Having to Work
January 16th 2008 08:22
One of the major difficulties older people like myself face is that of trying to inculcate into younger people (and not necessarily just twenty-somethings) what it means to do an honest day’s work. People from the late teens to the late thirties and sometimes even older, seem to think that being paid for a job means you turn up, and later in the day, go home. What you do in between times is an irrelevancy.
Sure, some of them work when pushed, such as when a customer requires their attention (and the manager happens to be looking on), or when the phone is ringing or an urgent email has just arrived, or a patient needs attending to. But the idea of finding work when work isn’t finding you is beyond the reach of some people’s understanding. Surely that’s the time to twiddle my thumbs (figuratively) by reading the paper, or a magazine, or playing on the Internet. Going off and doing those annoying tidying-up jobs? Come on, I’m not paid to use initiative!
On a slightly different but still related tack, you have to wonder how those young men, the first borns of families with pedigrees, got on if they weren’t of a mind to work hard at what landed in their laps. To some of them, primogeniture must have been a burden rather than a blessing. Certainly benefits came with the ‘job’. They inherited everything, but that also meant they inherited the hard work. And, like the young millennials of today, they must have often thought: I’m sure I wasn’t born to work this hard!
This is another of my posts with words in them that need 'finding.' Today's post has two less-commonly used words to find.
Sure, some of them work when pushed, such as when a customer requires their attention (and the manager happens to be looking on), or when the phone is ringing or an urgent email has just arrived, or a patient needs attending to. But the idea of finding work when work isn’t finding you is beyond the reach of some people’s understanding. Surely that’s the time to twiddle my thumbs (figuratively) by reading the paper, or a magazine, or playing on the Internet. Going off and doing those annoying tidying-up jobs? Come on, I’m not paid to use initiative!
On a slightly different but still related tack, you have to wonder how those young men, the first borns of families with pedigrees, got on if they weren’t of a mind to work hard at what landed in their laps. To some of them, primogeniture must have been a burden rather than a blessing. Certainly benefits came with the ‘job’. They inherited everything, but that also meant they inherited the hard work. And, like the young millennials of today, they must have often thought: I’m sure I wasn’t born to work this hard!
This is another of my posts with words in them that need 'finding.' Today's post has two less-commonly used words to find.
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