01
The job never actually ends at knock-off
An office bloke closes the laptop and it's done. You? The quote you didn't land, the invoice that hasn't been paid, tomorrow's job order — it all comes home in your head. Your body reads that as danger, and keeps the stress switch jammed ON. You clock off. It doesn't.
That's the engine idling in the driveway all night — and by morning, tank's empty and she hasn't moved an inch.
And here's what it costs: you're home every night, but ask the missus — you're never really THERE. The kids get the grunt. The family gets whatever's left of a bloke whose head never left the site.
02
Twenty years of “harden up” trained your body to never come down
Every tradie learns it day one: push through, don't whinge, she'll be right. Works at 25. But run any machine flat-out for twenty years without ever letting it idle down, and the off-switch seizes.
It's not weakness — it's the exact opposite. You got SO good at pushing through that your body forgot how to stop.
03
The stuff you run on all day keeps you wired all night
Iced coffee at five. Another at smoko. Energy drink to survive the arvo. Fair enough — you're empty, you reach for fuel.
But all that stimulant is still in your system at 10pm, telling an already-jammed switch to stay on. So you're cooked and wired at the same time — and tomorrow starts emptier, so you reach for more. Round and round.
04
Your body's repair shift never gets to clock on
Here's the one nobody tells you: sleep isn't rest — sleep is the SERVICE. It's when the body does its repairs, same as the ute every ten thousand k's. But reasons 1 to 3 mean you never drop into proper deep sleep — so the repairs never get done.
That's why everything hurts more than it should and heals slower than it used to.
And it's why the prentice keeps pace with you now. He's serviced nightly. You've been skipping yours for years.
05
You've been calling all this “normal”
Ten years of "just getting older." Ten years of "that's the trade." But a man can't fix what he keeps calling normal.
Meanwhile the maths you do at 2am gets worse every year — fifteen more on the tools, on four hours' sleep.
The blokes who walk off site at 65 on their own two boots aren't tougher than you, mate. They just stopped calling this normal before you did.
01
