In a slew of Friday emails to our lovely contributors, I signed off with ‘Have a great weekend.’ I have since realised it’s a bit of a silly thing to say to a soloist with our flexible working hours.
It assumes weekends are a fact of their life. It presupposes they’ve spent Monday to Friday working hard and will reward themselves with time out on Saturday and Sunday.
This may be the case for many, but surely not for all.
My preference, for instance, is to work on evenings, weekends and public holidays. This isn’t just because I like swimming against the tide, it’s because there are fewer work related distractions at these times. It’s when concentration, the Editor’s friend, is at its best.
The flexible working hours are one of soloism’s greatest joys. When we take over the world, perhaps weekends will become a thing of the past. How can you have a weekend if there are no weeks to end?
I admit this sounds far fetched, even to me. As Amy grows up, for example, school holidays are likely to anchor me to more conventional hours.
In fact my wafty “What day is it?” attitude has already taken a hit as a parent. Babies like routines, even if I don’t, and as a result I’m wearing a watch for the first time in a decade.
Want more articles like this? Check out the work styles section.
Part of me shudders at the thought of falling into line, yet I know structure can be satisfying. In Proper Job days, Friday night beers tasted great after a hard week’s graft. Then again, Sunday night blues were part of the same reality.
Is a traditional structure your friend or are you a fellow freeformer? Perhaps you don’t think of what you do as work, thus making the boundaries even blurrier. But that’s another newsletter.
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