The precious unwinding
I have to admit being in a ranty mood today. My brain is hurting. Since last Friday we were fighting a network connection problem on a PhoneGap app (both for iOS and Android), and, while making significant progress, this is being made complicated by the customer offering more and more feature ideas.
They're always right, aren't they? It's a fun challenge, though.
Anyway, here's a quick thought — we all need time to unwind. An hour or two daily, a day or so weekly, a week or two (or three, or four) annually.
I strongly believe this is not just because we workers are lazy and will try to get as much off-work time as possible (we will try, for sure). This time of relaxation is actually required to do our work well. Not that my boss would believe me.
Your mileage may vary, but for me it means not checking my work email (and having a separate personal one as a prerequisite), not discussing possible new ideas for our projects (though that sounds very exciting), and in general not worrying about what is happening back in the office.
Surprisingly, it can still involve being at the PC and even coding (for fun and learning). Yet of course it is better to do something different.
This results in fresh motivation, ideas, new approaches and more “out of the box” mood for work-related problem-solving. If I miss my unwind time for some reason — I am just turning into an irritable corner-cutting highly-flammable human being. I am creating trouble, instead of resolving it.
So I dread the thought of last century workers not having weekends or much of their evenings to them. Isn't that what we sort of celebrated on the 1st of May? This also seems to be the case in China today, 7-day working weeks, very long working day. How do they do it?
Therefore I say to the bosses — value your colleagues' rest time, it is important to you too. And to the workers, all of you guys out there (me included) — make sure to unwind, but do enjoy your work too. Both of those can and should be pleasurable!
I hope you manage to find that balance.
They're always right, aren't they? It's a fun challenge, though.
Anyway, here's a quick thought — we all need time to unwind. An hour or two daily, a day or so weekly, a week or two (or three, or four) annually.
I strongly believe this is not just because we workers are lazy and will try to get as much off-work time as possible (we will try, for sure). This time of relaxation is actually required to do our work well. Not that my boss would believe me.
 |
| Can somebody check his pulse, please? Photo by Robert & Mihaela Vicol |
Your mileage may vary, but for me it means not checking my work email (and having a separate personal one as a prerequisite), not discussing possible new ideas for our projects (though that sounds very exciting), and in general not worrying about what is happening back in the office.
Surprisingly, it can still involve being at the PC and even coding (for fun and learning). Yet of course it is better to do something different.
This results in fresh motivation, ideas, new approaches and more “out of the box” mood for work-related problem-solving. If I miss my unwind time for some reason — I am just turning into an irritable corner-cutting highly-flammable human being. I am creating trouble, instead of resolving it.
So I dread the thought of last century workers not having weekends or much of their evenings to them. Isn't that what we sort of celebrated on the 1st of May? This also seems to be the case in China today, 7-day working weeks, very long working day. How do they do it?
Therefore I say to the bosses — value your colleagues' rest time, it is important to you too. And to the workers, all of you guys out there (me included) — make sure to unwind, but do enjoy your work too. Both of those can and should be pleasurable!
I hope you manage to find that balance.
согласна на все 100%
ReplyDeleteО! И ты, как раз, лучший профессионал в вопросе активнейшего энергетического отдыха :) Спасибо за отзыв.
Delete