Originally Posted by
Logen Ninefingers
I've worked in an office most of my life, taking holidays when my employer lets me, and coming back to thousands of e-mails....most of the time I would dread taking a holiday because of the stress involved, the stress involved in getting everything squared away before going, and the stress involved in cleaning up the mess upon return. The stress involved in the job in general.....sometimes I felt like my heart was trying to burst right out of my chest. Even the stress involved in getting to work....fighting through traffic on congested roads. If you work in a big city and your alternator goes on you, your car stops dead at the lights with a full line of traffic behind you....
I don't want to hear that working people are 'privileged', 'greedy', or 'selfish'. We are rats in a rat race, exhanging the days of our lives for money. Where I worked in South Auckland - when I was working there - you'd go down for a walk along the shore line & come to a park where beneficiary families were having picnics and riding around on bikes. Then I'd head back to my cubicle to work my afternoon away in order to get money to pay bills in order to live.
I don't want to hear that it's degrading or onerous that beneficiaries have to meet with case managers. What is degrading and onerous is going through 'performance reviews' year in and year out, reviews which are often just a stupid formality yet are a case study in corporate head f*ckery. My partner works her guts out for a big corporate and sometimes can't sleep at night during certain times of the year when the stress levels are at their greatest. I've seen her in tears over a performance review she felt was unfair. Trying to juggle times when we can take a holiday together is a mission in itself. We are exchanging our lives for 4 weeks of holidays a year. People are working their entire lives for the mirage of having a great life when they retire...when they retire they are broken and burnt out and facing ill health. Please don't tell me beneficiaries have it tough while the rest of us are 'privileged'.