What do you do to relax after work on weekdays/weekends?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I am probably one of those people who is extremely resistant to boredom. I read, putter, do a few athletic activities (but no team sports), work around the house, watch TV and movies, and so forth. My wife cannot do this. She can sit still or do one thing for maybe two hours at most.

BTW, early in my career I deliberately made the decision to find a work position where I made OK money, but had the most flexible schedule and got to do fun things. I know that a lot of people don’t have that opportunity because of family, college costs, etc., but it worked out great for me. My brother reminds me that he was able to save quite a bit of money and now has a great retirement from the Federal government. I remind him that he had an 8 to 5 desk job for over 35 years and used to beg me to start a business with him on the side because he was so bored with it.

22

I derive some satisfaction from taking care of occasional home maintenance/repair/upgrade tasks. Some people see this stuff as just a pain, but there’s a sense of accomplishment in cleaning up landscaping, shoveling a driveway, or replacing a faucet or something.

I enjoy working on my hobby/side-business in my spare time.

I used to go for frequent day rides on my motorcycle, but I’m doing a lot less of that these days. Not sure why. Many years ago I was involved with the local motorcycle club, attending Sunday breakfasts with them around the Detroit area. Eventually I decided they weren’t quite my style so I stopped attending.

If the weather is hospitable, my wife and I go for walks in local parks.

Sometimes we veg out in front of the TV, watching whatever fragment of movie we happen to catch. If we have a bigger block of time, we’ll rent a whole movie, though that’s generally an evening thing.

We enjoy watching IndyCar races (on TV).

If we have a significant vacation coming up, we put a lot of effort into planning. Example, we typically go to Japan once a year for at least a couple of weeks. There might be five different hotel stays involved, and we also put together a list of things we might be interested in doing while we’re there - not a mandatory schedule of things, but more like a menu we choose from on any given day, so we pack it with a lot of extra options. We also make lists of instructions for how to get from point A to point B on the trains; our time on the ground in Japan is precious, so we don’t want to waste it standing in a station scratching our heads. Typically we chip away at these tasks for several months before departure.

What might other people do?
Pick a 30-mile radius around where you live, and on almost any weekend you can find a concert, expo, festival, or some other event that may be interesting.

Other people find volunteer work to be a fulfilling activity. This could be anything from serving at a soup kitchen to trail maintenance at a city or state park, or being an adult leader in a Scout troop.

23

Weekend-wise, my top choice would be a hike somewhere where I can enjoy some solitude. Second runner-up is a drive down the coast, usually from Pacifica to Santa Cruz.

24

After a few years of working you realize that you have to find ways to enjoy yourself.

Also if you are single and live in a low cost of living area, you can look into retiring early (your 40s or 50s). Granted you need to live on half your after tax income and invest the other half to do this, but it is doable.

25

Actually, the 40 hours/week part is what enables me to have a life that I enjoy. How you structure that life is completely up to you.

26

20 days of holiday? :confused: Where are you? France?

27

First year on the job with state government here gives you 14 holidays and 8 vacation days. When you’re old like me, it’s 14 holidays and 25.5 vacation days a year.

I read, go to the gym, play a few video games, watch tv, embroider, go meet friends for a beer or a movie, go out to eat, sit out by the pool or fire pit (depending on the weather) and shoot the shit.

Out of curiousity, what did you think you’d do when not working?

28

I generally like to be outside and prefer solitude, but my off-work activities are pretty weather-dependent. During the heat wave like what we have going on now, the afternoons are unbearable for me outside, so I spend time indoors reading, cooking, eating, listening to music, honey-do projects, etc. I walk or bicycle in the early mornings when it is cooler. On weekends I usually have a bike ride or two, or hiking, or skiing/snowboarding, plus of course yardwork and other house-related stuff. Throw-in some vacations and bike trips along the coast and I am good. Also occasionally volunteering. It’s good to have balance in life - careers are over-rated.

29

30 days of holiday for me. In America. :smiley:

I watch TV and movies, assemble legos, play computer games, spend time with my friends and in-town relatives, and work on writing my books.

30

For many years it was whitewater kayaking which required a lot of travel since I live in the flat lands. Now that seems to be a thing of the past so I have been getting back to motorcycling and shooting. The place I live now is pretty high maintenance so lots of yard work and fixing stuff. On suitable weekend nights I like to build a fire, sit outside and drink beer. I watch a lot of TV, mostly PBS (really!) and HBO/Netflix series. I was really into guitars for quite a while, still have all my gear and always telling myself I need to get back to that.

31

I go fly my Piper Dakota aircraft.

32

Drink beer
Brew beer
Read fiction
Write (bad) fiction
Listen to music
Cook
Go to the beach
Go for walks
Make knives
Waste time on internet forums :smiley:

33

One of these seems easier to accelerate to take off speed. [d&r]
Serious answer to the OP:
In the hot summertime, I tend to hang around the house doing Netflix and good beer (after a minimal set of chores). We generally take a few RV-ing trips to somewhere in the mountains. It’s nice to spend a week high enough to have cool temps and occasional frosty mornings.

After Labor Day I “get the lakes back”, and all the infernal jetskis, and wakeboarders who think everyone needs to hear their music begin to disappear. By November the lakes are all mine and I usually spend one entire day per week on the lake. Just fishing, reading books, watching animals come to the shoreline and generally enjoying the quiet. Several times per year I spend the whole weekend, and enjoy waking up to quiet and still water with a cup of coffee. This continues till May or June when the partiers return, and I retreat to my AC, BBQ, and Netflix again.

Not all American companies are run by psychopaths. If I include the Fridays from our 9/80 workweeks, I get about 50 days off per year.

34

Read The Dope, read other things, lift, prepare meals, spend time with kids and pets, work my businesses, sun bathe, yard work, pay bills, adjust investments, teach myself and learn other skills that interest me.

My corporate (though hourly labor) job has 6 paid holidays, 2 weeks vacation (in my 2nd year, only 1 week the first) and 1 week PTO per year. Not sure how that ranks. Generally my job/employer is hated on, with reason. Paid holidays aren’t days off, though. If it falls on my regularly scheduled work day, except for Christmas, I still have to work. I just get paid 8 hours holiday pay plus 1.5x whatever hours I work.

35

In the US, federal government employees with 3-15 years of service get about 20 days of vacation per year. Those with over 15 years of service get about 26 days of vacation per year.

Neither of those numbers include the the ten federal holidays:

-New Year’s Day
-MLK Day
-President’s Day
-Memorial Day
-Independence Day
-Labor Day
-Columbus Day
-Veteran’s Day
-Thanksgiving
-Christmas

US federal employees also typically receive the day off whenever a national day of mourning is declared following the death of a President, although this isn’t something around which one can plan in advance.

36

I am either at home doing domestic chores, or I’ll be at the gym. The benefits of the gym are that I get to listen to the music I like via my mp3, and I also get to take out my frustrations on heavy weights that don’t object if I happen to drop 'em.

37

I get 24 days of vacation, 10 days of sick and roughly 13 holidays (Three days at Thanksgiving, Three days at Christmas, 2 days at New Year’s, MLK, Good Friday, Spring Election, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Fall Election - the Election Days are every other year.) Typically we also get a ‘floating holiday’ as a Christmas bonus, but that isn’t part of my contract, so not guaranteed. I’m not unhappy with it. I frequently end up hitting my vacation cap and I have been here 17 years, so have 7 months of paid sick time saved up- I don’t think I’ll ever use it, but who knows? I’d like to get up to a year just to say I’m there.

38

Completely agree. My mother begs to differ though.

I don’ t know if this is just anecdotal but it seems that there is an overlap with people who pontificate “exercise cures depression” and other generic platitudes.

39

This is just confirmation that I always worked for shit places. Unfortune in that it just reinforces my Dunning-Kruger tendencies.

Hence my early “retirement”.