40-hours a week

I’ve heard experts claim that people of our grandparents’ generation were defined by their careers. I find this statement objectionable on several levels.

This stereotype is often used to chastise us punk kids who jump from job to job in an attempt to gain better financial footholds in life. Back in the day employees were loyal to their company and stayed in the same job for 25 years. Kids today wouldn’t know loyalty if it took a big crap on their heads and wrote l-o-y-a-l-t-y in the still-steaming fecal matter. Whatever, yo. All this talk about employee loyalty is fine, but it lacks the proof of causality. Which faltered first, employee or employer loyalty? I, personally, don’t know as nobody has offered conclusive proof one way or the other.

When I dissect the 40-hour workweek I re-discover the impossibility of escaping the temporal impacts of a career. Here is a standard weekday:

6:00AM Wake up
6:30AM Leave for work
7:30AM-4:00PM Work
4:30PM-5:30PM Exercise
6:00PM-7:00PM Make dinner and next day’s lunch and clean up.
8:00PM-9:30PM Live. Chill. Enjoy family. Blog. Whatever.
9:30PM Get ready for bed
10:00PM Go to sleep

Crappy, huh. I have a whopping 90-minutes to chill with Sherry and Lori or do whatever I want to do. Sure I’ve got 48-hours of prime living time on the weekend, but subtract 18-hours of sleep, 2-hours of errands, 2-hours of planned chores (e.g., clean gutters, paint, wash whatever, etc), 4-hours of daily chores (e.g., cooking, brushing teeth, showering, etc). 48-hours rapidly dwindles to 22. On a weekly scale, work time weighs in at a respectable 50-hours (includes commute) while my time weighs in at a light 30-hours. I spend more quality time at my job with bosses & coworkers than I do at home with honey & kid. A ratio based on waking time reveals that my job defines 45% of who I am, family defines 27% of who I am, and the balance of my identity consists of chores. Now tell me that my career does not define me.

Finally, when people spend a good chunk of time performing certain duties, those duties are bound to shape their perceptions of the world. One of my first real engineering tasks was to calculate storm water rates and design sufficient drainage and storage facilities. One day out on the prairie lands east of Denver, storm clouds gathered and a spring storm ensued. Did I think, “Wow! What beautiful sensations, the cool rain, the distant thunder, the smells of wet sage, and the dim quarter rainbow off to the southeast.”? No. My thoughts followed a different path, “I wonder what the intensity, duration, and return rate are for this storm. I estimate this to be a 5-year, 30-minute storm.” Similarly, I’ve seen hairdressers pay more attention to hairdos at the mall then the merchandise at Hot Topic. I’ve seen paralegals analyze drama based upon legal precedent as opposed to emotional fallout. Work molds the way everybody perceives life. Work defines everybody.

Why does the claim persist that older generations were defined by their careers (which insinuates that my generation is not)? Perhaps society’s view of work has shifted. I dunno. This I’ll agree to: as a whole people view their jobs as a means to an end, nothing more and nothing less. People work to achieve and maintain a standard lifestyle. Our battle cry is, “Life begins at retirement.” and the sooner we can retire, the better. I have no love for my job… no hate, either. I’d cut off both pinky fingers if it would allow me to maintain my current lifestyle while forgoing work. Maybe, once upon a time, people did love their jobs and retirement was tantamount to identity castration. Call me crazy, but I would rather be wholly defined by my family, my hobbies, and a very large penis. Hey, I’ll even settle for two out of three. Unfortunately, my pinkies are still attached, my penis is still small, and work still defines 45% of who I am.
...and so it was written, shenry at 6/27/2003 02:40:00 PM.
...and so it was appended with .