We work hard separately, why do we do the opposite?

When I first joined the company, the company recruited three interns at the same time, I, Amy and Lao Zhu. Small company, more than a dozen people serving four projects. The three of us often complain together about the boredom of work, the nitpicking of leaders and the hardships of life in Shanghai. Talk about ideals occasionally. Yes, as a foreigner who works hard in Shanghai alone, how can he survive the initial difficult years without ideal support?

Lao Zhu is the only boy between us. His ideal is to become a director in five years. He vowed: don't worry, I will do it! At that time, in our eyes, the director was so unattainable. Amy and I joked with him that if he became the director, we would work under him so that we wouldn't be bullied by others.

Amy's ideal is to marry someone who knows nothing about her and is really good to her, provided that he can pay down a house in the inner ring. Amy comes from the mountainous area of Sichuan. In her eyes, it is a success to settle in Shanghai.

I didn't know what I wanted at that time. The only thing I know for sure is that I hate racking my brains for three meals a day, living in a dark husband's room without a bathroom and spending half a day planning to buy some snacks. I think my mind should be spent on important things, but I don't know what "important" is. Amy and Lao Zhu summed it up for me: the most important thing for you now is to earn more money and support a superior life! I thought about it and nodded and said yes.

A few months later, the project that Lao Zhu served fired our company, and the company redistributed important personnel and dismissed unimportant personnel such as Lao Zhu. After Zhu left, the three of us had dinner together. Zhu said that even if the company didn't fire him, he planned to leave. Because there is no future in such a precarious small company!

I listened to Zhu. I "calculated" my income and expenses carefully, and found that staying in this company for two years could not change my present state, so I resigned next spring and moved to a big company featuring overtime. Amy still stays in her old company, but she has moved from a planning position to a sales position.

In the next two years, I experienced a state of working seven projects by myself, working seven days a week and working seven days overtime. My professional ability and salary are rising, and I also live a life of living in a good house, eating a good meal and earning a meager monthly salary. However, the most serious consequence of endless overtime is that my body is in a state of illness, dizziness, tinnitus and auditory hallucination for a period of time.

One day I was so tired that I fell down the stairs and stayed in bed for a whole week. I thought I could have a rest, but the leader said, if you follow the project, others won't be able to pick it up for a while. You broke your leg now, not your hand. As long as you can sit up, take your notebook to the hospital and stick to it. I naturally refused, and I cried for this grievance. The leader thought about it and decided to give me another 2000 yuan salary. I accepted it.