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25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work

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Re: 25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work

#131
post #94
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a Christmas every year. A major telescope launch is apparently once a generation.

So why couldn’t they delay the lunch by a week so everyone could spend Christmas with their families and then launch it?

What's stopping anyone from staying with their family one or two weeks after Christmas?

What's up with this fixation people have with arbitrary dates for celebration?

Re: 25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work

#132
post #90

> remember that all across the world are millions of other people working the truly important jobs Im going to assume this wasn't intenional but it came off as a little negative given the rest of the positivity in this sweet message. It just got me thinking about underpaid educators and childcare workers who for the most part are off today. Really everyone, we're all in this together right? Keeping this whole crazy m…

> Im going to assume this wasn't intenional but it came off as a little negative given the rest of the positivity in this sweet message. I’m not following your logic here. How is this a negative thing? OP is literally praising people for their dedication with good faith intentions.

I think the key word that makes it perhaps slightly negative is "the". Take that out and it's totally fine. The "the" specifies it and implies the jobs that take Christmas off aren't as important.

Re: 25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work

#133
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why couldn’t they delay the lunch by a week so everyone could spend Christmas with their families and then launch it?

What's stopping anyone from staying with their family one or two weeks after Christmas? What's up with this fixation people have with arbitrary dates for celebration?

Because those "arbitrary" dates are agreed on by many. So everyone can leave their works on the same day and gather together.

Re: 25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work

#134

There are lots of people for who Xmas isn’t a thing — different background etc. I always thought it would make sense to let us handle Xmas duty so others — people for whom it really, really matters - can do their Xmas stuff. I used to try to volunteer for this when it was relevant (really, it’s not a thing for me), but I rarely saw a systematic opportunity to do so. I think it gets harder as time goes because the rep…

I wish we could do this for most holidays. There’s a lot of US holidays I really don’t care about (like thanks giving). Just give me PTO instead! My first manager allowed me to do that, I thought that was really cool.

Re: 25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work

#135
Last year, we had to work from home and do other kind of work, it was sprung upon us we were working on Xmas — no room for negotiation.

Thankfully, this year, unlike last, I was able to visit my family not only for Thanksgiving, but also Xmas — I only have to work the 26th.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Re: 25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work

#137
post #90

> remember that all across the world are millions of other people working the truly important jobs Im going to assume this wasn't intenional but it came off as a little negative given the rest of the positivity in this sweet message. It just got me thinking about underpaid educators and childcare workers who for the most part are off today. Really everyone, we're all in this together right? Keeping this whole crazy m…

just because OP stated jobs on Christmas are the truly important ones doesn't imply that other jobs that don't work Christmas aren't important. Your logic is the same logic as people getting offended by "Black lives matter" and them saying "all lives matter".

Re: 25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work

#138
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doubtful considering how long it took to put JWST together. What, 30 years almost? Granted a lot of that was scope creep but nonetheless, I'm betting it's not launch capacity that's the bottleneck.

The available launch vehicles probably demanded a certain amount of ambition in the plans. You can't launch small experimental telescopes with a short planned operation on the shuttle. It's too expensive just to show up with anything less than Hubble's successor. Now the new space race is aiming at making access to space cheap and common. Whatever follows probably won't be a big telescope. It'll be all the little exp…

Fast, cheap and out of control!

Re: 25-Dec. Shout-out to everyone else at work

#140
post #64

My grandmother is hospitalized at home after a huge stroke. Her nurse just left our house for the second time of this Christmas Day for taking care of her while we were in family. Thanks to his work, I was able to spend Christmas with my family, including my grandmother. That’s some badass important job.

Side note: I don't know how many people on HN are nurses/doctors, but thank you all for everything over the past couple years, especially now. We as a society have failed you guys, I just wish we could all do better. Edit: Just realized this could read as me criticizing GP, this is not what I intended, this comment just made me realize this sentiment more fully.

From an ER doc working in remote Alaska today, thank you. These have been trying years for all of us and while no one I know in the field expects to hear "thank you" for doing our jobs it certainly feels good.
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