"As if there was something romantic and glamorous about hard work...if there was something romantic about it, the Duke of Westminster would be digging his own fucking garden, wouldn't he?"
Jeffrey Bernard
I've written extensively in this blog about the tyranny of work, having had the scales fall from my eyes when I went freelance in 2009 and having realised how much I loathed the world of full-time white-collar work. That life took my free time, my brain space, my physical freedom, my mental and physical health. Yes, it gave me a decent salary in return, and I would never patronise the millions of people who are currently working for pittances, minimum wages or less, by acting like that salary wasn't and isn't important. Of course it is. But I decided to use my immense privilege - the fact I could live without the stability of that salary coming in every month - to take my life back. And I've never been sorry that I did it.
I've never worked a 'full time' job in the 8 years since. Please note, that is not the same as saying I haven't worked, or that I haven't worked hard, or that I haven't carried out tasks the average office worker would baulk at (have YOU ever manually evacuated a person's bowels, hmmm?!). I've temped, I've done contracts, I've done every imaginable kind of care work, I've tutored teens and adults, I've put suncream on cats (don't ask!!). And 8 years later, I'm an internationally published author and journalist, and I'm so, SO bloody happy.
However, this isn't about me having a good old brag. It's a reflection on how the culture of work has changed in that time, and how it's only become more demanding, more obnoxious and more insidious. And it's a chance for me to say NOPE NOPE NOPE to all that once again, and encourage you to do the same.
The above quote resonated fiercely with me when I spotted it in a newspaper yesterday. That's right, a physical newspaper, not an online one! And I was reading it while seated in a coffee shop, taking my time to leisurely eat, drink and read rather than rushing through the place with a takeaway cup. I'm trying this mindfulness lark, you see, because it's supposed to be good for mental health. And you know what mindfulness entails, nay demands?
Slowing. The. Hell. Down.
Which is NOT what current Western society, or current working culture, encourages at all.
The modern world as it stands encourages you to speed up. Multi-task. Do five things at once, even if that means you do a poor job of all five instead of doing one thing well.
It encourages you to be on your computer with your phone and tablet by your side demanding your attention like persistent pets, for 18 hours a day. It means you can't even queue for something without being on what Joshua Ferris accurately termed 'the me-machine' (and what I'm rapidly beginning to refer to as The Twat Machine!).
As a society we're increasingly incapable of Just Being. No wonder yoga retreats, mindfulness courses and even sleep pods at work (don't get me started on the fucking irony of that!) are so in vogue right now. No one knows how to relax any more, or if they do, they're afraid to because they think they'll get sacked.
I've found myself falling into the terrible habits of this bullshit culture too, albeit only briefly. Answering emails at 9 at night. Responding straight away in order to show willing, even when a response isn't really needed or the sender of the email isn't likely to reply for 5 hours, or perhaps ever because they're clearly multi-tasking too much themselves. Emailing when a telephone call would actually do the job much better. Pestering others when I could easily have left them the hell alone to have their lunch hour, or their evening, or their weekend, in peace because let's face it, my work is never going to be a matter of life or death and neither are 95% of jobs out there.
But then I realised it was compromising my mental health, and I talked to my psychiatrist about it, who said something along the lines of "You are not paid enough to be available 24/7," and I put a stop to that nonsense.
I deleted all distracting apps off my devices - Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, LinkedIn etc. Come on, folks, as if those massive companies don't hold enough power over us already. The feckers can live without being on your phone or tablet, I promise you. Their browser sites still work.
I made copious use of airplane mode on my phone, or simply switched the bugger off. I promise you, the world does not cave in if you do this. Especially if you do it at evenings or weekends. Your family will thank you for putting down the me-machine and doing stuff in the 3D world. My parents have already commented on how much more present I seem when I go to see them - often that's because I've deliberately left the Twat Machine back at my house, so I can immerse myself in the experience of seeing the people I love.
I stripped down my social media activities to mostly those that will benefit my professional life, left groups that I never participated in but got constant notifications for, regularly hit "MARK ALL AS READ" on notifications (I promise you, it's a wonderful feeling), deleted 'friends' that I never talked to, and had a complete moratorium on the Twat Machine from 10pm to 8am. I don't even have my phone in my bedroom any more. I leave the evil little git downstairs, turned off, and when I wake up the first thing I do is drink some water and look at the sky, NOT at a tiny screen.
My cat is also grateful for these changes. He's getting a lot more real-time love and undivided attention too, rather than fighting with glowing screens for my attention.
Oliver Burkeman is absolutely on the money when he says "Office communication comes at the cost of precisely the kind of focus that's essential to good work. "
Cal Newport echoes this, saying "We hook up to email addresses and Slack channels and then just rock'n'roll with messages all day long....hoping busy-ness will transmute into value."
This kind of performative work culture was exactly what drove me mad about office life, and utlimately drove me to leave it. I never understood why people were so keen to look busy, to seem productive even when things happened to be quiet, to make a big song and dance about getting in to work early, working through lunch and staying late. I was often bored and under-utilised, and frankly wondered why, if it only took me 3 hours to complete my day's work, did I have to stay in a fluorescent-lit, air-conditioned box for 6 more hours, pretending to be occupied?!
I know that many people are simply afraid, because in this insecure economic climate they need that job and they don't want to rock the boat. But as someone who can afford to say Fuck All That, I feel it's my duty to stand up and say it as loudly as I can on behalf of all those frightened souls.
Now, of course, I make my own schedule and I work as long and hard - or as briefly and effortlessly - as I wish. I'm typing this on a proper desktop computer (with an ergonomic keyboard, because too much time on the Twat Machine and other devices has made my RSI flare up - CHEERS THEN), and my phone is on silent and in a different room. No radio and no TV are playing, no other browser windows open. I can hear birdsong and I can see the trees gently waving outside. This is what office life might have been like 20, 30, 40 years ago, when we did less emailing and more actual work.
Try it some time. I think you'll like it.
No comments:
Post a Comment