Last night I was talking to my dad on the phone, just called for a quick hi and "I was accidentally billed for X-Rays; did any of you have them?", and my dad starts talking about an article he read about the work-life balance in a magazine called something like "Corporate Life", which, for some unknown reason, gets mailed to his school. Anyway. The article contends that there IS no work-life balance anymore, that employees work hours upon hours, and the key is to be able to switch gears the instant you arrive home, so that your scarce home-time is home-time. To me, this sounded like the brainwashing propaganda of The Man. I replied, "That's SICK" and talked about the European workplace, how Europeans work fewer hours than Americans but are more productive per hour worked. My dad started ranting about how Americans take everything for granted and in China and India they work multiple jobs just to afford things we take for granted and how those people are like the hard-working, upstanding immigrants to this country who "worked two or three jobs just to afford things we take for granted [note the theme] and still kept their foundations whitewashed every weekend [he actually said that!] and loved working because they couldn't in their own country and were happy just to BE here and didn't MIND working hard..." And on and on.
I tuned out pretty much after the whitewashing and returned to rinsing greens for dinner, contributing the occasional "mm" to the conversation. Dad said, "It sounds like you're cooking dinner." I replied, "I should probably get back to that." After I hung up, I realized that these eager, hard-working immigrants probably had wives who kept house and so didn't have to make dinner themselves after their third shift.
posted by kStyle @ 5:29 PM
3 Comments:
Thanks for expressing what I couldn't on the phone, Ann. I'd ask my dad where that article was, but I'd prefer not revisit that topic.
I'm not sure how much of the biog rambling rant came from the article. I think that the bit about immigrants to America in the last century and their whitewashed foundations was my dad's own flourish. His mother was an immigrant, as were his father's parents.
Moreover, my father, the educator, doesn't really know what the corporate world is like. Both my parents sometimes act as though they think Corporate Life is all Roses because the pay is better than in education. Granted, educators are not paid enough, but publishing doesn't pay much, if any, better.
P.S. My dad's attitude struck Greg and me as very Catholic. Be thankful for what you get and don't ask for more. You don't deserve what you have, anyway. Serve others without regard for yourself.
I agree wholeheartedly with everything you've said. :)
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