Where I Am

A year ago today I started the morning with a hot pasty I bought at a small shop near the Earl's Court tube station in London. Later, I spent a few hours at the Tower of London, which was interesting but seems to have been transformed to a crowd more suited, even accustomed, to Disneyland.

Today, though, I am not there. Instead, I am sitting at home drinking hot tea and getting ready to floss my teeth. This, assuredly, is living life to its fullest. 

I have been spending a lot of time lately contemplating work--not the word's denotation, but in regard to how I make my living. I used to say I sat in a cubicle and did things, but through part design and part personal choice, I can barely say that: A recent corporate reorganization gave many of us the opportunity to telecommute most of the time, while others can do so all of the time. The company gave us the hardware we need for such a thing, but in return we had to give up our own, personal cubicles.

As with most corporate reorganizations, this most recent one was couched in terms of being better for the company, better for the employees (though over 1000 of them were laid off), better for the customers. Mostly, I think, this is hogwash: I'm old enough and cynical enough and jaded enough to see that it is usually only a handful of people--mostly executives--who benefit from such things. But, to the victor go the spoils, and I do not begrudge one executive or another who seeks his or her own fiefdom.

This reorganization shares a common vocabulary with so many others: synergy, leverage, maximize. My friend Kominski has documented much of this vocabulary, even the grander corporate language that he and I have heard in the nearly 3 decades we have known each other. And this language, in some ways, is meant to excite those of us who remain. But--and I again lay some blame on my age--getting excited about work is getting to be more...work. The company that employs me is perfectly fine as an entity, and the people I interact with are friendly, pleasant, and talented. But, at the end of the week, I essentially produce nothing of value to anyone. There is no synergy; I am not leveraging anything; nothing is being maximized.

Being within the Tower of London again might not be so bad.