It’s not just Asia, my parents are from the 1950s, in an European country, and they had the same mentality. Money through hard work was the equivalent of a good life. Our holidays were never fun. No one knew what enjoying life is.

Going outside, getting some fresh air and exercise, and seeing friends/family/neighbors is a great treatment for depression

But long hours of private work/study and repetitive manual labor get in the way of that

And that it’s probably a lie, and even if it isn’t a lie he’s not doing it anymore.

I honestly feel like six hours of work in twelve hours is pretty good. I usually have about two hours of work a day. Rarely it will be a long grind stay on late to get things done day. It’s partially my own fault though since I could spread it out multiple days but it’s nice just logging in and fucking off the whole day since I finished my part the day before. I got a really good job where I’m not punished for getting things done early though. Once every month or two I’ll have a busy day like that and I have no issue joining a teams meeting with my boss the next day on my work computer to run through stuff with him while one of my personal computer monitors I’m playing a game on is plainly in view of the camera (L shaped desk). He knows he can count on me, I bust my ass when I need to, I’m generally available whenever, and if I tell him something is bullshit busy work he listens and runs interference when he can and when he can’t he sighs and says he knows and couldn’t stop it this time. I got pissed after spending 12 years at the same grind and it took me five different employers over the past six years to find a really great place to work. I’d follow my current boss anywhere he went and I’m fairly certain most of my 21 reports would feel the same about me. Their previous boss was apparently up their ass constantly. When I started I told them I don’t care what they do day to day as long as the work gets done and just add themselves to the calendar if they won’t be available at any point that day to reply to email or messages otherwise we’re all adults and I don’t care to babysit anyone just as much as I don’t care to be babysat. I also told them they aren’t required to work anything unless it comes through me. Apparently the teams productivity is through the roof compared to when I started almost two years ago but overall it’s very chill and folks seem happy.

That sort of thing was common at this shitty bank I used to work for. People would fart around and stretch out tasks just to spend more time in the office pretending to be at “work”.

Performative nonsense that drove me bonkers. Especially when I wanted to finish up a task so I can go home, and they’re hanging out at my desk bending my ear with small talk.

Exactly. I worked with a few people like this. Claimed to work 7-8 basically. I would see them drop for a hour at a time several times a day, be unresponsive for hours, and hardly get anything accomplished, and when it was, it was either broken or poor quality.

The brag isn’t what they think it is

They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Plenty of them are just liars. They’ll look you dead in the eye and tell you “When I was your age, I worked 29 hours a day and 10 days per week”.

Others simply don’t want to acknowledge that the nature of their “work” is play. Flying from party to party with their gaggle of C-level friends, wining and dining clients and patrons, getting a Bill Clinton style office break between angry calls to your junior managers to “work harder!”, playing Sim City or Factorio with a billion dollars in state money unconcerned with the end result because you already took out a big chunk as your share, golfing…

None of these assholes are doing manual labor. They’re all just schmoozing with one another and collecting a vig on the cash that passes through their hands.

“Who made this man a gunner?!”

Amateur! I haven’t stood up in so long my leg muscles have atrophied. I slowly have fused with my office chair. Obviously I never leave the building and only take 10 min micro naps as my body periodically shuts down, a weakest of my human form. I chose to occupy one entire floor of the building as my productivity lair, which has been secretly blocked off to avoid distractions. I only enter other floors when most employees are gone for the day, usually late at night. Typically to double check their work or scavenge for food.

I scare most of my coworkers, I think I’ve become something of myth? They gave me a name, I heard one scream “the Chairman is real!” as I crept up on him. He was working late that night as I creep around his cubicle wall. Anyhow I was famished, so I quickly knocked him out with a keyboard and dragged him back to my lair for a quick power lunch.

Someone is thinking about the shareholders!!!

Wife of previous British PM, not the current one

It’s a big club