Health and vacation (Re: [Sigia-l] Needless nationalist needling (was Freelance IA consulting: Discovering the cost of doing business)

[christina wodtke]

> How do you know we are happy with two weeks vacation? Do your user
> interfaces reflect such broad assumptions about your audience, too?

In general not only are we unhappy with our lack of vacation, but it
extremely unhealthy for us. There were a series of articles in the papers
about two months ago that revealed studies on high blood pressure, heart
attacks, and other stress-related maladies that all could be alleviated by
simply taking more vacation time. Timne off not only improve the time you
have, but gives you more time in the long run.

The American work force is a sick and unhealthy thing in which people server
corporations giving up family life, vacation health and reason for what-- to
make money for a nebulous corporate-other. When it's your company, perhaps
it's okay, at least you know what you are suffering for. But that we
foolishly slave away, and forget to take care of yourself for what? A stock
ticker number? An already wildly overpaid CEO? makes me sad and rebellious.

In every job I've held I've taken four or more weeks of vacation. I've done
this because I will take unpaid time off rather than not take off the time I
need to regain my sanity. Believe me, it makes a huge difference. I'd love
to see a movement of American workers doing the same-- at some point when
more and more folks just took more time off, maybe we could demand pay for
it as well. After all, we might actually have the energy to fight.

I know this isn't IA-related, but it's worker-human related. IA's tend to
break their backs at their jobs, spending long hours, pitching in where ever
someone needs a hand. We should all take four weeks off at a minimum. Force
ourselves, even if we think we don't like it. The break will freshen our
brains so we can work better and relax our bodies so we can live longer.

c