Vacation time.

Someone was just telling me about a job offer. They were excited and said that you get a day and a half of vacation time every month. Oh goody! If I work for a year I can have off 18 days! Amazing!!! Wait a minute...18 days is barely enough to travel abroad on and I'm positive the job doesn't want you taking it all at once. After I said that I heard..."that's just how it is..."

Does it have to be? Is there a loop hole? As far a I'm concerned the only way to escape the system is to own your own business. 18 days off? That's the funniest thing I've heard all week. Life is short..18 out of 365 days a year is 4.9% of vacation time a year. Here is a sad statistic. If we were to work 40 more years that would equal 14,600 days. If we were to follow this "great" 4.9% vacation time plan we would have 720 days off. 720 days off adds up to just under 2 years. So you're telling me for every 40 years I work I get 2 years off? Hmmm...where do I sign up? If you can't sense the sarcasm I'm sorry.

Here's another sad stat. I've been out of a regular, consistent job for 6 months now. I'm still working but it's temporary jobs that last over a week or two. Here is the sad fact. Basically I've had off 182 days since the film job ended. That equals 10 years vacation time if I was at a job with 18 days off a year. Completely mental! So basically I've had more time off in 6 months than some poor guy will have in 10 years! Let me tell you that these last 6 months have been great but jeez this is what 10 years can accrue?

This is why it is so important to do what you love. All of the above doesn't matter if you love your job. The sad truth is that it's very possible that we will only have 5% of vacation time in our life. Don't be miserable for 95% of it. Even if the job you hate makes you tons of cash, it's not worth it. I've seen way too many of these 60 year olds burned out with this used up look on their face. It's a sad sight. They'll never get those 40 years back again. Some of them are too proud to show regret but the honest ones always say to me with this painful look "go to New Zealand..."