I find it much harder to work long hours, now that I’m older. I typically put in 13-14 hour days, up to 16 sometimes. That can be very difficult on your body and your brain. But 25 years ago, some of my days were up to 32 hours (duty day waived during period of war time), and even though we had opportunities to take naps, I rarely was able to sleep. Something to do with the fact that our sleeping facilities had four beds, and the other three were filled with snoring, farting, loadmasters and flight engineers. 
Micro-aggressions, trigger-warnings, safe-spaces? Millenials: the most pathetic, hovered generation?
Unlike in a 2-person cockpit, in a 3-person cockpit u can’t be sure who cut the cheese.
^^Heh, heh, for sure, GMTplus7, but you know it wasn’t me! Back in the time of 32 hour crew days, that was on the C-5, which could potentially have as many as 20 crewmembers, including 2 or 3 pilots and the rest enlisted. And those MSgts had no hesitation letting her rip. Good God, I should have gotten hazardous duty pay for those trips!
Truth be told, I’ve never worked more than 8-10 hours, only at one startup. But the body has it’s limit. My husband came from a culture that only works 35 hours per week and has one month vacation. So we were never workaholic, we had our side projects as always.
This just in:
Goldman Sach is going to restrict its workday for new interns to only 17 hours.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/17/goldman-sachs-interns-work-hours
At our house, we call this kind of conversation “when giants waked the earth.”
"At our house, we call this kind of conversation “when giants waked the earth.”
I am actually interested in hearing about how my parents lived when they were younger. I find it fascinating, and don’t mock their experiences. We can rarely get my mom to talk about her childhood (very traumatic), but when she does, it’s like a pearl of knowledge. It is fascinating to see the progression on my dad’s side. His grandparents almost starved to death before being rescued by the Communists, his father struggled over here as a poor immigrant farmer, the challenges my father had growing up as a poor child, and how he improved himself by struggling through college. I grew up very lower middle class, and my kids grew up upper middle class. Every generation doing better for themselves. I really hope my kids keep the trend going.
Ha Ha. Did the giants whack the earth, did they rouse the earth or did they ambulate over the earth?
I think I’m going to entitle my screenplay about the days before the current drive to mediocrity “We Were Giants…”
This puts a lot of pressure on the kids, doesn’t it? Few people manage to do better than upper middle class.
Keep in mind that for the upper quintiles to swell, the lower quintiles have to fill a bit, too.
“This puts a lot of pressure on the kids, doesn’t it? Few people manage to do better than upper middle class”
I don’t think our kids have felt much pressure from us, they would probably laugh if anyone suggested too much parental pressure. They both have a great deal of confidence. The oldest has mentioned that he thinks it would be challenging to do better than us, but he’s 24 and is making more money in the tech sector than we did, until we were much older. And he is saving far better than we ever did. Our youngest will also be somewhere in the tech world, I suspect. Tech is really the way to go, right now, if you have the interest, and want a good paycheck.
re: is this the most coddled generation ever" someone I work with says my kids are spoiled. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I think back at how un-involved my parents were in my life and my education and planning, etc. I was well provided for and they were “present” but parenting has evolved for the better in the past 56 years and I’m a better father than my Dad ever was. I love him and he did his best and continues to be a good Dad.My kids are well prepared and they prove it every day. They’ve mentors besides me as well, sports coaches, teachers at their congregation, work bosses, and even thru their band experiences. It does take a village, and 25 yrs ago we picked the best village to start a family! 
Bus, mine put the pressure on them. I think you have to have desire to be wealthy in order to be wealthy. Whether they will reach their goals is another matter.
There was a recent study done at some consulting firms which showed that people who take family time are considered suboptimal workers and they are punished for taking family time with worse assignments, worse performance reviews and lower bonuses. But people who take vacation time are viewed as optimal employees even if the vacation time is substantial. One is considered a drain on attention and the other is considered as a sign of recharging for work.
The most interesting finding - and the most widely reported - is that the workers simply cheated and the firms looked the other way to enable cheating. Some of the stories included people who’d “visit clients” and go on vacation or take basic time off, with one guy reporting he’d make some calls in the AM and PM but ski the rest of the time. Work groups covered for each other, so people would devote substantial time to family concerns without telling the firm and people would be told the person was busy or with a client, etc.
The under-reported stuff is this:
- The pressure to appear to be wholly devoted to work is not actually required by the work. That is, you must appear to be there even if there really is no reason to be there. (Japanese business culture for decades was you waited till the boss left no matter what.)
- This non-work work results - this is from my experience - in larger bills because at least some of that time must be charged to avoid suspicion. This is one reason why firms moved to set fees; as billing rates increased, the cost of non-work became too much.
- The entire process means firms choose to hire and reward people who are adept at lying to the firm itself. Think about that: your corporate culture is rooted in people who lie to you about what they do. I believe this is the root of why consulting is such a bleep hole when it comes to results: they reward manipulators and punish those who are honest. People who said they needed some family leave or needed to get away for a family reason were punished while those who did the same thing but lied were rewarded. That carries over into work: they don't tell you the truth but instead manipulate you into what they believe is right for you.
I read a nursing forum, and the subject of one thread was paid time off. Nurses usually earn it in hours as they work at a certain job over time. It functions as both vacation and sick time. Many nurses reported being given poor performance reviews for using “too much” of their PTO. This is paid time to which they are entitled, yet are being told “you are taking too much PTO.” One can be fired for too many call outs. I get that when you are calling in pretty late and they have to scramble to find someone to take your shift. But others were getting fired or penalized in reviews for taking time off for surgeries, other acute illnesses, or treatments for chronic diseases such as cancer.
The bottom line is here is your paid time off. But don’t take much of it or you will be in trouble. It’s yours, of course. Just don’t actually use it.
What happens is that you’re supposed to maintain some PTO for times you really need it. Some employees use it as quickly as it is accrued and then, when they need it, they are either demanding an exemption or begging it from other employees.
There is always a certain subset of employees who are trying to be in PTO debt.
I think this is a good point. In general, people who are motivated by money are probably more likely to advance in their careers, in part because the progressively higher-paying jobs require more personal sacrifice, whether in terms of time, liability, and/or mental/emotional stress. There is a reason they pay you the big bucks, because the work can be miserable, and in ways that are not always perceptible to the average person.
While some people who do not care about wealth may find themselves insanely financially successful, this is probably due to their special skills and talents and in-born drive for pursuits that just happen to be valued and needed by society. But most who are not motivated by money should not wonder why they are not among the monetarily wealthy.
Bay, I want to clarify what I wrote. When I was growing up, the term money was not considered good in both my parents, almost a dirty word. Maybe it was never my goal to be rich or wealthy. My kids are not just motivated my money, but rather than are not offense by the word rich or money. So at least they are not handicapped like my husband and I were. We both grew up with the same philosophy.
Thanks for the clarification. I understand that some religious doctrines teach that valuing money and material goods is a bad thing. Our family was not and are not followers of that doctrine.
We’re not religious but just not raised up with that philosophy.