CSotD: Doing more with less
Skip to comments
Dave Whamond's "Reality Check" cracked me up today, and the bit of dialogue at the bottom is more of an enhancement than is usual for marginalia.
And, once you know who they are, it gets funnier: A roomful of workaholics with their Smartphones out is as funny as an AA meeting with everyone clutching a glass of bourbon, while the idea of a headhunter infiltrating the group is even more hilarious.
As Homer Simpson would say, "It's funny 'cause it's true!"
There's always room for a few more workaholics in any business.
I've had jobs that I hated and I couldn't wait for the day to end. But much of what I have done has been work I liked. I once asked my younger son if he thought I was becoming a workaholic and he replied, "You mean to the point where it interferes with your social life?" and then started laughing.
But at least having the kids at home operated like a drag chute — knowing that I had to pick up a soccer player at 5:30, that there was a Parent/Teacher night, that dinner needed to be on the table, all these obligations kept work in its place, and maybe a single parent has an advantage in that respect. There's nobody to cover for you if you lose perspective and start putting the office above the home.
I had a boss for a number of years who was single and childless and devoted to the job, which was fine except that she openly resented, for example, my coming in an hour early so I could bail an hour early to catch a soccer game. It didn't show up on my performance reviews, but it showed up in snarky comments every autumn.
And then she got married and had a kid, and suddenly we had a toddler appearing in the newsroom periodically, and a mother disappearing periodically, and unfortunately I wasn't reporting to her anymore by that time so I got little benefit from the change in her viewpoint. But at least I was still with the company and got the chuckle.
But that was all back in a healthy economy, and the mantra of "we all have to do more with less" had not yet been etched in the marble over the door.
My next three jobs put me on salary rather than an hourly wage, and all three employers got their money's worth out of the deal and more. By then, the kids were gone and, no, it wasn't interfering with my social life.
And for two of the four bosses I had in those three jobs, I look back and don't even think of the hours, because, first of all, the work was fun and I was appreciated and, second, I'd usually see them there when I came to work in the morning and when I left that night.
For my two other bosses at those gigs, though, I look back and wonder what the hell I was doing it for.
In one case, I got fed up and walked out.
The other boss managed to sink the ship as soon as the waters got choppy, but, in the meantime, his two main instructions to me were to get more productivity out of my reporters and don't let them book any overtime. He never actually told me to have them falsify their time sheets. He simply wanted them fired if they weren't productive, and I think they knew this.
In both cases, looking back, I feel I was played for a fool, that there was no point in the hours spent, that I was trading my soul, not my time, for the paycheck.
That's a lousy legacy. In my case, maybe three years total, and bad enough. I can't imagine what it must be like to look back on 20 years and feel the same way. But I know that people do.
These days, I look at my age and the age at which I can add Social Security to my freelancing income, and then I look at www.journalismjobs.com and imagine myself back in the game. The thing is, they don't even pretend to be looking for balanced individuals anymore: The job descriptions would put off any sane applicant who saw the salary range and who understood the tasks being enumerated.
A friend was executive director of a national foundation, but retired a few years ago. Later, he took a job at Target simply to get health benefits while he waited for Medicare eligibility to kick in. He decided — wisely, I think — that he'd rather stock shelves than shorten his life in the hamster wheel of "doing more with less."
And I hear him.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
Comments 1
Comments are closed.