The Perversion of the Modern Work Ethic

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, received praise for ONLY working from 9:00 - 5:30.
Apparently, she is a "time deviant," according to the article. How dare she leave early??!!
The article praises her for being so brave in this modern world where getting ahead means putting in extra hours and being constantly available.
While I am glad they praise her for not working even more than she already does, they ought to be castigating her for working as much as she does and excoriate society for its unrealistic expectations of the modern workforce.
What are we, slaves??
Are we owned?
Since when is it written that we have to put in 80 hours a week and be accessible 24/7 in order to be considered a competent employee??
Is this Korea, for god's sake!?
We are losing our humanity in this insane rush to be the biggest and best at everything.
For anyone who wants to put in that much time because it fulfills that person, I say, "Bravo!"
But to expect it of everyone?????
Hail no!
Perhaps I am showing my age or maybe you will think me lazy, but I believe in working smart, not hard. I am NOT my job, even though I may love what I do. When I go home, I leave my job at my job.
I am a human being, first and foremost, and as such, realizing that time is always slipping away and that life is short, I try the best I can to enjoy it as much as I can. Work does not constitute the sum total of my being.
I do not think everyone should be made to think thus. It is up to each of us as autonomous entities to decide for ourselves what kind of life we want to live.
Ahh, but this is fast becoming a fantasy. If we want to "compete" in the "modern world," then we must do as the Asians do. They work 100 hours a week, so we must follow suit, lest we fall behind.
Do I want to be a part of a world in which no one has personal time anymore and they are expected to spend every waking moment at their company's beck and call?
NO GOD-DAMNED WAY!!!!!!


The older I get, the more my Frenchness seems to be slipping out!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Middle-Aged Man and Dr. Martens: A Love-Hate Story

Image
I first learned about Dr. Martens in 1992, when my friend Matt, who was cool as all get-out, was wearing a pair on campus at the small college I was attending in New Hampshire. The shoes were Docs, the 1460s, kind of shiny, and not the boots. When I got the chance, I had a pair of my own. Wearing Docs fit in with my developing darker persona in the early-to-mid '90s. I wore mostly black, listened to the Sisters of Mercy, wore an old Army-Surplus field coat, and was pissed off at the world. Living in Boston, and living without a car, I walked everywhere. The city streets are rough on footwear, and my jobs always required a lot of time on my feet, so the Docs were great! --Once I had them broken in. As a teacher, I liked that they were tough and comfortable and fit well with my lifestyle as a young ESL teacher on the make (if an ESL teacher can ever be said to be "on the make"). Then I moved to Fiji, and Docs did not work in that environment at all. They quickly molde
Read more

My Experience Owning Two Scottish Terriers

Image
This morning, I was reading an interview with a Scottie breeder. She was going on about how Scotties are very independent and are certainly NOT lapdogs. She said they are likely to be aggressive towards strange dogs and that they hate to be treated with condescension. Apparently, my Scotties are not really Scotties. Maybe my evil plan worked: I bought them as wee puppies and brought them home to a family of Malteses, six Malteses, to be exact. I reasoned that this environment would teach my Scotties how to behave in a more Maltese fashion, and it worked! For starters, they are very much lap dogs! They love to lie on me or very near me, and they love to get rubbins and snuggles, just like my Malteses did (before the ex took them to FL). They are very friendly with other dogs, which is rather unlike my Malteses, actually. And they are quite well-behaved, generally speaking. My Scotties are not typical, then, except for a few factors: First, they do not listen very well, espe
Read more

Rage against One Machine by Way of Another

Image
Life in middle management has been an oft-times bitter pill to swallow. Increased responsibility, longer hours, and dealing with more headaches--all while not getting a raise in salary ("lateral move," they said)--all contribute to a serious sense of unease, bordering on despair. Suffice't to say that the past year has been more stressful than I have had to deal with in over a decade, and it has left me feeling increasingly unhappy, angst-ridden, outraged, and just plain demoralized. Lately, and on an increasingly more emphatic scale, I have been looking towards my one and only real outlet for my frustrations: riding my motorcycle. I've ridden more than in years, I have formed an ad hock group of riders/motovloggers for a yearly meetup, I've bought a new motorcycle, and I've wrapped the "biker lifestyle" around myself like a blanket to defend me from the cold. After the bike purchase, I got myself a new jacket, new boots, a Harley biker wallet, c
Read more