The Displeasure of Business

Here’s a little Residential secret: I worked in advertising for a long time, as a senior copywriter, for several agencies. These loathsome jobs required me to work in an office. At a desk. Usually in a cube that the office named something cute, like a “pod” or something. Not very countercultural of me, I know. I hated working in an office. It wasn’t the work itself I’m talking about; it was the office mentality and culture. The water-cooler talk, the social outings, the office politics, the small talk, the butt-kissing, all of it. But there was one thing about office culture that I hated most, and that was the unspoken rule that one must always look busy, no matter how un-busy you might actually be. It’s a valid social issue in our country. There is a ton of down time in a lot of offices, especially those that are service-based and have clients to deal with. You are constantly waiting for client feedback, instruction, briefings, etc. So you wait for that. And then when you get it, you’re extremely busy, desperate to meet a deadline. But until you get it, you wait. And while you wait, you are not allowed to sit looking like you’re waiting. You can’t read a book or take a nap, and you certainly can’t just go in the lounge and watch TV. You can surf the Internet a little bit, but only certain sites and only in moderation. So you pretend to be busy. You surf the net strategically, always having a few work documents that you aren’t working on open, ready to spring-load onto your screen in case anyone walks by. You talk quietly on the phone. You sit at your desk pretending to work. Is that the stupidest thing ever? I think so. Don’t you agree? Your commentary on this social issue, please…