Wasting Time

There's this great game on the web that is guaranteed to waste at least an hour of your time. You can access it by going to http://www.widro.com/throwpaper.html This is a great game. It has everything the mind needs for some diversion in what may be a very boring day at work. It is shear skill building that isn't beyond any of us. If you can use a keyboard and open a browser you basically have the required skill to learn it. It gives hours of mindless pleasure. The kicker that keeps you not wasting your whole day is the internal ticker that goes off when you've played about 1/2 an hour and the ticker reminds you that you're still at work.

Killing time. It sounds like such a waste of time doesn't it? It's so violent: 'killing.' The term is meant to deter any employee who would possibly venture into the territory of 'killing time' while on the job. It was definitely coined by employers or anyone who is obsessed with tracking their productivity. When you think about it, most employers want employees to be machines. They don't want to hear any complaints, they don't want to hear how overworked and underpaid you are, they just want you to come in and do what they want you to do; end of story. No wonder people are droppin off like flies with stress leave, heart attacks and long term illnesses. The whole point of being human is that we're not machines. In fact, we build machines to do work that as humans we could never do [or a string of workers have been buried over time until someone realized that the work was killing them and decided to invent a machine!].

We need some time out. We need to "chillax." [I heard the term from one of my daughter's friends - it sounded interesting]. Our brains need to vent, let off steam, divert to something totally different. Its inbedded in us. Its the whole song by the chain gang thing. We need things to be fresh and different. The monotony of doing the same thing over and over again wears us down. We weren't made for that. Hammers were made for that. Hammers do only one thing - they hammer. No matter what the context, a hammer is used for hammering. Humans on the other hand are made for creativity. We're made to create things, to change things, to come along side nature and beautify things. We're not machines!! I don't know why employers don't see that. I guess their context doesn't allow them. They're out to lunch for meetings, hooking up with people, doing different things everyday - they don't have time to think about the monontonous treadmill that everyone underneath them treads.

One trend that seems appealing is people who start their own business. These are people who have gained enough experience that they realize they have a commodity that someone wants and its going to be given on their terms. Now, I like that! Maybe this is the trend of all employees. Maybe in the future, employers will need to negotiate contracts with every individual to contract them for what they can offer. Forget about bargaining units and unions. Everyone deals with the employer on their own terms and commits only when they are comfortable with the terms. If it doesn't work out, its not a problem; on to the next client.

Killing time - we need to kill time otherwise we will fry ourselves. Start by clicking on the game at the top. You'll see what I mean.