I find it very interesting how some people, when asked what they do for a living, answer that they work 9 to 5 as if somehow 9 to 5 is, itself, a job. Now, more than ever, I understand this condition and wonder if we can define what we do by how long we do it. It seems, on one level, to substantively destroy the content of what we are doing by substituting a contentless catch-all to answer relatively harmless question. On another level, if we define our lives by what we do with the time that we've got, it makes sense to answer the question "what do you do" with a response of "how long."Or maybe I'm giving the 9 to 5 idiom far too much credit. People also may answer this question with "where" (I work in an office) or "who" (I work for Microsoft). Perhaps this answers, too, speak volumes about how a person confronts their finitude. I wish I had further observations to offer on what the "where", "who", or "what" answer to the question mean, but until I have one of those reponses myself, I feel unqualified to merely speculate.
Until then, I'll just say that I work 9 to 5, and deal with the consequences. Frustrating? You bet.
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hmm thats interesting I never thought about that common term 9-5.. it seems so bleak.. like a job just sucks up that portion of a person's day instead of being a significant 8 hours
ReplyDeleteit's true. very american-centric, where we define our social identity in terms of 1) job title and 2) job status and 3) how hard we work (the more the more heroic) and 4) income. i like the truism: Europeans work to live, Americans live to work. check out Harvard Prof Putnam's Bowling alone: the collapse of american community. the revolution will not be televised.
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