So you read that title and you must be thinking, “Curtis has lost his mind! He never liked an office job! He’s been dropped on his head or perhaps been replaced by a pod person! Dear God, the zombie apocalypse is upon us! We must flee! FLEE!!!!”
While a completely reasonable reaction, no this isn’t true.
I don’t miss office jobs, what with their W-2 earnings, regular hours, paychecks and possible medical & dental benefits. No, what I miss is actually having an office to work in. A building separate from the place where I live where I can show up, work, and then go home. It helps to separate work-life from life-life. Right now there is no separation. I wake up and, whether in PJ’s or business suits, I’m working. I end up working until I fall alseep. The breaks that I take are for food and to run errands or when I just need to get out for a while. It gets very difficult to tell just how many hours you are actually clocking when you need to run to target for deodorant or you go see a movie with your lady. There are days, usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when I can literally run my day like a regular office day and seeing what gets finished in those 8 – 10 hours gives me a real sense of accomplishment that I don’t feel on other days – even if I’m technically more productive.
I think it’s a weird socialization that goes along with the modern work environment. I would like to postulate, without being able to back it up with any scientific evidence whatsoever, that we get used to out school days, with the structure and timing that goes along with it, and even college where you may pick up a bit more autonomy but are still forced into particular hours for particular things. There’s a world wide acceptance of what “business hours” should be and so we get used to getting things done in that time. I can tell you from experience that the entertainment industry does NOT operate on a schedule, especially when you need to speak to people internationally, but we all still work on a kind of “business” schedule.
It is now 4pm. I started this blog at 10:45am, but have been distracted by work and phone calls. Even though I feel like I could write more I have to stop so I can get ready to teach tonight.
To conclude, I would like to have an office again.
Thank you.
See you tomorrow!
Totally know whatcha’ mean! Well, before having my son I worked from home full time and I couldn’t even count sometimes how long I worked for because I would stop to run errands and then work late into the night and wonder how many hours was that? It definitely has it’s perks being home for work but sometimes it would be nice to have work and personal life separate. Now I’m on a part time (when business heads my direction) basis, but still the office never leaves my home. 🙂