Back on the Island we had a Term for This

[mbarrick]

Today is payday. I'm tired. I will have four more paydays here - that's how close to being over this job is. Basically I have money in my pocket today and no motivation to do any work. I think I'll go home at noon today. Back on Vancouver Island, in the old days before they were as assimilated into Western Civilisation, it was par for the course for native workers to not show up for several days after payday - that was their culture: food is naturally plentiful here and the one only worked to satisfy the necessities - why work when you don't need to? The "schedule" resulting from this tendency to not show up the week after payday was, in less politically correct times, referred to as "working on indian time."

Today I am working on indian time. I had a couple things I needed to get done and expense cheque to pick up reimbursing me for my trip to Vernon on the 5th. Now I'm done for the day. I need a nap more than I need to hang around here doing nothing. And I think I need to go out Sunday night this weekend more than I need to get up and come into work before noon on Monday, too.

Comments

[mediavictim.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately - that "Indian Time" may explain why the downtown Eastside is in an economic slump. Native tradition vs modern Economic Climate.

Frankly - I have always had issues with a culture that is too laid-back- and I am not talking about just the Natives - the whole Westcoast is like this.

In this day and age - markups on services and prices are so low that one must be able to serve as many people as possible to make up for the econmic environment. This usually means that you may require immediat feedback from suppliers/bosses/accountants to proceed to your next client in order to handle many clients daily

But in a culture thats too laid back problems arise when the people you rely on to do their job so you can do yours - you can't get your pricing to quote your client becasue your supplier is knuckle dragging, your boss doesn't approve anything becasue he hasn't bothered to take the time to look at what he needs to to approve anything. Your customer hasn't submitted their requirements on the deliverables but still expects you to make the deadline. Ultimately you can't do your job becasue no-one else is doing theirs. THEN what happens is that all the neglected work piles up - and then these people suddenly run out of time to do their own work
then complain on how busy they are.