The Lifers: How and Why People Become
Unhappy Lifetime Employees.

I have met various type of people since I began my sentence in corporate servitude. I’ll never forget a conversation I had with one of my past co-workers, who was about for years older than me, about the categories she put different workers in. Of all the categories she mentioned, none scared me most as the “lifers”. The lifers are the employees that are dedicated to the company. The lifers are the ones that would never dream of quitting. The lifers are the ones you see in the grocery store with the company t-shirt on Saturday. They’re the ones that have been with the company for more than 15 to 20 years. They’re the ones that bleed the company colors. They are the ones that every new entrant to Corporate America with an entrepreneurial spirit should be scared of becoming.

How does it happen? How does one become a lifer? Since I am not one (and have no aspirations to become one) I can only offer thoughts and conjectures. I have a few reasons why I believe people become lifers. One of the primary reasons is that they drank the company kool-aid. Another reason is safety, but ask yourself, is one truly safe when solely relying on employment from an external source? A third reason is indolence and comfort; and yet another reason is fear. I have only given a brief introduction into the reasons I believe people become lifers here, but worry not; a more in depth discussion follows after the jump.

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Fresh Fridays: Yessss The Week Is Over

I was reviewing the posts that I have written and I noticed that a lot of them have been rather melancholy, which is probably a result of how I have been feeling lately. Anyhow, I have decided from this day on to reserve Friday posts for things that I have encountered throughout the week that I deem fresssssssshhhh. Yeah it’s great to be serious, methodical and analytical, but a huge part of my blog is about not letting the 9 to 5 rob you of your essence. So I have reserved Fridays just to exhibit some of the things that I think are cool. Please feel free to post your links of cool things you have encountered during the week, whatever they may be. Everyone’s essence is unique, but everyone must strive to keep it, especially in the midst of corporate servitude. I invite you to share your individuality with me…

Kris van Assche Fall/Winter 2009 High Top Sneaker

Kris van Assche Fall/Winter 2009 High Top Sneaker

Almost called it a night (or a morning according to the time), but I had to share these with you all too. It’s all about Essence Maintenance.

via: Highsnobeity

COMMONWEALTH CMON HAND TEE

I like to think I elevated past tee shirts. I’ll still do some fitteds with a polo and some nikes, or boat shoes. Mostly I stick to plain tees as of late. If I do get a tee, its got to say something, and I don’t mean a label name. It’s got to have a dope message. I was in Commonwealth and I ran across this and I loved the message, so I copped it. Side note, this is definitely one of the best spots to shop in DC.

via: Commonwealth

Junya Watanabe Cardigan

Never even heard of this brand, and I had kinda been off argyle for a minute, but the patches just make this kinda hot. Perfect for trying to maintain that effortlessly fresh look for work.

via: Highsnobeity

2424 Lofts in Adams Morgan

The real estate rush that took over DC the past few years really created some gems. This one is right in the heart of Adams Morgan along 18th street. I fell in love with these condos when I first saw some pictures on another site for a different unit. I recently got this notice in an email newsletter, found out its going for a cool 1.9 million. It was in pdf form so I had to shrink it down to get it on this blog. THESE PICS DO NOT DO IT JUSTICE, I URGE YOU TO FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW THE PICS AND LOOK AT THE REAL FLIER.

2424 Lofts Adams Morgan

via Fred Bates Real Estate

The Quarterlife Crisis:
Where do we go from here?

I always say that once I graduated college I felt like the world was my oyster. Sure I moved back home with my dad, but that was just temporary in my book, I was just going to do that long enough to pay off my loans and buy a house. I had a job that had the possibility of turning into a career. The job I had afforded me the luxury to be able to purchase the things I needed and wanted, and hey I even got these cool business cards from a prestigious company with my name on it, which was just the epitome of cool to me. After about two years, once the novelty of the business cards and the paycheck wore off, I began to wonder what was next. I mean two years had past, I was still living at home, I was unhappy with my job, and my days just became a monotonous routine, and I didn’t feel like I was on the path to anything different. To be quite honest I started to get depressed, I started to feel like something must be wrong with me as to why I was feeling that way. I felt like a lot of my friends and family were proud of me and telling me what a great job I was doing, why was it that I did not feel that way? Why was it that I felt like I had no clue where I was going with my life? One day I was talking with a group of my friends from college about this and I was surprised to find that a few of them felt the same way; it was at this moment that one of my friends said he thought he was going through his Quarterlife Crisis. I remember thinking what the hell is a Quarterlife crisis?

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Bread And Butter Volta Canvas Kicks

As we all know, I like keeping it fresh. I believe, with all my heart, that if you get to ingrained in the monotony of the 9 to 5 you will loose you’re essence and simply stop caring about you how you look. There is nothing wrong with looking dope at work, and don’t let anyone tell you different. And yes while it is true there is nothing wrong with looking good, I do not advocate going into debt or living beyond your means to look good…anyhow..I think these are kinda hot. A nice casual look that could be used for both work and grown up play.

via: Selectism
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5 Ways To Know You Are In The Rut.

As I said in the previous post of this series, falling into a Rut is extremely easy, but one is often well into the rut once they realize some form of change needs to occur. This list assumes that you have goals, not dreams, but goals. If you don’t have any goals then there really is no way you can be in a Rut. However, sometimes the goal is something as simple as coming up with goals or figuring out what you want to do. Everyone should have goals, be they health, spiritual, family, educational, financial, etc, everyone should have something they are working towards. No one is perfect, everyone has something they could work on, and thus everyone is susceptible to falling into the Rut. This list is definitely geared more towards people in my generation, thus I am mainly talking to 20 something professionals, however I welcome any other additions to this list to be added in the comments section, any additions, that don’t overlap will be appended to the list. Also, if you don’t want to leave a comment, additions can be emailed to M.Wanzer@IsIt5Oclock.com.

1. You can talk more about the new season of Entourage, True Blood, ANTM, or any other great TV show of our generation, more than you can talk about progress on one of your goals. I have begun to realize more and more that television is one of the major inhibitors to success and building wealth and independence. Americans spend an average of 151 hours a month watching television, which equates to about 5 hours a day. When you consider that we spend 8 hours a day at work, maybe 2 hours commuting and at least 6 hours sleeping, that average of 5 hours that Americans spend on TV can be greatly used to achieve goals.

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Drake – Best I Ever Had Directed by Kanye West

He definitely gets points for originality since he’s not just talking to some chic in a mansion or picking up some chic for a date in a hot whip, which could have easily been done for this song and would have been damn cliche. I definitely get why he released this one though..the females that like songs like this buy albums..I can’t lie though..I mess with this joint too, even though the radio is going to run it into the ground.

Drake “Best I Ever Had” from kwest on Vimeo.

via: October’s Very Own