This got me thinking about a related topic. In the Central time zone, the old “nine to five” adage about work hours isn’t true. The standard is eight to five, with a one hour unpaid lunch break. Of course real jobs vary on schedule. It came up in a prior conversation that the Eastern 9 to 5 standard is an 8 hour paid day. As stated, they said a paid lunch. I’m wondering if the actual standard is, though, an 8 hour work day with no specified lunch break.
Thus, to take lunch, one would either have to work later to compensate, or else work through lunch/eat at the desk/etc.
Any thoughts on this? People from the Eastern time zone want to weigh in?
Whenever my wife wants to set up a meeting nowadays, she has to accommodate timezones from Shanghai to Helsinki. It’s reached the point where she works one day a week from home now, not for her convenience, but because she has to work when her office has its lights off.
Nowadays, the standard around here is 8.5 hour day, half hour unpaid lunch.
But, I wanted to talk about time zones- most of my online acquaintances are in Europe, or Australia.
People around here aren’t awake when I am, I live on a different time zone. It’s weird.
I know a lot of people here who lose sleep so they can catch the latest Walking Dead/Breaking Bad/Mad Men either a live stream or uploaded straight after it airs. If a show is on ET 9pm it’ll be 2am here. I’ve done it before.
I used to work for an Irish company that had US and Canadian offices. There were no set hours and I could work from home but I found myself working late into the evening sometimes partly because it was easier to contact my US superiors about queries because they were still in the middle of their working days.
Where did this idea come from that more sleep makes one healthier? Is that actually generally believed, or am I misinterpreting the column?
It had been my impression that it’s generally believed that we should sleep as little as possible, less sleep not making us unhealthy but simply likelier to nod off.
I occasionally (infrequently) experiment with staying in bed and going back to sleep instead of getting up, as that seems to force me to dream more, causing my creative imagination to run wild. But it had never occurred to me that I could also be making myself healthier, either short- or long-term. When I play with my computer and end up sleeping less than five hours in a day, that’s making me less healthy?:eek:
I’ve long been a proponent that the Mountain time zone is the best time zone. You get everything on the same schedule as the Central zone, meaning that prime time is over at 10. However, you get live stuff two hours earlier. So, for instance, Monday Night Football starts at 6:40 PM, is generally over by 10, and you can decide if you still want to watch Letterman starting at 10:35. If you do, it’s over by 11:35. Things like the Daily Show start at 9 PM.
I really miss the Mountain zone. Stupid east coast. Anyone want to offer me a good job in say Albuquerque or Denver?
Different bodies, with different metabolisms, require different amounts of sleep. However, not getting sufficient sleep results in over-tiredness and reduces productivity. There are some potential side medical effects; sleep apnea, for instance, can cause brain damage and even death. The main early-warning detector is not getting enough deep sleep.
There are studies showing that lack of sleep affects things like weight gain and ability to concentrate. That’s why so much pressure advising to get at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep.
Conversely, there is a correlation (not causation) established with sleeping too much. No cause determined, but the likely explanation is people who sleep longer than about 9 hours do so because either they don’t get enough restful sleep due to other disorders, or they are unhealthier in other ways and that skews the results.
Welcome to the world of multinational corporations. My wife’s employer has branches all over the world, and, as a result, corporate-wide meetings are held by Skype or similar facilities. With about half of the world’s time zones being involved, these meetings are difficult to schedule, and it is difficult for my wife to “attend” from her office, because the meetings are often at times when her part of the building in in lights-off mode. So she “attends”, instead, from home, and there’s enough of that sort of thing that, at present, she works from home every Tuesday to help fit everything in.
I never asked into why various adults in my suburb promoted the idea for fellow grown-ups of getting by with as little regular sleep as we could train ourselves to take (and nobody ever bothering to disagree with them). I’d always simply assumed it was intended to lead to our accomplishing more, i.e. being more productive. In any case, you’ve convinced me that sleeping less is certainly not universally considered desirable.
I’ve lived most of my life in the Central Time Zone, so I am well-accustomed to seeing prime time shows between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.
But, why was the period of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. chosen for prime time on the East Coast? Did New Yorkers need a larger buffer between the end of the work day and the beginning of their evening viewing?
[QUOTE=John W. Kennedy]
With about half of the world’s time zones being involved, these meetings are difficult to schedule, and it is difficult for my wife to “attend” from her office, because the meetings are often at times when her part of the building in in lights-off mode.
[/QUOTE]
What, do they not have light switches? Or is it easier to attend from home, and since it’s non-standard hours, there’s no expectation she be in the building?
[QUOTE=putrid]
I never asked into why various adults in my suburb promoted the idea for fellow grown-ups of getting by with as little regular sleep as we could train ourselves to take (and nobody ever bothering to disagree with them). I’d always simply assumed it was intended to lead to our accomplishing more, i.e. being more productive.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve heard the refrain “you can sleep when you’re dead”. People want to do things, whether it is work, or projects around the house, or recreation. There’s only so much time in a day, and some commitments can’t be abrogated. Ergo, sleep less, do more. But that doesn’t mean it’s healthy or smart. Just that people don’t mind dragging in to work half asleep and drinking coffee by the gallon so they can stay up for Jimmy Fallon or get another hour of WoW.
They often don’t. Even outside of not allowing potential office idiots control over light switches, companies don’t want to spend the money on power.
I know my building doesn’t have A/C on over the weekends in the office areas, not sure about nights, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s off then as well. Even at night, I wouldn’t want to be in a Texas office building without A/C.
Well, yes. The whistle blows at 5, you hop the train and get home 5:45, 6:00. You eat dinner, putter around the house fixing whatever it is the wife says you need to fix, smoke a pipe, etc., before settling down to listen to the radio by 8.
Powers &8^]
When I was younger, libraries here used to have hours 10 to 6:30. That meant the library was actually open 10 to 6:30, and you could borrow books. And then at 6:30 you had to leave.
In order to be open those hours, staff had to be there before 10, and after 6:30. After 6:30 they had to get everyone out, check the building, and lock up. But they were only paid 10 to 6:30.
I suspect that ‘9 to 5’ meant the same thing. Office was open 9 to 5. Staff had to be making profit 9 to 5. But they had to be there earlier to set up, and later to close down.
Some employees had to be there a little early and stay a little late, either to keep the assembly line running or to keep up customer hours, but people like accountants and computer programmers were normally expected only to be in the room.
But it had never occurred to me that I could also be making myself healthier, either short- or long-term. When I play with my computer and end up sleeping less than five hours in a day, that’s making me less healthy?:eek: