21st Century Work Efficiency

Ever since our daughter has reached the age of 16 weeks, I've settled nicely into a schedule of working in the office on Mondays and Fridays and out of my home office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays (I'm hoping to add Wednesdays to my "in office days" sometime in 2010!). It's worked out nicely, because by Friday I'm usually itching to get back to my office in which I can't wear pajamas without being judged and coworkers who will convince me to go out to eat at tasty restaurants with questionable nutritional value. So it's been a pleasant, somewhat-modern arrangement that has suited me.

Correction: it has suited me when times are busy. Today, December 21st, is a Monday, and thus I am in the office. Unfortunately, almost no one else is. That's because most of my coworkers have the foresight to save the required number of vacation days for this un-busy season. We work in Market Research. NO ONE conducts research during the holidays. More specifically, we work in Market Research primarily for Radio Stations. Many of our clients are playing Christmas Music 24/7 at this time of year, so it would be ludicrous to ask consumers how they feel about the Music Mix or the overall packaging of their favorite stations at this time of year. Instead, I am in the office...blogging.

Yes, I could send out an "I'm working from home" email today. But frankly, I work from home enough. And working from home would just have me tethered to my computer up in my home office, surfing the web, wishing someone would send me something to do, afraid to run downstairs and wrap Christmas gifts for fear that THAT would be the moment at which someone would IM me with an urgent crisis from the work-front. (Of course, I have the AIM app on my iPhone, so this fear, like most of my fears, is unfounded) Or while I'm a slave to said computer, trying diligantly to make sure I'm not making a vacation day from a work-at-home day, my husband would be pleading with me to watch our daughter while he attempts to drywall our basement or rearranges the bar or works whatever other magic he's working to make it a liveable space, a playroom for Maya, instead of a dungeon with a homemade bar where our friends spill gallons of beer in flip-cup tournaments each year.

What I'm wondering is why the American business system hasn't evolved to the point at which we all can be cut loose on a day like today, or any other day when there's just nothing happening on the work-front, and just go do what we'd like. We all have phones. With email. And AIM. My entire world exists in a 5-mile radius of downtown Cincinnati. I rarely venture far from home. If someone did call and need something, I could be back relatively quickly to take care of it. Why is it that all American jobs don't work on a "you just need to be working when something needs to be done" basis? Wouldn't we all, in theory, work more efficiently?

I can see jobs for which this wouldn't work. Customer service reps, who need to be available at a phone station from 8am to 5pm regardless of whether customers are actually calling on that particular day. Salespeople who, in taking off extra time from work, would likely be cutting out potential new sales for the company (however, they are compensated appropriately, based on their sales numbers, so economic theory would suggest they'd still be out there, working hard to secure business for us all!) But for a job like mine, where the research just needs to be conducted and the report written and presented in whatever time frame suits the client, the 9 to 5 life just seems a little too 20th century.

So maybe I'll go home for lunch. But I won't linger, because I'm feeling really tied to being available during the hours carved out for me to be in the office. Maybe next year during our un-busy season I'll have a different, more rational, more 21st century approach. Maybe I can drag more American companies with me on that approach, to make a more efficient shopping and working season for us all. After all, it's to our economy's advantage, right? If I weren't here, certainly I'd be out with the husband and kiddo, spending money on last-minute Christmas gifts, using my non-busy season to create someone else's busy one.