People who define themselves by their jobs/careers (and that includes 100% of workaholics) would answer the question by what they do for a living. People who don't define themselves by their jobs/careers (and I am one of them) would answer by their name and where they came from. I am not nor will ever be defined by what I do for a living. I am a person first and foremost.

fair enough.....but i already said that that u have that information....so u wouldnt give it again just to prove a point would you? read the passage that u are quoting me on....

Not to my knowledge. "How are you?" is usually just a rhetorical question, that doesn't require an answer, but on the odd chance that someone really is interested in how you are, that's a health-related question, and the answer would be something like "I'm fine", "I'm depressed", "I have a headache", "I'm tired", etc.

OK, so that's a different question now. In that case, assuming the person knows nothing about me, I'd probably begin with my personal life, rather than my work. i.e. My name is Rene, I'm married to <fill in name and nationality>, we live in Phoenix, I speak <insert languages here>, I work full time for <company name>, but I also tutor <insert language> on the side. My hobbies are <list hobbies>. It also depends in what context I'm meeting this person...there is usually a scenario surrounding how you meet people...it's not going to be some random stranger off the street. Like when I meet new people through the Turkish community I belong to here, I rarely even mention my work, because talking about our mutual interest in language, culture, and travel is way more interesting. But if I'm meeting someone through work, I will tell them how long I've been with the company, what my position is, etc.

I suppose my very next question would also be something about work, only because that's what most people do (if they aren't a student). Not because it defines me at all.

Rene

Precisely -- meet someone at a business conference and one is probably going to say, "I do such and such a job for such and such a company" in introduction. But at a party one might say "How do you know [host]" or "Do you live in [town]." At a benefit, "How long have you been interested in the museum/dog pound/whatever." I would only ever lead with my business information if meeting someone in the context of business.

Who's talking business? No one would understand a word I'm talking about if I started talking business. Your museum is a good example. Theoretically lets say I was interested in that.....I love museums....and I don't mention anything about my "crappy" job in a local Wallmart. A week later after visiting a museum I get a job there as the local manager notices my interest and level of knoweldge. I will not suddenly stop talking about museums to everyone except when I'm at work, as its my hobbey and always will be, I just happen to get paid doing it.

I know that your view is shared amongs a lot of Brits, but if you look at the US and consider that their view is (mostly) the opposite, you can see the results....top movie industry of the world (Hollywood), top innovative companies in the world (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, twitter, Apple, CocaCola, Pepsico + hundreds more recognised by billions of people all over the world).

Without this "live to work" attitude these companies wouldn't exist, and these people would still be flipping burgers as most of them probably once were. Bearing in mind that the likes of Bill Gates/Steve Jobs and everyone who works/worked under them are all just normal people....they just decided to do something extra, is that so bad? We're all beniftting from it, so someone obviously did something right.
For those who have worked in UK companies which specialise in evolving technology you may have noticed that there is no innovation, and people very rarely enjoy their jobs. People just do what they need to do to get paid, then its off to the pub at 4:59pm with an expensive ipad/iPhone/macbook pro to buy 10 rounds of beer and complain that they don't have any money......I'm not surprised. :-)

No innovation in the UK? You've been listening to those tales of U.S. exceptional for too long;
http://www.britsattheirbest.com/inge...st_century.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...nd_discoveries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...nd_discoveries

And I'm still waiting for something as useful as the "red button" on my TV over here.

The Independent actually, a few months ago.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...s-6262290.html

There is something much more useful than a "red button"...its called Google, now available on TV :-)

Good list of inventions for the UK, but only a few are internationally recognised and recent (post-1980). If you look at the WWW/HTML/HTTP entries, although the inventor is British (as are most people here including myself) look at the strong affiliations with the non-UK instituations....including MIT. He is even a UK expat himself, living in MA - that strengthens my point....

Innovation isn't only about inventions anyway (although it is a large part)

Just wondering - are you British or American? I am starting to get tired of your anti-British posts.

How can you be tired of them? You're not even reading them

Believe me it doesn't take much to get tired of you ...

Its a shame some people can't listen to a few negative facts about the country in a forum where most people would have a negative thought or two.

There would be negative and positive aspects of every country. Not discussing them doesn't make them go away. Not agreeing with the opinion is fine but many brits who love their country as I do agree with me.

You seem to have completely missed my point.

Let me try again.

It isn't that I don't want to or can't listen to "a few negative facts" - it is that I find you to be extremely boring to the point that I am simply not going to waste any more of my time reading your posts

Don't read it then....both USA and UK are free countries.
Btw, the topic has moved in from life/work to innovation....others have found it interesting, but if you don't go find one that you do find interesting.

Haven't you tired of annoying people yet? Goodnight.

I used to live to work in the US (I enjoyed my job and went to work looking forward to what the day would bring). At times working long hours to the exclusion of what some people might see as more normal pursuits got tedious, but I enjoyed some aspects of the work I did so much that I'd happily spend annual leave time doing them (just like a professional musician might get the guitar out on vacation).

These days my job sucks most of the time, largely because of the working conditions and management BS. I get a better salary than I did in the US, but can't get my job done unless I work weekends and evenings. Ironically, for me working in the US involved greater flexibility and less job-related stress than now working in the UK - but from what I read most people say about the US, their experience has been the opposite.

Even though I'm quite a way from retirement I have considered finding a position with lower salary in a location that suits me better than here (sorry to anyone from here, but central Scotland just doesn't do it for me), and spending more time in the garden, out on the bike, or actually taking a real vacation (instead of just "time off work").