Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Back from a long weekend

Well it was a very nice long weekend for us Canadians and I'm sure all the American's who stumble into this blog are looking forward to their long weekend coming up. Golfing and drinking were enjoyed and though I wish it could have lasted longer it didn't; I'm thinking its a good thing that the weekend ended when it did because if it was any longer I might have gone broke.

Now something that really amsued me this morning while having a smoke was the fact that everyone coming into the building to start their work week had this look of panic stricken deer caught in the headlights. It was as if everyone was supremely suprised by the fact that the weekend had ended. I can't say that I was looking forward to coming in but I know I didn't have that look on my face (probably a bit more resignation than anything else).

But something struck me: In Germany I beleive they have a 4 day work week and I know they start with either 4 or 6 weeks of vacation(I think its 6) and they're probably as productive as workers in north america if not more so. They work less and are more productive (or at least the same), so why is it that after being with a company for 5 years and having close to 10 years of work experience that I only have 3 weeks of vacation? Why don't companies realize that more time off might make for happier more productive employees? And heaven forbid that people who get more time off might spend more of their money on vacation type activities? I guess this is something that I simply won't get (or maybe the people running corporations in North America don't get).

Well I guess I should get back to that whole work thing since that's why I'm here so early in the morning instead of sleeping.