Your Unemployed Daughter

photo credit: slworking2

Brilliant thought of the day, as featured on Forbes.com:

“Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.” —Chub De Wolfe

A good friend of mine just visited me on her drive from Boston to New Orleans, where she is relocating (permanently, or as permanent as these things go).

In the past year, she’s freelanced a few days a week, worked at her parents’ bar, and had a variety of flexible working schedules and day-to-day experiences. We kept talking about how life is so lovely that way. So unboring, so invigorating, so … like life!

In contrast, those 9-5/9-6/9-whatever jobs where you punch in and out or are just expected to stay put at your desk—regardless of what you actually have to accomplish that day—until the proper time to leave seem horribly antiquated. Victorian, even.

Why remain at a desk or in an office when you’ve already completed the day’s tasks? What if you just so happen to be more efficient, or faster, or better at getting things done than your sluggish coworkers? Ah, then you are punished by the stultifying boredom that ensues, and next time, you vow, you’ll just have to be a little less productive.

When I went into an office daily, I loved the fast pace. That was what kept me there, often til 8 or 9 or 12 at night, if we were on deadline. I was happy working my butt off all day long, moving, churning, producing … as long as things kept happening, progress was occurring, and I was part of the team, helping things along in the best way possible. That, to me, was not so much work as kinda, actually, fun. (Yes, I am a masochist, a little bit.)

But on days that were so slow you had to take coffee breaks during your coffee breaks to keep yourself from falling asleep on your keyboard … well, I wondered, why go in at all? If there’s truly nothing to do, isn’t it better to have a day off to do things at home, where there IS something to do? Because that next crazy day at the office is going to come around, and it’s all going to even out in the end, right?

Why not structure work and life together so that they actually fit, and make sense? It would cut down on commuting traffic. The subways would never be packed. You could grocery shop at 3 pm on a Tuesday if you like, or commute to work at 11:30 am on a Thursday. There’d always be a free elliptical in the gym. Everybody functioning at their own pace, with the variety that they need, independently—not as robots adhering to certain hours, certain daily routines, the ever-dulling slog. Brave new world.

Why are so many people dissatisfied with work? Because they’d rather be doing something else. You said it, Chub.

So how about we try, every single day, to spend at least 10 minutes at work (actually or metaphorically) doing something we truly, absolutely want to be doing, something that brings us satisfaction on a level greater than a glass of really good pinot or a 10-minute chair massage.

Nothing wrong with either of those, btw, but I’m talking self-actualization here. Something that brings work a little closer to life.

Because, when the numbers are tabulated in the very end, wouldn’t you rather have more life than more work?