From: egnilges@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Ed Nilges)
Subject: Re: Why do Americans get so little vacation time?
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 14:24:23 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.171922.9825@leland.Stanford.EDU> cjb@vega.stanford.edu writes:
>In article <1992Aug27.141150.27657@Princeton.EDU>  
>egnilges@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Ed Nilges) writes:
>> In article <1992Aug25.151053.274@weyrich.UUCP> tnet.com!weyrich!orville  
>writes:
>
>
>Yes, absolutely!  It took me several years and close to $8,000 (in  
>1979-1981 dollars) in travel costs, legal fees etc. to make the move from  
>England to the US _legally_, and as I am increasingly dismayed by what is  
>happening in the US I have started investigating what it would take to  
>move to Europe, and I can tell you that it is NOT EASY, even if one has  
>skills that are in demand.

There is an organization, the International Computer Professionals
Association (ICPA), based in San Francisco that apparently provides
assistance in international relocation.  I do not have their number
handy but they are no doubt in the phone book.  I have seen their
newsletter and they appear to do a good job.

>
>> >a month of vacation I would look for another job.
>> 
>> Well, the fact that you're a dull chap who does not know how to have a
>> good time is not, in itself, an argument.
>>
>> >paying some tourist trap my hard-earned money so that I could  
>"vacation."
>> 
>> Other folks might spend their vacation building a home, taking care of
>> their kids, or in volunteer work to help the environment.  Point is that
>> spending your vacation at Disney World is only one way of spending your
>> vacation,
>> 
>
>Ed, I like you.  Paying "hard-earned money" to a "tourist trap" is silly  

Thank you.  When I proofread the paragraph in which I called poor
Orville a "dull chap" I thought of withdrawing what is a rather harsh
evaluation, but "chap" lightens the judgemental tone to some degree.
More importantly, some time ago Orville and I had a rather sharp
exchange on the notion of reverse racism (I don't think it exists, or at
least that it is a very different thing from racism per se) in which
Orville was rather abusive, so I decided to leave it in as consonant
with my judgement, overall, of Orville.

>even if you have a mere week's vacation -- that's a function of savvy not  
>elapsed time.  The hidden implication is that vacation is all a trite and  
>trivial waste of time and money and that work qua job is the only  
>legitimate and worthy use of one's alloted years.  I am less interested in  

Too many people in data processing think this way, in my (twenty plus)
years of experience (Orville is obviously from his .sig a stone
highly-qualified data processor.)  Our work is so intense that we tend
to become workaholics who cannot relax.  I certainly had this
experience.  It has tragic results; COMPUTERWORLD this week has an
article on the numerous mainframe programmers who are unemployed owing
to downsizing, including one 47-year old man who died of a seizure as a
result of stress.

>some of Mr. Weyrich's assertions that in the harsh and venemous tone of  
>his posting.  Why does he react with such vitriol to the notion of  

People who are overworked tend to react this way.  I ascribe some
network flamage to the fact that the typical network user is a highly
talented professional who is unrecognized as such by society at large.
Programmers and other computer professionals know intimately the real
challenge of their work, but society's pundits, opinion-setters and
executives regard this tribe, when they do not treat it as completely
invisible, as a collection of geeks who make far too many mistakes.
Since it is unsafe for the computing tribe to "bite the hand that feeds
it", they tend to turn upon each other.