I work but have never worked full time. Is that normal?

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I've worked in the same job for 7 or 8 years and my contract is still I think 10 hours. Before this job I wasn't in any other paid work. I did do some voluntary work for a year before starting university. I still get those occasional thoughts where it feels good to be working and a sense of contribution to society and it makes me look back at times like my late teens or early 20s when I wasn't really in any paid job and wishing I did it earlier knowing how I feel now as a working person.

I also seem to feel as though I'm not particularly interested in rising through the ranks or going up the ladder but I seem to feel that that is maybe what some people of my generation or younger want to do from being a barista to being a business manager. I seem to feel "bad" because I'm not by now working full time and feel like everyone else is.

To be honest, you never having worked full-time isn't necessarily a bad thing - especially if you have a good solid job as a contractor (and especially if it's paying your bills and you enjoy doing it).

Now, should you ever have to get full-time employment, it will probably be hell trying to adjust to 40-hour work weeks. I've been doing it since becoming a legal adult, and even 24 years later I'm still not too fond of it (but then again, I keep getting jobs that I'm not built for - but only because the jobs I AM built for aren't the kinds of jobs you find on job-listing sites, because you usually have to know people in the entertainment industry and know how to try and market yourself to them).

As for the mentality of everyone seeming to think they have to climb a ladder, I have my own speculation on why that is. First and foremost, I think it's about the money; generally speaking, you'd have to climb to authoritative positions to see more substantial wages that may make the cost of living less of a burden - at the expense of you now having a deeper commitment to the company you work for. I doubt that TOO many people are trying to earn their way up the ladder because they actually aspire to be in a leadership position (though there are, of course, some who do). I think it's also encouraged in society, because many people get the misguided notion that they're a nobody until they have some kind of title beside their name.

But no - even if it's not normal to never have worked a full-time job, if you love what you do - and it's paying the bills - THAT's the part that matters most.