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Comment by varispeed | Hacker News Reader

I naturally go to sleep about 3am and wake up 9am. I tried different hours, but it was unsustainable. I would feel terrible the whole day as it is just to possible for me to fall asleep let's say at 11pm or even 1am. This was a horror for me and actually prompted to start my own business so I could be in charge of when I work. I was only able to find one employer before that, who was happy for me to come to work at 10 or 11. Different employers after a period of time would report that other staff feel that I am getting privileges and they also would want to come "when they please". So that would end up with me quitting. It's a shame that somehow 9-5 is embedded in our culture so strongly if you want to oppose it you are being viewed as if you were saying a blasphemy!

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Years ago, I used to work a night shift job. Naturally this meant I had to shift my sleep to mostly day time hours. Around the time I noticed something interesting. People around me (friends, family) considered me lazy, avoidant etc. because while they would be doing things all day I was mostly trying to catch some sleep. I always found to odd, because most of these people knew I worked nights too.

That's perfect example of lazy thinking. They would see you catching sleep, but would never see you work and in their brain this would form as "he is lazy". The information that you work night shifts would get registered, but they would have to be informed with the same frequency as they see you sleep that you worked a night shift, otherwise after a day or two they would revert to thinking you are lazy. It is quite fascinating. I had the same problem with my partner - that is she would work night shifts and she wouldn't see me doing anything around the house, but I would do all the chores all the time. So if she came home in the evening and saw a little bit of rubbish that accumulated since the morning she would start making argument that I don't clean the house, but in the morning I did clean it. It helped when I started making a log on a sheet fixed to the fridge. I would always show her the log when she would come home. At the same time I had a feeling that she is not doing much and that I am doing all the chores. I wouldn't acknowledge that over the weekend she would do general cleaning as well that would take her almost as much time as myself doing chores over the week.

Man I wish 9-5 were acceptable here in the midwest. I wish I could move (I'm in my sandwich years now, caring for parents and teens in high school). Everyone here works farmer's hours and suggesting otherwise is equivalent to admitting you are a slacker.

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