On my way in to work this morning, I was catching up on the Podcasts that I let slip last week. I found WNYC’s Leonard Lopate show from July 31st to be very interesting. In particular, the section called [url=http://audio.wnyc.org/lopate/lopate073106a.mp3]”What Makes a Good Vaction”[/url]. It really shed light on how Americans as a whole are so far behind most of the rest of the world in how they take and use their vacation and general leisure time.

What I found most interesting was the fact that Americans don’t tend to use their vacation in the way that say, Europeans do. Perhaps we as a country, don’t want to look like slackers who leave their job to someone else while we’re away enjoying ourselves. Maybe it’s that [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan#Beliefs]Puritan[/url] work ethic upon which our country is built? I guess I tend to go a bit in the other direction when it comes to work. I work 9 to 5 (or 7 to 5 in the case of my current 4 day work week) and then go home. Only if something absolutely needs to be done will I stay late. I rarely think about my work outside of the office and I don’t work for free. I often tell coworkers who work more than they need to that, in our current environment, going above and beyond is not going to get them “ahead”.

I’m also a believer in working more efficiently rather than working harder. I’m amazed at how much time some people waste on socializing, attending unnecessary meetings and the like. Not to mention, how some, particularly in a technology company like AT&T, don’t make the most of the available technology to leverage their time. It’s just wasteful and inefficient.

Anyway, you can check out the whole day’s show or find more information at [url=http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/07/31]WNYC’s Leonard Lopate Show page[/url].