have you seen this yourself? Did you see it with your own eyes? It is as hard to believe in ennobling work as in UFOs.

No, of course you have to work, no one likes a drunkard quitter. But let's see what the smart slackers said - people who achieved something in this life without working selflessly from Monday to Friday, like a damned monkey who probably died from overwork even before work made a man out of it.

1

I love work: it captivates me completely. I can sit for hours and watch others work.

Jerome Klapka Jerome

2

Americans work if they pay well. The Russians are working. If they pay, good.

Vladimir Leonidovich Turovsky

3

There is never enough time to do the job right, but there is time to redo it.

Meskimen's Law

4

Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

Alphonse Allais

5

What a lazy person is, in essence: an ordinary person who is too lazy to even pretend to work.

Alphonse Allais

6

Work is the last refuge of those who can’t do anything else.

Oscar Wilde

7

He who knows how, does it, and he who does not know how, teaches.

Shaw George Bernard

8

They call me "the hardest working comedian." Not very impressive, huh? It's like saying, "He's the best looking guy... in the burn unit."

Jimmy Carr

9

When two people do the same thing, they are no longer the same.

Terence

10

Most people are willing to work endlessly just to avoid having to think a little.

Thomas Edison

11

It’s not so much the work itself that tires you, but the thoughts about it.

Marcus Fabius Quintilian

12

I started from scratch and through hard work reached a state of extreme poverty.

Groucho Marx

13

The world consists of slackers who want to have money without working, and idiots who are willing to work without getting rich.

Bernard Show

14

It's amazing how important your job is when you need to take time off from it, and how unimportant it is when you ask for a raise.

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Imagine a situation where literally every sneeze, lunch break and every action at work you need to coordinate through memos. In such a company, getting a vacation is like going through a serious quest. What if at the end of the day you need to create a minute-by-minute report of exactly what you did today and for how long? The picture turns out to be terrifying, but nevertheless, in many companies this is almost the case.

• Forbes calls such companies “slow” and unsuitable for career growth, so there is simply no point in remaining amid the tornado of approvals and memos - it is worth making an effort to change the situation and at least try to reduce the number of bureaucratic obstacles.

2. Delicate discussion of sensitive issues

If during a discussion of financial issues they only tell you that this is wrong, tactless and impolite, then you should be wary. And if they then try to shame you for defending your financial interests, it will be difficult to build a long-term career in this position.

• Discussing your salary with your boss and asking for an increase for objective reasons - indexation, increasing the scope of job responsibilities, etc. - is absolutely normal.

3. Pocket expenses

Market relations assume that work is where you make money, not where you spend it. If at work you constantly have to make, albeit small, expenses for the needs of the company that are not reimbursed by management, then this is bad work.

• Whether it’s the necessary stationery or printer paper, business coach and career consultant Rachel Ritlop advises not to tolerate such situations with out-of-pocket expenses for company needs and refuse such jobs.

4. Guilty without guilt

You come to work in the morning, open your mail and see an angry letter saying that on Friday it was necessary to calculate the cost, relatively speaking, of a Mars rover. But the task for the rover itself did not take place either on Friday or at all. Such situations already give reason to think about the adequacy of leadership.

• If your boss begins to blame you for not completing a task that you have not yet been assigned, or even gives you strange and incomprehensible tasks, then it’s time to have a serious conversation with management.

5. Dealing with ghosts

Ghosting is a relatively new term that is usually used to refer to a partner's silent withdrawal from a relationship. The psychological harm of this phenomenon in relationships has already been studied, but at work, a colleague or boss with similar behavior of a ghost person causes considerable damage.

• If your requests are constantly ignored, and direct questions are not answered, you should call management for a serious conversation.

6. They wait three years for the promised one.

Eternal promises “just about” to be promoted, raise salaries, improve the workplace, send you for training or any other “breakfasts”, the fulfillment of which is constantly postponed... All these promises do not create good conditions for successful work. Career coach Roy Cohen says these types of leaders never follow through on their commitments, which means you won't see the rewards you deserve.

• Additional efforts can and should be made if the boss’s promise is specific and tied to an exact date. For example, a salary increase if the plan is fulfilled by 110% or a bonus for an additional project on the 31st.

7. Not for service, but for friendship

Sometimes, under the guise of friendly relations at work, free exploitation of labor flourishes. When your boss is practically your best friend or girlfriend and just a wonderful person, it’s difficult to refuse a small request: finish a task, stay late for an hour, etc. Gradually everything becomes part of the system - and now you’re working overtime for free.

• Friendships at work are great, but if they change the way you work, you might want to consider whether they are friendships.

8. We don’t do that

Just saying this phrase makes you wary. It is rare that it is not customary to work overtime or come to work early. Usually, this formulation hides the unspoken rules of the company: do not argue with the boss, do not have your own opinion, do not take vacation or sick leave for more than a certain number of days in a row.

• If a team has a set of unspoken laws that contradict the Labor Code or common sense, then you should seriously think about whether you need such a team.

9. Emotional blackmail

Too friendly relations with a manager or colleagues can lead to the appearance of phrases like “You are leaving us”, “This is a knife in the back”, “How can you.” Such methods of emotional pressure force us to abandon our plans, goals or even principles. They appear just when you defend your opinion or decision.

• Forbes experts say that employees who are willing to compromise their values ​​are less successful than those who can be called integrity. Therefore, remaining in an environment where you cannot be yourself is not good for you personally and for your career.

10. We are going through a difficult period right now.

Constant references to a difficult period, temporary difficulties and requests to get into a position show an already formed system where, in the end, you will endure forever. Temporarily added responsibilities will become permanent, salary increases are not expected, and change will always be only on the horizon.

Alexandra Savina

Universal rules on how to organize your work schedule to have time and energy left for personal matters, no. Everyone puts their own spin on the concept of work-life balance. However, this problem is faced equally by entrepreneurs, office workers, and freelancers working from home. We have put together some general recommendations to help you build a suitable regime.

Mark the boundary

The first and most obvious advice: it is impossible to talk about balance between professional and personal life if you yourself do not know where one ends and the other begins. You can draw the line literally - with the help of rituals. Julianne Miles, co-founder of the consulting company Women Returners, for example, advises that when you come home, you should immediately change out of your work clothes. If you work from home, it is better to allocate a special area for work - when you move from your desk to your favorite sofa, you will immediately understand that it is time to relax. Find something that helps you switch from one mode to another. This could be a book you read on the subway, a short walk around the house with the dog when you're not thinking about business, or the habit of taking a moment to pause when getting into the car and mentally saying that the work day is over.

Almost everyone has situations when they need to take work home - but even in this case, boundaries can be drawn. Choose a time when you will not do business (weekends, a few hours before bed - as much as possible) and try to stick to a clear schedule. It won't be easy at first, but a stable routine and rules will help.

Set your priorities

To ensure that work does not interfere with your personal life and vice versa, the first step is to determine what matters to you. Be honest with yourself: everyone's goals and priorities are different, so don't rely on the expectations of your parents or others. Try to build your schedule in accordance with what is important to you: the ability to independently pick up your children from school or receive additional education in the evening, go to a doctor’s appointment during the day or go to the pool in the morning. Employers are often ready to make concessions to employees; the main thing is not to be afraid of an honest and open conversation.

Learn to refuse

Only you know the limits of your capabilities, and if you can’t do something, it’s better to say so directly. Don't be afraid to tell your boss if you're struggling with task flow: it always ends up affecting your productivity, and it's better if the situation can be prevented.

It will be easier to separate your work and personal life if you learn to say “no” to additional tasks for which you do not have the energy and time. Coach Melanie Allen advises not to immediately agree to requests to do something beyond the norm, but to take a short break and think: “Say that you will answer a little later, and use this time to decide whether to agree or not. If you want to say yes, that's okay. But if you want to refuse, say no and stand your ground.”

Stop checking messages

Smartphones allow us to be in touch 24/7 - and if in the case of friends and family this makes us happy, in the case of work it only hinders us: we continue to solve business problems even when we have left the office. E-mail and instant messengers can be inconvenient: while checking correspondence with friends, we willy-nilly read other messages. Unlike other forms of communication, such as a traditional phone call, there are no clear boundaries - a work email can arrive either at seven in the morning or at one in the morning. Therefore, you must set these boundaries for yourself.

For example, you can turn off notifications in email or instant messenger, or turn on night mode on your smartphone after a certain hour. On weekends, you can set up an auto-reply so that your interlocutors know when to expect news from you: people don’t always need information urgently; for many, it’s just important to know that you received the message and will contact them later. Of course, there are exceptions and urgent situations when it is impossible not to respond, but they should not turn into a rule - otherwise you yourself will not notice how you burn out.

Try to work not longer, but more productively

The time when unions fought to reduce working hours is long gone. Now we are seeing the opposite trend: regular overtime is becoming the norm, and many people take working on days off as something for granted - although scientists believe that it is harmful to health. We often think that if we sit a little longer, we will definitely get everything done - but this is self-deception: the longer we work, the more our productivity drops. In addition, having finished one task, you can always start the next one - and so on ad infinitum.

The rude phrase “You need to work not for eight hours, but with your head” fits here perfectly: in order not to get bogged down in routine and business, you need to be able to set priorities (not all tasks are equally important - although it often seems so to us) and highlight strictly defined time to complete each task. This is where the advice not to waste too much time comes in handy: don’t try to do several things at the same time and don’t get distracted by email and instant messengers - you’ll be surprised how time-consuming the habit of checking messages every ten minutes takes.

Don't put pressure on yourself

We already see how perfectionism harms self-development. Over the years, we have more and more additional tasks and responsibilities, and it becomes more and more difficult to do them perfectly - and is it necessary? It is useful to sometimes let go of the situation and be prepared for the fact that you have to sacrifice something. If you don’t have the strength to cook a complex dinner after work, don’t blame yourself for having to limit yourself to pizza: this way you will protect yourself from burnout. In both work and personal affairs, you don’t need to strive to do everything flawlessly - it’s enough to try to perform your duties well.

Consider a different schedule

In the modern world, in order to be a good employee, you don’t always need to be in the office from nine to six: many issues can be resolved via work email, and instead of a meeting, you can have a Skype call. It is believed that in the office it is easier to control what an employee is doing, but for many, working from home, without noisy colleagues, helps them concentrate better and ultimately work more efficiently. So if this is your option, don't be afraid to talk to your employer about it: if you can easily finish the task from home after putting the kids to bed, there's no point in trying to get it done by 6pm. At the same time, if you choose a flexible schedule or work from home, set restrictions (see the first point) - otherwise there is a risk that you will work as before or even more, because you will not be able to disconnect from the process in time.

When choosing a company, pay attention to the working hours adopted here: if everyone stays in the office until 11 pm and is used to going to work on weekends, you are unlikely to be able to come home at seven.

Delegate tasks

Often we tend to do as much as possible ourselves because we think we can have more control over the process - but this is not the most productive approach. Focus first on what only you can do, and try to delegate some of it to others - be it small tasks that will allow you to finish your work earlier, or chores around the house that you don’t have the strength to do. Stuart Friedman, a professor of management at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, advises agreeing on the division of responsibilities with key players in different areas of your life - colleagues, partners, loved ones. Situations like this can help those around you learn something new, and it can take some of your workload off so you can do other things.

Be more attentive to yourself

Only you know how much effort you really put into things - so listen to your feelings and work at a pace that is comfortable for you (yes, there are emergency situations in any job, but they should not become the norm). The British non-profit organization Mental Health Foundation advises paying attention to how fatigue from work accumulates: for several weeks, monitor how much time you spend on business - not only in the office, but also thinking about upcoming projects or, for example, answering calls and letters during out-of-office hours. This is all part of the job (although we are used to not paying attention to it), due to which fatigue also accumulates. If you are aware of the scale of the disaster, it will be easier for you to control your condition.

Start changes small

Don't expect to be able to change your lifestyle instantly: change requires willpower, and the more ambitious the goal you set for yourself, the more likely you are to quit. If you want to start leaving the office on time, don't expect to be able to do it five days a week right away. Start gradually: try to leave early one day a week, such as Friday, and then try to do it more often.

About a month ago, deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg spoke seriously about punishing the unemployed; just recently, Rostrud came up with a similar, but still ideologically different initiative. We categorically disagree with such measures, so we decided to find several guys who refuse to work in the classical sense, and asked them about all the most important things.

Pavel Ilyin

I am 27 years old. I haven't worked almost all my life. I had two outbreaks when I suddenly got a permanent job. This was in 2006, when I had just arrived in Moscow and I still had no understanding of what activities I wanted to do. And another one in 2013.

I think this conviction has always been with me and over the years it only grew and became established in my consciousness. Work makes you a philosophical zombie! You are exchanging the most valuable thing you have for a very small amount of money. But at the same time you have no life. All that remains is neuroses, psychoses and a couple of weekends on which you just want to sleep or immerse yourself in some great story - read light books, watch simple films and play games at a low difficulty level. Even if you earn a lot of money and have a high position, you have even less life - the more they share with you, the more they hang on you.

It is also very important that when you work, there is no time and cognitive resources to search for yourself, and this is the hardest work (yes, let's distinguish between the terms “work” and “labor” in our discourse). Of course, there is a possibility that the labor market may coincide with your hobbies and passions, but the likelihood of such a scenario happening is so small that it is better to go straight for the hardcore!

You need to do something meaningfully, not work. Of course, any intelligent creature, in my system of values, at least, has a natural right to freedom from work, because the modern system of distribution of goods in society (in any society, somewhere there are simply more distortions, somewhere less) is no different from slave system, only now we are in economic slavery, and the degree of this slavery directly correlates with the balance of your bank account. Was it in vain that we sacrificed so many people to abolish the institution of slavery?

The state must, indeed MUST (since it is for the people, and not vice versa) provide what is called in the developed world basic income, which would cover at least minimal needs. In many countries this has already been implemented in fact, although it is still bashfully called unemployment benefits.

If everyone follows my example, it will be great, people will be happy, the culture will be much more diversified, we will see a lot of different cool projects in completely unexpected places. Of course, this will create an acute shortage of personnel in traditional economic sectors, which is good from all sides. On the one hand, if we really need these industries, then they can be easily automated, and if this is just an imitation of activity, then to hell with these dummies.

The state should provide what is called in the developed world basic income, which would cover
minimum needs.

Of course, I don't like constant resource constraints. You constantly need to think about which store has what is cheaper, and everything from dumplings to drumsticks. There is also difficulty with motivation; you need to be able to motivate yourself to take action, but if you have found a cause for which you are ready to kill, then there is no such problem. But the advantages are obvious: you are free and independent. You are in charge, this feeling cannot be exchanged for any money or status.

Money comes from one-time orders, from scholarships, sometimes dad sends something. The housing issue was resolved three years in advance within the framework of my main field of activity. If you look at the last month, my main expenses are food, rehearsal space rental and travel. Of course, I take on paid work, but it must either be in the sphere of my interests and areas of development, or be ideologically correct, or be radically stupid. But only a threat to my life or someone close to me can force me to go to the office.

Not working is not the same as sitting at home on the couch and consuming media culture without filters. For me personally, not working means doing various things that make me sick. I have three functional areas of activity. This is music, namely playing the drums and writing poetry in English, which is what I do in the NaPast group. These are various Internet projects, website development and administration. And this is graduate school, in which I am engaged in theoretical cultural studies and trying to find a way out of postmodernity.

My usual day starts at five or six in the morning, I spend the first couple of hours preparing my body for battle: shower, breakfast, news, correspondence. From about 11:00 to 14:00 - 15:00 it’s time to solve cognitively complex problems, usually writing parts for a dissertation or doing something complex on my websites. Between 15:00 and 18:00, mandatory practice on the drums (more precisely, on the nearest chairs and armchairs). Then there are some social things like a rehearsal or meeting with friends. But this is a perfect day, and not everyone has it that way.

I have different phases of effective functional activity in which I do what I can now do meaningfully and productively. Instead of a vacation, I rather arrange for myself just a change of environment while maintaining activity, but, of course, with its modification and adaptation to new conditions.

Traveling is my passion; I try to go somewhere every six months. For example, I celebrated the New Year in Germany and the Netherlands, and just this morning I returned from Belarus. Basically, my loved ones have a positive attitude towards my lifestyle, but precisely because I do not actively work. If I was just sitting on the couch, staring at the TV, I think the attitude would be very negative. For as long as I can remember, I haven’t felt the desire to work in the classical sense, but I can’t remember any role models. I am sure that both culture and life provided me with similar examples, but they rather strengthened my conviction than somehow turned my picture of the world upside down.

Lyuba Makarevskaya

I have not worked or been registered anywhere for almost 15 years. I am 29 years old. I think that if some people follow my example, society will only become healthier and more productive. Everyone will still be unable to stop working.

My day is structured like this: I wake up at three, walk with my dog, then watch TV, walk or read depending on my mood. The peak of my activity occurs around 12 at night and lasts until five or six in the morning. At this time I usually write. I chose this lifestyle because until I was seven, I had a very happy childhood, something straight out of Nabokov. I have always had a very strong emotional connection with my parents, who, consciously or not, did a lot for my intellectual development, despite the fact that I was never forced into anything, but this wonderful time was cut short by going to first grade.

The unbearable boredom and sheer stupidity of our school is beyond words. Of course, I felt a very strong gap with my peers intellectually, and in general being at school terribly traumatized me. At the age of 11, I realized that in my views I was an anarchist and when I managed to escape from the yoke of school, I would never be registered anywhere again. I remember that I even swore to myself about this.

When I was 14, I read Walt Whitman. He influenced me a lot. Whitman, as you know, did not work and was a wanderer. He became my ideal for many years. In the ninth grade, I was kicked out of school, and since then I have never really been enrolled anywhere, as I swore to myself at the age of 11. Now I’m 29, and there has never been a period in my life when I worked somewhere officially.

I still live on the money my mother gives me. My expenses are the most ordinary: food, cosmetics and clothes, nothing interesting. I don't really like parties because I'm an introvert. My favorite pastimes are bookstores, McDonald's, and walking my dog.

I am afraid of society - I think it seeks to take me away from me and bring any personality to a certain denominator.

I constantly feel the need for a vacation, because even without working you can get tired of life in the city. I've been abroad, but I don't really like traveling, I'm afraid to fly. I think the best journeys happen within ourselves. Sleep is also a journey. Hunger or emergency circumstances could force me to work, I would go to work as a courier, most likely, I could also earn extra money by walking dogs. I, as Michel said, love animals very much.

I would rather choose suicide than the office. Death extended over time or instantaneous - there is not much difference. I think death extended over time is just like working in an office. I will not hide the fact that I am a walking phobia, and my main phobia is our society. I think the ideal ratio of unemployed and employed is 50 to 50. It seems to me that some can simply do regular, fairly monotonous work, while others cannot, and the word “dependency” is not quite the right definition.

Friends and relatives treat me with understanding, which periodically alternates with the irritation to which I am accustomed. In principle, I’m used to everything and have a philosophical attitude towards everything. I think about self-realization and that’s why I write poetry and other texts. I feel fulfilled and happy when I write, it just doesn't bring me money, but I've learned not to be upset about it. When I don't write, that's rest. True, I feel sad at this time. My ideals among the unemployed are Walt Whitman and the main character of the movie "The Big Lebowski."

I am afraid of society - I think it seeks to take me away from me and bring any personality to a certain denominator. I am against this and I think that work is partly a tool in this matter. It seems to me that being listed somewhere means making a compromise. In general, from time to time I want to burn my passport, but without it you can’t buy alcohol these days, so now it has become a necessary thing. I don’t feel unemployed; after all, being alive is also work, sometimes extremely tiring.

Mark Lukyanov

I am 24 years old. I can't say that I'm not working. I work a lot. They just don’t write about it in my work book. Well, one day I didn’t even finish my shift at one bakery - I realized that I was wasting too much time. I ate a few cakes in the warehouse and left to make music. Forever.

Why am I not working? You can ask approximately the same question in relation to everyone else. Of course, we need to work in a broad sense - this is not even discussed. But one could argue about what to spend time on - all people are different. And yes, we should more often have the right to such a choice, whether to have a job in the classical sense or not. I am sure that this should be done differently in each country. That being said, I find it strange that some states have unemployment benefits, but I like it.

If everyone follows the example of the unemployed, it will be something like what always happens when too many people want the same thing. I think some people just shouldn't get into that kind of field.

Sponsors pay for my housing. My friend is a model. I recently returned from Paris Fashion Week and brought back a lot of money. For the last two months we have been spending this money: jelly, beads, movies, women's leather coffin shoes and a nose ring.

I would love to volunteer to pick Sicilian oranges. For two months, tan. This is all I think about now. That's all I do. I don’t think I have the same kind of vacation as those working in official positions. I don’t feel the need for this and, unfortunately, I don’t travel much. But it won't last long. My close friends don't work either. I had real examples of people working in official jobs that inspired me to give up this idea.

Alisa Tayozhnaya

I am 28 years old, and I have the fortunate opportunity to do only what I love. My parents are working class heroes and real self-made heroes, workaholics of the simplest origin, who devoted their entire youth to surviving and gaining a foothold in Moscow. I am grateful to them for their strength and resilience, for their stubbornness in teaching me to read at three years old and giving me the best education. I recently talked to them about my journey: it’s hard for them to imagine that I live without a work book, but with some part of my being I’m sure: they understand that work in Russia is a fiction that can end at any time through no fault of yours. moment. “You’re lucky to be doing what you love—we didn’t have that luxury,” they told me the last time we met. The moral support of my parents and the fact that I always have a corner to return to if I stumble, protects me from the unnecessary and often empty work that many of my friends not from Moscow have to do in order to stay here. Plus, I can always count on my husband, who does what he loves and, as a technical specialist with a unique profile, receives a salary many times more than I, a humanist. But he can always count on me. That is, if something happens to my loved ones and I need money, I will immediately go to work and be motivated to have a stable plan.

I had two favorite permanent jobs in my life, but in both of them I burned out: I couldn’t find a balance between work and free time and had the wrong attitude towards responsibility and responsibilities. Now I wouldn’t make such a mistake, but for my part I can say that people blossom from freedom. All colleagues who are given air are ready to do much more than is required with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, many progressive and, even more so, backward Russian systems have never even heard of how to motivate employees and operate on fear. I have heard many stories from the creators of trainings that there is nothing easier than putting pressure on a sales girl who shares an apartment with her friend and came from Siberia to conquer Moscow. They are so scared and want change that they are ready to eat tons of shit. I categorically do not accept the training of people, the extraction of obedient herds from them, the superiority that I often encounter among bosses in relation to their subordinates. Projects born out of love and with loved ones live longer and smell better.

In fact, I work all the time, but my work is terrible (the editor automatically corrected it to excellent) - that is, it seems to be related to the intellectual sphere, but is paid no more per month than the work of a trolleybus driver. I know museum workers who earn less than cashiers, not to mention programmers, realtors and sales people, whose work does not even require special education or a scientific degree, but rather a wide range of soft skills. A lot has been said about precarious labor in art and culture, and this is, in fact, real exploitation: money in cash, work for friendship, fees that are six months late, endless contributions to projects that may not be approved, constant revision of conditions. I have no insurance and will not receive child benefits. In a good way, I work at a juice extractor in a city where billions are allocated for the reconstruction of theaters and museums. All people around art and cinema, if they are not involved in *********, live according to normcore all their lives and plan a vacation in St. Petersburg.

I respect this choice, there is a lot of courage in it, but this system is essentially a plantation of our days, only on the territory of intellectual labor. I hate the phrase “we are looking for a young man with sparkling eyes,” because it is clear that such young people are usually screwed. On the other hand, those young people with whom I worked really want, overcome and learn, despite the snobbery of older colleagues and routine work. You have to go through this too. The reward is doing things you believe in. If you spend a week among those who don’t give a damn and who only care about getting their salary on the card on time, you immediately understand the price of life without skepticism and this rotten pragmatism. Most philosophers considered creative work to be the pinnacle of human development; most people do not take a single step towards expressing themselves through work. This is why there are so many “projects” for the sake of projects, so that things that three caring people can do are often done by ten uninterested people. But this is not only a Russian problem, this is how people in general work.

You can’t overwork, you can’t work on weekends, you have to find time
to the spontaneous and beautiful.

It seems to me that the only justifiable way to make a living is an honest business of your own. And I am sure that I will come to this. I really like the ability to program a schedule and plan a strategy. Now my main expenses are travel and entertainment: cinema, museums, concerts. I don’t need to deny myself anything, but with clothes, food and cosmetics, I long ago figured out the list of expenses and learned to live within my means. I have the superpower of finding something cheap that recently cost four times as much. The most precious thing I have is family and friends, it cannot be bought. In the winter I was sad about the exchange rate, but now I understand that I can travel around Russian cities that I have never been to. And you can save up for two vacations a year, if you’re not an idiot. Plus I despise credit cards and never buy anything I can't afford. I don’t have jewelry, no valuables except a computer, I don’t give a damn about technical innovations and I sold all the extra stuff I had. There was a lot of extra stuff.

But I don’t have children yet, so such changes happen quite quickly. I started separating work and rest quite recently, and this is my best idea. You can’t overwork, you can’t work on weekends, you have to find time for the spontaneous and beautiful. I never work while traveling, but I take a lot of notes there and generally spend my time actively. I've never had a vacation on the beach. I am convinced that the most important things happen not at the desk.

Will I return to the office? With joy, if there is something to fight for. Now I have nothing to fight for in the office - I get all my drive from texts, books, movies, lectures, concerts, singing and language lessons. I have nothing to offer the office yet. I work with the dream team in a mode that suits me and I don’t work with assholes at all, I don’t meet them, and they don’t meet me. Regarding the state, I am not inclined to abdicate responsibility for my own choices, and from the experience of living in other countries, I can say that many things in Russia are better than in many countries in the world. In general, 98% of countries live differently from North America and Western Europe, and we must be grateful to the conditions that exist now - the freest and fairest in human history. However, this is a completely far from ideal situation. Incorrect career guidance, inability to work in a team, lack of logical thinking, and a tendency to conflict - these are the basic problems of Russian people in the professional sphere. They are decided in a group, but without a portrait of Lenin above their heads. You just need to respect the other person as you respect yourself and look for multiple solutions to one problem.

For this reason, progress in Russia and social life in general are slowing down. In addition, the life of people like me is not regulated in any way by law. Who am I? Unemployed? Civilian? Contract employee? How can someone like me live if they want a big family? How to survive if you are not from Moscow? With skyrocketing prices for housing and food, Moscow, for all its charm, is becoming unbearable for creative life in general. But I doubt that the state is interested in doing this.