OxfordTheCat
AH senior member
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2013
- Messages
- 79
- Reaction score
- 158
I have read similar complaints of the old timers bemoaning that they can't get any guys in to put in ten days at moose and bear camp, and how other guys only come in for three or four days of the deer hunt.
While I get some of the sentiment (who wants to spend all day on the phone at the hunt camp?), I fear that for many of the older generation, they just don't 'get it', and that times have changed.
It's not the days of the mid twentieth century any more, and wives are not content to be left at home managing the house and kids (while typically also working full time, and on a career path of their own) for two to five weeks of the year while their husband is off at the hunt camp or on a fishing trip. Depending on their career, it may be impossible for them to do so even if they were amenable to it. Moreover, vacation time itself is in short supply compared to the old days of factory workers on the line getting five and six weeks holiday, and what time there is available is expected to be spent with family and kids.
Even outside of family matters - work obligations have changed. For most young professionals there is simply no such thing as being off the grid. Expectations have shifted, and for most the days where you close the office door and then don't touch or think about work until two weeks later are long gone. For most areas of gainful employment, the expecations are that you can and will be accessible (at least, until you've climbed the ladder enough to be able to forge out some time of your own). Not doing so means dismissal or replacement in the worst case, but even in the best case it results in stunted career growth.
So yes, I'll absolutely check my phone, check my email, check my voicemails and break out the laptop if circumstances demand it. If you think I enjoy it, you're out of your mind. But it's a necessary evil. Because if you want the perks (lifestyle, pensions, paycheques, and holiday time), you have to put the time in your late twenties and thirties. Unless you're one of the few that goes the managing right out of school at daddy's construction or trucking outfit, or senior staffer at rich uncle Touchy's consulting company, there are no shortcuts on that road I'm afraid.
Don't get me wrong, if you're doing your once-in-a-lifetime trip to Africa, carve out the time and sort yourself out so you don't have to break out the phone. But other than that, the times and expectations are quite a bit different than the days of yore.
More reasons to miss the 'good old days', I suppose.
While I get some of the sentiment (who wants to spend all day on the phone at the hunt camp?), I fear that for many of the older generation, they just don't 'get it', and that times have changed.
It's not the days of the mid twentieth century any more, and wives are not content to be left at home managing the house and kids (while typically also working full time, and on a career path of their own) for two to five weeks of the year while their husband is off at the hunt camp or on a fishing trip. Depending on their career, it may be impossible for them to do so even if they were amenable to it. Moreover, vacation time itself is in short supply compared to the old days of factory workers on the line getting five and six weeks holiday, and what time there is available is expected to be spent with family and kids.
Even outside of family matters - work obligations have changed. For most young professionals there is simply no such thing as being off the grid. Expectations have shifted, and for most the days where you close the office door and then don't touch or think about work until two weeks later are long gone. For most areas of gainful employment, the expecations are that you can and will be accessible (at least, until you've climbed the ladder enough to be able to forge out some time of your own). Not doing so means dismissal or replacement in the worst case, but even in the best case it results in stunted career growth.
So yes, I'll absolutely check my phone, check my email, check my voicemails and break out the laptop if circumstances demand it. If you think I enjoy it, you're out of your mind. But it's a necessary evil. Because if you want the perks (lifestyle, pensions, paycheques, and holiday time), you have to put the time in your late twenties and thirties. Unless you're one of the few that goes the managing right out of school at daddy's construction or trucking outfit, or senior staffer at rich uncle Touchy's consulting company, there are no shortcuts on that road I'm afraid.
Don't get me wrong, if you're doing your once-in-a-lifetime trip to Africa, carve out the time and sort yourself out so you don't have to break out the phone. But other than that, the times and expectations are quite a bit different than the days of yore.
More reasons to miss the 'good old days', I suppose.
