It’s easy to identify the folks on Facebook who aren’t joyfully jobless. They’re the ones who post things like, “Hooray! It’s Friday!”
They’re not alone, of course.
Have you seen the clever ad campaign Starbucks is running for their Via coffee? It’s brilliant storytelling done with coffee cup slogans. One of them says, “I hate Mondays.” At the bottom of her cup, there’s this inspiring message: “Only four days to go.”
When I lived in Santa Barbara, I watched the Friday exodus that happened weekly without fail. By mid-afternoon, the freeway was clogged with northbound drivers headed off for a weekend away from Los Angeles. On Sunday afternoon, the parade was reversed.
I think of that everytime I hear the other tv ad that’s revived Lover Boy’s old tune that begins, “Everybody’s workin’ for the weekend.”
That’s not quite true, of course. Weekends aren’t the big goal for everybody. There are millions of people who are working for retirement. In fact, for many people, retirement is the only goal they’ve ever set for themselves.
Working for the weekend and for retirement are, of course, not only expected, they’re socially acceptable. When everyone around you seems to accept that, it’s easy to assume that the big reward of a job is having time off.
Call me a wacky renegade, but I never understood how working at a miserable or dull job for five days was a fair trade for a weekend off. Happily, I’m not the only one who questions that system.
Ernie J. Zelinski, author of Career Success Without a Real Job says, “It’s impossible to buy back enough enjoyment in retirement to make up for the pleasure you missed while working at a lousy job.”
So what do people work for if it isn’t for the weekend or retirement?
The possibilities are as unique as the ones pursuing them, of course, but you’ll hear them answering that question with words such as passion, discovery, creativity, freedom, variety, adventure, personal growth, making a difference.
They seem to think those things are too important to experience only on the weekend.
If you’ve left the TGIF life behind, I urge you to celebrate your independence with gusto on this 4th of July weekend. As early patriot John Hancock observed, “The more people who own little businesses of their own, the safer our country will be…for the people who have a stake in their country and their community are its best citizens.”
We could use alot more of that kind of patriotic thinking right now.
Hi Barbara:
Been a big fan of yours for several years now. I was downsized out of my corporate job 12 years ago – had the ability to “bump” someone else out of their job so that I could remain corporate but couldn’t do it. Now have my own pilates business and LOVE it. Here’s a question to you – I’m getting to the point that I need to think about retirement, don’t have a big retirement plan from the “corporate job”, don’t have a lot of savings and don’t own a home, also a single woman. I think I remember you saying you rent and would never own a home. Is that still true? I would love to see a blog or teleclass from you about how to subsidize retirement without owning a home, having an ongoing income to supplement retirement, any other financial or lifestyle suggestions that you’d have.
Always heeding your advice,
Ramona