Many Workers Cannot Just Leave Work and Go Home for the Weekend When There is Work To Be Done

On CNN this morning, they had a segment in which one of their reporters was trying to interview members of congress who were leaving town for the weekend.

As anyone who has been watching the news is aware -- congress is deadlocked on the budget issue, and today is the last day before sequestration kicks in, with indiscriminate cuts, affecting countless governement services, and affecting hundreds of thousands of both government and civilian workers.

Some of the few comments (paraphrased)  that the fleeing members of congress made (most would not respond to questions) included:  " If they need me and call, I will come back ",  "there is nothing to do here right now", " I always go home for the weekend".

It was the last comment of " I always go home for the weekend" that really caught my attention!

I thought about jobs I have had for which there were no options on weekend, or sometimes holiday work.

When I drove over the road in the van line industry, if my last delivery was on a Thursday 1000 miles away from home, and my next assignment was loading on Monday --- I could not go home for the weekend.

Even when in town, big office moves are generally done over the weekend, so that the customer's business is not disrupted.  I spent countless weekends working 12 or more hours on both Saturday and Sunday on such moves --- there was no option to leave the job and go home because it was the weekend.

When there is a major storm and the electricity lines are down and people are without power -- we see the repair folks out in the cold and snow, climbing poles and running cable -- yes, on Saturdays and Sundays too!

There are of course a million more examples I could make --- but maybe one that should really hit home to members of congress, is that our military personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea and everywhere else around the world, where the members of congress have sent them --- they do not get to go home for the weekend.

Personally -- if I was talking to that member of congress who made the comment that he always goes home for the weekend -- I would tell him that he should keep his butt there -- our country is in a crisis -- artificial or not -- and if he is not concerned enough about doing the people's work to put in a little OT -- he is much more a part of the problem, then he will ever be of the solution.

The worst part of working in management for me has always been when I had to fire someone --- but I never lost sleep over firing some Prima Donna who thought they were too good to put in the effort needed to get the job done.