Demoralized slaves.

I was reading an article over at The Brazen Careerist. She was actually posting a letter by a 20-something investment banker that was his response to Obama’s proposed salary caps for companies that receive bail out dollars. The letter was kind of stupid the main premise being ‘why not cap hours worked?’ It went on to talk about the French system and generally wasn’t well done or written at all.

But it did get me thinking.

Particularly there was a comment left by someone in the medical profession about how resident doctors were being limited to 30 hour shifts and 80 hours max and that some said this was too low. Wow.

The normal work week, my own included, is 40 hours. Some weeks, concerts, I’ll hit around 60. But doing 80 seemed impossibly large.

So I broke out the calculator:

-24 hours in a day 7 days in a week and holy-moly there are 168 hours in a week. Whoa now my 40 seems like nothing.

Well maybe it’s because so much of it is lost sleeping?

-24 hours in a day less 8 hours of sleep still 7 days. Still 112 usable hours in a week.

Ok so I’m generally not at all very productive right after I wake up, it takes time to attack the week. And things like eating can take time.

- 24 hours in a day less 8 hours of sleep less an hour in the morning less an hour and a half for other mundane things times 7 days. 94.5 hours left to occupy.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain about working my 40 or 60 hours so much.


If the workers do not fight for higher wages, if they do not fight for a shorter workday, if they do not fight for, let us say it in a provocative way, day-to-day economic issues, they become demoralized slaves.