I am one who makes it plain that I'm not a workaholic. From observing some around me, however, I don't necessarily believe time spent equals a lot of work. When I am doing farm work, or any physical labor, I don't act like my pants are on fire, but I like to do it in a steady, ongoing, uninterrupted pace. I mention this because my brother and I were talking about this lately, and we know several people who would scoff at someone who calls it a day at 4:00 and heads for the shower and recliner, mentions watching tv, or someone who might take a day of leisure here and there, but even though these scoffers are "out and about" all the time and looking very work-worn in appearance, they aren't exactly killing themselves, at least not according to the time they put in or according to what my grandparent's generation called work.
I'll use a farmer I've known all my life as an example. I decided to help put a new roof on a guy's shed last fall. I was just helping; he was the boss. He said we would start at 7:30. I got there at 7:20. He rolled in around 7:50. He then got out of his truck, let the tailgate down, and sat there and drank coffee and ate a sausage & biscuit for 20 minutes. At some point before lunch, he ran out of chewing tobacco, so he left for town to get some. He was gone over an hour. Lunch rolled around and we were off to his mother's house for lunch. We stayed there over an hour. We came back and he had to stop by his shop for 30 minutes. To be honest, I was there, but I couldn't begin to tell you what he was doing that seemed so important. As evening rolled around, we could probably have finished the job in another hour, but he decided to stop so he could do a little fence repair. He had 5 fence posts on the back of his truck, so I'm sure that was a major task. I'm sure he didn't step foot in his house until 10:00pm looking work-worn and tired, but anybody who started at a decent time and worked at a steady paced could have completed by noon what it took him all day. This is an example of this guy's usual routine. I used to help him cut tobacco years ago, and I never felt overworked, that's for sure.
When I have a day off from the public job and can work on the farm, my work style is to just to work at a steady pace and do what I have to do for 8 or or so hours and call it a day as opposed to being out from 6:00am to 10:00pm and taking a break every 45 minutes, an hour lunch and supper, three trips to town, and a couple hours of piddling.
How other people do things is nothing to me, but I mention this because some people who pace themselves like this seem to think they are really hard workers and they put someone down who isn't out all day in work mode, but as I said, it's not like they are working very hard, they are just on the scene and not watching tv.
I'll use a farmer I've known all my life as an example. I decided to help put a new roof on a guy's shed last fall. I was just helping; he was the boss. He said we would start at 7:30. I got there at 7:20. He rolled in around 7:50. He then got out of his truck, let the tailgate down, and sat there and drank coffee and ate a sausage & biscuit for 20 minutes. At some point before lunch, he ran out of chewing tobacco, so he left for town to get some. He was gone over an hour. Lunch rolled around and we were off to his mother's house for lunch. We stayed there over an hour. We came back and he had to stop by his shop for 30 minutes. To be honest, I was there, but I couldn't begin to tell you what he was doing that seemed so important. As evening rolled around, we could probably have finished the job in another hour, but he decided to stop so he could do a little fence repair. He had 5 fence posts on the back of his truck, so I'm sure that was a major task. I'm sure he didn't step foot in his house until 10:00pm looking work-worn and tired, but anybody who started at a decent time and worked at a steady paced could have completed by noon what it took him all day. This is an example of this guy's usual routine. I used to help him cut tobacco years ago, and I never felt overworked, that's for sure.
When I have a day off from the public job and can work on the farm, my work style is to just to work at a steady pace and do what I have to do for 8 or or so hours and call it a day as opposed to being out from 6:00am to 10:00pm and taking a break every 45 minutes, an hour lunch and supper, three trips to town, and a couple hours of piddling.
How other people do things is nothing to me, but I mention this because some people who pace themselves like this seem to think they are really hard workers and they put someone down who isn't out all day in work mode, but as I said, it's not like they are working very hard, they are just on the scene and not watching tv.