Do People Work?

Obviously of course people for the most part do work.   In fact U.S. workers work a lot harder and longer than most other countries.   According to this Money article, Americans work hundreds of hours more than their European counterparts.   This translates to around 1750 hours.     Apparently if you hate work, Germany is the place to be as they clocked the least number of average working hours.    Americans work about ten weeks more than their German counterparts.   

Despite the high number of hours Americans work, China and India workers work much longer.   Average working hours in those countries clocked over 2100 hours annually.

But I wouldn't know that after I ventured over to my local Costco last Friday just around 11am.    I thought it would be less crowded but the parking lot was nearly full though at least the gas line there wasn't as bad.  I was released early from my voluntary time off that I've been doing periodically for the last six months.   My company encourages employees to take Voluntary Time Off to help out the local communities.   I found a foodbank in Northwest Indiana to volunteer some time at.   

So as I said earlier I was leaving my VTO after 10:30 am since work was light.  Dom and I needed some things from our local Costco so I decided to take advantage of the extra time since I wasn't due back to work till 12:30.   As I walked into the store I couldn't help but ask myself 'Do People Work?'...*LOL*.

Obviously remote work has become more common since the pandemic.   With that flexibility I imagine a lot of folks take advantage of being close to home by venturing out to run errands during their workday. Remote working is nothing new as I first was introduced to the concept at my old job back as early as 2002.   

It was more of an anomaly back then.  I remember telling a few friends that I worked remote sometimes and they were so jealous.   When our company moved headquarters to a location further from most folks locations in 2008, to appease workers they allowed remote work 2 days a week.   And the last four or five years before I eventually got laid off in 2017, I was working remote 4 days a week and coming in one day a week.

The rest of the working world caught on to remote work when the pandemic took over in March 2020.   Companies have been fighting to bring workers back to the office but once people got a taste of it and the newfound freedom being at home bought, folks do not want to go back.    Judging from the shoppers at Costco, I can see why they don't want to be pulled back in the office full-time.   I will say if there's a way I can work remote 5 days a week, I would do it in a heartbeat.   But I do have a sweet schedule now, I go in the office once a week in Chicago now and then I venture to the Indianapolis office once a month (with some flexibility in the winter months meaning I probably won't venture there until March or April).   Hopefully I can still hang on to that deal.