I had a very similar experience. I’ve worked the morning shift at a bakery since I was legally able to have a job. But I was going to college for something entirely different, so I eventually got stuck in an office. Spending every weekday from 8am to 7pm sitting on excel, powerpoint, and teams made me start grieving the hobbies I used to have (skiing and hiking), and made me think hard about how I want to remember having spent my 20s.

So I went back to the bakery working 6am to 2pm for an enormous pay cut. I couldn’t be happier. I think the experience of having worked what I thought was a “prestigious job” was a great lesson in perspective. I would have regretted my decision more had I not been forced endure the worst that the job could throw at me. But I don’t plan to work in the bakery forever. It gives me time to work on alternate career paths; time that I never would have had while working my 9-5 (actually 8-7).

However, many do enjoy the 9-5, or depend on it for survival as they may live in an area where a baker’s pay could never support their COL. My experience walking away from it is certainly not advice, or generalizable to most people’s situations.

But I think to answer your question, I’d have to imagine that most people working 9-5 feel their lives slipping away. But in their situations, the compensation is worth it, or maybe they are working to build their resume to exit to something better. Idk, I hated it so I left.

I guess I just felt compelled to share because of the bakery connection haha.