Yeah, ditch your closest people and go hang out with randos who are only talking to you cause you have the money. Sounds like perfect cure for depression.
This painfully reminded me of my dad, who passed away earlier this year. We grew up as a family of 5, in small, 3 rooms flat in the block-of-flats from communist era. The way he made use of every single centimeter including the walls and ceiling still amazes me to this day. He was working with computers his whole life, but I haven't met anyone as handy as him. He built custom closets, cupboards, bunk beds, shelves, tables, perfctly designed for the dimensions of our flat, all without fancy tools and materials. My parents had their beds in our living room, but when we had event for our extended family, the whole room could be turned into something entirely different in 30 minutes, everything served multiple purposes. Whenever something needed to be done, or fixed, he disappeared into the "pile of useless junk" he kept in our basement and always came back with the right wire, pipe, or plank that did the job perfectly. Although I think I can be quite creative in some areas, unfortunately when it comes to manual work I am nowhere as gifted as him and am happy when I manage to change a lightbulb or hammer a nile.
>When I was young I slept in a HAMMOCK while working at the office. I now have a family. And yes, it is harder to get promoted, simply because I have less interest in working 90 hour work weeks!
Honestly, that sounds awful. As an European I am always amazed at this American mentality. I would never ever work more than 40 hours a week as an employee. Even that I consider too much for a healthy life and I aim at ~30 hours a week. I would never agreed to be called in the middle of the night, because there is a production outage in a company I don't own. I would never lose a good night sleep over such company. I will put in my hours for the salary we have agreed on and that's it, I don't care. Americans have been collectively brainwashed into thinking that the corporations give a shit about them and that the success of the corporation is also the success of its employees. Especially in our field, given the shortage of qualified engineers, why should I care? You don't want me, you won't promote me? Fine, I will talk to the next recruiter in the long line that is pilling up in my inbox.
Thanks. I will be definitely contacting MEP I voted for, why he voted for this bullshit. Especially when he is from party which is supposedly all about personal freedoms.