Orwell lives

A quick refresher on double-speak: use words to mean exactly the opposite of what they appear to mean. Thus, the "Ministry of Peace" is in fact the ministry of war. "Ministry of Truth" is the ministry of propaganda. And "an individual's right to choose their working hours" is "a company's right to impose working hours"
*.

Not that I feel particularly strongly on this subject. I just feel strongly on the manipulation of language in this quote. This is not about individual choice, this is about companies wanting to protect their right to demand longer working hours from employees. I don't know many individuals who willingly "choose" to work more than 48 hours a week; in fact I don't know many who feel able to choose their hours at all. And while I'm not sure to what degree this should be legislated or standardised throughout Europe, I do feel, passionately, that the prevailing work culture of longer and longer hours - especially in media industries - is Evil and should be fought at every opportunity.

Which is (partly) why I asked for a three-day week.

And ever since, regularly beat myself up over making such an anti-career move. But that's by the by.

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* I think I've been overdoing the new windows. After all, we all know how to right-click, don't we? No more new windows. Anyone who feels strongly that new windows are The Way To Go, please yell, in the approved comment format. Anyone who sees such comment, thinks they're a pain in the butt and wishes to defend the individual's right to open windows at will, ditto.