Today's national holiday celebrates the social and economic achievements of workers in America. This great country was able to become a bastion of free enterprise and prosperity through the dedication and back-breaking efforts of our hard-working ancestors. But up until the 1800's, many American workers experienced only the work part of the work-life balance. Thanks to the formation of unions, these workers found a collective voice, and were able to negotiate a 6-day, 60-hour work week. From there they worked to further improve wages, hours...and yada yada yada, here we are in 2012 when "union" is a four-letter word. Don't get me wrong, I applaud the labor movement for what they stood for, for what they accomplished for this country. And I absolutely believe in fair compensation for folks who work hard, and do a good job. But I do think that a lot of the negative connotations that the word "union" carries are legit. To me, labor unions seem to be nothing but a bunch of bullies representing primarily mediocre performers who bitch and moan until they get something extra for no extra effort. For example, the condo I'm currently renting is part of a larger association and the whole block of buildings is currently undergoing some (very loud) masonry work. The property management company informed the owners of the upcoming project, which is a Huge special assessment, and told them what the cost would be, and what the cost would be to each unit's owner. Our landlord requested to see the details of the proposed contract. Yup, they were just going to go ahead with a union group, and probably didn't even bother to consider anything else. This guy requested that they consider other bids, and ended up finding a non-union group at half the cost.
And to come back from my tangent...
No class today due to the holiday (the origin of which I am certain no one thinks about the way they do with Memorial Day or the 4th of July), but I ended up working my brain extra hard while others were out enjoying BBQs (or the Polish Festival, which is where my mom took Max!). I stupidly procrastinated on my homework, and found myself with a whole lot of statistics to work on before class tomorrow. Yuck! Needless to say, it was not the most enjoyable holiday. But I did learn an important lesson, and that is not to put off my work until the day before class! Grad school, even a program designed with a working student body in mind, is not like college. And with Max, I can't afford to not be spreading my work out over the course of the week.
And with that, I should probably get started on the work that's due for my Wednesday class.
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