"Work to live", don't "live to work".
Or variants (e.g. I work to live, not the other way around). I see these quite a lot on "professional" people's dating profiles.
To me, this is incredibly infused with class privilege. The person using the phrase typically does not mean, "Work to live", but rather, "Work to have a good time when not working." The implication is always, 'I work so that I can earn enough money to afford my fun lifestyle". Because to them, "living" is not the simple act of continuing as a conscious entity in the world, but instead "having a lifestyle".
There are people in this world who really do work to live. They work because it is the only way to keep from starving to death. The only way to keep from being evicted from their homes and freezing to death in the streets. The only way keep the figurative wolves at bay. More to the point, there are people in this part of the world - what we call the "developed world" - and people in this country, the UK, who are in this state.
To me, "Work to live" sounds like, "Work to do your best to stay alive for another day/week/month". "Work to live" does not sound like fun, or a sign of a balanced, liberated lifestyle. It sounds like Hell, and it sounds like a version of Hell that is real life for too many people in this world.
I currently don't have a job. I would like one, and I would like one that gives me enough disposable income after paying for the essentials of life that I can enjoy the "life" that those "professionals" mean when they talk about "working to live". But a far more realistic situation is that, if I got a job, it would be minimum wage or thereabouts, and that in order to keep from starving and being evicted, I would have to work long hours. The only positives would be that (a) I was no longer completely at the mercy of the UK Government, and (b) it is easier to get a job once you already have one. But even though I spent most of my waking hours staying alive or doing work, I would not be "living to work" - work would not be the centre of or the reason for my life, it would just be a necessary thing to prevent myself from dying. I would work all those long hours, in a job I probably hated, just to have one more day on this planet, in the hope that somehow the next day would be better than those before it. Lots of people live such an existence already.
So, no, Mr or Ms professional person, you do not "work to live". You "work to fund the funtimes".
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