By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.

The line is a dry, ironic comment on the promise of upward mobility. It suggests that “advancement” in a work hierarchy can mean exchanging one kind of labor for another—often longer hours and heavier responsibility—rather than gaining leisure or freedom. The humor depends on reversing the usual motivational message: diligence does not necessarily buy rest; it may buy authority that demands even more time. Read broadly, it critiques the cultural ideal that managerial status is an unqualified reward, and it hints at the self-perpetuating nature of work: success can deepen one’s entanglement in the very system one hoped to master.