If you paid me the same to be a janitor, I'd take that trade any day of the week. I've been a janitor before and while the job is not fun and has some shitty (pun intended) days - overall I was a better human being not being stuck behind a desk for 10+ hours a day.
Unfortunately our economy is what it is, so you can only really be paid for non-physical work these days. Thus a lot of folks who are doing quite well on paper are struggling internally living a life that simply does not suit them.
It's weird to live your entire life knowing you were not built to do what you do day in and day out to pay the bills.
The janitor in my school was a relaxed guy in his late 50s. He was always joking and seemed to be quite satisfied with his job. All the children respected him - he was the guy you turned to when something was not working right, and he fixed it. He and his family lived on the school campus in a nice bungalow with a nice garden. His children also went to my school. While his salary certainly wasn't great, he did not have to pay any rent (the bungalow was owned by the city and came with the job), and the job was super secure. He was also the person who worked for the school the longest (since the school opened in the early 70ies), and was a walking history book.
In my previous job, we would regularly see a guy with a small truck delivering vegetables door-to-door during our lunch breaks. We all envied him. He was always smiling and whistling, while we were sitting miserably before our food, counting the minutes remaining before we had to go back into a hell of customer tickets and technical debt.
One of my job sites had an isle window overview of a couple acres of grassland. Whenever the grounds guy was mowing and rocking with his headphones guys would stop and watch him do a couple of rows.
I don't think people who never mowed yards as a kid would get it.
When people asked what I do in tech, I'd say "tech janitor".
I've always called myself a "cyber janitor." Same deal. I clean up tech messes that people higher than me make, so that they can take credit for how clean they are.
If you paid me the same to be a janitor, I'd take that trade any day of the week. I've been a janitor before and while the job is not fun and has some shitty (pun intended) days - overall I was a better human being not being stuck behind a desk for 10+ hours a day.
Unfortunately our economy is what it is, so you can only really be paid for non-physical work these days. Thus a lot of folks who are doing quite well on paper are struggling internally living a life that simply does not suit them.
It's weird to live your entire life knowing you were not built to do what you do day in and day out to pay the bills.
Gilded cages are rampant in our industry.