I used to get up before the sun, squeeze a run or a workout in if I could, jump in the car and spend an hour+ jockeying for position on the freeway. All in order to get to the office before 8 am so that the boss knew I was dependable & worthwhile.
Working, non-stop, construction pop!
Pretty nice view though!
I would work through lunch, through breaks and well past 5, all in an effort to stay ahead of the next scheduled deliverable and to ensure all items were included in that deliverable. Sometimes I would have to (guiltily) to leave by 4:35, keeping a close eye on Waze, just so that I would get to the daycare in time to pick up the kids before the $1/minute in cash late charges came. One delay, a blown tire, a broken down car or an accident on the freeway would jettison me off the freeway and turn me into Steve McQueen in Bullet.
Most nights with the wife picking up the kids, I wouldn’t get home until well after 8 or 9 pm. I would be welcomed home to a cold plate of food covered with a napkin. Scarf that down, do the dishes, then help the kids with homework or extracurricular activities and the 1-2 hour ‘getting-to-bed’ routine. Eventually crashing on the floor of the kids room sometime after 11. If I was lucky, I would get to my bed and have a few drowsy minutes of conversation with my wife.
Rinse & repeat, ad nauseum.
That just isn’t right. We knew it then, but as a struggling family with a mortgage, et al, there wasn’t much we could do. And then the pandemic brought it front and center. And it taught us that we could work from home. That we didn’t have to rush to work during rush hour, we could work some at home and then mosey into the office when we needed to. We learned that we could run our errands during work hours (gasp!). And maybe make up the time later if needed. We learned to put our families first. We got to spend a lot more time with our kids (maybe too much ;). We managed to find time to workout when we wanted to in the middle of the morning or afternoon. We stopped rushing, our quality of life improved, our health and well-being improved.
As we stumble out of the fog of the pandemic and come back to some sort of a structured life, some people have gone right back to the rat race: push harder, success at all costs, here’s a free lunch, now stay later, you owe me. As a younger architect, that was me. I didn’t care, I wanted to move up, I wanted to get ahead and work on the bigger, better, cooler stuff. In retrospect, I’m not so sure any of it was worth it.
I see the next generation of architects coming up the ranks. They have the youth, the exuberance and the energy to stay late, to work harder. I can’t fault their enthusiasm and desire to succeed and climb their own ladder. I can’t do that anymore. I don’t want to. And I’m not going to ask or force anyone to do the same.
The 9-5 work week was created to ensure we got time to live and didn’t work ourselves silly. We now have the technology to let us work better, work smarter, to get more done is less time. The pandemic taught some of us, a lot of us, a great lesson in life. A lesson we all knew all along. Some will learn and change. Some won’t. I hope to be the former. It’s time to spend more time with friends and family, less time at work, more time skiing and biking, less time rushing.
As we move back into the office, we are working 9-5. That includes lunch, breaks, errands, etc. We are aiming to work less than 40 hours a week, and live more than 80 hours a week! We’re taking long lunches and coffee breaks. We’re stopping to watch the people out the window. We’re stopping to smell the flowers. Were taking better care of ourselves, and at the same time, taking better care of our clients.
This is where I come to live, work and play. This is my office. And this is where I hope to pass the same on down to the next generation.