work sucks

I'm sure everyone has gripes about work, whether veiled or otherwise. I am generally quite content in my present position, but on weekends like this one, when a mountain of work is dumped on my lap on Friday afternoon and due on Monday, I might just let out a smidgen of discontent. So here are some interesting articles from reputable periodicals that you can print out and paste on your cubicle walls as a form of silent protest.

NYTimes talks about how Americans are too afraid they will lose their jobs to go on holiday.

“I never go on vacation,” said Ellen Kapit, a real estate agent in Manhattan. “And when I do, I have my computer, my Palm, my e-mail and my phone with me at all times.”
...
But even as the American vacation is dying, the anxiety surrounding it is surging, according to surveys of workers released in the last year. Employees are sweating over every aspect of their getaways, from whether taking time off dooms them to the want ads to whether the work they will face when they return will keep them from ever leaving their cubicles again. And if they finally do make their escape?
...
“There’s a large increase in the number of people who worry that they will lose their job,” said Ellen Galinsky, the president of the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit center for research on the American work force. In 1977, 45 percent of people felt truly secure in their jobs while only 36 percent have felt that way in recent years, she said, citing the organization’s surveys.

Please Don’t Make Me Go on Vacation, NYTimes, 10 August 2006

And TIME Magazine echoes the complaint that holidays are not really holidays. (Courtesy of Jed)

One of the top reasons given for not taking a vacation is that it's too much extra work. We have to get ahead of our workload in order to leave, and then we have to catch up on our workload upon our return. The longer the vacation we take, the bigger the stumbling blocks appear. So only 14% of Americans will take a vacation two weeks or longer this summer. Bottom line: it's simply become too stressful to relax.

Just Sit Back and Relax! TIME, 26 June 2006

Well, if you want to know what I think, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel. But some of the statements I made in an earlier post have found very strong support in both these articles. So at least I know I'm not the only one. Here is an excerpt:

My colleagues have evolved an extremely dangerous culture. That of staying back late in the office, whether or not they actually have real work to do. It is so prevalent to find people working till 9 or 10 at night, and I believe this is true of many other industries in Singapore, not just my own. But are these people really industrious, or just plain inefficient? Whatever the case, they are digging a hole for all of us, because if the expectation becomes to stay late in the office, especially on weekends, that will not do any good for anyone.

Work, Paddychicken, 18 June 2005

I'm sure we can all relate yeah? And clearly America is not the place to be either. I hear Australia is still pretty good though.