During a conversation about WiFi on trains over at The Register I stumbled across this reader comment about the fact that many people seem to work whilst on the train.
It’s a sad fact that many people are “expected” to complete extra tasks and use their own time to do it, even without payment. The more you do this, the more work you tend to get, but many live in fear that not doing this could cost them their job..
I think it’s really sad when, 50 years after we were all told that robots would be doing most of our work, leaving us with more leisure time, we’ve gone from doing the 9-5 to getting up earlier and reading emails whilst getting a feebly inadequate breakfast , jumping on a train and then working on laptops (now networked so we can communicate with the office), work through our lunch hour, only leave work when we’ve finished the job rather than when we stop being paid, go home on the same train using the same wi-fi to do even more work believing this is somehow reducing tomorrow’s workload, and then pop into the supermarket to buy an overpriced bottle of spirits or wine to get blind drunk before getting a good 5-6 hours sleep.
That’s progress for you.
It makes you wonder why people are so quick to foam at the mouth about benefits scroungers. Are they really just angry at the layabouts’ work ethic, or more frustrated with their own? It also makes you wonder what the scroungers see when they look back over the fence at you…