Friday October 29, 2004

A Few Days Off

I was getting a little burned out, so I'm taking a few days off. I still don't understand why corporations in the US dish out so little vacation to their hard working employees. Having said that, after 7 years at Sun (Last 4 in the US) I now finally get as many days per year as when I joined Sun in the UK all those years ago. Anyway so what is my point? Well think of all the folks who only get 2 weeks per year plus holidays. I get 4, and it's just about acceptable now. I know it's expensive, and admittedly I think the amount doled out in Germany and France is beyond is probably counterproductive, but does getting it wrong at the low end hurt corporations in an unanticipated way? Ultimately I believe, people are not able perform (read - enjoy their work and kick butt as a result) as much unless they feel refreshed when they show up every day. Not only that but the average working day at Sun is bordering on 10 Hours average anyway. What is simply remarkable is that people do it. I do it (thinking about trying to be more efficient with managing email (for another blog), my team does it. Countless others do it. It's obviously more than just a job for people. Is it sustainable? Do we burn out our brightest too quickly?

So I am enjoying my day off and writing my Sun blog? Hang on, why am i doing that? Well because, I never seem get round to it when I am working, cos I'm darned busy as it is, and I feel the need to write about it. I am currently in the middle of a break from the other work that dominates my life most wonderfully, my two children. They are both napping, so I get some time online to relax. Mmmm, I had never thought of browsing the internet as relaxing before, it's just something I did, looking for interesting snippets of information is very relaxing. Today I found the answer to the Google Labs Challenge at Mathworld. Whilst browsing I also notice how many of the execs at Google used to work for Sun. I guess that's why they are so successful :-)

So back to my offline world I go. I wonder if other people feel the same way aboutvacations in the US as a whole. I'm not just talking about Sun.