Overheard at... Starbucks

“If you want to get time off you go to work for a bank or the school system.”

Interesting perspective. I suppose it is all about trade-offs. True, when you work in a bank, as I did for many years, you are basically there nine to five and rarely on Sundays. On the other hand, banks don’t have a lot of
extra profit anymore to live the high life. Instead, every minute of those hours is worked hard. As well, with the increase in the number of grocery store banks, traditional banking hours don’t actually apply much
anymore.

And, while it may be sort of true that if you work for a school you get the summers off, it is also true that during the school year your work lives with you everywhere. And I am not simply talking about taking home homework to grade. Being in charge of a classroom full of young children is a responsibility that keeps you awake at night unless you are very good at compartmentalizing.

So, what is a dream job? Maybe the point is not to avoid work (as I mentioned in my blog last time), it is to enjoy the work you need to do. Few of us can afford to not work at all. So assuming we want to eat, wear clothes and sleep someplace warm, we have to get a job. But this doesn’t mean we have to hate it.

It used to be that Europeans thought we were crazy for working so much. And I will admit to enjoying my six weeks of vacation when I lived in England. But on the other hand, perhaps we work so much because we value choice
in what we study and where we work. Unlike the historical model of nepotism in England, where your line of work was so much a part of your family that it would become your last name, here we have tried to create a system that allows for choice.

Sadly, we don’t always hit it on the head. Since education is the key, and schools are taking a big financial hit right now, our children’s choices are increasingly limited… even more so in lower social-economic systems. In truth, the Starbucks customer should have said; “If you want time off you invest in education.” Working hard at the right job is the best way for all of us to enjoy our vacations.

Because, as my father always said; There are no free lunches.