I’d lay a bet with you all right now: You work longer hours now that you did five and 10 years ago (and for our older followers I double guarantee than you work more hours now than you did 20 years ago)
Some of you will recall the very real process of ‘winding down’ at work before going on holiday (and I was working in the private sector at the time, before anyone pipes up about the cushy public sector)
Did you ever have to produce lengthy ‘handover’ notes for colleagues to pick up your projects whilst away?
And at the risk of sounding like a martyr, how many of you regularly take a proper lunch break? (a rushed sandwich at your PC whilst clearing your email inbox doesn’t count)
Times really have changed haven’t they? And don’t we now work longer hours than anyone else in Europe? And where, exactly, has that got us?
For those with children, just how many times have you got in from work lately to find them fast asleep?
Oh, we’ll we’re all so important now that we feel we must stay late, right? Well the Chief Operating Officer at Facebook is, I imagine, pretty busy but she manages to leave work at 5.30pm. Every day.
Now we comms folk are not saving lives, fighting on the front line or chasing down dangerous criminals but many of us are – I suspect – on a rapidly spinning old hamster wheel and maybe need a helping hand to jump off, just for a while at least.
So this weekend, most of us have the perfect opportunity to take a break, to do other things, to spend quality time with the people we love.
Go watch your favourite film. Discover somewhere new. Play football with the kids. Get in touch with that friend you’re feeling guilty about avoiding. Start writing that book you’ve got floating around in your head. Treat yourself to a new album. Bake a cake. Tell your loved ones that you love them.
And make yourself a date with the Easter bunny and eat way too much chocolate.
But most of all, switch off that blooming phone, laptop, iPad or whatever else you use. I am.
I’m calling it ‘offline Easter’. Go on, you know it makes sense.
See you on the other side.
Darren Caveney is co-creator of www.comms2point0.co.uk
