Ran across an odd “holiday” called ‘Take Back Your Time Day’. The idea behind it is that on that day (October 24 this year), Americans will already have worked as many hours this year as our Western European colleagues will for the whole year. That’s through a combination of the American proclivity for overtime, as well as the European policy of a month’s worth of vacation time. The site describing the day lists it as just one step in a fight against ‘time famine’ and a struggle to better handle the work/life balance. Americans aren’t balanced in anything, work/life or otherwise. We eat too much. We spend too much. And now, as demonstrated by ‘Take Back Your Time Day’, we whine too much. Want to work European hours? Move to Europe! Or scale back your spending and ambition so that you don’t need to be on the bleeding edge of overtime, whether that requires you to change jobs, companies, or even careers. The idea behind ‘balance’ is that you can’t have it all – to get more of A, then you need to give up some of B. Want the big American salary to live in the big American dream home with the big SUV and the fancy vacations? Then to fit that into your balance, you’re going to have to work a bit more.