If you have a young child, get OFF this silly set of ideas NOW before they destroy it all for you! Put brutally, NOTHING (except defence of the realm, etc.) matters more than you spending time with your kids. Not your colleagues, your boss nor 'public services'!
It's a FALLACY!
My generation fell for it too. However, those who were around and working in the 1970s discovered something. At one stage, we were forced (through lack of electricity) to work ONLY a 3-day-week (literally.... it was ILLEGAL to work more than the 3 days in many industries)! Surely, by definition, productivity fell by 2/5th?........ Nope! It remained IDENTICAL to the REST of the year! What happened was that we were ALL more productive when we were AT work in those 3 days!
This whole 'I am not doing my job if I'm not seen at work' concept is plain WRONG!
In much of Germany the concept is REVERSED: 'if you are STILL at your desk at 6.05pm, you must be HOPELESS at your job not to get it completed within PROPER hours'! Are the Germans LESS efficient than us?
However.... the KEY thing is that I am NOT talking about abandonning work; merely keeping it in PERSPECTIVE! If you get HANDED a day when you can spend it with your kids.... TAKE IT and R*E*J*O*I*C*E! If you are anything LIKE a decent father.... your KIDS will rejoice to HAVE you there!
Christ, I'd swap many thing with you just to be back at the point where YOU are I had a young kids again!
I KNOW that sounds soppy... that's just ME! When you are where I am, if you have done the job properly... you'll feel the same... I hope!
Ian
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