mercredi, mars 21, 2007
I'm all dressed up for Prague
Okay, I had bookmarked this page ages ago to comment on but never got around to it. An excerpt:
I have always moved. Starting at the age of 12, that I can remember. Five house moves before I graduated high school. And six school changes. Sheesh, you'd think I was in a military family or something. Discontent with the status quo was always the motivating factor. It's amazing that I lasted as long as I did the first go at Bishop's. I think that was more because as an "adult", I had no idea what I would do with myself. I was pretty impressed with myself when I lasted three years at my first real job in Calgary. But that was probably because even within the same company, I had one job change, a supervisor change, and probably ten office moves (we were a growing company). I have always moved.
I don't even like to own heavy furniture because it's not portable enough. After seven months in Ottawa, I still have a rough escape plan plotted out in my head. The question is, to where..? I suspect the grass isn't greener anywhere else. We get plenty of rain here. | ¶ 11:58 p.m.
There are no recent studies of the employment patterns of Generations X and Y by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But it reports that even those born at the tail end of the baby boom held an average of 10.2 jobs between age 18 and 38, from 1978 to 2002. A 2004 study by the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit research group, polled Generation Y employees and found they were significantly more likely to leave their job than employees who were their comparable ages in 1977 — 70 percent, compared with 52 percent.I suppose it's not "normal life" that I've been after when I quit jobs. Recently I've wondered why I'm not like other people who, above all else, want to find job security and settle in to a place for years at a time. I get so restless that my instinct is practically always "change this NOW". But I look back at the jobs I've left and see practically everybody still THERE. Lots of them were my co-sufferers - we complained together, vented together, vowed that we wouldn't take it. And boom, it's me who ran out to find I would not only be driving the getaway car, I would be its only passenger. And off into the sunset I go...?
The trend, career experts said, is an outgrowth of today's nomadic job culture, as well as an attitude among many young people open to adventure and big experiences — and, yes, a bit of indulgence.
"Normal life," Mr. Aikin said, "maintaining relationships with people who don't live nearby, requires at least two weeks of your life a year."
I have always moved. Starting at the age of 12, that I can remember. Five house moves before I graduated high school. And six school changes. Sheesh, you'd think I was in a military family or something. Discontent with the status quo was always the motivating factor. It's amazing that I lasted as long as I did the first go at Bishop's. I think that was more because as an "adult", I had no idea what I would do with myself. I was pretty impressed with myself when I lasted three years at my first real job in Calgary. But that was probably because even within the same company, I had one job change, a supervisor change, and probably ten office moves (we were a growing company). I have always moved.
I don't even like to own heavy furniture because it's not portable enough. After seven months in Ottawa, I still have a rough escape plan plotted out in my head. The question is, to where..? I suspect the grass isn't greener anywhere else. We get plenty of rain here. | ¶ 11:58 p.m.
