Now, I've seen some people around here that don't work, or that don't do real work, but does anyone really work nine to five? Not in America. Work, work harder, be inefficient and work longer, die. For the past eight years I've been working a rotating shift, seven days a week, at about ten hours a day. Holding on and holding out. Holding on for my next day or two off. Holding out for a regular job schedule and what comes with it: a pay cut, meetings, video and teleconferences, more meetings, and never seeing the sun when Eastern Standard Time returns. Is it any wonder why we, as a society, are so jacked up?
Stacking and re-stacking our beans. Rearranging our hill of beans. Having someone tell us our hill is all wrong and to fix our hill of beans. For what? At least on my other schedule I was home during the day. I could see my family for more than an hour, get in a ride here or there, do some stuff around the house. You know, all of the things that I'm working for. Please don't get me wrong, I don't want my old schedule back and at this point, I'm just happy to have a job, but whose idea was the forty-hour work week? And since when is forty hours not enough?
Someone needs to revisit this from the top down, until then we're all just a bunch of working schleps.
Geoff,
ReplyDeleteWelcome back to western civilization, where the 40 hour work is king. As a firm believer in democracy, I proudly state that I hate Kings - 40 hr ww included. I will let you borrow my copy of Tim Ferris' brilliant book, The 4 Hour Work Week. Nope, I have not figured out how to actually accomplish it, but it is a very interesting model for a better life. Something to aspire towards. Now, back to work.