Random Humorous Things - A Light-Hearted Thread

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

 At 29 I had just bought my first house, and it needed work. A bit short of money so I got a boarder.  Working full time and attending University part time. That wasn't enough, so I go a weekend job delivering Newspapers to agents. That was from around 12.30 AM to 4 AM.
 Looking back It's a wonder I'm still alive. These days I'm doing well if I don't have a 2 or 3 hour grandpa nap.

I think workers have lost sight of how valuable they are. Our great-grandfathers were all, ‘Begging your pardon boss, but the lads have being having a bit of a chin-wag, and we’ve decided that eight hours is a full day’s work. We hope that’s all right, because if it isn’t, we’re going to burn this factory to the ground’.

Workers today are, ‘You work 50 hours last week? Ha! At my last job I put in 75 hours a week, you pussy.’

Boru

 
Here in OZ, the 40 hour week became law on 1/1/1948.  I joined the Australian Public Service in 1966. We worked  36 3/4 hours a week. That worked out at 7.21 minutes a day.

 When I was studying Human Resource Management  (part time 1971-74)  It was reckoned that in offices [at least] which worked a 40 hour week, productivity was around 6.30.  As a career  public servant, I think that figure was highly optimistic.   I'm a morning person. I did most of my work between 8am -1pm, when I went to lunch.  I finished  work at 4.00pm. Having done very little work in that time. In 33 years, I was never once criticised for not doing enough work. One learnt how to always look busy. 

Here in South Australia The Conservatives remained in power.  Many of them, including the Premiere, were Methodists, and most concerned about the morality of the workers. Hence, all pubs closed at 6pm.  Shops were allowed to remain open until 11am  on Saturdays. The entire state closed down on Sunday. No pubs, no restaurants, no theatres, nor any kind of organised sport.  Spontaneous, unorganised sporty was frowned upon. The other states called us wowsers, and referred to our capital city as 'Aunty Adelaide'.  Some still do.

Those laws did not change until 1970. The same time that the legal age of majority was changed from 21 to 18. 

  Children under 18 years cannot be tried as adults in Australia. The general attitude is that the concept of legal infancy exists for a reason; persons under 18 are not considered to be adults, no matter what they do. The federal government will not allow it. No state will be permitted to pass such a law unless it is law in all states. Yeah, States' rights matter, but nowhere near as much as in the US.  As an outsider it's my perception that many states effectively consider themselves separate countries***


***Federation occurred in 1901 here.  It was apparently a close thing because WA wanted to be a separate country. Western Australia covers roughly half of the continent.