Can Wives Shorten Work Hours?
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Or spouses in general, to be fair to all. I saw this piece that commented on long work hours and that spouses withholding attention, love, whatever, might help to reign in those crazy work hours.
I guess it depends and I know that finding a balance between home life and work is a hard thing to do, and it's a very personal thing. You have to really work at it and make those tradeoffs that work for your family. I know that executives are sometimes in a different situation than most of the rest of us, but it does seem that with people in technology, there is this tendency to work any and all hours, treating many situations as a crisis that has to be resolved immediately.
I know it's not just technology, doctors, lawyers, and other professions seem to attract and require long hours for success. Starting young, with no family, it's easy to get sucked into long hours, trying to "outwork" the next guy and get ahead, get more experience, show that you are a great employee. And with that build up a good salary, get yourself set for life. I know I've often seen younger people try to get ahead at the expense of those with families because they're willing to work more.
Perhaps that's just the nature of the beast, and I know that we do need people like that. Those that work the extra hours, that spend more time on problems, are more devoted, are often the ones that really can drive a business forward.
But lots of people contribute to success and can make a difference. Not always with long hours. There are lots of people that put family and downtime at a higher priority than work and their careers. Not that they are less professional, or that they are less valuable, but they have their own agendas and their own lives to live. A good manager, a good leader, will work with those people's strengths and use them to the best advantage of the company without requiring them to work crazy hours and be connected all the time. Something that would likely drive them away.
Most professionals will stay late, pull the all-nighter, really help out when it's needed in a crisis. Just don't ask them to do it everyday.
Steve Jones
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"Behind every great man...."
I keep coming back to this everytime - telecommuting is such a perfect solution that I cannot see why more companies do not offer this to their employees...specially women (since they are better at multitasking than men - fact, not opinion...)
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
Looks who making sexist comments now...
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Remi - you don't read carefully enough - I did qualify by saying that it is a "fact" (proven) - not my personal opinion!
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
Seeing you two fighting it out reminds me of something... Heh heh
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Yup but this can be interpreted is any women is better at multitasking that man.
But just now, while I'm typing this, I'm listening the news on tv, music on the radio and the canadian pool chanpionship in the top corner of my screen. And to resume peeps die on the news, music is good today (holiday stuff) and my guy is winning
.I've known girls who can't even concentrate enough to chat on the net.
PS I've read the same study and know it's a fact
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Alas, nature is not symmetric.
Millions of years of evolution optimize for reproductive success, and the skills and behaviors that best achieve (or have in our history achieved) that differ between the genders. (of course no gender has monopoly on any particular behavior or attribute).
In the original link, some of the comments seemed incensed that the language was not absolutely gender neutral (though a gender reversed Lysistrata really seems absurd), but while there are many women who do (at least while single) work the long hours, a good majority will not stand for a job trampling too much on the time with the children, while far more men are will not make that stand (and live to regret it in later years).
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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Jay - gender reversed Lysistrata (LOL) is absurd indeed - kinda like digging your own grave that....
As for men being workaholics (more men than women ie) - I think it's mainly because most want to escape from their homes...
facetiousness aside, it's a catch 22 - women want to work w/out neglecting home and hearth so end up being not as "visible" as men so less pay, less promotions, less skill upgradations are all a natural outcome of this..the man has to compensate by working harder & longer hours lest he lose his job which keeps the bread buttered and sometimes makes the bacon affordable too....
ps:As for no gender having monopoly on any particular behaviour or attribute - I completely (but respectfully) disagree.....don't get me started on this one - men are definitely from Mars.....
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
Well, wives (women) can reproduce and create more hands; more hands less work; less work, shorter work hours.
Yes, women can shorten work hours.
Unless you are asking if the women's social collective can bring a global bill to the various parlaments / congresses and then change the work hour to less than 60 minutes.
: LAdies try for 45 minutes .. less commericals... I would suspect.Then I'd assume so, given there are more of them planetarily speaking. Though, one would then expect more women in global leadership roles.
And again its sounding like steve is trying to get the wife to agree to a getting a bigger tv, or get her to write his esp's. Hook me up too if you can.
Who wants to raise kids when you spend all day looking for mostly ghost macro-patterns in event id errors logs.
have a great weekend everyone.
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My two cents:
I know here we have it somewhat good. All of IT puts in tons of hours and it seems like new projects never end and old projects are never done either here. My bosses are pretty good though as we are allowed to take approved comp. time from time to time. I have only worked in one IT shop so I don't really know a whole lot about other companies, just what I have heard through the grape vine. My wife wants to always take vacations but I look at them as more stressfull than just staying home. Driving for hours with the kids and then getting back rushing around to catch up on everything.... This spring we tore down our almost useless deck and had a very nice brick patio put it. We have plants and flowers all around and all new outdoor furniture with a small water fountain and a small fire pit. We have spent almost every night out there with a fire and citronella candles for hours on end just talking... it is very stress releaving to me and my wife. Last night she told me that the kids were driving her crazy during the day and all she could think of was we were going to have a fire and relax after dark. So it is just not for me... my little slice of heaven !
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I’ve been a long time reader of your newsletter and I have to say that some of the things that you said in this issue (6/23) are the source of some of the most troubling problems that families face today. Executives and other people that think that being super-devoted to work should take a tour of hospitals and nursing homes and ask those that are there how many of them regret not spending more time at the office.
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>> I know I've often seen younger people try to get ahead at the expense of those with families because they're willing to work more.
>> Perhaps that's just the nature of the beast..."Nature of the beast?" Perhaps more than you think.The devil wants us to work more -- so we screw up our family lives, create tension, and provide the groundwork where he can come in, kill and destroy.God offers a more balanced life.Peace!- john -
Whoah, this wasn't a gender thing. Or at least that's not what I intended. Perhaps my (lack of) skill in the QOD is affecting my writing.
I was more going for the fact that your significant other, be that wife/boyfriend/husband/girlfriend/dog/hobby, whatever, could and probably should pull you back from working insane hours.
BTW, Canadian Pool championship? Isn't that curling?
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we have curling programs for those who can't skate.
While actually representing the sliding of the water bottle out to the players on the ice...the goalie in particular. So as not to block the CBC cameras footage of the puck going around, so they slide it across the ice.
Back in pre zamoboni times we used to sweep the ice with brooms and that was carried over to curling.
As a flag waving canadian, i'm embarrassed by the shuffleboard on ice, but with the strike on its either that or figureskating... shudder.
re figureskating ...Which if you dimmed the lights, threw a couple of brass rails and added booze you'd have a canadian strip club.
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Steve - you've done it again!
It always amuses me to see the meandering path that a post takes & see it veer totally off course....it's amazing the vast array of topics covered along the way (incl. but not limited to ambience for a strip club - LOL)...
It's almost as if these posts have a life of their own and once they leave the editor's desk there's no knowing where they'll end up...Frankenstein anyone ????
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!**
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