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The Shortsidedness of Working for Someone Else

My friend of 15 years (N) lives here in New Zealand.

Her son (C) is 20 months old.

Because of the cost and time involved in getting to/from New Zealand, N's parents have only seen their grandson (C) when he was first born (in the US).

They have never actually met her significant other (M).

So they have been pretty excited to come and visit their grandson N, meet her partner M (for the first time), and see their daughter C. They planned to come for 10 days around Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is in about a month and a half. They have had their tickets purchased for months.

However, about 2 months ago, N's dad was made redundant/ outsourced/downsized, etc.

He has been job hunting since, and is now in the third round of job interviews for a job with a large bank in Buffalo, New York.

If he gets the job, he's not even going to ask if it's possible to get the time off to come to New Zealand. Presumably, he's afraid it will jeopardize his work with the company.

N told me today that it's no big deal, because it's just $200 to change the ticket and then he can come out whenever within the next year.

He's so afraid of not having a job, and concerned about what that means for his life, that it's actually preventing him from coming and living the truly important part of his life.

He's not even going to ask if it's possible to have the time off.

That's hard for me to imagine. I'm sure it's difficult for him as well - to want to come and see his grandson, but to feel like he has to stay in order to take advantage of this job opportunity.

Makes me sad, and all the more determined to build business.

Posted on September 12, 2010 5:14 AM
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