Member-only story
I Have No Work Ethic
And not much of a vacation ethic either
I hang out at the park with a bunch of retired old men like myself. When lamenting the state of the world, as old men are required by law to do, we often bemoan the lack of a work ethic in anyone younger than we are. We have the time to bemoan the lack of a work ethic in others because we are retired and don’t work at all.
I jump on this bandwagon of despair over the laziness of young people and ride it, at least until we break up for our afternoon naps. It is gospel in my group that we all had and continue to have a strong work ethic, a work ethic imprinted on us by corporal punishment from a strict but fair and loving father, something woefully scarce in the modern world.
I can honestly claim to have been the recipient of corporal punishment. It was administered by a firm, taciturn, but loving father who grew up on a farm and preached the character building value of hard work. But the lesson never took.
I don’t have a work ethic. I’m not sure I have a relaxation ethic either, or vacation ethic, or an unemployment ethic. As far as I can figure out, I have one ethic, but it’s a multi-tool sort of ethic, applicable to working, vacationing, and just hanging out.
Except for short periods of unemployment, I worked my whole life. Sometimes the…
