A high paying job with long hours or lower paying job with shorter hours

TASK: Which would you choose: a high-paying job with long hours that would give you little time with family and friends or a lower-paying job with shorter hours that would give you more time with family and friends? Explain your choice, using specific reasons and details.
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The choice between a high-paying job with little time off and a lower-paying job with more free time is easy if you know what you want from life. For me, personally, the second option is the one.

The main principle for me here is: why do I need that money if I have no time to spend it? I called the principle “main”, because we have a job to earn money for our life, but not because money is the main thing to think about. The real MAIN thing for me is time off. The more time off I have, the better I feel, and work better as well. Long hours at work lower my motivation and quality of work. And I think that demotivated employee can actually do more harm than good. Nobody wins in such situation – neither employer, nor employee. So, time off is essential for me. And it is not only for keeping my motivation up. I have a lot of interests, and some of them need time. By having more time off from the job, I can put more time into my hobbies and self-development. Sometimes I even realize that I am doing something at work more efficiently or differently, because I learn new things when I spend time on my hobbies.

Another great reason to have more free time is sport and fitness. When I had a job with long hours, I always felt stressed, could not relax and was always tired. But the job I have now gives me a lot of time off. Not literally “a lot”, but considerably more than my previous job. So now I have time for sports three times a week. I started feeling much better than I used to. I can relax and spend time with my family and my friends.

So, in my opinion, people who have more time off not only lead more colourful and healthy life, but, in fact, are more efficient at work. And even if they get paid less, at least they have time to go and spend that money.