Lisa Belkin (I feel like I keep quoting her) in today’s New York Times brings up an interesting point about working: can wasting time actually be productive? She says:
Over the years I have come to see that the hours away from the writing are the time when the real work gets done. When a paragraph turns itself this way and that in a corner of my brain even while my fingers are buying books on Amazon.com. What appears to be wasted time is really jell time.
While I like the concept, and have come upon many good sites for those who want to kill time at work, I am not sure the argument for wasting time at work applies to me. Why? Because I’m a working mom. I feel like I don’t have time to waste time.
When I’m in the office, I’m constantly on the go, trying to accomplish all my tasks into a 24-hour work week. (I think my lack of time wasting is exacerbated by my part-time schedule.) If I don’t get my stuff done by Tuesday evening, well, I’ll be working at home on Wednesday, when I’m off of work. My Thursdays are like a mad race to the finish line. Gotta. Get. It. All. Done. Before. 5:30 p.m. Or else? I’ve got a long weekend ahead of me. And neither the husband nor the kiddo will appreciate me hovering over my laptop on a sunny-ish (I live in Chicago, remember?) Sunday afternoon.Â
I’m not complaining here, just relaying life from my vantage point. My friend who works full-time recently lamented about the coworker who actually thought she had time to stop and dawdle at Starbucks on the way back from work. The horror!Â
But the more I think about it, my whole “no time to waste time” motto may make a good case study for those women trying to get flexible work schedules. I’m quite efficient in my shortened work week. So much though, that a client even said to me today, “I don’t even realize it when you’re not there.” Imagine that!? Perhaps it’s that I have understanding clients (and colleagues), but more likely it’s that when I’m at work I’m there to work. I feel as if I’m not there enough to justify a little break here and there. I constantly aim to be busy as possible to keep on proving that part-time schedules do (cross my fingers) work in some scenarios. For most moms who work a full work week, I’m pretty sure any free moment they have in their day is spent with their kids. Or running errands (after work) for their kids. I don’t know many working moms with time to burn. Â
Whatever the case, I can really only think of one scenario where lolly-gagging away time at work may make sense. A great sale at Nordstrom. Now that’s worth a couple extra hours of work on a weekend.
Tags: Lisa Belkin, working mom, flexible schedules, flexible work arrangements, wasting time at work, mom-friendly companies
