I still remember the days where I stare at my screen with a blank expression at 11pm. I was in office and waiting for someone’s approval for my work.

I was scrolling through Facebook ( I know, I am a millennial doing boomer stuff ), and came across an economics article explaining how the central bank works.

I was horrified at how inaccurate it was, and got so frustrated that I wrote a long comment pointing out the inaccuracies of it. Mind you, this was a reputable writer on a major newspaper.

After finishing the comment, I was looking at about 750 words comment, critiquing the inaccuracies in it. Then, it hit me. Why bother commenting when I can convert this into an article?

And why didn’t I think about doing this in ‘secret’ during my working hours? Since then, I have been doing this and here are the 5 reasons why I think you should pursue your passions with an ‘s’ at your 9-5.

#1 Your employer has no hesitation in exploiting you, why don’t you do so too?

Let’s put it this way. most employers will not hesitate to get the most out of you for the lowest pay. I call that exploitation and through my experience, most of them do so. I am not saying all, but most from my experience.

In economics, it’s called operating at the production possibility frontier. In investments, it’s called sweating your assets. It’s high time you think about this in the other way around, milking your employer for whatever that’s worth.

In your 9-5, you are not working most of the time. There are downtimes, and normally you will be working on things that are not urgent or important. Why don’t you start using these time to work on your passions instead?

During lunch times, cheat on your employer by going for 1.5 hour lunches. Spend 30 minutes for lunch and the other hour ‘working’ in office. That’s what I did constantly.

If you want to take it a step further, go for all the trainings your employer offers. They are normally paid for and you can squeeze everything out of them.

#2: You will be too tired by the time you get back

This is speaking from personal experience from a married person. By the time it’s 5 or 6 pm. You will be hopping on to your car or the nearest public transportation.

It will take probably take 45 minutes to 1.5 hours to get back. By the time you are back, time to cook dinner (or if you can afford it, order Grab or tapau) and that will take about 1 more hour.

You are probably looking at 8pm before you can do anything. Chores await you and you will probably spend another hour. It is now 9pm before you can work on your passions.

By that time, you are already too drained from everything and just want to open up a Netflix or Youtube to watch before turning in for the night. After all, you have to wake up at 6.30 am the next morning to repeat the cycle.

Use the time at office instead to work on your passions, and avoid doing unnecessary and extra work. Employers have a poor track record of rewarding extra work, which brings us to the next reason.

#3: You will most probably not be rewarded for extra work

This is two-fold. Overtime is common and most often or not, you don’t get paid for them. Employers will reason that they will take into ‘consideration’ that you work overtime and factor this into promotion.

Those are just ‘talk’ and talk is cheap. During working hours, at least through my experience, half the time you are just doing ‘relationship management’.

That means time spent doing work that doesn’t really matter or going into meaningless meetings to watch managers and head of departments fling their thing around. And then, you are tasked in writing ‘meeting’ minutes and clearing these minutes through several layers of approval.

Your bosses will probably ask you to go ‘talk’ to the other bosses to get agreements and buy-ins cause they can’t do it. Maybe this extra work could get you promoted but to me, they are essentially meaningless through my experience.

Cut these things out from your 9-5 to carve out time for your passions. Do meetings through emails and come up with excuses not to do these things.

#4: Get paid to do your 9-5 and nothing more

The 9-5 provides you with a stable income. Most of you have financial commitments that needs a constant stream of income.

For people that are just starting out in pursuing your passions, they might or might not work out but at least you have an insurance.

However, I am a proponent of doing the 9-5 and nothing more outside of your job description. What you are looking for is a stable income base and a reasonable place to learn.

#5: Ultimately, you want to control your own destiny

If I ask you in a life-or-death situation, you have the option of deciding or letting someone deciding for you. What would you do? Rhetorical question, I know.

You would want to control your own destiny. Pursuing your passions with a 9-5 job allows you to free yourself from it gradually.

Employers have no hesitation in cutting you off if there is a need to do so. We have seen how big tech companies are letting their employees go with just email notifications.

Rather than just taking a plunge into the dark, you can gradually build stairs and setting up lights to get a better view of the dark.

If you are confident on taking that plunge already, the leap is less scary and shallower compared to having nothing in the beginning.

Conclusion

Don’t quit your 9-5 just yet. Instead, use it as a stepping board to build your passions and dreams and as insurance in case they are not viable.

Priotise yourself first. Only the top 1% make it to top management positions, and even then, you don’t have that much freedom. Aim for freedom and independence, no matter how small it may be and take control of your own path.