Working For The Weekend
My life recently took a turn that could be seen as an examination of the effects of work. I don’t mean to sound overly grandiose about me simply getting a real job but what I am trying to write about is what I have felt over the past 2 weeks.
Some background: I had been in the same laidback office for 8 years. The low workflow and the casual attitude allowed for me to not only pursue personal interests online while at the office but certainly didn’t require much post-work decompression.
I now find myself in a situation that I think most workers find themselves. While at work, I am focused on the job (-no surprise there). After work requires a rushed attempt at relaxation. I have to squeeze any actitivy in the time allowed before rushing to get the rest required to be able to take on another day at the office. It isolates me from my social group(s) and my peers. I also find myself watching more TV as an act that requires no thought.
"Everyone's watching, to see what you will do
Everyone's looking at you
Everyone's wondering, will you come out tonight
Everyone's trying to get it right"
-Loverboy
I feel like I never leave work… and I don’t.
"if we recognize the emptiness of leisure activities and the impossibility of rest- we can pose the question more realistically: What would not be wasted time?"
The Situationists were clear on how the 8hr work day and/or the weekend saved capitalism. They are a facade of relief valves. They present us with what is supposed to be free time belonging to ourselves. This free time is spent relaxing or, more accurately- getting ready for the next workday. So even when we are off, we are just getting ready for work and that certainly is not time belonging to us. It is time belonging to work.
"The use of everyday life, in the sense of a consumption of lived time, is governed by the reign of scarcity: scarcity of free time and scarcity of possible uses of this free time."
-Debord
Some background: I had been in the same laidback office for 8 years. The low workflow and the casual attitude allowed for me to not only pursue personal interests online while at the office but certainly didn’t require much post-work decompression.
I now find myself in a situation that I think most workers find themselves. While at work, I am focused on the job (-no surprise there). After work requires a rushed attempt at relaxation. I have to squeeze any actitivy in the time allowed before rushing to get the rest required to be able to take on another day at the office. It isolates me from my social group(s) and my peers. I also find myself watching more TV as an act that requires no thought.
"Everyone's watching, to see what you will do
Everyone's looking at you
Everyone's wondering, will you come out tonight
Everyone's trying to get it right"
-Loverboy
I feel like I never leave work… and I don’t.
"if we recognize the emptiness of leisure activities and the impossibility of rest- we can pose the question more realistically: What would not be wasted time?"
The Situationists were clear on how the 8hr work day and/or the weekend saved capitalism. They are a facade of relief valves. They present us with what is supposed to be free time belonging to ourselves. This free time is spent relaxing or, more accurately- getting ready for the next workday. So even when we are off, we are just getting ready for work and that certainly is not time belonging to us. It is time belonging to work.
"The use of everyday life, in the sense of a consumption of lived time, is governed by the reign of scarcity: scarcity of free time and scarcity of possible uses of this free time."
-Debord
posted by shane at 8:49 PM
4 Comments:
I've been thinking about this alot lately. I think about the amount of time spent getting to work, being at work and then getting home. I think about the sacrifices i make to my social (aka "real") life in order to not be completely exhausted and depressed the next day at work (just slightly exhausted and depressed). I think about how my "free" time feels so absolutely unfulfilled; how i'm constantly wishing for more; how i have forgotten how to get more (did i ever know?) I think about how every day at work is a constant game of seeing just how little work i can actually do; how i can angle my body just right so people behind me can't see the book in my lap; or how i can slouch in my chair in such a way that people behind me can't tell that i'm napping. I think about all the people around me who also hate work; how we all connect on that level (maybe only that level). We're all disgruntled. We all tap dance when the bosses come by and give 'em the bird when their backs are turned. But for some reason, we all come back, day after day, for the same old shit. there is no honor in the work i do, but here i am, another awesome day of clockwatching, data entry, half-naps and tapdancing. Yeah!
I forgot to sign above...
Love Lucas
Lucas,
I really appreciate your comment and relate to the 'look busy when someone comes around' work ethic.
I have always hated work and I would guess most of my peers have too on some level. Something my writing got me thinking about, that The Situationists furthered, that I hope is not read into my writing is regarding the abolition of work.
When I first devoured Situationist texts, I loved the "anti-work" stance. I knew it was a fun slogan that could easily mean a lot to my peers. However, the "anti-work" platform has been hijacked by "autonomous" lifestyle anarchists. These folks hate work and aim or vow to do as little of it as possible or none at all. As if simply dropping out was a revolutionary act. Of course, it isn't revolutionary. In fact, that action/attitude is more counter-revolutionary or status quo than it is revolutionary.
To have the privilege to not work is something most people do not have. Most of all though, that act of gaining autonomous freedom is individualistic and places one's own desires above others'.
What good is me not working if everyone else is?
I totally agree Shane. I guess I come from a different perspective than the both of you being in grad school, its a different form of work. I go to class 2 days a week, am at my internship 2 days a week,
then 2 days to get my work done, then spend my "free" (free as opposed to unfree?) time doing intellectual work for the school. (Carl Davidson wrote a great article on students as workers back in the late 60s
http://www.antiauthoritarian.net/sds_wuo/sds_documents/student_syndicalism.html)
It feels like I don't even own my driving time because I'm thinking about the work.
So I'm lucky to have my sundays. I'm fortunate obviously to have this opportunity to continue my education, but I think a lot about how my time isn't my own. I think the situationists his this right on (of course the owe Marx for the original writings), this whole idea of how work is performed, who it's done for, and the terms under which it is done.
I'm looking for a world were we all can work collectively towards meeting societies goals, and then enjoy the rest of our time, and I don't see how someone refusing to work is challenging the system in anyway...I mean, it's just luck/fooling yourself and you end up relying heavily on your working friends for food, a stove, a place to sleep, etc. Thus, yor life is still reliant on SOMEONE working, just not you.
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