*The Fantasy World of the Workplace* [I had to write an 'opinion
piece' for a college English class while I was _also_ working in
an office.* Replace *work* with *school* and I think
_everything_ applies equally to school.* A-] Work life in
corporate America is structured very oddly, I think.* There's
very little reality in the structure, that's for certain.* It's
a fantasy world - very Walk Disney-like, where people never get
sick, never have to lie down, never practice any religion, never
have anger or sadness.* In corporate America, everything is all
smiles, nobody smokes or drinks, or has physical problems, or
has any sort of ugliness at all. In my workplace, there is a
policy.* The policy is: You don't get sick.* There are no "sick
days" where I work!* You get vacation days, and a nice bunch of
paid national holidays - and I can't complain about that - but
there are no sick days!* If you are sick, you come into work.*
If you don't, and you stay home sick, it is considered "an
incident".* Three "incidents" and you get a verbal warning: It's
absurd!* If you're sick - you should stay home! Weather is a
strange thing about working in corporate America.* There is no
weather.* it does not exist.* If it rains outside, or snows, or
is terribly hot or cold, or just generally unpleasant - you go
to work.* If it is a beautiful day - a day where you could enjoy
nature and the outdoors - you go to work.* it's all very odd to
me.* We don't run the weather, the weather runs us.* But if you
work in the business world, the weather is not a factor in your
life.* Stay dry, stay warm, and come into work. There's no
place for religion in work.* One mustn't display too much in the
way of religious iconography - yet, what if you wis to pray
several times a day?* What if lighting a candle is part of your
religious practice, or helps you focus?* Well, in the business
world, religion does not exist.* There is no* accommodation* or
it, not much in the way of acknowledgement, and we pretty much
accept this as *normal*!* Yet, any half-decent religion is
supposed to permeate your life.* Still, it must stay out of
work. Mustn't lie down at work either.* Where can you lie
down?* You can sit -- oooooh --- you can sit!* Sit, sit, sit -
it's a pretty well accepted thing to do at work.* You can stand
too, from time to time.* But lie down?* The prone position does
not exist in the business world.* Yet, it's perfectly human to
need to lie down from time to time.* Odd, this is, to me. I
have a few solutions, if you'll hear me out.* A cot room would
help with the lying down problem.* Mexico had its siestas, why
not here in the USA?* How can anybody be productive when the
only way to rest their eyes is at their desk, hunched over a
keyboard, pretending to work while actually resting eyes?* It
just doesn't seem natural to me. Of course, the word
"business" has built-in to it part of the reason why these
things don't generally happen.* "Busy" + "ness" = "Business".* I
don't know who coined the term, but it definitely fits.*
Millions of people, every day,, who are at jobs they don't care
to be in, find themselves, "looking busy" hour after hour.* It's
a strange way to lead one's life, in my opinion, but I guess it
keeps the cos well-oiled and turning, since the appearance of
work gets the managers to feel better about how the business is
going, and perhaps this positive energy helps the company out in
some way.* Still, it's only speculation on my part. Religion
exists among humans.* It's pretty common and takes many forms,
yet it can't be practices in the workplace.* Solution?* A
generic prayer room at work, where you bring the religion in
with you when you come to pray, and take it out with you when
you leave.* If a business wants a little extra cash, they could
sell candles and incense at the Company Store,* The prayer times
could be worked out with a person's manager beforehand, in
exchange perhaps for regular break times.* Pretending religion
doesn't eist among humans is pretty unnatural to me as well.
Now, with regards to a "cot room" or a "religion room", I'm
referring to things people could do during their break periods
or lunch time.* for example, I've been considering learning Tai
Chi, and would like to see if I could work something out that we
could have Tai Chi sessions at work.* It would happen before
work, or during standard break times, if I could manage to get
this going. The weather and the sickness issue, for me, really
comes down to having the ability to stay at homme on days when
the weather, or your immune system tells you.* "Stay home" = You
are penalized for being sick, or on the weather being
"uncooperative".* Technology today is such that *many* jobs can
be be performed at home, with no need to be in a special
building for performing those tasks.* Luckily, telecommuting is
gaining ground more and more; and perhaps, one day, it will be
available to everybody. Still, why don't people work closer to
home?* What good is a community if the community isn't there to
MAKE it a community?* Just doesn't make any sense to me!* Work
where you live, and most of these problems go away!* Still, no
pre-planned Utopia has been successful yet, so I suspect mine
wouldn't be either :)
