And What Did You Do At Work Today?

By John Joyce

    I was in London, England recently and witnessed its rush hour, or should I say 'rush two hours', as it spills over one hour. I had experienced a London rush hour several times before but had forgotten the full implications. The stern, often angry faces of the people at the end of the work day, marching for their trains and buses showing no mercy to anyone in their way, dismisses the complacent British image. Insular motorists wind their way, metre by metre or in their words yard by yard, across the city listening to radio bulletins of further traffic congestion. On railway platforms, middle-class gents stand rigid with their umbrellas, straining to the cancellation and delay announcements. Giggling typists wearing long dresses and Spanish suntans push into the crowded trains, so crowded that newspaper reading and crossword puzzles are impossible for those fortunate to be seated, forcing all to dwell on the hardship of the journey and the corny advertisements.

    It may have been the knell of the parting day but there were no signs of  weary ploughmen plodding home. So what do all these other people do? At lunchtime I had attended a concert in St. Martin-in the Fields, near Trafalgar Square. The Royal College of music Brass Ensemble was performing "Caprico" by Janacek as part of a free Friday lunchtime concert series. Tourists like me, friends of the performers and the odd tramp constituted the church's attentive audience. Outside the church the great difficulty of attaching roles to people begins. I thought of this as I sauntered to Waterloo Station by way of the National Gallery, crossing the placid Thames by way of the pedestrian walkway under Waterloo Bridge.

    In London, as with most metropolises in the world, very few products are manufactured with the exception of musicals and museums. Most of these rush hour people are not associated with direct work related functions. They rarely see any lasting results to their toil. The majority is associated with computer processing and paper work. Memories fail; truth wanes so that functioning successfully demands having as many commitments on paper as possible. A significant part of the workforce generates stores, searches, reads, interprets, and discards agreements or information. This is a self-perpetuating process and encourages other people to join in the fun. Lawyers are always eager to explain what really was meant in a particular agreement and will dispatch polite or otherwise correspondence to named parties.  When I meet a nurse, an electronic engineer, a harmonica teacher, a massage therapist or a Yeoman of the Guard, I know what their profession entails. I still do not know what corporate chiefs do all day, though I am told they are very busy. If my fellow passengers on platform two introduced themselves, would I understand what they did all day?  No one understands what consultants do but everyone seems to hire them. Much of our working society and some of our non-working society profess job descriptions that they alone understand. They inherited a job title but no pay increase. What duties could be assigned to the Financial Operations Controller in a company which has two bookkeepers and an accountant? If your brother-in-law was a Feasibility Manager, would you tell your friends at evening class?

    Did you ever meet a Western Regional Sales Manager who happens to be the only salesman in the West?  How do you explain to your computer illiterate ski buddy that your new girl friend writes Web pages?  You brought her to a Christmas open house where she was introduced to an M.I.S and a LAN installer. They didn't seem to know what to say to each other. Are they not all in the computer industry? Why did she want to talk with the personal trainer guy so much?

    It appears that a high proportion of the people in this 'rush two hours' are involved with indirect functions with confusing job titles only recognisable to a chosen few. Would a Social Physiologist warn of the dangers of such behaviour patterns? Pride and accomplishment is missing with indirect work functions even though great mental energy is required. Answering five phone calls, reading three company reports, and attending two progress meetings in a morning is demanding but does not induce job satisfaction. Ploughing a field would.

    "Have a good day at work, Dear?"

*

 John Joyce  was born at Hampton Court, in the U.K. He  held school  records for running the mile. He was educated in London and Salford, Lancashire and has studied at Dalhousie University, University of British Columbia and Capilano College. John Joyce  started writing philosophy at school and has many articles ready for publication. Moniques's Interview is his first short play  and another is on the stove. He lives in exile with his wife Diane, in Vancouver, Canada. Altus Arts Agency promotes his works world wide http://members.shaw.ca/alltus/

Read more articles

Back to Main