Skip to main content

Work as Our Culture

Each day into the 21st century that passes, the line between home and work get foggier.  This means that as long as we work, we do it for longer hours and in more places. We can thank the wonders of technology that we cannot live without, including internet connection, cell phones, laptop computers, and tablets, for our ability to work anywhere and anytime. This includes on vacation.
 
There are countless studies about Americans and vacation time. Studies show that some people do not take any of their earned time off annually, while others do not take all of their annual allotment. There are still many people that do have any paid vacation days at all. Comparing this to many other countries, where the love of vacation is culturally in grained, it seems that Americans have the issue with work.
 
Many Americans take vacation only to check the email remotely. The reason may be to clean it up or ensure that nothing urgent is happening, but in reality it goes to our culture of work. So why are Americans so obsessed with work? Perhaps it is because the United States was built from scratch by hard working immigrants. Regardless of the circumstances of immigration, each new arrival to the United States had to work, even if against their will, to build the country. As a proud American, I cannot shame work, but only honor the work by those before me.
 
As workforce development professionals, we make a career of keeping America working. From advising job seekers, assisting employers, collecting statistics, or monitoring regulations surrounding work, each workforce development professional gets to keep the culture of work alive in America every day. We are cheerleaders for the culture of work.  This means that the temptation to merge work time into personal time is even more tempting.
 
Next time you take vacation time, make it count.  Enjoy vacation time without monitoring work. It is time to put down the devices and let the sun shine on your face. Have fun that is not rushed or busy, but at your pace. Above all work to rest and refresh for all the work that waits you when you return.  ~ Karen Cirincione
Email: kcirincione@gmail.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/karenjcirincione
Twitter @kcirincione

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mastering the Grilled Cheese Sandwich Project

An engaging book club discussion about email, how we work, and also just how we as people manage our lives. The more we talked the more I started to realize that essentially project management is essentially a life skill everyone needs to master to be successful. If we simplify Project Management down to the easiest way of explain it and applying, we can define it as taking a big end goal and break it down to smaller goals, figuring out the tasks with each smaller goal, and then allocating lots of resources along the way. Ultimately at the core of project management is planning and organizing, but communication is really at the heart of it all. A project may be big, like building a bridge, creating and implementing software, or it can be as small as figuring out what to make for dinner. Along the way to said goal, every step needs to be clear and everyone needs to communicate about all the said steps along the way. Sounds easy, but apparently it is not so simple. One would think ev...
Post a Comment
Read more

A WIOA Fairy Tale

I thought it was time to have a little fun with WIOA and write a fairy tale. My last fairy tale was published in June of 2014 and was before WIOA legislation. To read the first workforce development fairy tale, check out the archives. Once upon a time in a far off land called Weeoha, lived a community of residents. Many of these residents had jobs and careers, but some found themselves in need of services and assistance to get jobs. Some were reliant on the government for assistance with basic needs because they could not find jobs. Three of these residents, Jack Butcher, John Baker, and Josie Candlemaker, found themselves not satisfied with their lack of opportunity and decided to go on a pilgrimage to find the legendary Cup of Career Success.   According to urban legend, whomever drank from this cup was promised eternal employment and self-sufficient wages as long as they desired. Jack, John, and Josie set out on foot to find the legendary cup. Their first stop was to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How do you Birthday?

Another year in my life has passed. It’s time for another birthday. Each year as the day approaches, I take the time to reflect on my past year, my accomplishments, and my goals for the year. My birthday is like my personal New Years’ celebration with another opportunity to have the best year ever.   I am not afraid of a birthday. Age is just a number, but each year is what you make of it. Each year I have seen the sun rise, the rain fall, and the snow melt, I have been given a gift from the universe. Many people do not get to see another birthday. I owe myself the opportunity to set goals and feel proud as I work towards achieving them. Sometimes these goals have been born from unhappy feelings and bad situations, but growth brings wisdom.   In my working life, and especially as a workforce professional, I know some of my growth must be professionally. Having experience working with job seekers looking for jobs, I understand how crucial professional growth is...
Post a Comment
Read more