Google Street View and the recession get The Slacker treatment
Recessions aren't, as a rule, good for slackers. There's the presenteeism. The scarily motivating fact that you can't slack off from a job if you haven't got one. So yesterday afternoon's launch of Google Street View proved welcome respite.
I spent at least an hour looking at my house/ my boss's house/ that funny street with the cafe we went to on holiday four summers ago. And I wasn't alone (the Telegraph, for one, concurred that everyone was at it). What I particularly loved about it was that it was "team slacking" – everyone got involved with a little downtime.
And thank goodness, because elsewhere it was all nose-to-the- grindstone stuff. The Calgary Herald reckoned unemployment was "a badge of shame", CNN asked "Is your job doomed" (and concluded: yes) and the Canwest News Service reported (not very insightfully, it has to be said) that obesity could be linked to work absence.
Luckily, even in these grim times, a few brave souls remain committed to keeping the world of work entertaining. Take Mary Pearson, management consultant and … Workplace Shaman.
Now, that's a big claim. I'm not expecting any old advice with a shaman. I'm expecting spirits and healing and at least a small fire. And just think of the slacking potential: a sacred space by the watercooler, healing circles in the kitchen, spirit cleansing rituals that take up half a morning in the boardroom.
Disappointingly, Pearson doesn't quite live up to her billing. Asked to deal with "a sloppy team", the Workplace Shaman does not: advise making voodoo dolls; suggest everyone gets together to think hard about the person who has been most sloppy that week (until they break with the guilt, step forward and ask for forgiveness); and she most certainly does not advise repeating this process until everyone feels suitably admonished. Instead she suggests you discuss the situation with a manager. This feels like a wasted opportunity.
Over on the Guardian Talkboards, PrimePaon started an interesting discussion called, "How hard do you work?" It's a good question. There are countless surveys adding up all the hours spent emailing your mates, playing about on Facebook and generally messing about. But in a way that's missing the point. I know I spend a lot of time at work not (at least in the strictest sense of the word) working, but does that automatically mean I'm not working hard?
It certainly doesn't feel like it when I have a deadline (even slackers have to try and hold on to their jobs, as, erm, mentioned above). I also wonder how much all these other activities should really be counted as work, too (and not just because updating your Facebook page takes up the same time as a minor hobby. Or small pet). In the old days, long networking lunches were definitely considered work. So shouldn't an extended Facebook session count, too?