On Thu, Mar 10, 2005 at 11:38:01PM -0500, Steven Buehler wrote:
>
> On Mar 10, 2005, at 10:45 PM, Paul M Foster wrote:
>
> >I don't believe hard or long work ever hurt anyone, and I don't believe
> >Americans are overworked, even if they do work more hours. European
> >workers are trying to live in that socialist paradise their leaders
> >have
> >been telling them about, and it's not working.
>
> >I think the real problem isn't hard work. It's being _forced_ to work
> >hard by an economic system that's been geared to penalize production.
> >You used to be able to have a single bread-winner in a home and have a
> >comfortable life. Those days are long gone, because our government(s)
> >taxes us at a crushing rate. If it weren't for the ability of the
> >American free market economy to innovate (and improve productivity),
> >the
> >U.S. would have become Mexico long ago. Tax cuts inevitably produce
> >improved growth, productivity and investment for obvious reasons.
>
> The push to produce more and more with less and less is definitely
> damaging to people, and by extension the economy. My manager had his
> first major heart attack at the age of THIRTY-TWO due to the stress
> load he had to endure in his position. He finally learned how to tell
> people "No". He is one of very few (I mean VERY few) managers in our
> company that do NOT have a pager, cell phone, and/or fax machine to be
> instantly contacted. I envy the guy. I look at the group that I work
> in and note that we're doing about ten to twelve times the volume of
> work we used to do with about half the people we started with.
You've just pointed out the real problem. It's not the work. This
manager finally learned to say "no" and disconnected himself from being
on call 24 hours. Guess what? The company survived. What if other
managers did the same thing?
It's the stress that kills people, not the work. Whether you stress or
not about work is your call, but also your responsibility. If you walk
around that uptight about things, don't expect to avoid ulcers, heart
attacks and strokes.
But let's say that your company fosters this sort of frantic angst about
production. Again, it's your choice to work there or not. But if you do,
you need to realize that if you agree to the stress, you're setting
yourself up for problems. It's not the work, but the stress about the
work.
Millions of entrepreneurs work 80 hour weeks every year in this country
(myself included), and don't have the same stress you're talking about.
They're in charge of their own destiny, and they don't worry about the
boss firing them. On the flip side, retirees die at an unbelievable rate
when they have nothing (no work) to do.
It's not the work. It's the stress.
Paul
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