2006 saw 570 million vacation days wasted by the American work-aholics...Ashville NC to take action!
Submitted by Dawn Hreben on May 4, 2007 - 2:25pm.
An indicator of the overworked American public is the statistic of 570 million American vaction days that were allowed to expire last year. This afternoon on Fox2News was a story about a group in Ashville North Carolina that calls itself "The Friends of The Five Day Weekend". They started a publicity stunt, MySpace blog on the notion of a five day weekend (starting on Teusday)that quickly gained a fan base. They jokingly purposed that the issue be presented to congress. Well, national attention and participation has thrust this notion into the "hmmmm, that aint a bad idea" category! Have we forgotten how to stop and smell the proverbial roses?
All work and no play makes America an dull, stressed-out, irritable candidate for depression, hypertension and general unpleasantness.
What do you think?
A young man, these days,
Submitted by Dawn Hreben on May 4, 2007 - 3:18pm.
A young man, these days, that litterally BELIEVES in hard work is refreshing, comforting and beyond admirable! My husband is away in Cairo battling through 10 hours of daily (including weekends) of engineering bootcamp. I am a stay-at-home mom that homeschools two boys, attends a Bachelor's degree program online, full time, and runs her own business...(I don't sleep much). So, my family and I are not strangers to hard work, either. As a matter of fact, I think I may be happier at work than on vacation, myself. However, I think, though the proposal of a constant 5 day weekend is extreme, there is some merit in the notion of reclaiming the vacation day.
Even machines that do not receive the proper maintenance will break down. Humans, as proven by countless studies, require "downtime". I know those two statements are elementary, though I believe people tend to loose sight of the obvious when they are too close to the subject matter.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I think vacation time should be viewed as an essential aspect of productivity. Maybe a 5 day weekend is too extreme 
, but certainly the American public that is overworked should be reminded that rest, like food, is nourishment for the mind, body and soul. Further, any work perfromed by a the mind and body that has been refreshed by a well deserved rest would surely be of better quality than work performed by those that have not.
Maybe I need a vacation.
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I edited your post to imbed the video.
Submitted by Shayne McKinney on May 4, 2007 - 2:31pm.
I hope you don't mind I embeded the video to make it easier to watch.
Shayne Mckinney
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Here is a picture from despair.com
Some info about France.
In France it is illegal to work more than 35 hours a week.
In France you get 6 weeks of vacation a year.
In France companies can't compete with Germany or any of the other harder working countries around it because of higher labor costs. Resulting in a poor economy with high unemployment even though the 6 weeks of vacation 4 day work week results in staffing two people to any job that would normally require one.
Working hard has been a big part of life since the creation of man. Generally since creation man was instructed to take only one day a week.
I believe in hard work, and find that I enjoy being productive more than I enjoy relaxing. Although relaxing is nice periodically I wouldn't want to do it all the time.
Shayne Mckinney