A Very Strange Two Edged Sword

I was sitting in the CFO's office and he was talking about how the CEO was trying to meddle with Human Resources.

I am working all sorts of long hours, he said proudly. My wife had to go on her vacation alone because I couldn't get away from work.

Visiting family is not a vacation, I interjected. He pause slightly but didn;t really understand the irony of what I had just said.

Of course it was bulls**t. He works long hours because that is what he has surrounded the core of his life with. Hard work and long hours are his merit badges. His wife could be waiting home for him every evening (every day for that matter) and he would still be at work. He had retired but got bored sitting home on his duff waiting for things to happen. The death knell of the old. The only thing that is going to happen is death unless you have another purpose. It can be working on your tan. Let's not get moral about it. Just something you enjoy doing. Something that gives you happiness.

That can be a return to work if that is what is gets your rocks off.

But he has made it into a religion. A place of worship.

I work such long hours.

I do real work.

I work so hard.

No one appreciates me.

A modern Babbitt.

The unawareness of others is his hallmark but tempered by his general kindness and approachability. A very strange two-edged sword.

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Afternoon running is becoming addictive. The cooler weather has made this a real bonanza. I jogged an easy 50 minutes around the neighborhood.