Thoughts on Non-Employment
I have decided to describe my current status as “non-employment” as opposed to unemployment or retirement. “Unemployment” connotes a lack of success in a job search. “Retirement” implies a decision to stop looking for work. Non-employment means that I am not presently looking for a job, but not sure that I am permanently done with work. When asked, I simply say I am “on the bench.”
"On the bench" is standard jargon for consultants and contractors who are "between" assignments. I especially use this terminology around my wife. She is nervous at the thought that I have actually begun an unannounced de facto retirement. Not having "work" to occupy my time, and without her being home to keep an eye on me, she fears that my evening cocktail hour will commence closer to noontime.
I assure her that I have plenty to do, and hardly any of my cohorts are drinking these days (primarily due to the unfortunate fact that alcohol disagrees with their meds.) Besides, I have come to the point in life where two beers is about all I can handle before I start mumbling. How much trouble can you get into after only two beers?
Other than the predictable domestic demands on my free time (mainly meals preparation, shopping, doing laundry and going to the dump), I am enjoying non-employment. The main problem with this status is the steady encroachment of fearful thoughts that tend to dominate the thinking of people who subsist on a (limited) fixed income. We begin to worry about living too long or getting sick and running out of money. At the same time, we dread the thought that we are squandering our healthy years by continuing to work and save, rather than using some of the hard-earned cash to buy some well deserved fun.
A job is an opiate. By accepting the constraints of a job, we allow someone else to make all the big decisions about Time in our lives. Indirectly, the working hours of our job dictate when we go to bed, when we wake-up, how much time we have for breakfast. The job description may even decide where we work how much travel we must do.
Job related deadlines and overtime demands determine whether we are able to squeeze-in some entertainment and/or family time on weekends. The paradox of business life is the devil’s bargain where we trade our personal autonomy for attaining more money and power. The higher we are in the management hierarchy of an organization the less “free time” is available to us. Those days when the execs sneak off early for a round of golf are more than paid for by weekends and nights of overtime. It is commonly known that many of the most successful executives have disastrous personal lives.
Well, the idea is that time is precious. One must spend it like gold – and certainly not give away the control of it to by people who think of us as “resources” not as human beings who need some personal time to think about life’s unanswered questions.
One of the ways we are planning to spend precious time this year is to travel beyond the local boundries of the interstate. We think we will have more fun seeing more of the world. In anticipation of said travel I am brushing up on my language skills. The new MS word2003 has a language translator and I have been spending my precious time learning some handy phrases in different languages.
Hey, it's almost noontime. (Is the bar open?)
É a barra aberta
Ist der geöffnete Stab
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