Working Discretion

Do you ever wonder how some people can be so stupid as to write horrid things about their company, or their boss, and the put it on Facebook?  Or worse, write about something ghastly that they did and put it on UTube? 

The trouble is that we spend 80% of our waking hours at work so generally speaking we think about work, gripe about work and generally obsess about work a lot of the time.  I’ve tried very hard not to refer to my work except in the very broadest of terms.  And in case you are wondering about yesterday’s decision making traumas, I was actually talking about something else, it’s what we call a Red Herring in Mystery Writing Jargon.  Wink, wink.

It’s been a year and I have written about nature, diets, vacations, family, anecdotes and so on, it’s time to get Real.  It’s time to talk about work.

No, not my work, just work in general.

Do you realize how much time you actually spend at work, going to work, thinking about work, preparing lunches for work, fretting about raises, planning vacations around work, carpooling, arranging daycare when day care is closed.  And we do this from the time we enter the workforce full time, let’s say 22.  Currently we work for 43 years then, until the ripe old age of 65.  But wait, now our friend Harper is squeezing the old money belt to 67.  Hmm.  How does that make you feel?  Do you just shrug your shoulders and go “oh well”, or do you feel a burning in your stomach that slowly rises up the back until it reaches your neck and then your temples and pretty soon you feel like screaming “WTF”? 

Yep, that’s what I thought.  I had plans, baby, big plans.  I thought I saw the old sunset on the horizon and now the horizon has shifted out of view.  Dog’garn it all!  I spent 3 hours in the bank the other day working on my retirement plan and I just feel like socking it to old Harper & Co.  How dare they push our retirement ages back when they aren’t making shift themselves?  Really people, how come I don’t hear more yelling, screaming and kicking of feet?  Are you content to work 2 more years than you’ve expected all these years “to call it a day”?  

Somehow, I don’t think so.  There’s a storm brewing . . .