Plan B

Well, I was supposed to be either in Denmark or close to it by now, but a good friend of mine, call him george, had some car problems and was unable to make it here today. Bummer. So I burned a vacation day, as an american dude, I am pissed about that, cause those days are like gold. Heck we come to work in the states with 3rd order respiratory influenza just so we don't have to use that PTO!!! That is the common joke, that the Dutch like to bring up, "the how many days off do you get in cleveland?" thing. Yeah, it is a on the thin side, not sure what legal mandates arose here in this part of the world that gave the workers such large, comparatively, amount of holiday time. This has been a big problem for me since the beginning of my Marconi experience 5 years ago. I think the system is flawed of course but what is the solution? That is a bit more difficult than simply bitchin' about the lack of PTO. Forget the P, how about UP, unpaid?UPTO, I think many americans would use this option if HR departments were more open and friendly to the concept of a satisfied employee. For the last year, I took only 2 or maybe three days of personal time. That for my history of work is extremely low and bordering on insanity!!! Not sure how this came to be, but regardless of the fact, I am now at the point where I have been told by the HR here that I only have roughly two weeks of personal time. Not sure how the calculations work, oh, yeah, and I took one week off work before I left for here, to clean my apartment and get things in order, hardly what I would call personal time spent resting? I think I need to speak with some management guys to this point. It just hit me now how I will approach it. Regardless, the point still exists, there has to be some happy medium in this area. People need time away from work, time spent, maybe with family, reading a book, creating art, fixing a broken backyard fence, whatever. Work hard-Play Hard, is how I live my life. Two weeks, is an insult! I love my work, but you must take a break, longer than 10 days away from work. Again I am not sure where this serfdom mandate became a standard. How did it work when people were farming the land? There was no time, right, because no technology existed to faciltate the chores of life. I thought one of the benifits of technology and modern civilization was to incorporate the concept of human rest, chill time? My friend with the bad car, works like 20 hour days, killing himself with his own business. Yeah, it is rewarding, he can live as he wants, the choices are his to make, but industrialization of the world has a bit of social baggage, no? (not talkin environmental here) Maybe that is the Protestant work ethic and the spirit of captalism at work, and I just don't realize it? If so, once understood, solutions could begin to be presented to counter as a solution to the current format of personal time for employees. Drawing a huge generalisation, warning, just a generalisation warning, but Protestants are what I would call the first work-aholics. We know that the U.S. has a strong Protestant or "Christian" back bone and the beginnings of the country were influenced by sorts from this flavor. Is it possible that this Protestant or work ethic is the driving force for the U.S. broad based HR policy of 2 weeks of personal time? What is frightening is that most emerging markets are employing this same policy for there workers? Is this true or no? Not sure, but I have heard murmurings to this sort. If so, with the ever encroaching imperialistic tendencies of the Cheney world order would it not be possible that all societies employ workers to this same standard?
All of us, if given the time, money and balls could start our own business, and one day after blood sweat and tears could maybe take some time.
Before I digress to much and get lost in my thoughts, I simply am advocating a stronger policy toward UPTO, unpaid personal time off. Ok, i am done ranting, time for a bier.
ciao