Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25123
Recently in a budget meeting here at blue, we were figuring out how we would arrange our production deadlines around our December break. It's been part of our work ethic for the past three years to close the office for two weeks around the end of the year. It's a challenge, but it's become an annual tradition-set up that way so we can travel and live our own Adventure Lifestyle, away from the office for awhile. It's mandatory here. During the meeting Nic Black, our Director of Finance, said cautiousl): but confi- dent nonetheless: "I don't k.now if I agree that shutting down the office for two weeks is necessarily best for business ..... --- I smiled. I had been waiting three years for someone to ask that question. defend blue's position. Now, don't get me wrong. Nic happens to be one of the greatest guys I know, and far from what you might imagine for someone raising this concern. The fact that Nic saw it that way, proves what a mess our society's in. The reason we will continue to shut the office for at least two weeks every year, enabling blue staff to travel, and why those two weeks tie into what is an even longer stretch of five weeks of "time off" per year, is because that is our heritage here at blue. That is why we started the company in the first place. Travel and freedom are our motivation, our passion ... that's what we're all about. Before starting blue, I traveled a lot. Most of the time, really. One year I lived in Spain, where people have the most vacation days per capita of any country in the world. The Spanish have even invent- ed a word for the long weekend: puente (meaning bridge). Coincidentally, Spain is also the nation whose population sleeps on average the fewest hours per night. In Spain, you don't get a promotion by working late-you get fired. The most valued skills are eating well, staying out dancing later than your neighbor and living life to the fullest. I learned a lot living there. I learned a bit better how to live. After Spain, I lived in Hong Kong, going from one extreme to the next. Hong Kong has a six-day work week, which includes Saturdays-that's for everyone. If you don't get your work done on Saturday, you come in on Sunday. But, annual salaries are based on thirteen months-that's for everyone too. In Hong Kong, ANYTHING can get done by tomorrow morning. The territory has been around for fewer than 200 years, so everyone is, in essence, an immigrant, and many have made a fortune. There I learned a bit better how to work. When I got back to New York, even in Times Square I wondered "where is every- body? Have they all gone on vacation?" The point is, every society determines its own norms. And everyone who lives in a society plays a part in that decision. In other words, it is we who set the bar, and we who live with the consequences. As is often said, life is the choices you make. If xou want better ualitx of life, sto~laining about xour job: Voice your opinion and be a ~---0-~~----~~-~--~~ part of positive change. Or go work for a company that has values similar to your own ... or go live in a country that does. The stock market can crash tomorrow, and xou'll have the same set of memories when you die. here is nothing to lose but time and ou only' have one life to live ... that is, as far as I know.