I recently discovered that my workplace has ‘wedding leave’: apparently you can get up to three days off—with pay. What the fuck is going on here? I mean, what’s a wedding? It’s just a big party. Should employees be allowed to have personal parties on company time? I think not. Oh, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime …
Category: work
work
Jun 06 2011
My Job, My Self
I’m intrigued by the psychological devastation that seems to accompany layoffs, not to mention ordinary unemployment, as well as underemployment. It doesn’t seem to be just a matter of money – it seems to be a matter of self-worth, self-esteem; personal identity seems to be at stake. It’s an intriguing claim: one is what one …
Jan 11 2011
Paying Stay-at-Home Moms
Every now and then, we hear the proposal that women be paid to stay at home and be moms. That women are paid to be surrogate mothers suggests that regular mothers also deserve payment. So. Should we pay regular mothers the same as surrogate mothers? For starters, who is this ‘we’? Surrogate mothers are paid …
May 27 2010
The Part-time Ghetto
What is the difference between people with part-time jobs and people with full-time jobs? If you’re part-time, you don’t get sick days (so when you’re sick for a day, you lose a day’s pay); you don’t get time and a half for overtime (time and a half starts after 44 hours, not after the numbers …
Mar 07 2010
Being Unprofessional
As in exhibiting ‘unprofessional behaviour’ or wearing ‘unprofessional attire’. As in something ‘not good’. As in ’cause for dismissal’. Given that extreme consequence, we’d better define ‘unprofessional’. Easier said than done. The word ‘professional’ means, literally, ‘pertaining to the profession’. Not helpful. Let’s assume that the profession’s standards are being referred to, standards which, presumably, …
Jan 06 2010
Casual Day at The Office
Every second Friday is ‘Casual Day’ at the office–the principal lets us wear jeans to school. I need two degrees to do my job, but apparently I just can’t seem to dress myself. In addition to that of infantilizing the subordinates, Causal Day underscores the tradition of hypocrisy, the tradition of pretending: financial advisors who …
fiction
