'Slow movement' wants you to ease up, chill out

'Slow movement' wants you to ease up, chill out

www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- Edgar S. Cahn is fighting for your right to be lazy.

Other activists might devote their time to reversing global warming or saving the whales. But the 73-year-old attorney is battling to preserve a commodity that he says is more fragile than the environment and more precious than oil -- time.

Cahn is a leader in the "slow movement," a national campaign that claims that speed kills. Its leaders say that Americans are so starved for time, our need for speed is destroying our health,

(visit the link for the full news article)

W00t w00T this guy should run for president.

YES we need more vacation time and election days off.

We need more breaks from the rat race to spend with our familys.

SLACKERS UNITE!!!!

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

No way man!, I was sure that I alone, was the only one on the planet who thought this way!
I've kept this to myself for long enough, I'm proclaiming that I'm in favor of TWO-day work-weeks and FIVE-day weekends.

Professor Cahn seems like a stand-up guy. His faculty page at UDC is impressive. He's 73, and came up with his thoughts about the essential value of time "after he suffered a massive heart attack from a frenzied lifestyle" (according to the CNN article), so I guess life has taught him well. Too bad that franticness seems to be an inherent attribute of youth.

I agree there's much value in 'slowing down'. That's different than 'slacking off'! I've seen people work franticly, doing the same tasks over and over, too worried about 'falling behind' that they don't stop, relax, think, and look for better solutions. Slowing down at work can actually make you more productive, and happier! You get perspective, prioritize better, and open yourself up to simpler solutions, and solutions that solve whole classes of problems at once. Rather than working the problems, work the solutions.

I haven't seen this quantified, but I think that some employers deliberately load their workers down with more than they can reasonably handle, in the mistaken belief that they'll get more productivity if people have to work quickly and are afraid of being further overwhelmed. Often that causes burn-out, or sloppy work that actually hinders productivity.

I'm sure that I am already a charter member of this group and have been for 40 years!!LOL My friends are always mad at me because I NEVER hurry up!

Zindo

I work my ass off, but only on things I enjoy so it seems like play more than work.

If you allow "the man" to take control of your time, he will work you till you get sick, take away your health insurance, steal your retirement and laugh at your sorry predicament. This happened to me. I should have seen it coming because, all around me, it was happening to my fellow workers but I thought I was indispensable. Silly me!

The corporate structure will steal your soul, your time, and your self respect, your health, ruin your family life, and chump you out for their sick enjoyment. If you complain.....off shore outsourcing.

You have been warned!

Regarding slow movement - have any of you seen this cool street-art project?

Graffiti snails roaming London:




Link to article:
www.metro.co.uk...

At work in the last year 2 guys I work with have been promoted to management. Good for them and now they are salaried workers but lately I have been giving them trouble because they both are working over 60 hours a week. They both feel this enormous competition from the other managers they keep trying to out do each other, while the upper management barely works 40 hours a week.

They are both young under 24 years old but they are going to burn themselves out if they don't slow down.

One had a medical emergency regarding his wife, he left work took her to the hospital when finished he took her home then he went back to work insane.

Is this really what it's all about? I say no.

I will have to agree with the man, our fast pace society is getting our health out of control, from stress related issues, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and hypertension.

We do, need to learn how to relax and give ourselves sometime so we can manage better our time and our busy schedules.

From the CNN article...

"Democracy can't exist without informed citizens", he [Edgar S. Cahn] says. "People need time to pay attention to the news, attend city council meetings and keep elected official accountable."

So why do you think the government wants you overworked in the first place? Pretty obvious really.

LDragonFire:

Is this really what it's all about? I say no.

I say no also, I prefer to measure success and productivity not by financial assets, but by how many people you help or assist without expectation of compensation or recognition.

[edit on 7-6-2008 by FewWorldOrder]

I'd sign up for this in a minute. It's always been my opinion that people in NA work too long hours to try and squeeze every new trinket they can out of their job.

I wonder if all the excessive hours that people work has an effect on inflation?

In my experience, around here, the only fulltime jobs are working in greenhouses for 50-60 hours a week for minimum wage. My plan is to move out to the west coast for shorter hours and better pay.

bump...


Too much of a slacker and too sleepy to reply right now!



Coven

Good post,

as someone who has almost died through stress from overwork I would have to agree with Mr Khan.

Amen!! We should have siestas here in the U.S. like Mexico

The Gospel of Consumption

Machines can save labor, but only if they go idle when we possess enough of what they can produce. In other words, the machinery offers us an opportunity to work less, an opportunity that as a society we have chosen not to take. Instead, we have allowed the owners of those machines to define their purpose: not reduction of labor, but “higher productivity”—and with it the imperative to consume virtually everything that the machinery can possibly produce.

In a 1927 interview with the magazine Nation’s Business, Secretary of Labor James J. Davis provided some numbers to illustrate a problem that the New York Times called “need saturation.” Davis noted that “the textile mills of this country can produce all the cloth needed in six months’ operation each year” and that 14 percent of the American shoe factories could produce a year’s supply of footwear. The magazine went on to suggest, “It may be that the world’s needs ultimately will be produced by three days’ work a week.”

Business leaders were less than enthusiastic about the prospect of a society no longer centered on the production of goods. For them, the new “labor-saving” machinery presented not a vision of liberation but a threat to their position at the center of power.

[edit on 8-6-2008 by pai mei]

Originally posted by FewWorldOrder
No way man!, I was sure that I alone, was the only one on the planet who thought this way!
I've kept this to myself for long enough, I'm proclaiming that I'm in favor of TWO-day work-weeks and FIVE-day weekends.

You should come to Europe, we have great laws to protect the employee, we have great holiday periods, over 30 days, I get 35 PLUS national holidays Even when I change job, I can take my vacation with me across jobs We also have decent transportation and can actually CYCLE to work without worry of traffic, separate bike lanes and walking paths.

I'm guilty of being stingy with my free time, only because it seems like there is so little of it, I need my ME Time to play on my computer and do whatever I want. Work interferes with this, not only does it interfere when I'm at work but when the stress from work follows me home and I find myself there when I should be here.

Last night I got my rear end handed to me on a silver platter, I cook for rich and famous people and last night there were many mouths to feed. So I'm off at home but still stress and worried that I didn't do a good enough job or did I make enough prep for the next shift. IT Blows!

This is no way to live. There is so much pressure to preform, and if your ambitious there is no way not to achieve advancement through honor. You seem to advance by screwing over your fellow employees, then you cope by taking Prozac.

Growing up with a father who was mostly the soul provider of 7 kids, he had supposedly worked three jobs back then. Too bad he didn't use condoms.(slacker?)

My interpretation of work and school growing up was that they sucked. I guess that's partially why I'm now on disability. Something less than a slacker, I guess. Slow down and enjoy the scenery.

reply to post by LDragonFire


i love this story

not a one line post