We Can Learn From the French
The Continental Way
Too much of our time in this world is spent in the breakneck race for success.
Our hours fly by in pursuit of ambition, leaving us no time to reflect, cherish, or develop our inner selves.
Was it Wordsworth who said, “The world is too much with us; late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.”? Yes, yes, I believe it was.
An age-old problem, true…but the French feel like they have arrived at a solution.
Starting on Bastille Day of this year, the traditional Day of Independence, the nation of France plans to take the next decade off.
Building on a tradition of taking entire months off of work every summer and seeing if anyone yells at them, which never ever happens, the country is scaling up the practice to now include entire years of indolent self-absorption to further the full expression of their inner lives.
If all goes according to plan the country will go back to work on July 15, 2029, if then.
The French are often in the vanguard of best work practices so human resources professionals the world over are watching this latest innovation.
“We are known for fleeing gainful employment for the entire month of August, but the consensus among our people was, ‘why stop there?’ said Andre Fin de siècle (italics in original), Minister of Work Life Balance, whose offices are located in the capital city. “Many of us have worked hard for – cumulatively – entire weeks of our lives. It is natural that we should be fatigued and require some time to recuperate.”
The scheme works by the entire population pooling their vacation, sick leave, and accrued personal time into a large national vat and distributing the hours out to every citizen of working age.
“When you run the numbers you see that this more or less gives everyone the next ten years off,” explains Fin de siècle.
The only people who will retain their positions are those that temporarily need them just long enough to go on strike.
“It’s important that public transit, various cultural settings, and museums and galleries seem to be open for a few minutes each day so that the schedules of tourists can be entirely disrupted by strikes or threatened strikes.” He shrugged in that Gallic way. “Don’t you see? It makes no sense otherwise,” he explained earnestly.
While on their decade-long sabbatical, the French citizens will continue to accrue vacation, sick, and personal leave time, which then may be applied to the total hours available and may extend The Great Era of Freedom another decade and a half beyond the planned duration.
There may be other resources to draw upon.
“Even given the benefits of the French diet, consisting mainly of baguettes and wine, which gives our people extraordinary life spans, some of our citizens will pass onto the Great Break Room in the sky. Their accrued but as yet unspent hours will go back into the communal pot.”
Fin de siècle notes as well that in the natural course of events many of these employees would have gone on strike several times a year over each of the upcoming years.
Striking a defiant note Fin de siècle said, “Where does it say that a person’s right to strike for better working conditions is taken away simply because he or she is on a decade-long sabbatical?” His outrage was palpable.
Given that the scheme hasn’t even touched upon the coffee and cigarette breaks that would naturally be accruing during the decade, and which themselves might be added to the pool of available hours for distribution, the duration of The Great Era of Freedom may spin out for a few years more still.
Fin de siècle makes the further point that over the course of the decade off, work habits may themselves undergo dramatic change. If the work week reduces naturally to a thirty, twenty, ten, or five-hour span, the work credits would stretch out that much further.
In that case the country may well be on vacation for the rest of the century.
Fin de siècle hastens to reassure those who do business with the country that the utmost effort to attend to their needs will be made once the country gets up and running again. Whenever that is.
“Please leave a detailed message and we’ll get right back to you in a matter of decades.”
