Good afternoon,
Monday. Had a pretty busy weekend where work/life were super duper blurred (ok
maybe the life bit was beyond blurred and more out of focus). The up side is
little Khan got to be in his first bonafide photo shoot, and David and I were
pretty amazed at just how well he took to it. He's a food motivated dog so if
you hold a treat in your hand, he'll pretty much sing for his supper. He's a
good kid. I adore him and I'll share with you the pictures when they are out in
the public domain. Now if only I could be Khan's stage mom for a living...
But speaking of making a living, I'd like a word. I was gazing at Facebook this weekend and came across a friend of mine's status update, which I must admit, had me ready to scream, but in a good way, as in "YES YES AND YES".
My friend is a successful woman, who is always available and ready to make it happen. Her update reflected the fact that although she is available till about 9 at night 5 days a week, she would like her weekend to recharge her batteries and rest her brain, and that people who interrupt your weekend for non-essential work stuff are just not all that cool. I love that she expressed this sentiment, because it's something I've been thinking about for a while. As a lifelong advertising type, my hours can absolutely suck. Most nights I am online until I go to bed, and the response rate that's expected in our connected world is nothing short of real time. I can only speak for my own industry, but I'm just wondering- why can't any of us get our work done in a normal time frame anymore? Why is working all weekend ok? Why are you considered a bad employee if you don't work till 11 pm every night? Because the real question is- are we really making the work better by always working? I'd be willing to bet the farm that we aren't. Sure we live in an era where more is more and the amount of stuff we have to make to sell a car or a computer or a can of something has multiplied. We make print ads, we make TV ads, we make social campaigns, we make experiences, we make it all. But unfortunately, while we're making it all, we're not able to have it all. Or even part of all. We're having less so our jobs can be that all. There's got to be more than that, right? I can't be the first one that heard the rumor that life is short. Relax, human race. RELAX.
My husband works in this industry too, and has probably the biggest time suck vortex job there is- he's a creative. For those of you uninitiated, that means he's the one that comes up with the ideas, and apparently, coming up with said ideas has zero time limit or boundary. It's certainly true to an extent- we have great ideas on the subway, in the shower, taking out the trash. But my issue is not with boundless inspiration- it's with the bad and getting worse reality that working in advertising means you are never allowed to turn off. The expectation that any human being can function by working every single day, without a day (or like most reasonable people, two) off is disturbing. Listen, nobody goes into advertising to work 9-5- not if you want to be successful- I get that. But this whole constant bombardment of work that is sometimes non-essential (a lot of the time) at all hours makes me want to put up a fence for the weekend or after, say 8 pm during the week.
I know evolution is most likely going to adjust to accommodate working this way- I don't know if our brains are going to magically develop more space, more bandwidth, or more of anything to help us process the constant influx of information with very little down time. For instance, I'm a bit of an insomniac, because of course, I have a hard time shutting down my brain after so many emails, conference calls, timelines, and Lord knows what else. So when I wake up in the middle of the night stressed out over some deadline or work situation, I do the worst thing one can probably do. I hop online. The fact that I can now shop for boyfriend jeans or lipstick or book reservations for dinner in Soho in the middle of the night may seem efficient, but in reality, it's quite depraved. We live in a time of very few boundaries- where you can get whatever you want (nothing scares me more than Tinder) whenever you want. That's a bad idea. And because as we're trying to communicate with as many people and vendors as we can in a 24-hour span, we've kind of stopped talking to the most important people in our lives- each other. Walk into any office these days and you can hear a pin drop. You know why? Because we all have our headphones on and have stopped talking to people in person. I'm grateful to this in some ways as a meeting happy culture is not for me, but really? I didn't get into advertising to sit in silence, I can tell you that. Where's the music? Where's the laughter? Where are the practical jokes? I can't be the only person that misses this stuff. Or maybe everybody is now very happy to exist in a sort of Shutter Island approach to work? Ugh.
And then back to boundaries- some of my Facebook friends will recall my post from 6 am (see I'm violating your boundaries by posting so early, I'm guilty as well) this morning, while on my way to the gym, I popped by Starbucks for a little caffeine. It's a lovely time of day- the morning is sacred to me and I've always enjoyed the city yawning itself awake and slowly coming to life. But enter that boundary free zone we live in and sitting in the window is a dude, wearing Toms, no socks, and sweats, conducting a full on status meeting on his computer, with headphones in, talking at the absolute top of his lungs. On what planet is that ok? He regaled all three of us sick enough to be up before the sun was with tales of how much he loved the simple yet colorful design of Square, how this one and that one should circle back and hustle up, how he looked forward to scheduling a meeting with some other annoying people he knew. And as I sipped on my latte, all I could think about was either stabbing him with a pen or putting chloroform rag in his mouth. The air of self-importance that any of us plebes would want to listen to his high tech conversation was sickening. But then I realized the real truth- his significant other probably told him to leave the house, because he or she did not wish to be disturbed at this hour and listen to his big fat mouth blabber on. And with that, he ruined my few moments of solitude, before the day began, before the shit hit the fan yet again. Before I felt pillaged by emails and non-working conference call numbers and lunch eaten at my desk.
I'm concerned that this is the new normal and that anyone not onboard is not going to make it. We may very well be working harder and longer, but really, we are not working smarter. There's nothing smart about ruining people's mornings or weekends or sleep patterns. I remember a time when I was very small when, in the days before cable, network TV would just go off the air, and if you were an insomniac, perhaps you'd have to either try and go to bed, or read a book, or you'd be shit out of luck. I guess my big point here is this- is all of this content leading to our discontent? How much can we take before our heads just explode? If our brains have not yet adapted to all of this influx of stuff, how are we even equipped to handle it all? Is all of our value based on time we put in vs. the level of genius/creativity/smarts we bring to a project? And why are the companies well steeped in a religious right POV the only ones who have figured out the importance of family time? As far as I can tell, we're all on the super shuttle and life is just passing us right on by, in favor of some I can work anywhere, any time sentiment. And although that seems freeing in a way, it's anything but. If Allen Ginsberg saw the greatest minds of his generation destroyed by madness, I wonder what he would think of what's happening now. I'm afraid we are all coming very much undone- present company included, and as the big tech types in SF reinvent not trusting (or hiring) anyone over 30, I'm afraid it's going to get worse, because our life switch only has one setting, and it's on. I bring up tech as another place of very few boundaries, and it's not because everyone is young, but because everything is just moving so terrifically fast. And the young geniuses getting rich off all this high speed and high stakes innovation don't make time for non-work life- not when companies like Oculus Rift are selling for billions to Facebook, whose CEO is about to turn that magic age- 30. (Interestingly enough, Oculus is all about virtual reality, so welcome to the next huge thing- where the very notion of what's real is about to become way more blurred- think work/life/virtual life).
And believe me, I don't have an answer for how to solve all of this (dis)content. As I watch the greatest minds of my generation, I don't know if they're being destroyed, but they do seem very tired. And if the work is truly never done, than why try to finish it? Tomorrow is another day...go out and live a little and I do think work will become something worth fighting for. And I know we can't slow down the pace at which we are performing and creating and advancing- all the more reason to take a bit of time to properly chill out.
Cause that's what's up this trying to get the balance right kind of Monday in the 212. Yours, in working smart.