THE EDITOR, Sir:I READ with interest the article regarding flexi-time being considered in Jamaica and am prompted to give you input as someone who has experienced firsthand the downsides of such a proposal.
When I arrived in Canada in the early 1970s, weekends were sacred and Canadians eagerly looked forward to Friday evenings when their busy lives would slow down and they would be able to shed their 'work' personas and concentrate on themselves and/or their families and friends. 'Flex-time' as we called it, existed in the work place back then and was another means of working Canadians ensuring they had a healthy balance between their two lives. I, for instance, chose to work longer hours Monday to Thursday and have a half day off each Friday. In a country where summer can sometimes be 'two months', my chosen option was particularly beneficial during the limited time we had to be outdoors.
Like you, debates around store openings and the like on Sundays ("Sunday Shopping" as it became known) began to rear its ugly head and the 'Toronto' I knew and loved as my home-away-from-home changed drastically forever.
Yes, there were benefits for me as a consumer, I no longer had to complete all my shopping on Friday night or Saturdays, but the toll on the very fabric of the culture I had come to love, and one of the main reasons I chose Canada as opposed to the United States, is plain and simple 'stress' and absolute breakdown of family.
There is no longer a single day of the week put aside where one dedicates to one's family and/or friends. Yes, people like myself still attend church but we are so tied to our numerous 'things to do list' that if the sermon goes a couple of minutes beyond the normal time, we become agitated because we are now behind in the assortment of responsibilities we have to attend to. Hurriedly, we leave the religious service and rush into malls, stop at the supermarket and basically spend the day in our cars to complete 'the list'.
Sunday nights, many of my friends speak of the anxiety about the coming week and the feeling they have that "the weekend just wasn't long enough". I would see my staff roll into work on Mondays, tired, not from having had a well deserved break but from doing their part to help the economy and participate in all the other so-called benefits of having commerce intrude on their weekends off. In some cases, we justify that we have had a 'weekend' by trying to fit what should be a priority, time with each other, somewhere (usually at the bottom) of the 'To Do List' and there it stays. The so-called benefits, have destroyed us and today, in Toronto, visiting someone in the field of psychotherapy for any mental illness including burnout which has become a real issue, means a waiting list of six to seven months.
About the economy, even after we've given up our spare time and lost our children and families to 'assist' it, it continues to struggle and we, continue to be faced with rising costs in food, housing, gas, heating (an example of which is my heating costs just went from C$161 to C$297 per month yes that's not a misprint).
Explain to me then, how I and others have contributed to the economy by overlapping our work and social lives. Explain to me why so many people are being broken down by 'burn out' and why so many families are breaking down and the adolescents are 'screaming' for our attention by filling up our jail cells.
I recently visited Jamaica and came back to tell my family and friends of how my friends and family, though hard working people, seemed able to meet and laugh and share good times, something we absolutely don't do during the week here. I came back and told everyone we had to change the way we lived our lives and now I read this.
My advice Jamaica, DON'T proceed, only a few benefit and the majority, particularly the families, the backbone of any society, will suffer.
I am etc.,
J. MORRIS
E-mail: twospanmomma@hotmail.com
Via Go-Jamaica
