Tag: Work

Thoughts on Personal Workspace

My current workspace is a cubicle (one of the most traditional of American workspaces). Employee cubicles at this job vary from the sparsley decorated to those that look like somehting from an overstocked second-hand shop. This wide variety of cubicle decor has me thinking about how people choose to decorate their workspace

One obvious reason for decorations is personal expression. All that bric-a-brac is visual representation of who the employee is. Another purpose could be to display status. I’ve seen many workspaces crowded with diplomas, certificates, and other random awards. There are also the candy bowl cubicles, trying to lure fellow employees over like some sort of a sad version of Hansel and Gretel. The most important reason for decorations is a sense of ownership. In a world where we give eight or more hours a day to an employer many feel they need a little place to call their own (even if we don’t have property rights). Whether it’s a few photos, a couple of knick knacks, an award, or a bowl of Sweet Tarts it’s an attempt to mark off a little place of the world as our own where the time isn’t ours.

0

The In-Between Time

Nine o’clock on a warm Sunday morning attempting to regroup from a sixteen hour Saturday shift while coming to grips with a twelve hour shift tonight. Exhausted but too wired on caffeine to consider sleep for at least a couple hours. I call these the unoccupied hours the in-between time.

With a few bottles bottle of beer in hand, a familiar playlist on Spotify, and a cigar in my shirt pocket I take a seat at my little too rusted patio table. I pop a beer, turn up the volume, and light the cigar. This is the usual routine for the in-between time. Trying to get away from the thought of work while knowing work is less than ten hours away. The first beer empties a little too quickly as the cigar marks the time.

I look across the yard and notice the cars and trucks traveling down the road. Families wearing their pressed Sunday best on their way to one church or another. I pop another beer, return the waves of children riding in backseats, and I wonder what it would be like to have somwhere to go or something to think about on a Sunday that didn’t involve work?

0

“Take a Fit”

Tellurians plodding half-heartedly to
Weekday carrels. There is no merriment 
For the voiceless mass.

Bosses excoriate a variety of
Mendacious media. Their intentional
Propaganda is as genuine as their workplace "family."

Our drudgery is ours.
Our anger is ours.
Our hours are theirs.

from Firsts and Lasts

0

On Work

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

-Upton Sinclair-

0

Work

Work–A four letter word for some, a way of life for others, and means of getting by for most. For many people work is part of who and what they are. It’s the why they do things. It’s the where and the when of their weekdays.

“What do you do?” is often asked within the first few minutes of meeting someone. Work, what ever it is, is worth exploring during a month that has a holiday meant to celebrate working people. I’ll be at work on Labor Day, how about you?

0

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑