Modern Day Sharecropping

So I was thinking about our technocracy this morning as I dashed around my apartment with wet hair trying to be *only* an hour late to work. It occurred to me that most of us in IT are acting like modern day sharecroppers. Hear me out. You have this rich land owner (the company you work for). You have to work for them before you can do any work for yourself, usually. Say 8-5, or in my case today, 10-7. You can squeeze in personal work at the office but it’s tricky and unsafe and will probably be sheite since you’re looking over your shoulder all the while. Every day five days a week you work for X, then you get a 48 hr mini-vacation in which you can do “whatever you want” i.e. anything that can be done in two days. Which I think is rather limiting. Anyway, while you’re working on someone else’s farm during the day, all day, what do you get back in return? Money, sure.  But – and this is where it gets New Orleans-high-cost-of-living-specific, in my case – what you make goes back to rent/mortgage, bills, insurance, food, gas, what little entertainment you can squeeze out of the rest (this includes booze, party favors and cover charges), and what’s left for art supplies and computer upgrades? Not much.

Today is a somewhat typical day for me. I woke up hellishly late. This is because I stayed up too late the night before. I stayed up “too late” the night before because I don’t get tired til around midnight usually, sometimes later. However, I’m due at work at 9AM – actually at 8:30 but I haven’t made it in by 8:30 in ages – which means I have to get to sleep by 11 so that I can get up at 7 and get 8 hrs – I mean, because otherwise I’m useless. Call me lazy but I need more than 6 hrs sleep. Always have. On a good day, I get my requisite 8 hrs on the cubicle farm by 5:30-6PM. Then I go over to the gym and work out for an hour and a half. (This includes changing time etc.) Then I drive home, typically. I’m home around 8-8:30.  Shower, cook dinner, eat, hang out with the cats, mess around on the laptop watching something mindless for half an hour. By this time it’s 9:30-10PM. So “my” time, the time I can take to till my own soil (no puns please), work my OWN land, i.e. work on paintings, draw, think about book ideas, write, read, etc. – whatever I want after necessary decompression – consists of a whole hour. Maybe two if I decide not to care whether I’m *really* late the next day. And so the cycle goes.

Something’s got to change, and quick.

Here’s an alternate way of looking at the work ethic. Important reading for all.

In closing, I’d like to quote the following:

The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities. – Sophocles

yeah, I know.

PS Happy Birthday, Elvis! Here’s your box of sequins and benzos!