Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Golfhaus]

really? I have been told by so many people that we're lazy and everyone hates us for this.

America routinely ranks down around the level of the Borg as far as time off for work. The "workaholic" Japanese get almost twice the average vacation time that we do. Hell, the Italians get practically a whole damn season off.

I've worked at my job for eight years next February. I will finally get a third week in 2008.

[KeithHernandez]

Yeah, Americans spend a lot of time reading blogs at work, I think that is the problem.

Screw today, RIGHT fuck*ng NOW I am going to get drunk as shit at one of my friends concerts while dressed like a hobo.  Drink of choice?  Thunderbird.  Hey, I just got to get in character.  (this is the second year in a row I have gone as a hobo.  Slightly ashamed.  No one from this year was there last year though, except the close friends I will be going with.)

[jaydub]

We work hard, and we work long hours, according to the linked report.  Its from a UN organization, the International Labour Organization, which may mark the first time I've seen something useful come out of the UN.

[linnea]

OH GOD.

As you party people might know, I just got my first brand-new car on October 16. I got a letter today from the fuck*ng bank. Because of my credit Problems, they will only finance me for $2,570 LESS THAN WHAT I PAID FOR THE fuck*ng CAR. WHAT THE FUCK.

I don't know how I'm going to scream my way out of this, but jesus fuck, this is really scary. I do not have $2,570 just kickin' around right now. It's not like they'll let me return a brand-new car to the dealership after I've put 414 miles on the damn thing and say, "Sorry it didn't work out for ya!" They are going to want blood.

[Doc]

Yeah you American's are nutty, I get my four weeks a year plus ludicrous amounts of public holidays. Being part of the commonwealth ain't all bad y'know.

Also Linnea: That's some major shit, you got any peeps that can lend you the dosh before the car-guys come over to knee-cap you?

[jaydub]

I'm puzzled that the car company let you drive it off without the bank saying all was kopacetic.  If the bank came back to you later saying, "You know what, we changed our mind - we're stiffing you for $2750" that sounds like, I dunno, it should be illegal or something.

[V-Adore]

Yeah, I was about to say, is that even kosher? I always assumed that, once financing came through and you actually, you know, drove the car away, the matter was pretty much settled. Can banks actually just be like "ha ha, psych!!"?

[Lister]

36 hours down, 36 hours to go this week.  And I don't get paid vacation.

Gotta love dream jobs!

[Doc]

36 hours down, 36 hours to go this week.  And I get paid in giant gold bars and naked women.

Fixed that for you. You work in mining/energy related industry in alaska right? This is what I am given to understand about remuneration in that industry.

[V-Adore]

I believe that's Nabubrush, unless there's some clever name-changing or multiple-oil-worker-ing going on here.

[Doc]

ech, indeed it is.
Apparently finally going back to the gym has destroyed my mind.

Lister works on a mining barge in *space* right?

[littlefallsmets]

I think we're unproductive because we don't get enough time off.

We work so much that we don't really actually work all that well, as a nation.

We're so overworked that we just... spend most of our time at our jobs fantasizing about not working, about winning the lotto, about trying to find just five stolen minutes to look at pictures of sexy ladies in states of undress to kill the pain of workin'.

I firmly believe that in 99% of people working in the world, if you give them the same money to work 40 hours in 35 instead? They're gonna do better work and probably more work.

We're made for sittin' under a shady tree and pulling our heads together when it's too hot.

For chattin' with each other while we pick fruits and berries.

For quietly bullshitting in the four hours you gotta wait for the goddamn mammoth to show up.

We ain't made for this bullshit. The apes that are our closest cousins spend a lot of their time pickin' at their skin, yapping with each other, sleeping and trying to fuck. We were not designed for all this goddamned work.

Don't let the bastards tell you any different.

[jay-ell]

I firmly believe that in 99% of people working in the world, if you give them the same money to work 40 hours in 35 instead? They're gonna do better work and probably more work.

Pedro's company agrees with you.  Their work week is 35 hours (and the pay is competitive), they get 3 weeks vacation and unlimited sick days.  (They figure -- if you're sick, stay home, do not come to the office and infect the rest of us.)  They also occasionally get bonuses in the form of extra time off.  E.g., "You met your big deadline so you get half a day off this week." 

Very European, I hear.  This is why it's so hard to get in to this company -- you basically have to wait for somebody to retire or die. 

This is why, when Pedro told his mom he got a job there, she Wept for Joy.  At last, her son had Arrived. 

This is also why he's not around the board much any more.  He's actually *working* when he's at work.  So -- clearly, the system works. 

[wombat]

I think we're unproductive because we don't get enough time off.

I agree. I think most people only have so many hours of work that they can do in a day. And that same amount of work just spreads out to fill the whole day, however long you are forced to be there.  And if you don't get enough time off to be well rested, then that amount of work gets smaller and smaller spread out thinner and thinner.

[Doc]

One interesting benefit that you Americans do get though which isn't common in this country (and I don't think many others) is company-paid health insurance. In theory people in my country shouldn't need this because we have government funded hospitals (though many people also have insurance and recently the government has been pushing this) but it would be interesting to see what people would trade off in exchange for this benefit.