On work ethic / Cycling still

There's a need for accepting responsibility - for a person's life and making choices that are not just ones for immediate short-term comfort. You need to make an investment, and the investment is in health and education. Buzz Aldrin

On work ethic

Yesterday, I wrote that I consider myself as an ethical mercenary. S pointed out that this does not make sense, or at least gives totally wrong impression of me. I did, however, have a more fundamental point to make.
I have always (well, at least from 1990) considered my work ethic as that of a mercenary in the following sense. A rational employee is as loyal to his employer as the other way round. Current corporations are not very loyal, or committed, to their employees. If the stock price goes down, employees will be fired and then later re-hired. Thus, adopting a mercenary attitude pays off: select (using whatever personal ethical framework and principles) an employers/corporation, sign a contract, and serve the corporation as agree until: there is a better employer somewhere (better opportunities for professional growth, higher salary, better location of the office, etc), or the conditions cancel the contract. No loyalty beyond the contract, no hard feelings on either side. Just pure and simple business.
For myself: my ethical principles do not allow me to work for defense or offense industries, and many others.
Well, I have to rewrite this later. I have a very clear idea, but I just cannot express myself clearly and succinctly.

Cycling still

My legs are hurting, but I still cycle. Today, I cycled west by the train-track (there is a bike-lane there) via Leppävaara to Kilo and then to some strange place in Nihtisilta. A huge bakery was there, even their R&D-department. I almost dropped in and asked for a job in baking better bread. I am a decent baker anyway. But I dared not. Instead, the bakery being at the end of an cul-de-sac next to a flowery field, I decided to cross the field, over a small hill. I assumed there to be some buildings on the other side. I should have know better, I was in Espoo after all. The field continued and continued, I could not ride, there were deep ditches, and I had to carry my Brompton almost endlessly. But then, at the end of the field I found our office. What a relief and nightmare: why am I wasting my time in an office in the countryside? Too bad, I cannot last much longer.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs July to September 2006".