Entitled boss sends out 'inspirational quote,' employee responds with actual math.
Reddit's Antiwork community is a hotbed of employer-bashing. Often it's a fiery, angry response to an oblivious boss that gets the most attention. But in this case, one employee told his CEO off in an extremely polite, reasoned, and arithmetic way. He posted:
The CEO of the company I work for sent this 'motivational' quote to us all today. I had some words as a response.
My boss sent us this email:
'Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.' - H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Well that hits hard. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been guilty of this. There is another excuse that doesn’t hold much water. Perspective is everything. Have a Blessed Be Happy Friday.
My response:
Hi Jay! While I get the “motivational” idea behind this quote, I don’t actually like it that much. When you think about it, the average working citizen does NOT have the same number of hours in a day that these people did.
People like them did not do their own shopping, their own cooking, their own chores, or most of the other responsibilities that the working class has to deal with in their day to day life, thus giving them more hours to dedicate to a successful living.
Especially when people use this quote to relate to modern success stories. I have seen this quote used in favor of the Kardashians, the same family that some people DONATED to, to make one of them a billionaire, so no, I don’t like it when people tell me that I have no excuse not to be like them when I have the “same time in the day” that they do.
He then proceeded to show his work:
Some math: The average adult needs 8 hours of sleep. 16 hour left
I work from 8-5, that’s 9 hours of my day at work. 7 hours left.
My commute is 15 minutes one way, and it takes me 30 minutes to get ready, so I get up at 7, and to cover anything that could happen last second at work, like last minute members, I usually get home at 5:30. 5 ½ hours left
I make my own dinner, prep, clean up and eating usually takes around 1 1/2 -2 hours. 4 hours left.
This part varies per person. Some people have kids, some people have school. I have school, and I am taking 7 credit hours, which means I should be doing 1 hour of homework per day. 3 hours left.
Exercise is important for a healthy lifestyle, most recommend an hour. 2 hours left.
We obviously have to get ready for bed, my shower and skincare/hygiene routine can take up to an hour, and my routine is quite simple compared to others. Let’s give that an hour, to account for some relaxation, which is vital to a low stress life. 1 hour left.
What do I do with my last hour? Do I do something I like, a hobby, a treat, watch an episode or two of my favorite show? Do I relax, read a book, go to bed early? That last dwindling hour of my day, I don’t want to think of fantastic, groundbreaking ideas, or think of how the world is awful and how I can try to fix it.
I want to spend it with my family, who also works these long days, sometimes longer than I do. I’ll spare you the layout of a weekend when I work, which I work every Saturday because I miss hours in the workweek due to my bosses generously letting me take a few hours out of two days of the week to go to school.
I’m not trying to say it’s a bad quote, by any means, it's just a quote that needs more thought behind it. Thanks for reading my rant!
What do you guys think? He's a good guy and usually has his heart in the right place, but he's a middle aged white man who's been a CEO hopper for the past 25 years of his life. I just want people to understand that I don't have the time to do great things when i'm forced to work for a living.
EDIT: His response was: 'I can understand your points and they are well made. To me, it is more about making the most of the time we have, not comparing ourselves to others.'
The comments pointed out a few glaring points, here:
From TheTowerDefender:
'not comparing ourselves to others', that is literally the opposite of what the quote does
From WayneKrane:
Ceo writes an email comparing employees to historically famous people and then responds saying not to compare yourself against others. What a bizarre take.
From UnroastedPepper:
No no no you are comparing these things the wrong way. You have to compare them in the way that I said. -him probably
From Wayne62682:
Coming soon: I responded to my boss's motivational quote, now I was fired. Lol
And summed up from EcstaticSociety4040:
I guess it's better than 'f*ck you Jay'
Don't ever compare me to Da Vinci.