Working 9-5

For those of you also working in corporate America, I'm sure you will be able to relate to this post. A lot of people try very hard to separate work and non-work activities. For me, I work my hours and then the real me emerges once I exit the building for the day. I cherish my weekends and every minute outside of the workplace. But what happens when the lines between work time and my time are blurred? The three examples I have are work functions, weekend/overtime work and smoking breaks.

Luckily, my job does not consist of many work-related functions. When I get a minute to eat lunch, I can eat solo. I rarely have a business dinner and I never dine with clients. When I do go out with colleagues, it is for the sole purpose of getting drunk and talking crap about the other people we work with. But for those of you who do get invited regularly to work functions, where can you draw the line? Can you refuse lunch that your boss invites you to (it is, after all, YOUR lunch hour) and do with it what you please... errands, shopping, lunch with friends... or are you obliged to graciously accept the offer and cancel whatever your personal agenda was? And what about the dinner function? Must you attend or are you officially off-duty after 5:PM? Will you be looked down upon should you never attend, whispered about that you are not a team player, or will your independence be envied by the others who couldn't find a worthy excuse?

On another note, I do not have children, so it is almost expected that I will be available to work late or on weekends. Saying I have dinner plans with friends does not hold as much merit as "I have to pick up my child from school" or "my kid is sick so I need to take the day off." Why do the plans of people with children take precendence over those of us without kids? Why should I have to pick up the slack and isn't my time just as important as anyone elses? Is it even really the company's business if I do or don't have kids? It's almost discrimination. I mean, I'll adopt a child right now if it will get me out of working overtime or weekends!

And lastly, the cigarette smokers. We don't work in an environment where we have to clock in and out, so nobody probably knows how much time the smokers spend outside of the office, getting their nicotine fix. But when I walk by the building, I see the same faces all the time. Since I don't smoke, can I just go for a 5-minute walk everytime I get the urge, citing the need for a fresh-air fix? Can I lie and say I'm a smoker just to get those much-needed breaks throughout the day? And how many smoking breaks are the smokers allowed to take throughout the day? Do they have to work longer hours to make up for the time spent smoking?

So to all the non-smoking people with a busy social life and no children yet, I say rebel! Let's start saying no to work functions, refuse to work overtime and weekends and start taking non-smoking breaks... I mean, in today's politically correct, non-discriminatory world, it's only fair!