I found a couple of interesting articles in a freebie newspaper, The Epoch Times, last night at Starbucks. First, let me throw out a disclaimer that this is a free newspaper because it was created and is funded by supporters of the Falun Gong (Falun Dafa) movement, which is a sort of hybrid Buddhist religion. I had a hunch it was because of the content of a few of the articles and the plethora of advertising for the Shen Yun Performing Arts. Jennifer and I went to one of their performances last year at the Kennedy Center in DC. Their performances are advertised as a look at the grace and wisdom of five thousand years of Chinese culture through colorful and exhilarating performances of classical Chinese dance and music (no mention of anything related to Falun Gong). What they don't tell you is that it is an indoctrination for the Falun Gong movement, complete with volunteers who make attempts to proselytize the audience following the performance. It's the equivalent of going to a "five thousand year journey through middle eastern culture" that really turns out to be the passion play with bible thumpers attempting to save your soul following the performance. I don't mind some religion mixed in with fine arts, as long as it's advertised up front. I probably still would have gone (the music and dancing were beautiful) but I left with a bad taste in my mouth, as if I had been bamboozled. I guess that could have been a blog post all on its own. On to the articles.
The first article that caught my eye is about the Volkswagen company in Germany. "In an effort to improve work-life balance, VW's Workers' Council took the initiative to push through this effort…" What is this effort? Every day after 6:30pm, company issued Blackberry phones will not be able to receive any company emails until 7:30am the following day. It's all part of an attempt to prevent burnout by their employees and make sure that they don't have to work at home late in the evening. I think it's a pretty cool idea. In the article they mention an author who criticizes what he calls the "misguided culture of overwork in the United States." You can read his article here… it's an interesting read. I've read some about companies that are on the "cutting edge" of management techniques that are allowing naps after lunch and other measures that ultimately lead to better performance and production. If you read the article from the Epoch Times and the one criticizing the American work ethic, there is a good case that the Germans have it right and that the "work work work" mentality isn't the most productive. I know that the Navy created a Task Force Work/Life (TFWL) in 2007 that was awarded in 2010 by the Alliance for Work Life Progress for its initiatives. How is work/life balance being addressed in the corporate world these days? By the way, the average full-time German works 1436 hours a year, and the average full-time American works 1804 hours. That's roughly an additional nine hours a week.
The second article that I noticed is actually a book review that touches on a blog that you wrote (Ed) a couple of weeks ago about busyness. The book is called "Simplicity Parenting" and is subtitled "Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids." Of course I haven't read the book, but reading some of its basic concepts in the review intrigued me. A quote from the book says, "We are building our daily lives, and our families, on the four pillars of too much: too much stuff, too many choices, too much information, and too much speed. With this level of busyness, distractions, time-pressure, and clutter (mental and physical) children are robbed of the time and ease they need to explore their worlds and their emerging selves."
The book is written by an M. ED. with years of experience as a school counselor and as a consultant and trainer for private schools so he's no slouch. The concept is interesting enough to me that I may add this to my "to read" list even though I don't have kids. The concepts sound like they would apply to adults as well. I checked out the book on Amazon and all of the reviews that it's received have been good, except for one (and that was someone who just complained that they were already familiar with the concepts in the book). I know that we live in a different age, but I do often wonder when kids have time these days to just be kids. Many, if not all, of the stories that we regurgitate over and over with each other an with our cousins were events that happened while we were doing "nothing". It was time that was nothing more than play time.
Maybe if Dad kept us busier when we were kids he would have had fewer nails in the tops of his sawhorses!
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