i'll pick on the president again today...for some reason the tv has spent a lot of time on msnbc lately and i guess i am a little more aware of the goings on this week (don imus refering to katie couric as a "fat cow" included). So they reported that the president left washington for a month-long vacation. that's nice. i am sure he works very hard at his job and just like other americans he needs some time of from work.
he's been at this job for a year and a half now, so he's entitled to a break. very few americans however get to take a month off for vacation. fewer americans receive a month off of paid vacation each year. and extremely few americans get a month's vacation after holding a new job for only a year and a half.
the average american would have between 1 and 2 weeks paid vacation time...not a month. a president who feels he is entitled to over twice the vacation of the average american, isn't really in-touch with the public anymore than his father was.
now i'm sure that the prime minister of england, the preimer of france, and the chancellor of germany all get at least a months vacation every year...and so do the average people in those countries as well. Most europeans receive 4-6 weeks of paid vacation per year in addition to paid holidays. In some counties the minimum amount is even set by law and applies to all workers regardless of how long they have been employed.
i don't see
the shrub on tv using this opportunity as a platform to show the inequities of the compensation given us workers compared to our counterparts in other major economic powers. here is the perfect time to introduce legistlation that guarentees american workers at least the minimum paid vacation enjoyed by our allies and friends across the atlantic.
what i did see on tv was dubya's spokespeople acting like babies saying "well congress is doing it too". and that is true. in the days before air conditioning everyone bailed out of the oppressive washington heat and humidity during the summer. now they have air conditioning but the tradition still goes on.
all 435 members of the house of representatives are up for re-election in november so you can almost guarentee with the exception of gary condit that they will not be lounging around their homes while back in their respective states. in addition 1/3 of the senate will also be out campaigning to retain their seats in november.
true bush-the-younger did say it would be a "working vacation" and in modern day life it is hard to truly get away from the office no matter what your position is. telephones, cell phones, beepers, and e-mail all allow us to take work with us, or for work to find us rather quickly, no matter where in the world we are.
just remember that last year while the new president rode his horses around his west texas ranch trying to look more like the heir to the reagan legacy than the priviledged child of a powerful new england family, osama bin laden and his
evil-doer buddies were plotting the most violent day our nation has ever seen.
people are one of the most important assets a company can have. yet those companies seem unwilling to spend anything but the bare minimum amount on that asset. factories routinely shut down all or parts of their operations to do maintainence on their production machinery. most businesses regularly do maintainence work on everything from copiers to delivery vechicles. yet those same companies refuse to do the necessary "maintainence" on one of their most valued priceless assets -- their employees.
happy people, rested people, stress free people perform better, are more loyal and more productive people.
