The Scourge of the Drinking Class
Frobes published a wonderful battle cry for people with healthy attitudes about work and life.
Every month, the U.S. Labor Department releases another jobs report that becomes fodder for the financial press. Yay, we created 138,000 new jobs! Yet nobody ever seems to ask if people actually, you know, like the jobs that have been created. The oft cited but never seen observer from Mars would think that work is the point of American life. But the aesthetics of life are far more important than whether or not a PowerPoint presentation was finished on time. In order to contemplate and enjoy life as art, people need time to be lazy.
Amen, brother! What ever happened to work as something that you just happen to do during the week to pay your bills? Why does it have to be the defining thing in a person’s life? I can understand that for some people it is, and sure, fine, that’s good for them. Where would we be without the artist totally dedicated to their craft or the activist who lives their cause 24/7? The junior project manager putting together Gantt charts over the weekend or the programmer flipping bits for somebody else’s company late in to every night, however, I would argue that we could do without.
I don’t think either that this should be taken in a “stick it to the man” sense. When people take the proper time to be lazy, it would in all likelihood make them even more productive at their jobs. People are inherently creative creatures, but they need inspiration for anything to come of it. There’s little inspiration in a daily cycle of Wake -> Work -> American Idol -> Sleep. When people are out actually living or thinking — “being lazy,” as the article would call it — there’s more room for inspiration, and everybody — family, self, employer, etc. — comes out on top.
The article goes on to address that black plague of modern work, the pager/cell phone/PDA/etc.. Yep, they’re awful, but then they’re also necessary sometimes. Sometimes you are the only person who can restart that one server or know who that one vendor is. However, even when they aren’t necessary, there seems to be a lot more “hooray, a device to make it easier for me to work during my free time” than “oh no, I’m tethered to the office 24/7.” Somehow work has even gained precedence over life in the off hours, and that can’t be good. The most healthy attitude I ever heard towards the 24/7 office leash was from a CTO candidate I was interviewing at a dot-com startup a few years ago. He said that he was more than happy to wear a pager as he understood that it was necessary, but that he wanted to be afforded every opportunity to make sure that it never went off. Bravo, good sir. As the article says, “being lazy these days actually takes some effort.”
In the end, it’s all about balance. Is work important? Sure. Is it more important than spending time with your family or your friends? Definitely not. Is it work more than setting aside a little time for yourself? Is it even advantageous in terms of how much you’ll get done in the long term to dedicate yourself heavily to work? In both cases I’d say “no” again. So blow it off. Phone it in. Stay home with a fake cold one day and read a book. You, your friends, your family and even your employer will be better off for it.