The RetireJapan Hierarchy of Work Complaints

Of course 🙂


As I mentioned on Monday, I’m a planner. I spend far too much time thinking about what I need to do, what I should do, and what I want to do.

I wrote about the four types of work (which one do you do?) and my hierarchy of work situations last year. Now, I bring to you…

The RetireJapan Hierarchy of Work Complaints!

Basically the better your job/work, the more trivial your complaints become.

  1. If your job is dangerous or unpleasant, you complain about that.
  2. If you don’t make enough money to get by, you complain about that.
  3. If your job is stressful or you work long hours, you complain about that.
  4. If you have poor relationships at work, you complain about that
  5. If your job is routine or boring, you complain about that.
  6. If you feel unfulfilled at work, you complain about that.

I’m make level six complaints about my work all the time. Perhaps it’s a sign that I have a good thing going and should just get on with enjoying life…

What do you complain about at work? Do you think the hierarchy of work complaints works? Would you make any changes?

4 Responses

  1. I would say (3), (5), and (6) would best fit my situation. I no longer work for a Japanese company so my situation is a lot (so much!) better than it used to be but I still find the relentless meetings, corporate doublespeak, and the fake positivity of working for a large company to be particularly soul-killing for me. I would love to run my own company or not work at all but for financial reasons now is not a good time to quit so I just grin and bear it (and hate myself a little bit more every day for putting up with it) . The good news is that both my wife and I are good with money so with a bit of luck and some wise investing there is good chance that we can retire early and get out of the rat race altogether!

  2. It’s good to have a goal 🙂
    Working on my own projects has made life much better in recent years. Hope you get to your happy place soon!

  3. I think 3 is what I complain about most, with a bit of 6 thrown in every so often. I’ve been thinking a lot about 3 recently and trying to decide whether to stick with my current situation and try and get to FI as quickly as possible, or whether to cut work back to four days a week and perhaps work a bit longer but enjoy my current life more. Have (almost) decided to go with the latter. Trying to shift schedules and hopefully by next year we might be able to get to four days or four and a half a week. It’s easy to forget we have to enjoy life in the here and now even as we have an eye on the future.

  4. There’s definitely a trade-off.
    I’ve found that choosing to do more enjoyable work makes long hours more bearable (for example, I don’t enjoy teaching young children or private students, so from next month won’t be doing that any more). Reducing working days also works!