A Good Programming Job Is Like Retirement, Just Better

Today, I want to sing the song of praise for a job that allows me to live a happy life, content and ahead of all my duties — especially so because I know different times. 

Not only have I worked in vastly different fields to programming before — which gives you a lot of perspective about the spoiled life I live now — but also, I used to hold a programming job that was objectively worse. 

My company lives in the future of work freedom

I feel really lucky to have landed in this particular job and company, because it is quite a bit ahead of even other IT companies here in Germany. We get to pick our own hours, work mostly from home, and we are even allowed to work from anywhere, not just our own home office. 

That makes all the sense, because it means no detriment to the company, and great advantages to the individual worker. I mean, how cool is that a friend can call me when they are bored and an hour later, I am in my car with a packed bag and my laptop, driving over to work from their place for a day or two? That is like a vacation day, giving us the option to both work, but then have the whole evening to do cool things when otherwise, neither of us would. 

It’s honestly cool to see how coworkers pop in and out of the office and their homes. Sometimes, we are all present for mandatory meetings, and then the next day, someone is in an entirely different place, showcasing the forest that surrounds them, or joining the daily standup from their parent’s house — you get the idea. It’s a wild mixture and fun potpourri, and I love that.

Having hourly freedom pretty much negates the need for single vacation days

It can not be overstated how influential it is to have this freedom throughout the day. I get up at the same time when I drive into the office as I do on home office days, and that gives me like two hours in the morning to do all kinds of housework. I do the dishes, set up a load of laundry, and then hang it up to dry sometime during lunch, or even in the ten minutes between meetings. 

I can go grocery shopping during an extended lunch break, pick my car up from the shop, or go to a doctor’s appointment. All of these could be a full vacation day down the drain, especially when most of them only open during regular working hours. 

I even went to IKEA once on a two-hour lunch break, using the order-and-collect feature so that I only had to drive there, load my trunk up, and drive back home. Think about how utopian-futuristic that would have sounded even just ten years ago, to go to IKEA during a lunch break?!

Even before the pandemic, I was saying that programming gives executive-level freedoms to entry-level workers, and that has only improved since. 

Programming allows you to live just about any life you want outside of work

Outside of work, I am increasingly less interested in technology, coding, sitting in front of a screen. I hike, build things, help my friends with all kinds of work, renovations, hobbies. And these friends are from all walks of life, genders, age brackets. 

I find this variance to be an insane luxury, because you get to experience and witness so many different ways of living. And programming, or the flexibility it affords, allows me to mix and match, and adapt to other people’s schedules. I can go on early morning hikes with the nurse working shifts, or hang out with the university student who has the polar opposite day and night schedule. I am free to come over during weekdays, or spend a lunch break in my basement workshop building odd things. I own a chainsaw, a welding machine, a small motorcycle. I recently built an e-bike and a bike trailer, and from next week on when it’s back to the office for two days per week, I will use the chance to camp in my car and do more odd stuff. 

Life can be just really varied and fluently changing if that’s your thing, and if you mix and match whatever comes up. I don’t even make weekend plans anymore, and yet I never end up with nothing to do. And writing easily fills the rainy days.