Thought Chasm

first, I know. No Friday Free For All. I would apologize, but this is a blog and most of you probably didn’t even notice. It was a busy week.

Most of you are educated citizens and generally smart people based purely on appearances, I rarely have thoughtful conversations that would test such things. With that fact in mind, I assume the following will be unanimously agreed with and you’ll share in my joy. Also, like, one of you comments, so if you actually disagreed, I’d never here about it. Ignorance is power. Ask anyone in Minneapolis the first week of September.

Anyway. America, the land of the free and brave and such, has a severe problem. We’re faltering because we don’t manufacture and aren’t putting any moneys toward educating our soon-to-be-labeled-globally-retarded youth. Not good.

To combat this, we’ve started working longer hours, with less enjoyment, less vacation, more stress, less general fulfillment and less productivity than almost all of our industrialized read: rich, white counterparts. Maybe it’s the same part of the brain that approved “No child left behind” that thinks that’s a solid plan for national growth.

Workers have admitted to any pollster that handed them a fill-in-the-circle black pen or #2 pencil please questionnaire that they waste almost 20% of their day. The fact that I’m writing this and you’re reading it probably attests to the truth in that.

The French for those in the south, insert “fucking” before every following reference to the country; I’m trying to broaden my readership are more productive. I’ll repeat that. The French are more productive. They work 35-hour weeks, have five weeks of vacation and are more productive on an hourly basis than we are. Stings, right? Incidentally, we’re being torched by the Dutch who probably look at us and laugh; more because of the weed than the mocking; fucking hippies.

Over the weekend I thought of two things: I should buy a new bike and a multi-function backpack that has nothing to do with work or productivity, so I don’t know why I brought it up and I should see about working from home one day a week.

I figure it’ll be a floating day, depending on meetings, project priority and file access oh, and weather; which would factor in the new bike… I may be stretching that. I have access to all but a shared storage drive and one of our web servers. I should be able to find a way to both.

That I can so easily work remotely is nice, but with an odd dress-code and even odder scheduling blocks around the office, I wasn’t optimistic. The idea festered for most of yesterday though, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

I walked over to my immediate-super’s cube with trepidation and imagined her laughing at my early-Monday-morning humor. I posed the above as a way for me to work on a few projects coming down the pipe that will demand more focus. I can’t really focus here, with all the smaller projects dropped in my lap on the daily.

Luckily, she had just read an article in the latest issue of Fast Company, of which our department is a subscriber. It outlines some of the above facts and poses the possibility of shorter work weeks and more satisfied employees as a way to “go Green” and reduce our overall wastefulness. America still dominates that category! Whoop!

I have my fingers crossed figuratively that we can propose a plan that has me working from the lakehouse once a week. I could say this is a step toward a higher quality of life for everyone and sparks an upturn in the economy. Or that, by working from home, I’m laying the groundwork for peace in the Middle east, a reversal of global warming and an end to oppression in the third world.

Of course, that would all be a giant haystack of bovine feces, but I’m just selfish enough to believe it. Maybe.

time wasted posting this blog: about 40 minutes. I still have almost an hour to post a flick, read blogs and toss blank stares at my screen. efficiency!