Idleness

There is a public folder in the corporate network that stores some interesting documents posted by the management. Nobody ever looks at these documents but me. These documents are interesting not because of the content, but because they reveal a lot of what is on the minds of these CEOs and SVPs.

Take for instance, the article of “Changing Jobs Solely for Money Could Be a Mistake" from Wall Street Journal. It really reveals the deep insecurity of the bosses who are faced with intense head-hunting from competitors.

What amuses me is that these CEOs try to justify their long vacations by posting this article- “Why CEOs need a vacation”, which cites that CEOs need longer breaks to refresh themselves in order to look at problems from a new perspective.

This is bull-shit. Firstly, I know that a couple of the bosses fly constantly on the job. They have got 13 hours idling if flying to London, and more to Las Vegas. Usually they are in the Business Class section, sipping fine wine, flirting with the air-stewardess, and it occurs to me that they have got plenty of chance to refresh themselves. Maybe some serious business is done in these overseas trips, but I’m quite sure the majority of these trips do not lead to anything more than business leads. These are, without a doubt, paid vacations.

CEOs often conduct their business in a leisurely manner, over the golf course, over the 5-star hotel lounge, over some classy restaurants. No, I don’t think they need longer vacations. They need to spend more time in the office for some serious work and thinking.

I would be curious to find out if they would still post this article, had the title become “Why Workers need a vacation”.

And I bet no CEO would post the article of “In Praise of Idleness” by Bertrand Russell

“ When I suggest that working hours should be reduced to four, I am not meaning to imply that all the remaining time should necessarily be spent in pure frivolity. I mean that four hours' work a day should entitle a man to the necessities and elementary comforts of life, and that the rest of his time should be his to use as he might see fit. It is an essential part of any such social system that education should be carried further than it usually is at present, and should aim, in part, at providing tastes which would enable a man to use leisure intelligently.”