Boing Boing: Reporter interviews people hanging out instead of working

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Monday, May 21, 2007

Reporter interviews people hanging out instead of working

Chris Colin, a writer for the SF Gate, was curious about the people he sees hanging out in coffee shops during the day, so he interviewed them, and asked them why they weren't working. It turns out there are a great many reasons why the people weren't working. Not wanting to work seemed to be the most popular reason of all. He reported his findings in a piece called "The Mystery of the Daytime Idle."

Going over my own findings, a surprising number of people had had something job-related happen that very day. A surprising number had called in sick. Claire, who works in quality control at a biotech company, used a vacation day to get a tattoo of a bird. Another woman took the day off to be with her dogs. ("And catch up on errands," she added responsibly.)
"John," who is 18 and was strolling through Yerba Buena Gardens one Thursday morning, laid out his typical itinerary: "Watch the grass grow, get high, hit on the ladies."
How does he pay rent? "If you ask 100 girls for $10, that's $1,000, that's rent," he explained logically.

This article reminded me of Bertrand Russell's 1932 essay, "In Praise of Idleness," which contains a funny definition of work:

What is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so.

Link

Reader comment:

Brendon says:

First off, love boingboing and your contributions to it. I've even learned not to dismiss ukulele music, fwiw.
Your post, "Reporter interviews people hanging out instead of working" reminded me immediately of a story on an episode of This American Life titled "The Secret Life of Daytime" that aired (the Internet tells me) on April 14, 2000. The story in question ("Act One") was titled, "Why Aren't You at Work?" and featured New York Observer reporter George Gurley interviewing people who, like in the article you linked to, just hanging around NYC. Pretty neat. I thought you might be interested, if you weren't already aware.
Thanks for your work, and take it easy.

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:11:04 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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Support Bloggers' Rights! HOWTO: Get a link posted to Boing Boing Boing Boing Mobile powered by Winksite Fark rules! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States [and other countries]. Stats (About our stats) defeat censorware Policies Our first five years' worth of posts in one file	View a recent day: June 10 \| June 09 \| June 08 \| previous days \| by month and year Monday, May 21, 2007 Reporter interviews people hanging out instead of working Chris Colin, a writer for the SF Gate, was curious about the people he sees hanging out in coffee shops during the day, so he interviewed them, and asked them why they weren't working. It turns out there are a great many reasons why the people weren't working. Not wanting to work seemed to be the most popular reason of all. He reported his findings in a piece called "The Mystery of the Daytime Idle." Going over my own findings, a surprising number of people had had something job-related happen that very day. A surprising number had called in sick. Claire, who works in quality control at a biotech company, used a vacation day to get a tattoo of a bird. Another woman took the day off to be with her dogs. ("And catch up on errands," she added responsibly.) "John," who is 18 and was strolling through Yerba Buena Gardens one Thursday morning, laid out his typical itinerary: "Watch the grass grow, get high, hit on the ladies." How does he pay rent? "If you ask 100 girls for $10, that's $1,000, that's rent," he explained logically. This article reminded me of Bertrand Russell's 1932 essay, "In Praise of Idleness," which contains a funny definition of work: What is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. Link Reader comment: Brendon says: First off, love boingboing and your contributions to it. I've even learned not to dismiss ukulele music, fwiw. Your post, "Reporter interviews people hanging out instead of working" reminded me immediately of a story on an episode of This American Life titled "The Secret Life of Daytime" that aired (the Internet tells me) on April 14, 2000. The story in question ("Act One") was titled, "Why Aren't You at Work?" and featured New York Observer reporter George Gurley interviewing people who, like in the article you linked to, just hanging around NYC. Pretty neat. I thought you might be interested, if you weren't already aware. Thanks for your work, and take it easy. posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 09:11:04 AM permalink \| Other blogs' comments View a recent day: June 10, 2007 \| June 09, 2007 \| June 08, 2007 \| June 07, 2007 \| June 06, 2007 \| June 05, 2007 \| June 04, 2007 \| previous days \| all BB archives by month and year Email this entry to: Your email address: Message (optional):	Boing Boing Sponsored by: Your Text Ad Here Get BB by email: