On Point On Slacking

Wellington Grey writes "This week the NPR show On Point has an excellent episode exploring slacking and the American work ethic. (note that it's audio) It touches on some issues that may be of interest to geeks such as outsourcing, the church of the subgenius and the eternal conflict between wanting to be a lazy bum and wanting to work hard. What do slashdotters think: does America need more slack or more work?" It is summer vacation after all, right?

Comments

Europeans

[digitalamish]

Funny, but I am in the process of trying to figure out how to schedule the work I need to get done this summer around my european counterparts 8 weeks of vacation. Eight weeks, not including holidays! Funny, they never get labeled as lazy.

Re:Europeans

[DigitalRaptor]

My friend just got back from a 10 day business trip in China, and he had one piece of advice:

"Learn to speak chinese, because these people are going to take over the world!"

It's not the Europeans we have to worry about, it's the Chinese and the Indians (from India, not the reservation!) that are going to rule the world.

They aren't "held back" by the same morality and environmental issues we are. When they want to build the largest dam in the world (which is an engineering marvel that will put out as much electricity as 15 nuclear power plants combined), they just do it, and don't worry about the environmental, social, or historical implications.

China has 35 people for every one of ours, so they could invade with nothing but chopsticks and probably win. But they also have huge natural resources and are progressing very, very fast. Their navy will be as big as ours by 2012 (though not as advanced).

Be afraid, be very afraid. (I say that only partly in jest)

Oh, yeah, and they're bringing the bird flu with them... :}

Re:Europeans

[no reason to be here]

They aren't "held back" by the same morality and environmental issues we are. When they want to build the largest dam in the world (which is an engineering marvel that will put out as much electricity as 15 nuclear power plants combined), they just do it, and don't worry about the environmental, social, or historical implications.

It's exactly that type of attitude that will keep them from succeeding. They cannot continue to abuse their native population without reprecussion. There WILL be an uprising, which will cause more than enough instability to take them down a few rungs of the super power ladder. It might not happen tomorrow, or even in the next decade, but it will happen.

The environmental problems, well, that partly goes along with abusing the population. The people will get tired of having to blow all of the soot out of their nose first thing in the morning; people will continue to get pissed when they're forced to move because a regions about to be flooded by a huge hydro-elctric dam. And sooner or later, some big project is going to result in some sort of ecological disaster which the gov't there won't be able to cover-up and ignore.

Of course, regardless of what happens in China and India, the US is going down the tubes.

Re:Europeans

[Overzeetop]

US standard issue is 2 weeks plus between 1 and 2 weeks of "sick" leave. 3 weeks total if you're employer has changed to PTO (personal time off, a way to reward healthy singles and childless couples). Most employees in larger (>50) companies can earn more vacation with seniority, about a day extra per year, which adds up to 1 week to the base 2 weeks. There are exceptions, of course, on both extremes, but that's about the typical here. It allows a week's holiday and the odd three-day weekend. Not enough, imho.

Me? Oh, I get zero paid days off. I run a small engineering firm, and when I'm not at my desk (and not reading /., of course ;-) I'm not getting paid a single cent. Actually, I get negative pay, since I have to pay rent, insurance, and power bills even when I 'm not making money. The difference, I suppose, is that I can blow of a half an hour of work on /., and know how much it really cost me. I also make more, per hour, when I'm actually working, than my salaried counterparts. (Note: I still don't get paid enough, imho, but hey - that's life.)

Re:Europeans

[Tom]

They aren't "held back" by the same morality and environmental issues we are.

We used to be that way, too. Not 100 years in the past, more like 50.

I'm sure the chinese will follow a similar pattern. Sure they will be a huge force in the near future, probably stronger than the US in both economics and military power and very close to the EU (which is still growing in number of participating nations, remember). But even as a strong force, they will start to feel the impact themselves. The dam will be built, but they probably won't build a 2nd one once all the shit hit the fan. Anyone remember the Nile dam? When it was built, it was a marvel of engineering, too. Today it is widely regarded as a bad idea and if it weren't for the fact that Egypt needs the electricity, there would be talks about tearing it down.

All good things are due to slackers

[paiute]

One day a gang of energetic citizens was diggin a trench with their hands, but a slacker said "That's too much work" and went off and invented the shovel.

Time passes. Hard-working men are digging a canal with shovels. A slacker stayed home one day and invented the backhoe.

Etc.

Eli Whitney? Slacker. Too lazy to lift a flail.
Fulton? Too slack to row.
Edison? A slacker with good a good PR department.

Re:I say this while posting before work

[sckeener]

I've found that in all of my jobs there are people willing to work and do their job and their are people who will just do what they need to get by.

Interesting. Are you saying people should do more than they should be paid to do? Personally I subscribe to work smarter, not harder. I find that people that are preceived as working hard do well.

My dad was a workaholic. He was a lawyer in the morning, fixed computers in the afternoon and worked on mainframes at NASA during the night. (He believed what the Navy told him...i.e. that he only needed 4 hours of sleep.)

My parents got a divorce after 24 years. 24 years sounds nice except I was 14 and I have to wonder if I and my mother would have had a better relationship with my dad if he had just cut back on the working....been around the house more.

Then there was my father-in-law. He's dead now. He worked multiple jobs too to take care of the family (3 daughters.) He died at 47 from colon cancer. His big plan was to retire and enjoy life.

Personally I'd rather see less GNP and more GNH (Gross National Happiness) Working hard should never be a goal. Working smart and being happy should be.

Interesting

[smcdow]

I had occasion recently to travel with the president of the company I work for to attend some meetings (bleah). After the meetings, over a beer, he asked me what I thought of him taking the entire company (~100 employees) to a mandatory 30-hour work week.

My twofold response was:

1. Sign me up.
2. You won't notice a drop in overall output (ie, perceived productivity would go up).

He agreed with me on point #2.

It remains to be seen if he will go through with his nefarious plan. I sure hope he does.