Who works the longest hours?

Why she and her sisters should get chairman-of-the-board salaries

JET LAG IS A wonderful tool to help you to see your neighborhood in a new light: moonlight.

Getting back from a trip, I woke up and had an all-cholesterol breakfast at two a.m., went for a bracing cross-country run of almost 50 metres at three a.m and decided to go shopping at four in the morning.

I was thoroughly disgusted to find NOTHING open at that hour and complained bitterly about the slothfulness of modern people to the only person around, a security guard on 12-hour night shift.

He pointed out to me that a few places WERE open: bars.

Hanging around outside one of these was a “dancer” called Alice who told me she worked 13 hours a day, seven days a week: a 91-hour week! But she wasn’t the hardest worker on the planet. Her sister, a domestic helper, is on duty from 7 am to 11 pm six days a week, 96 hours!

I really think there should be some correlation between how hard people work and how much they get paid. If there was, the best-paid jobs in the world would be, in order:

1) Domestic helper.

2) Bar girl.

3) Security guard.

And the worst paid job in the world?

A year ago, that post should by rights have gone to a guy I know who went to work at 11 am, just in time for a lunch break, and then spent the afternoon playing golf. His title? Chairman of the Board. But he’s been shunted aside because of the recession.

Hah! Serves him right.  Not that I’m gloating. Heh heh heh heh.

Consider this: the downturn has caused people all over Asia to sack their domestic servants. But in Macau, many maids have ending up working alongside their former bosses in casinos.

In several cases, the maids ended up higher on the ladder. Revenge must be SUCH fun. “Hello, ma’am. Remember when you woke me up at midnight to wash your toilet floor with my tongue? Now it’s my turn to find little jobs for you to do.”

Sweet.

* * * *
MEDICAL FIRM PFIZER announced it will give a free course of Viagra pills to customers who have lost their jobs. I heard about this from a reader who did not wish to give his name, but commented: “I’m retired so I don’t have a job, but may get one for the purposes of losing it.”
* * * *
CHINA’S SPRING AIRLINES may sell tickets in a “standing-room only” section, the press reports. Have you seen how little space there is in between seats in Chinese domestic airlines? We’re already pretty much standing up.
* * * *
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION paid millions of dollars to private firm Blackwater to murder people, but they failed to find a single person to kill, the New York Times revealed. They should have asked me. I have a LONG list.
* * * *
PROPERTY MAGNATE Donald Trump took out a lawsuit against author Timothy O’Brien for describing him as a multi-millionaire instead of a billionaire. A judge ruled against Mr Trump, saying that opinions were free. If Mr Trump does not like to be called a multi-millionaire let’s use a more accurate term to describe him, such as “a pompous dork with the world’s worst haircut”. Better?
* * * *
A PAIR OF Israeli newly-weds who kissed after getting married in Rajasthan, India, were fined the equivalent of US$22 for lewd behavior. How can a place which takes prudishness to such extremes have a population explosion? Do husbands and wives stay in separate buildings and Fedex ova and spermatozoids to each other?

Life is weird.

Comments

[May]

The worst paid job in this world is housewife, that is, my mom. well, she is a domestic helper, cook, baby-sitter taking care of my niece, technician, fund manager, CEO, etc. but have yet to become a multi-millionaire!!!

[Cricket Tragic]

Love the last one...it's so true man, us ppl in the subcontinent think that we are so clean (Western forces bringing that dirty feeling known as 'lust'!), but we are as bad as the Westerners, perhaps even worse! :(

[Leo]

I agree with May. My mother is getting pay cut too because of the recession. But my father is getting the same salary. So where did that part of money go?

I guess being a housewife is better than any university graduates, doctors, or even CEO. The only thing that makes the different is that they never get the right amount of salary that they are supposed to get.

Mother, the best and worst career in the WHOLE world!

DON'T CHALLENGE ME, unless there's another job that requires a non-degree graduate handling multi-tasks (some of them which DEFINITELY need PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE) all at the same time while he/she has to prepare lunch and dinner everyday.

[Angela]

Grandmother!

[fardel]

single father of a teenager;
not only you do not get pay, but you job is never good enough.

[Chamin]

George Cham, author of the comic strip "PHD Comics", recently proved that graduate student stipends are even lower than unemployment benefits. Most of them have to do some real work like marking and tutoring too. Oh well, at least they get a degree in compensation.

Fardel,

Must be harder when the teenager is a daughter :o(

[Angela]

I have a new appreciation for single father of a teen-age daughter :)

[Angela]

Fardel,

Must be like being US Forces in Iraq.

You think you are protecting them from boys/extremist, taking care of them financially,emotionally, etc., preparing them to eventually join the real/democratic world.

But they just see you as a tyrant invading their privacy, suppressing their freedom to associate with sleazy boys, preventing them from exercising their rights to self destruction.

Then there's the external forces, extended family, well-meaning/nosy neighbors, the international community, UN, they all think they know better and constantly criticize you or try to offer advice or judge you.

But unlike the US Forces, the single father/mother of a teenager cannot give in to external pressure and withdraw its forces and let go of control until at least the child is 18...or maybe 28?

It's for their own good, isn't it?

[Leo]

I think I got a better answer than "mother".

If it has to the job with longest working hour, it has to be "MOTHER NATURE"!!!

She's been working since the birth of this Galaxy and she's still working 24/7 without a break.

She works for nothing (no salary), and only get worse and worse housing and food (every year, we human burn her 'houses' down, give her rubbish to eat). We make tremendous amount of foul gases to poison her. We inject toxic waste into her veins. We SQUEEZE everything out of her just to let us live better than any other siblings she gave birth to (that include those extinct animals like Tasmanian Devil, and many more).

That job has to be the one with the longest working hours and with the worst salary and staff benefits.

[TS]

Leo,

I'm with you, but the Tasmanian Devil is not extinct, a Dodo would have been a better example.

[fardel]

This come as a surprise,Angela
After all your posts I did not imagine you as a tyrant.
Maybe you are not there yet (°_°)
Thanks Chamin, to be sooo comforting, this teenager is a she.
I should not complain
she cooks for me .. sometimes. and it could be called " essay" in modern cuisine.

Mother nature is really strong and patient;
I would have kicked all of you out of this planet long time.

Isn't it happening right now,
Isn't the planet alive and getting rid of its parasites?
Look at the toll of natural disasters.

[Uli]

Back from the labour room with a newborn son named Konstantin I enjoyed all of your posts which are all very, very true. But momentarily I cannot think of a better payment for my duties as a mother than the love and the happy faces of the two children of mine.

[TS]

Uli,

Congratulations!

[Vince A]

Congratulations Uli! Konstantin's photo should find its way into the Meet the Gang gallery.

[fardel]

Uli
Congratulations
Now tell me the truth
Was he laughing instead of crying when he was born?

Do we need to remind you that you should not read those columns:
When he is in your arms
You are breast feeding him
He is not sleeping in a soundproof , or earthquakeproof room ?

[Chamin]

Hi Uli,

Congratulations! And I hope that Konstantin continues to give you enough time to read the columns. Some baby boys do terrible things, like waking up once you turn the lights off to get some sleep :-p

[sej]

Uli, Congratulations!

[Angela]

Congratulations Uli!

Motherhood is such joy!

[Leo]

Uli, Congratulations!
You have been upgraded to PARENTS 2.0, enjoy the hard time of being the PARENTS.

A new hardware has been detected.
Please install driver MILK 3.09c for the new hardware BABY 2.001.

Hopefully you don't need to plug-and-pray for your new hardware.

[Sam]

LOL

[sej]

Mothers of New Borns and toddlers.

My sister has a three month old and a two year old, and she complains she rarely gets sleep. She finds even though the new born might be sleeping, the two year old is up and about, and vice versa.

Uli, I hope you're not in for the same deal, although from the picture, I think your daughter is a bit older, which should make life easier.

[Uli]

Leo, there, you got me into convulsions
again!
Fardel, actually he was only enraged at the colder atmosphere, but when he was lying on my belly he seemed very content and quiet.
sej, yes, she is five years old now, and a biiiig help.
Thank you all for your kind words and good wishes! I'm quite sure whether perhaps my visiting hours to Nury's page will be different from now on, might be night-time in Germany... But definitely not while breast-feeding, that really won't work!