Vacation

I read in the paper today that Americans take fewer, shorter vacations than anyone else in the world. Frankly, I haven't decided whether I'm outraged or proud. On the one hand, there's that "wow, what manly men we are! We never take breaks, we just work until we drop" thing. Sort of a work-ethic gone mad. You know you've been there. You've bragged to your friends about how busy/overworked you are. You've probably even tried to one-up your spouse with how hard you had to work this week. You know you have. We're Americans and we're proud of how hard we work.

But... There's also the slightly whiny voice that says "Howcum he gets a month off work, and I only get two weeks?" And now I find that the "corporate culture" is to work too many hours and never take a day off. Are we that scared of the next round of layoffs? Or are we trying to get ahead. Is it fear or ambition. Heck, I can't even answer honestly for myself. Can you?

The upshot of the article I read was that overwork is killing productivity. We are becomming a nation of overworked, underpaid, snarling, snapping grouches who never get anything done.

Hmmm.. I'll fit right in.

-Dave Reed