When Work Attacks

I just returned from a meeting--one of many already, with more planned--in response to our state's budget crisis.  I use this term to describe the state of turmoil caused by our new governor's budget "repair" bill and proposed biennial budget, not to any real state of financial emergency, despite claims to the contrary. 

In any case, much of our meeting was taken up with discussion of a very real joblessness emergency in large portions of our community. 

So I am somewhat chagrined by this post I began earlier today, on the subject of bad jobs and the people who are tortured by them.  In our current climate, many feel that anyone who is employed, more or less gainfully, should be happy just to have a job.  And I agree.

But that doesn't change the fact that I spent the morning and early afternoon today hearing tales of extreme job distress from two people I am close to.

It is probably passe to speak of the "alienation" of a worker from his or her work, at least in classical Marxist terms.  But, as Steven Greenhouse made plain in The Big Squeeze:  Tough Times for the American Worker, workers across the board in this country are losing ground.  The great armies of the unemployed and underemployed are ever present reminders of the dispensability of those who still have jobs.   Against that backdrop, unions are busted, workers become permanent "temporary" workers, work conditions can feature illegal lock-ins--and far too many of us just plain hate the jobs we have. 

I have written before about Jonathan Haidt's (The Happiness Hypothesis) elephant and rider metaphor, around which Chip Heath and Dan Heath organized their fascinating book Switch:  How to Change Things When Change is Hard.   Not being an employer, I considered the Heath brothers' ideas more in the context of personal change.  But listening to my friends today, I thought of the damage that is done to the elephantine heart and will of workers who are roughly treated by oblivious rider bosses and institutions.

Disrespect, arbitrary displays of power, undermining, underhandedness, and even deprivation of meaningful responsibility and initiative can all have devastating effects, though they might be preferred to the absence of employment and secure income altogether.  The worker who is subject to such conditions can lose the will to work.  In Haidt's schema, the mistreated elephant might sink to the ground, transformed into an immovable behemoth.  Or anger and frustration may turn to rage, in most cases stopping far short of the "going postal" variety, but nevertheless wreaking havoc on the individual's health and job security.

In such situations, procrastination may be a coping mechanism, born of torpor or of fury.  But it is unlikely to solve the problem.  For that, joining forces with others is probably necessary.

And the bumper sticker for this movement?

Just Say Later

So, I'm still experiencing this lag between me and the world.  The latest thing I missed--to my knowledge--was International Procrastination Day, which was apparently last Friday, March 26.

This morning, I came across a Daily Telegraph article which identifies David d'Equainville as its founder.  What caught my eye was d'Equainville's casting of  procrastination as "a political act."  And not just any political act, but "a crucial act of resistance" in an increasingly overwhelming and speeded up society.  This is right up my alley.

Author of "Manifesto for a Day Put Off," recently released in French and soon to be published in English, d'Equainville says

To procrastinate is to refuse to do what the context -- be it from bosses, administrative obligations or a culture of results -- asks us to do. We must absolutely take the time to think about the tasks we accept to execute, or we will lose all control over our lives.

So I'm not a laggard, I'm a time activist.  

d'Equainville (my new hero) advocates taking time, not just to escape the rat race, but to reflect on decisions and actions, about "the tasks we accept to execute." He gives the example of Shakespeare's Romeo, who could have benefitted from some thinking time.   

If Romeo had put his suicide off a bit on Juliet's tomb, the two lovebirds could have grown old together.

d'Equainville gives his blessing to a delayed celebration of the day he established, so I'm declaring today for my observance of International Procrastination Day.  For the next 24 hours, I will tackle no project before its time.

Procrastinating 101--A Little Help From Our Friends

Seems like the weeks are rolling by in high gear just now.  And here it is, Tuesday again, and time for Procrastinating 101.  This week, Joseph R. Ferrari's Still Procrastinating?  The No-Regrets Guide to Getting it Done--Chapter 9, "Social Support:  Getting By with a Little Help from My Friends."

In this chapter, Dr. Ferrari talks to us about relying on the kindness of friends and family, strange or otherwise, to help us through the difficult transition from procrastinator to nonprocrastinator.  I find the notion of a more or less liminal state accompanying habit change intriguing.  It is one way to look at my experiences of the last year, as I have attempted to take myself in hand and leave behind the dalliances that have been my stock in trade for too long.  And I must admit that I have not given much thought to the wisdom of seeking support during the process.

Ferrari instructs the reader about the differences between the terms social support and mutual support, the latter being more of a two-way street.  He gives the example of a 12-step program as a mechanism of mutual support.  But either type is to be preferred to trying to go it alone, according to Ferrari.  

Ferrari maintains that procrastinators tend to be "buck-passers," letting others do the work.  But as I read his scenario of two people dealing with getting the dinner dishes done--one a procrastinator and one not--I was struck with the thought that the situation may be more complex than that.  Both people may be procrastinators.  Or each person may procrastinate in some settings and not others, and on some tasks and not others.  And perhaps there is some interaction between housemates, co-workers, song-writing teams, and Girl Scout troops, so that the procrastinating or nonprocrastinating behavior that we display affects and is affected by that of others.

I, for one, am not a chronic buck-passer.  The household-chore-procrastinators that I live with can nearly always depend on my household-chore-procrastination withering before theirs.  And at work, I am generally reliable and timely.  Where I have difficulty is in putting off the things that matter to me personally.  In these areas, I don't have anyone to pass the buck to.

I found interesting the research Ferrari reported on, showing that procrastinators are more likely to turn to casual friends than to family and close friends for support, as compared to nonprocrastinators; and that procrastinators experience more conflict in their close relationships.  Ferrari holds that this is because procrastinators have, in my words, worn out their close relationships because of their inconsiderate behavior.  But it occurs to me that it is just as likely that people whose close relationships are difficult or dysfunctional may be experiencing the kind of chronic stress that reinforces their tendency to postpone tasks.  A correlational study such as Ferrari seems to resort to can leave us with this kind of chicken or egg quandary.  

I was interested, too, in Ferrari's finding that both procrastinators and nonprocrastinators are more likely to evaluate procrastinators negatively, and to wish to distance themselves from such persons.  Thus, we procrastinators may have difficulty putting together a support group, mutual or otherwise.  Ferrari suggests that making new, nonprocrastinating friends who can be our role models may strengthen the changes we are trying to make.  This seems a tad instrumental to me, but maybe that's an aspect of my heretofore dysfunctional, procrastinating self. 

Next week:  (bum-ba-bum-bum) Academic Procrastination.  (Oh, goodie!)

Done for the Week: Running to Catch Up

The time I spent on the politics of my state's governing disaster continued its decrescendo this past week.  Unfortunately--or fortunately, depending, I suppose, on how I look at it--I continue to be haunted by the backlog of previously postponed work.  I'm beginning to believe I would be better off abandoning the notion of catching up.

Here's the short, but dense list of what I got done last week.

Done for the Week:  Mar. 21-Mar.27

1. Continued off-season race training, trying to get serious about race in 5 weeks; ran twice
2. Finished Love Over Scotland, by Alexander McCall Smith
3. Gave significant volunteer support to transitioning nonprofit; major, over-the-top (25 hours) I.T. contribution 
4. Worked my two part-time jobs
5. Published 5 blog posts
6. Meditated 7 times
7. Got my son to the gym with me once
8. Watched our 2 teams play 2 basketball games, with my son and my husband 
9. Attended anti-Walker rally with my husband
10. Addressed religious leaders breakfast meeting on proposed state budget impacts
11. Helped my son complete approval for classroom accommodations for summer enrollment in technical college
12. Attended 2 yoga classes
13. Saw my therapist
    
14. Met with website client
15. Got to bed "early" twice 
16. Helped my son get his car problems checked out

In my opinion, the most important thing I did last week was to resolve some long-standing office computer problems (in red above).  I am hopeful that my substantial investment of time will pay off in fewer emergency troubleshooting calls, and give me some distance from the floundering organization I have given so much volunteer time to. 

Last week's focus goal was "making sure that I complete the required three training sessions for Week 5 of the Couch Potato to 5K program."  I fell short of meeting this goal, due to spending the last three days on computer and network overhaul, which used up the available time for my scheduled third training session.   

This week's focus goal will be to complete the remaining training session of Week 5, and the three training sessions of Week 6.  My intention had been to get the last Week 5 session in today, but I left it until too late, and ran out of energy.  But, as I read today in a Happiness Project interview that Gretchen Rubin did with Katy Wolk-Stanley, The Non-Consumer Advocate blogger, "Every day is a fresh start."  So tomorrow, I hit the track again.