Vacation Oriented

I've lived in many countries and in the majority of them I have seen a disturbing work ethic. It is distructive, unhealthy and leads people in a sence of unsatisfaction all the while masked as a normal and acceptable practice. It is the vacation-oriented work ethic.

You can see it in a simple form as weekend-oriented work. You can hear it in the movies or on TV when the actor says somehing like "I can't wait for Saturday" or "It's Wednesday, it's 'hump' day." refering to the middle of the week.

The essence of this narsasistic "ethic" is to reduce work into the necessary stepping stones to a achieve a personal gratification in form of a vacation, in other words an escape from the work.

What this does is make work a chore or a series chores that need to be done for the promised pleasure at the end. The problem is two-fold. The pleasure is never as good as how we imagined it, causing us to feel unsatisfied and leading us to question if we are working in the right field or doing the right thing in order to get our prize. Secondly, since we are focused on the weekend or vacation, our work suffers, weakening our possibility for future success and not satisfying the needs of those who depend on us..

Our focus should be service oriented. This positive, outward force benefits all those around it. Our satisfaction in serving can never be destroyed, and those we serve will find satisfaction in working with us. This focus puts a principle taught by our teacher, Jesus, into practice. ~Give and it shall be given to you~

Check yourself. Are you vacation or service oriented?

-- Posted while on the move