It's little old me from UK who commented before. Boy has this thread grown since I last chanced upon it!!

Even if you accept TS comparison of durians to durian puffs involving him and his friend, the qualitative aspects of his comparison still seems a bit skewed in TS's friend's favour.

Firstly, TS's friend (TSF) works in a GLC, if I remember correctly. GLC is inherently more stable and provides greater job security than a job in an SME. When the economic shits hits the reality fan, I know where I would rather be.

Also, the TS prefers a decent work-life balance. I've no problem with this- life is already too short. But TS wants to lobo in the private sector in an SME! If you want to lobo, why not lobo in public sector and enjoy the supremely greater job security and have loads of leisure time?? For example, I remember a neighbor who was a teacher. Every day, he would arrive home before me (i do CCA, etc) and cycle around the neighborhood. He sibei carefree, I think he heck care CCA, extra classes, marking homework seriously, just lobo and wait for retirement.

Perhaps a viable option for TS? Remember TS's boss is paying him a fixed salary but does not seem to want to maximise TS's working hours by farming him out for contracts as much as possible i.e. longer hours for TS.

Crudely, this indicates business is not exactly booming or boss doesn't try very hard in expanding his client base? Either way, if I was paying someone a fixed monthly wage and I can make more money by working him/her as much as possible everyday.

I'm perhaps making one too many suppositions and assumptions above. But this is what happens when one tries to make holistic comparisons. IMHO, we are selling our time for $, so comparing the absolute amount earned per year/month makes sense. We each have 24 hrs in a day after all. Sure absolute amount might not be the whole story, but it's a simple way of comparison. Why do you think football is decided by the goals scored?

If you want to make a comparison, then one should try to make it as holistic as possible. Examples presented so far assume that we work for only 1 year / 1 month, fail to take account of job security and other factors.

Lastly, this whole thread arose out of TS's friend haolian-ing to TS. TS tabulek tahan, shot back a counter-argument which paints a fuller picture (but still ignores other significant considerations. ) TS then felt the need to holler his thread which I think didn't go down well. All working folks are acutely aware that we are selling time for $, our choice of job is in the end a personal choice , crystallised from a consideration of a myriad of factors.

In other words, calculate salary must also calculate hidden cost must also calculate hidden benefits must also calculate the inherently unquantifiable aspects of work ( joy of working with like-minded people, meaningful work, stress, inspirational boss, career arc, )