Austin - Slacker Capital of the world? (Cleveland: rent, homes)
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I think 9-5 was (maybe still is) full time for hourly employees, usually including a 30 min or 1 hour paid lunch. I recall 8:30 - 5:30 being more of a salaried employee type thing... getting you to work longer. I think salaried is much more the norm now than shift work, at least in most business/sales/IT/engineering type jobs, so that might be why it is so common.
I am not one to flame on people here in this forum, but I am quite offended by the original post. am I to be judged as a slacker because I dont work a traditional 9-5 and can often be found outside enjoying the parks or sun between those hours? Even more so, judged as a "slummer" because I dont wear a suit and tie everyday? Get off your corporate high horse, and learn how to use the slide rule by which you are measuring all the other humans whom you have observed.
Chances are, you didnt talk to one of the slummers to ask them, "why are you outside during the day instead of your cubicle." you drove by in your suv and made harsh and inappropriate leaps in your logic about the state of their lives. Did you know that some people actually prefer not to wear a suit and tie? Or to succumb to the mind-numbing corporate slavery, and to perpetuate this middle class serfdom that the banker elite have been programming you with since 1913?
And are you really implying the city is “geared towards slumming” because of the abundance of outdoor cafes and bars? Have you ever been to Paris or Rome or any European city or any US city with good weather for that matter, where outdoor cafes and bars also abound? By your reasoning, I suppose these too are full of slackers and slummers. There is simply only idiocy in that statement.
Or maybe you are absolutely right. You noticed one particular day that there were not a lot of suits around your immediate geographical presence, and at that moment correctly surmised that this entire city is full of nest eggers, honeymooners, and other miscellaneous morons who dont value working hard and earning their way. I doubt you are right though.
I wish I was a trust fund kid, because I would have more time to really dig into you and your hypocritical views of the world around you. Wake up. Go to work (but its only valid work if you wear a suit!) Earn money. Go out and spend it on stuff to fill up your house (but not between 9-5 when normal productive people should be at their desks.) Eat. Sleep. Wake up. Repeat. Congratulations. You have wasted your life. I would choose hanging out in a park any day over chasing your pseudo standard of success and viability.
It seems the truly hedonistic mindset in Austin is owned by you, as you obviously self indulge yourself with 10 posts per day on this forum about your off base conclusions concerning the world and people around you. A self indulgence I hope you cut back on.
I'm considering a move to Austin, partly because it has recreational outlets and a sense of culture like New Orleans, my home. Not only must people live up to the American corporate-induced "utopia" of 60 hour work weeks, but they must now also *appear* to do so, or else they are criticized as "lazy"? Some days I think I should leave this "Protestant work ethic" nonsense once and for all.
First, 9-5 is just a figure of speech. Even though I telecommute often (3-4 days a week), I do put in over 60 hours per week often. Now in all honesty, at least for myself, my job (and many of the people I work with), the situation is more complex than telecommuting. I travel often. So my day job, is divided between work at the office, telecommuting and traveling. And I do make sure to spend time with my family regardless of work pressure. So it is not just telecommuting and wearing jeans and t-shirts daily.
I'm an engineer. Being in Austin, does not require much of a dress code. In fact, when I travel, I usually dress up depending on where I'm traveling to. Now speaking about telecommuting. In my field, it doesn't make any difference where I'm sitting. I could be at home, or in the Amazon jungle, all I need is a computer, an Internet connection and time to work on my designs. I have friends that write code for a living and they live in the middle of nowhere and rarely go into an office. Now granted all these people are considered senior engineers, so...
In my field, it doesn't make any difference where I'm sitting. I could be at home, or in the Amazon jungle, all I need is a computer, an Internet connection and time to work on my designs.
I don't know about y'all, but this sounds like a damn fine arrangement. Sitting in the Amazon on a laptop, earning my dough so that when I'm done I could get in a canoe and chill out listening to birds, bugs and critters crooning the day away.
A while back, I was in a small town off of the pacific coast enjoying some time off. I needed to get some work done. So I got an Internet connection, a phone, got my stuff done and was back on the coast few hours later. Few years ago, I wouldn't have been able to do anything like this.
On the other hand, vacations and time off don't mean the same. I simply balance my work schedule and time and take small breaks. This goes back to the OP's comment. I may walk along townlake wearing shorts and a tshirt for an hour, but it doesn't mean I'm not working.
I thought the monkey suit days of IBM are over. This look doesn't appeal to Gen X and Y.
As far as work is concerned, I'm all about getting the job done fast, effectively and efficiently which doesn't need to happen sitting in an office for 9-10 hours everyday...with technology it is unnecessary. Our priorities are a little backwards in this country and we are letting Corporate America control our lives and suck our souls dry all for our strong GDP and expensive tastes. We should adopt siestas from Spain and take our month long vacations like the Germans and French. Life is too short to be slaves to corporations just so they meet their projected growth to please stockholders. A work/life balance is important. Those that don't believe this are the suck ups that don't have a life.
LOL I love this post!
Well, one way around that is to work for a private company (no stockholders to make happy) and, quite frankly, I think it's time for corporate america to step up to the plate and start letting more people work from home. It saves them money, it saves me money. It's environmentally reponsible. It reduces gridlock. It reduces pollution. It reduces stress and anxiety. You don't really realize the impact commuting has on your psyche till you stop doing it. And guess what? Happy employees are more productive. Imagine that.
I currently work at a job I could do completely from home. Why don't they let us? Because the company is old fashioned and in reality, they don't trust us. But as I get ready to make my next move, telecommuting is going to be high on my list. Very high. It's a quality of life issue.
Telecommuting is a great way to work, but not complete nirvana. The best mix is to work locally and be able to telecommute. Telecommuting over long distances raises issues related to timezones and not being able to go in to the office. Sometimes it is really necessary to go in; it's much easier to get dropped to a lower priority if you can't be there to get on someone's case.
I know my employer, and many in Silicon Valley have greatly expanded their telecommuting programs. It's a real perk in an area where people often have such long commutes.
I work for a small local consulting firm, and people regularly work from home for anywhere from a couple hours to a day or two a week. We are employee owned, which makes life nicer. But working completely from home is not really feasible, since there is a huge amount of face to face interaction with co-workers on a daily basis that really adds value to our work. We also work on a billable hours basis, and working from home I often find I did not productively work for as many hours as I could have in the office in the same period of time. My drive to work is from 10 to 20 minutes each day, probably averaging under 30 mintues a day round trip, so the commute is does not really offset the inefficiencies (for our type of work).
On the other hand 5 to 10 hours a week is easy to work from home and essentially just as productive. As you increase the hours, it gets more difficult. Most people do work whatever hours fits thier schedule, and we have several part-time moms (20 -35 hours a week) who tailor their schedule to fit around school and such. We have a couple of employees that work from home ~10 hours a week, but then the heatlh benefits aren't there (they do have spousal insurance, though). All in all, it is a very 'Austin' company. We have acquired offices in Houston and Baltimore, and they are somewhat taken aback by our summer attire .
Last edited by Trainwreck20; 11-13-2007 at 09:50 PM..
Reason: typos
Yeah, I couldn't telecommute every day of the week. At a minimum, I spend 1-2 days a week at the office. It took me a long while to figure out how to telecommute and actually get work done. It is not as easy as it looks.
...All in all, it is a very 'Austin' company. We have acquired offices in Houston and Baltimore, and they are somewhat taken aback by our summer attire .
Hehe. I took heat for this even in So. CA. We had an ex=IBM'er on our team, and he would ask me when I was going to start wearing "big people" pants! It's not like I was wearing cut off "Toughskins" or something, but nice Docker shorts and a short sleeve shirt with sleeves pressed and starched.
Anyways, I told him when he started to wear his old IBM Blue 3 piece, I would put on socks that matched and long Dockers. Needless to say, I still love wearing my "non-big people" chlothes to work...
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