Weekends like this one are the fabric of my happiness; simple pleasures shared with friends requiring some level of exerted force where there's no crowd involvement, being outdoors is part of the experience and time is a non-issue.
People who suffer from dissatisfaction at work may need more weekends doing things they love. In a recent online article workers complained and carried on about not being happy with their jobs:
Over the past several years working as a young HR professional, I've developed my own theory concerning the subject. It starts with the progression of technological advancement. During the Industrial Revolution, advancements in agriculture, transportation, mining, &tc were slowed by research & experimentation; firsts were happening constantly but they took decades. There was a lack of connectivity; telegrams took days to arrive, a massive distance variable; west coast and east coast weren't talking to each other everyday. Today, technological advances are rapidly making appearances in the market -turnarounds are months not decades, and business professionals are affected by that. It's hard to keep up. People find it difficult to be motivated at work when their job changes frequently and products being developed quickly become obsolete. Those working locally here at RTP, are investing time in an ever-changing technological environment that doesn't produce a tangible product to admire. Most of us, me included, are working to support something on the outside. I may never actually set foot on a farmer's plot or lift a jug of product, but I show up everyday and support the mission. Is that motivation enough? In a society of materialism, instant gratification, and capitalism; can I ever truly be satisfied with my work if I'm not getting direct credit and/or holding the finished product?
Yes, I can because work isn't my sole purpose. There's been a generational shift since the Baby Boomers went to work for manufacturing and industrial jobs. We're a thinking workforce now. Our product: Ideas! Often our work is providing words of direction; managing projects to get items produced on opposite ends of the world then get them back to their original creator for dissemination. Workers are motivated in a variety of ways and current Generation Xers are motivated by feeling like what they do matters. This is increasingly difficult when so many are "support" staff. However, accepting the fact that people aren't remembered when they're gone for how much stuff they bought with the dollars they earned or laid to rest with credentials after their names on tombstones, but rather for being good mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, and neighbors. Work should be secondary to the other pleasures in life and if those are in balance then work, regardless of what you do, should be a means of income to support those pleasures. Work to play, work to travel, but don't live to work.
