tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post1153471348780530202..comments2024-03-29T04:06:37.402-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Is Work/Life Balance a Trap?Stuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-79175165429054891272015-05-11T05:25:26.559-07:002015-05-11T05:25:26.559-07:00"Surely, some jobs can be outsourced. But, wh..."Surely, some jobs can be outsourced. But, when you are working from home you are not on the path to higher management. You will not be forming the alliances with other people that are essential to executive leadership"<br /><br />Bear in mind that companies are increasingly spread all over the map (partly as a result of acquisitions) and many jobs involve a lot of travel. There are people who do not have an office that they come into every day when not on the road, but rather work from home or Starbucks during the 40% of the time they are not traveling..said work substantially involving talking to people...and when traveling spend plenty of time schmoozing with people in the various locations, though more likely over wine or beer than at the water cooler. It is expensive and unproductive to demand that these people have a base office in the traditional sense.<br />David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-56641254335961565482015-05-11T05:23:23.835-07:002015-05-11T05:23:23.835-07:00Speaking of whiners, John Oliver quotes that Ameri...Speaking of whiners, John Oliver quotes that America and Papua New Guinea are the only two countries that don't require paid time of for new mothers.<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIhKAQX5izw<br /><br />So "flex time" is nice but "flex paid time off" is an even higher perk!<br /><br />Like from our policy manual, I see the company I work for does have paid parental leave, two weeks for a man or a woman, not necessarily sequential, for a new birth or adoption, to be used within 3 months of the event. <br /><br />The only requirement is the person has to be employed for at least a year, while our old CEO used to joke that women hired would become pregnant within 6 months of getting hired.<br /><br />I admit I never understood the idea of "paid leave", at least beyond standard PTO hours which already seemed quite generous.<br /><br />On the gender divide, apparently male engineers as new fathers rarely take the 2-week leave, or only a fraction of it, or even if they take it, they'll already have maxed out PTO hours saved that stop accumulating.<br /><br />And on a nationality divide, there are a number of noncitizen engineers here, and some of them fly in one or both parents for as long as they can legally stay, and they have instant daycare after the two weeks.<br /><br />I guess that happens for less formally for citizen employees as well, just less dramatic since grandparents are free to travel on their own schedules.<br /><br />So anyway, I don't know about the trap of 2-incomes and work/life balance, but I think everyone will agree that the nuclear family is either not economical on 1-income for many, and not balanceable with kids on two incomes. So if your income is high enough, you get a nanny, and otherwise you be very nice to your mother or mother-in-law this time of year.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-49182817161077501622015-05-10T14:06:24.318-07:002015-05-10T14:06:24.318-07:00"Work-life balance" is yet another mantr..."Work-life balance" is yet another mantra that idiots hold to be self-evidently true, because they've been told their whole lives that their feelings are their truth. The rest of us are supposed to understand and accommodate. <br /><br />Such conversations avoid the topic of responsibility altogether. Even though work is a social activity, there is no reference to an objective standard when one elects to enter the workforce. That's because it used to be obvious, kind of like the owner's manual for your new lawnmower has to explicitly say (with pictures) that you're not supposed to touch the cutting blade while it's running.<br /><br />No, no, no... today's employer is supposed to replace the young person's parent and give them an allowance (now called a salary) for contributing to their new "community." <br /><br />This just in: Work-life balance can be whatever you want it to be, but it's your responsibility... no one owes you a living, and you don't deserve anything. Welcome to the real world. <br /><br />Work-life balance is a subjective choice that's been elevated to some new sacred, objective truth. And we're all supposed to just "get it" and let Johnny do whatever he wants so that he can be fulfilled. We've all met Johnny... he's they young man who says "you know?" at the end of every sentence. Kind of like President Obama.<br /><br />So where did they learn all this nonsense? From the people who fall over themselves salivating about Abraham Maslow's idea of self-actualization without noting that Maslow himself said very, very few people ever reach the pinnacle of his model. All this feel-good theory doesn't work well if it's not grounded in reality. <br /><br />It's not working, is it? Nope. Only on Oprah for an hour, with commercials. It's like religion without sin... it doesn't work. Existential choices demand sacrifice. Sacrifice is a foreign concept to today's youthful complaining class. <br /><br />Ya know?Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222603717128565302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-83806947300082655192015-05-10T10:22:39.708-07:002015-05-10T10:22:39.708-07:00There are certainly a lot of judgements here. I do...There are certainly a lot of judgements here. I don't have such clarity about our future to know how hard people should try to claw themselves to the top.<br /><br />And the path to managership is a good question. Do those who get promoted represent the best managers, or those who jump through the most hoops until they get their desired salary and then be a tyrant or bum, living off the work of others? <br /><br />I guess Dilbert and Catbert are bad influences on ambition for engineers at least. How much is status and salary worth when you're seen as incompetent and tyrannical, where your underlings need to learn how to manipulate you into doing what they want?<br /><br />Myself, I've been a computer programmer for an engineering company for over 15 years ago, and long with contract work, whatever titles I get (software engineer?!). I've been loyal, but prefer the chance to interesting projects to the chance to "herd cats" as my project manager likes to say.<br /><br />So I'm an Xer, but apparently with the millennials or whomever they are.<br /><br />If it was clear this world was moving to bigger and better things forever, you can get people to work hard, but it looks to me that we delayed a second great depression that isn't going to be fixed by millennials working harder so the Boomers can retire in style for a few more years. So for those who can get their flex options, no promotions, I'd call them smart, lazy whiners or not.<br /><br />It looks to me that the future is going to be something we're going to be muddling more than thriving, so learning to live well on a lower income, minimal debt is the best skill you can practice. If only I could trust these youth really could avoid debt, I'd feel confident about the future depression.<br /><br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-47723127560324429812015-05-10T08:19:02.963-07:002015-05-10T08:19:02.963-07:00He's certainly not on the management track, no...He's certainly not on the management track, nor the success track; being not at or even near the office makes him easier to forget, easier to let go. Out of sight, out of mind would appear to b a saying that Shaw does not know. Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.com