A True 9-5

Almost 3 years out of college, I have begun to fully realize the ungodly amount of time the majority of human being spend in offices. Many a day I curse society for advancing to the point where we all sit in front of screens and communicate without contact all day. Those kind of days make me think the old agrarian format of just growing food for your family as a full time job is the way to go. At least you're outside in the elements, instead of hunched over at a desk all day. This week, I sat outside for lunch twice. Each day, I came back to discover that I had a slight sunburn from ONE hour outside. Apparently, I am Gollum.

This has changed recently, in that I work a true 9 to 5 job. Having come from a job where I worked from 8:30 until 6:30 or 7 (if not later), I honestly feel like I work half days now. I leave the office, go to the gym, grocery shop, and I'm home before 7. I'm not even cheating by taking public transportation. I'm walking everywhere. This has added immensely to my general quality of life.

New York has somehow to set the precedent for long grueling hours. It's the city that never sleeps and therefore it has to be the most productive. When we talk hours in New York, people seem to think they're more important when they work 50+ hours a week and are always reachable via blackberry. We have come so far from the days when we had to put down our pitchforks, plows, butter churners with the sunset. We all know, however, how much time everyone is wasting at work these days. Gchat, facebook, youtube, blogs, etc etc. If we eliminated all of that, we would still all work 9-5.

Meanwhile, my internet browser has gchat, facebook, and Bill Simmons' blog open while I write this post.... At least I can leave at 5.