Meaning:
A euphemistic way of describing being made redundant.
Background:
`I am looking forward to spending more time with my family' has become a
familiar formula used by UK politicians to make the best of things when they
are obliged to leave office at short notice, and that's where this expression
originated.
British Prime Ministers, especially recent conservative PMs, have developed a
reputation of overnight purges of their cabinets when they see trouble ahead.
Many of the purged were wealthy landowners and might well have welcomed the
opportunity to return to their estates to spend more time with their
families. However, none of them used that mantra: that was left to Norman
Fowler and, contrary to expectations, he wasn't forced from office, he
actually did voluntarily leave his cabinet post as Employment Secretary in
January 1990, to spend time with his family.
Whether Fowler was entirely happy with that choice isn't clear, but he did
return to front line politics two years later.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wow. I heard it countless times and have never suspected a story behind such a
simple phrase. I'd imagine Fowler a rare case even among wealthy landowners. How
many high on the pig's back would cast a discreet look around and stop working
voluntarily?
Before passing away at 43, my best friend Sheng(RIP) from my Beijing days was
the model Silicon Valley workaholic, living nextdoor to work, talking about
nothing but IC chips, and churning out patents like hotcakes for the firm,
before colon cancer brought him to his knees. On his death bed, he confessed
that he'd love to spend more time with his family.
