June 20, 2016

"We Americans have a confused and contradictory relationship with vacation. In theory, we love it; in practice, we often dread it."

"So much expectation is heaped on a few weeks of free time that disappointment, if not inevitable, is common. Worse, our escape from the job and daily routine fills us with anxiety that, somehow, this interlude will inflict a gruesome revenge once we return to work. Nevertheless, we go forth. We hustle to beaches, mountains, national parks, theme parks, unfamiliar cities or (best yet!) the back yard. The democratization of recreation is one of the 20th century’s quiet upheavals. Leisure travel spending in 2015 totaled nearly $651 billion and involved 1.7 billion person-trips, says the U.S. Travel Association. In the 19th century, only the rich could abandon sweltering cities for cooler resorts: Saratoga, N.Y.; Newport, R.I.; Cape May, N.J."

That's the very interesting beginning to a column — "Are you a ‘work martyr’?" (at WaPo (sorry!)) — by Robert J. Samuelson, who goes on to talk about all the people who have accrued vacation time and don't even take it. American workers have 658 million unused vacation days. The travel industry sees this as 223 billion unspent dollars that are somehow meant to be theirs. The term "work martyr" comes from the travel industry, and Samuelson is mostly passing along the results of the travel industry study. The travel industry, of course, wants to know why you don't give them your money, and you can see why they'd present your resistance to vacation as a mental disorder or psychic suffering for which they have the cure.

The study showed that the main reasons not to take time off were that your work would pile up while you were away (37%), that you're sort of indispensable (30%), and that you don't have the money for it (30%). Speculating about that, I'd say: If people don't want to spend their money actually leaving town, it makes more sense to simply pace yourself at work, comfortably doing what comes along, and relaxing and enjoying yourself on weekends, evening, and breaks. That doesn't make you a "martyr" to your work, especially if you also enjoy your work.

In these days of air conditioning, when there's no need to "abandon sweltering cities," why should you look forward to 2 or 3 weeks at some point in the year and then dump so much money into a trip (which might involve travel delays, bad weather, and other problems)? That's an awfully unpleasant attitude toward your work, and there's no way a little vacation is going to offset the 95% of the year that you're going to be working, a thought that might even oppress you during the vacation. And you'll never know the answer to the question: How much of your psychology is shaped by the travel industry that studies the psychology of people like you whose psychology was also shaped by all those years of advertising based on studies of people who — if you go back far enough — were sweltering in cities with no air conditioning? Is there a real you in there? What does that strange character want? How would you even know if you knew?

74 comments:

campy said...

Do women taking me-ternity leave get vacations?

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

In my experience, in some jobs/industries taking vacation days will hurt you at review/promotion time.

Laslo Spatula said...

Girl with the Pony Tail on the Treadmill:

I need a vacation.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

I wish I had the money for a vacation.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

I'd love to go someplace.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

Someplace that isn't here.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

Work would just have to find a way to live without me for a week. Ha!

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

What if they find they can get away with me being gone for a week?

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

What if they find that maybe they don't really need me anyway?

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

I take a stupid vacation, go nowhere, and end up losing my job: that would SUCK.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

I need to be there so they know how important I am.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

Maybe I'll just call in sick for a day. That will show them.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

I hate it when people don't realize you're indispensable.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)


I am Laslo.

Laslo Spatula said...

I know, I know: too early in the post to drop the mic.

I am Laslo.

buwaya said...

I have four months accrued.
But thats how we roll.

Karen of Texas said...

I had a supervisor who firmly believed in a "mental health day" every now and then. It fell under the sick day umbrella if you took one. Where I used to work, you didn't have a set number of sick days. If you were "sick" more than twice a month for multiple months, you might get a "review" by your supervisor especially if your productivity lagged. After working 70+ hours a week for several months to meet an implementation deadline, damn straight a mental health day or two, not yanked from your vacation time, which you often couldn't take anyway because of continual deadlines, was warranted.

"If people don't want to spend their money actually leaving town, it makes more sense to simply pace yourself at work, comfortably doing what comes along, and relaxing and enjoying yourself on weekends, evening, and breaks." Haha hahaha!! You have never worked in a private business that is in the computer software services industry.
"

Michael K said...

The concept of "Flow" as described by Csikszentmihalyi includes work as one of the most common sources of pleasure, a combination of control and achievement. Those who have such an experience in work, like law professors and surgeons, have less incentive to take vacations than whose occupations are dull.

CJ said...

I go away occasionally, but it's mostly for my family's sake.

Personally, I don't like taking vacation - I prefer my daily routine: Waking up in my own bed, going to my own kitchen, exercising in my own neighborhood, working for a few hours, working in the yard for a couple hours, then working some more, then either eating at home or going out to a local restaurant, early to bed.

I think people underestimate how relaxing and fulfilling a good routine can be.

mezzrow said...

What Karen of Texas said.

I was in computer services for the malefactors of wealth and government. At least you get things like requirements and timely feedback from the malefactors of wealth. From government you get nothing except shorter deadlines (for political reasons) and like it. All govt work has unlimited scope creep, to boot.

When you get home from work, you eat and get back on the system to work for a couple of hours. Then you sleep until 2 AM or so, when you get on the system as soon as machine time is available. Then you drive into work just before the rush. During work hours you fight for machine time and spend lots of time waiting in queue for jobs to run. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Yes, we also got "mental health" days. Good management (and we had that) understands that this is inhuman on some level.

bagoh20 said...

Relaxation is not always the goal. I think the attraction of a vacation is often the opportunity to do something completely different, to break away from your routine, to see different sights, people, and activity. Like most endeavors, it takes some work and sacrifice. By any measure it's an easier thing today than in the past.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

-- Bilbo Baggins (more or less)

Laslo Spatula said...

Girl with the Pony Tail on the Treadmill:

What if I took a vacation, they fired me, then realized they made a HUGE mistake?

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

They thought they could get by without me, but they were wrong.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

Serves them right.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

What I do is Important.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

Then they would come groveling to me, asking me to come back, please....

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

Then we would talk about a raise.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

A BIG raise.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

Big enough so I could lease an Audi.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

That would show them.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

And the first thing I would do after they hired me back with my big raise?

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

I'd take a vacation.

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)

(pony-tail swish, pony-tail swish)


I am Laslo.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Agree with Karen also. Mr. Pants used to work for Amazon. At the launch of a new product such as a new Kindle, he worked 100 hour weeks. He once went nine days without leaving campus, catching naps under his desk.

But yes. Choose to pace yourself at work! Lol. :-)

Wince said...

One reason people look to travel vacations is that they think distance and novelty can make up for time in en effort to replicate the extended summer vacations from school they remember from their youth.

Of course, the only adults who can actually do that are the public servants known as teachers and professors.

Sean E said...

Living in Canada, vacations aren't to escape work so much as they are to escape the snow and cold. A week or two of sunshine and ocean breezes does wonders for your sanity when the temperature hasn't climbed above -20C for the past month.

Fernandinande said...

— "Are you a ‘work martyr’?" (at WaPo (sorry!))

Bad link - article is also here:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/06/20/are_you_a_work_martyr_130927.html

Ann Althouse said...

"I think people underestimate how relaxing and fulfilling a good routine can be."

I agree.

A good marriage is like that too.

David said...

The Door County Chamber of Commerce is not happy with you.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Girl with the Pony Tail on the Treadmill said:

I hate it when people don't realize you're indispensable.

I don't know about at your office, but you are indispensable here.

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

Depends on your vacation goal. I don't go to relax. I go because the trout streams in Colorado are much more enjoyable than anything near Dallas and the estates in Argentina offer the best quail hunting-fly fishing experience anywhere. The saltwater fishing in the Florida Keys in awesome as well. Can't do that here.

I have friends that go on Quilting Retreats where a bunch of women from all over the country get together in mountain cabins and spend the week quilting. Others go to Florence because they want to learn more about their cuisine first-hand.

Seems to me a truly enjoyable vacation is more than just getting away. Mostly because it will all be there just the same when you get back. If all you want to do is get away from what you're doing, you should be doing something else.

Titus said...

I don't go on vacation ever-the idea of a vacation is dreadful to me.

I do some weekend trips within a couple hours of my home-Berkshires, Vermont, Ogunquit, Ptown.

I can't stay away from my house more than two days, unless I visit my family in Wisconsin.

tits

Ann Althouse said...

"The concept of "Flow" as described by Csikszentmihalyi includes work as one of the most common sources of pleasure, a combination of control and achievement. Those who have such an experience in work, like law professors and surgeons, have less incentive to take vacations than whose occupations are dull."

That's one of the best books I've every read. It was very influential to me, and yes, I know feeling of having work that puts me on that level. Surgeons seem to have the best of it. Lawprofs have the strange experience of not seeing how well what they are doing is working because the students are mostly poker faced in class. Often they don't understand, but don't give feedback (until you get their exams and evaluations after the semester is over). That's the unfortunate disfluency.

Limited blogger said...

I always take my allocated vacation time.

However, I often work during my vacation.

Ann Althouse said...

Description from "Flow":

"First, the experience usually occurs when we confront tasks we have a chance of completing. Second, we must be able to concentrate on what we are doing. Third and fourth, the concentration is usually possible because the task undertaken has clear goals and immediate feedback. Fifth, one acts with a deep but effortless involvement that removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life. Sixth, enjoyable experiences allow people to exercise a sense of control over their actions. Seventh, concern for the self disappears, yet paradoxically the sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over. Finally, the sense of the duration of time is altered; hours pass by in minutes, and minutes can stretch out to seem like hours. The combination of all these elements causes a sense of deep enjoyment that is so rewarding people feel that expending a great deal of energy is worthwhile simply to be able to feel it."

Bad Lieutenant said...

"If people don't want to spend their money actually leaving town, it makes more sense to simply pace yourself at work, comfortably doing what comes along, and relaxing and enjoying yourself on weekends, evening, and breaks." Haha hahaha!! You have never worked in a private business that is in the computer software services industry.
"

6/20/16, 8:53 AM


No, it just means she's never done anything important. Pace yourself, tee hee.

mtp said...

This issue is so wildly stratified there is no sense in discussing it as an American issue.

Some large percent get paid by the hour. They generally cannot pace themselves or not pace themselves. The longer they are at work the more widgets they produce.

Some overlapping percent get no vacation and wouldn't relate to this discussion at all.

Some other percent, professionals mostly, grind themselves to dust in long workdays and produce only in fits and spurts between meetings and other interruptions. These are the people being discussed here.

Althouse, normally keenly empathetic, is missing the fact that professionals outside of academia do not get breaks, evenings and weekends. They may get an hour after the kids go to bed, they may not go to the office on Saturday and Sunday. But it is a 45-55 hour week + 5-10 hours commute + constant availability by text, phone and e-mail + a few hours on Saturday morning writing the proposal that kept getting kicked back all week.

These people burn vacation to run errands and sell the rest back or lose it.

mtp said...

This issue is so wildly stratified there is no sense in discussing it as an American issue.

Some large percent get paid by the hour. They generally cannot pace themselves or not pace themselves. The longer they are at work the more widgets they produce.

Some overlapping percent get no vacation and wouldn't relate to this discussion at all.

Some other percent, professionals mostly, grind themselves to dust in long workdays and produce only in fits and spurts between meetings and other interruptions. These are the people being discussed here.

Althouse, normally keenly empathetic, is missing the fact that professionals outside of academia do not get breaks, evenings and weekends. They may get an hour after the kids go to bed, they may not go to the office on Saturday and Sunday. But it is a 45-55 hour week + 5-10 hours commute + constant availability by text, phone and e-mail + a few hours on Saturday morning writing the proposal that kept getting kicked back all week.

These people burn vacation to run errands and sell the rest back or lose it.

robother said...

Between Federal Express and conference calls in the 80s and email and Blackberry in the 90s, I used to say that vacations were practicing law in tee shirts and a swimsuit. Real vacations were to places without technology like Turkey, Nepal or India. But based on my most recent travel to India, there are no places like that anymore. For most people in demanding legal, financial and tech careers, you're kind of on the clock 24/7 wherever you are. When it becomes a grind, its time to retire: a vacation is an illusion.

Sebastian said...

Re people who prefer work and routine: You'll never know the answer to the question: How much of your psychology is shaped by the corporate-governmental complex that studies the psychology of people like you whose psychology was also shaped by all those years of advertising and worker evaluation based on studies of people who — if you go back far enough — were eager to make more money and act out the Protestant work ethic.

"Lawprofs have the strange experience of not seeing how well what they are doing is working because the students are mostly poker faced in class. Often they don't understand, but don't give feedback (until you get their exams and evaluations after the semester is over). That's the unfortunate disfluency." You mean, law profs still use one exam and evaluation at the end of a course for students to "give feedback"? That's it? Why would anyone, prof or student, accept such archaic and pedagogically misconceived "disfluency"?

Pettifogger said...

As a child, I literally thought the word "vacation" meant that you went away for the weekend to visit your relatives. When school started and we were asked to talk about what we did on "vacation," I was puzzled.

My own children had it slightly better, but not a a lot better.

buwaya said...

"When it becomes a grind its time to retire"

Exactly right, or rather when the cost-benefit ratio of the grind tips too far over. Most of us work to live, or rather to fulfill obligations.

rhhardin said...

If you have a play-for-pay job, you don't take vacations. In fact you work weekends and holidays and nights.

Original Mike said...

"Blogger bagoh20 said...Relaxation is not always the goal. I think the attraction of a vacation is often the opportunity to do something completely different, to break away from your routine, to see different sights, people, and activity. Like most endeavors, it takes some work and sacrifice."

My view as well. Relaxing is staying home with a book. Travel is interesting and exciting, but it is not relaxing.

Heartless Aztec said...

I solved that problem by choosing to become a school teacher back in the olden days. Then my life had a certain rythym and vacationing was much easier in a school year cadence. Basically I was on "surfari to stay" and traveled the globe (or as much of it as I could dirt bag afford) sampling "tasty waves" (Jeff Spicoli) and chill locations. We used to rent beach cabinas in Costa Rica for $5 a week back in 1970 whatever. It all depends on your job. Choose wisely.

Lauderdale Vet said...

My wife and I don't take vacations these days. We get away for the weekend many times a year. Scoot off to Disney. Recalibrate and return.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

it just means she's never done anything important. Pace yourself, tee hee.

I remember that time the Director called during the major outage that was estimated as costing the company somewhere around $500,000 a day (boy were the blame assigning sessions we had afterwards fun) demanding to know what the problem was and how soon it was going to be fixed when I was trying to troubleshoot the issue to see where it originated and I told him I was "pacing myself."

And man, I had fun pacing myself those times when I was up from Friday evening to Sunday morning upgrading software on a system that provided mission critical support in a nine state area. Especially after I went to bed for an hour or two and then got called back because something had been missed in testing that was revealed when we went live and the issue had to be fixed before Monday morning or the changes backed out.

You know, I hate liver, so I don't eat it. I don't find it necessary to blog about how much I hate liver.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

My company doesn't allow anyone to roll over accrued vacation time (year to year). I usually let people with families/children take time around the holidays so I cover that time. In order not to lose days I end up taking random days off here and there as I can (usually Fridays).
I wouldn't ever use the term "work martyr," but I do feel underappreciated for scheduling myself in a way that maximizes the ability of other people who work here to have long vacations with their children. The only really annoying part is when they decide that I must LIKE that kind of a schedule.

But anyway they're the backbone of society and I'm not, so there it is.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Free time and peace of mind has been a conscious consideration in every job I've taken since I was 30. Some money and glory was sacrificed, but I'm damned if I can see how it was enough to make any difference at the end of the day. I played with my kids, fixed their stuff, went to their sporting events, took (and enjoyed) a couple family vacations every year and I have never, ever, checked my email when I wasn't actually in my office. It was all very deliberate and I guess that's it's own kind of ambition.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

By the way, banks are required to ensure that their employees take two weeks vacation every year. It is a regulatory requirement. The reason is because most embezzlement requires the embezzler to be at work everyday, covering their tracks. Once somebody else starts doing the job and looking at the reports it quickly becomes evident that something is going on.

ALP said...

I have long said that any "vacation" that requires looking at a clock and sticking to a schedule is the far from a vacation.

This article validates my long held practice of vacationing by puttering around the house, busying myself with optional projects I can drop at a whim, and never, ever wondering what time it is. Plus, with my long ass commute into Seattle (4 hours a day at times) I spend the equivalent of two cross country flights commuting each week. Why the fuck would I want to spend MORE time moving myself from Point A to Point B and back to Point A on vacation???

the gold digger said...

"If people don't want to spend their money actually leaving town, it makes more sense to simply pace yourself at work, comfortably doing what comes along, and relaxing and enjoying yourself on weekends, evening, and breaks."

What is this "pace yourself at work" of which you speak? I have never had a job where I get to set my own deadlines. But then, I am in the private sector.

Michael said...

Freed from the office by the internet I can do much of what I do from anywhere. So a "vacation" is often doing what I do from a different location and at hours of the day that are somewhat different from "normal." This includes my home as well as more exotic locales ranging from Argentina to Scotland. That said, business is business and is on round the clock.

People fear being away from the office because they are afraid it will be discovered that their absence changes nothing in the way of production. Or is viewed as a relief by co-workers.

Freeman Hunt said...

"If you have a play-for-pay job, you don't take vacations. In fact you work weekends and holidays and nights."

Yes, though sometimes you get a surprise vacation when the person who has had you working on his project full time suddenly decides that he wants to take a vacation or a break from the project for a month.

And if you take a vacation, it costs you thousands of dollars even if you don't leave the house because of the missed pay.

n.n said...

Men and women need to be productive.

Original Mike said...

"it just means she's never done anything important. Pace yourself, tee hee."

I'm guessing she never had to support herself off of grants. I never took a vacation for the 6 years I was working on tenure. After I was tenured, I took the luxury of taking a vacation during the first year of the four-year grant cycle, then it was all about getting refunded.

I'm LOVING retirement.

dwick said...

"Be happy in your work."
- Colonel Saito, Camp 16

Wilbur said...

dwick wins.

Michael K said...

One of my best vacations was when I was an intern and had one week, period. Of course, that week it rained every day and we could not afford to go anywhere so I stayed home and read all the CS Forester "Hornblower" novels about the British Navy in the Napoleonic Wars.

Michael K said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jupiter said...

I used to take vacations to Mexico. But flying has become such a disaster that it isn't worth the hassle. Take a couple days off and read a book, is my vacation.

Ann Althouse said...

"You mean, law profs still use one exam and evaluation at the end of a course for students to "give feedback"? "

Please reread what I wrote and the definition of flow. The feedback in question is from the students to me, not from me to the students.

The students can get continual feedback about their performance through class participation and talking to me outside of class.

Their grade is based on one exam, however, which is why they should participate throughout the semester. Many choose not to, but i am pro- choice.

mtp said...

^^Michael K,

Hornblower books--masterpieces. Read The African Queen if you haven't yet.

Ann Althouse said...

The pace yourself idea was offered as an alternative to the problem of work piling up when you are away and then needing to overwork to catch up.

The question of what the regular pace should be was not stated.

Those who like an intense pace would have to answer a few more questions before I would know what to say to you.

Bad Lieutenant said...

CS Forester all the way! However, when you're done, you owe it to yourself to sink into some Patrick O'Brian.

buwaya said...

Re Forester -
Much overlooked these days, very wrongly so. His stuff wasn't just adventure. He wrote his characters with depth and nuance, quite as much as Patrick O'Brian. "African Queen" is a case in point. Even Hornblower is in many ways a tortured soul, afflicted with tragedy upon tragedy and every sort of doubt.
And Forester went pretty far afield.
Look for "The Gun" - no ocean, boats or rivers worth mentioning in that one, and yet accurate beyond quibbles as historical novels go.

buwaya said...

Also, try "Rifleman Dodd". That was at various times on the military reading lists.

Sydney said...

My best vacations are ones where we rent a house of cabin on a lake or near the ocean and I can just sit around and read and do nothing. I could do that at home, too, but I feel more refreshed after time in a different location where the house isn't mine. For the past 13 years, though, I have been a solo practice physician, so I am never away from work even when I am away. That is one thing I miss - being able to have a week to myself with no thought of work at all.

Sydney said...

Blogger won't let me read your old "Flow" posts. It says I don't have access, even though I am able to leave comments here. Are those posts closed down for some reason?

Bad Lieutenant said...

Hard to find his stuff anymore.

"If Hitler Had Invaded England"

You can always take one with you.


Original Mike said...

"Their grade is based on one exam, however, which is why they should participate throughout the semester. Many choose not to, but i am pro- choice."

Yeah. I gave three exams and based their grade on that. I was criticized for not individually grading the homework and including that in their grade. But you have the questions, you have the worked-out answers, and you know where to find me (I'm right down the hall from your cubicle, you see me in the hallway every day). You're in graduate school. And, frankly, I'm not being paid to teach you. My salary is paid off my grants. Grants that I need to keep bringing in. If you come to me and want to learn, I will give you everything I've got. But, again, you're in graduate school. Time to step up. It's your life, not mine.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Sydney said...My best vacations are ones where we rent a house of cabin on a lake or near the ocean and I can just sit around and read and do nothing. I could do that at home, too, but I feel more refreshed after time in a different location where the house isn't mine.

We've taken to renting a northern Wisonsin lake house for a month. That actually is a vacation in the relaxing sense.

Original Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Original Mike said...

"Blogger Ann Althouse said...The pace yourself idea was offered as an alternative to the problem of work piling up when you are away and then needing to overwork to catch up."

I think the idea is there are a lot of jobs where the concept of the "work pile" isn't apt. There was never a time where I felt that the next grant proposal could not be improved. Not polished, but majorly improved. Not with better writing but with more projects, more experiments, more data and more ideas. It's hard to leave under those circumstances.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

The pace yourself idea was offered as an alternative to the problem of work piling up when you are away and then needing to overwork to catch up.

Professor, the world outside of Academia doesn't work that way. There is almost always some amount of work coming in, sometimes at a quick pace, sometimes at a slower pace. You are expected to do the work as it comes in. If you go on vacation someone besides you is supposed to be tasked to do it. If they can, they will, but they will prioritize their work over yours if possible. So when you get back you will you will find a backlog of stuff you will need to catch up on. There is no way to work ahead because stuff is going to come up that can't be anticipated.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"Because of their greater knowledge of and better access to lethal means, physicians have a far higher suicide completion rate than the general public. The most reliable estimates of successful completion of suicide range from 1.4-2.3 times the rate achieved in the general population."

Flow?

Or to flow not?

JamesB.BKK said...

Hmm. No mention of the desire to avoid the ritual of submission to inspection by the agents of the TSA. That's mine. I despise the act of doing so and the reasons stated for its supposed necessity which are given by a corrupt and inept government. It was desired by its operators for decades and instituted after several foreigners from a culture known to dislike ours (and its dominance of their self-perceived superior culture) flew undefended nominally private but heavily government-"regulated" (that is, controlled) aircraft into buildings and the ground - acts made too easy due to the actions and procedures of that same government. (I am assuming ineptness of course in that government's obvious and serial failures to achieve what would be reasonable outcomes using reasonable methods; but its goals are likely different and what might be perceived as failures may instead be viewed as successes in the eyes of its operators. E.g., someone got a new state-aligned voting bloc.) When I tell those guys I am unarmed, they still do all those stupid tests and pull asides with so much faux gravitas. They are probably just looking for gold coins. Faux gravitas, just like that deployed by the politicians almost all of which are harmful to my interests, is tiresome.

Of course, does it make sense to walk away from your market during the run up to or during your peak earnings years for a couple of weeks and drop thousands of US dollar currency units? Not really.

Freeman Hunt said...

I hated it when teachers counted homework as part of the grade. If a student can show that he knows his stuff on a test, why all the paperwork?

Freeman Hunt said...

It's just a ploy to boost the grades of grinders.

Ann Althouse said...

I'm sorry I messed up the link to the old FLOW posts.

Go here.

Ann Althouse said...

"Professor, the world outside of Academia doesn't work that way. There is almost always some amount of work coming in, sometimes at a quick pace, sometimes at a slower pace. You are expected to do the work as it comes in. If you go on vacation someone besides you is supposed to be tasked to do it. If they can, they will, but they will prioritize their work over yours if possible. So when you get back you will you will find a backlog of stuff you will need to catch up on. There is no way to work ahead because stuff is going to come up that can't be anticipated."

I was suggesting not leaving at all but working in a way that preserves time for yourself and enjoying that time.

I think some people know what I mean!

Sebastian said...

"Please reread what I wrote and the definition of flow. The feedback in question is from the students to me, not from me to the students." Yes, ma'am, I can read. I just do not think it is possible to teach well without frequent, if not continuous, "feedback" from students to teacher. I can speculate about reasons why that is not standard procedure in law schools, of course.

Original Mike said...

"I hated it when teachers counted homework as part of the grade. If a student can show that he knows his stuff on a test, why all the paperwork?"

If you know the stuff, you know the stuff.

I know it would have been helpful to individual students if I would have handed back homework that said your mistakes are here, here, and here. I tried that early on, but even more than the incredible time sink, I learned I wasn't smart enough to understand all of their mistakes. I learned that there are probably as many misconceptions in the world as there are people. In a lot of cases, for me to really understand where you went off the rails I needed to talk to you. Which I was eager to do if you asked me to.

traditionalguy said...

Everybody is missing God's answer to mind restoring R&R stay-vacations. The Scots invented golf as their gift to tired souls. The same course plays different on days and using the Gold Tees changes everything.

6 hours after leaving home you area new person. And the Golf Teachers are always making you better. And everyone plays together even using a handicap system.

I hear that dead people who come back to life report discovering Heaven can be best compared to a golf course at 8:00 AM.

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