Queuing for Happiness

Did you have a Happy Easter? 

Have you eaten all your eggs?

Did you get the fine chocolate you wished for? 

I hope you got some rest.

I was reading an article yesterday which suggests that 95% of office workers do not want to go back to their offices full time.  Some would like to go back to the office a couple of times of week, while others would be happy to work from home permanently.  I thought 95% was a high number.  That basically means that pre-2020, only 5% of the people who worked in offices, were happy with their working lives!

No wonder some meetings were frosty, and emails were hard to reply to if more than 9 out of 10 of us were dissatisfied.  Apparently, we were all exhausted from commuting, found colleagues distracting, and found the lighting, heating or open plan set-ups irritating.

Now we’re happier working from our homes.

I prefer working from home, why wouldn’t I? 

I work much better when I’m well rested, well fed, and focused on one thing at a time. I find it easier to work to my own flow at home, and I’d be happy to stay like this forever.

The only thing I don’t like about it, is perversely, the very technology that allows me to do it.

I feel like my IT proficiency peaked in 2008 and that my abilities have been decreasing ever since.  Up until 2008, I could find my way around a computer and I rarely felt lost.  Now the proliferation of browsers and apps make me sea-sick, and I’m often confused by the myriad of ways there are for adult humans to communicate with one another. 

“Is this desktop app compliant with this android device?”

I don’t know.

How should I know?

I don’t even understand the question.

The other thing I’m finding annoying is the increase in the two-step verification process for all the apps and websites.  This seems to be a very fashionable addition to modern life, and one I find hopelessly irritating.  It’s not always possible to find the text to open the app, to see the message they sent you. Or sometimes, when I’m looking I get lost in other spaces.

Why, why, why do they do this to us?

Oh, I know they are solving all the problems I didn’t know I had, but can’t we go back to a time before 2008, when sites were static and non-participatory.  I still only need to send written messages from me to other adult humans, so I don’t need seven hundred ways of doing it. 

“Hi, I’ve just emailed you the document because I couldn’t upload it on Slack, so if you can just text me back when you’ve read it and we can discuss it on Zoom tomorrow”.

Sweet mother of God!  I’d love to go back to faxing. 

If we can’t go back to the days of the fax machine, I suggest that we all agree to only send messages to one another between the hours of 11.00am and 1.00pm Monday – Thursday?

Apart from that I’m happy; I’m happy working from home.

Happy doesn’t mean what it used to. 

Before 2020, you could spend the weekend in New York, go to the NBA final in Madison Square Garden, head off to the after party with Bradley Cooper and Gaga, then watch the sun rise over Central Park, and still only describe it as “OK”.

Now, you celebrate if the queue to the supermarket moves quickly or if your pizza arrives on time.  Although I think we’re getting harder to please again.  For a few minutes back in 2020, we were so #blessed and #grateful to be alive, but it seems we’re less happy in Year Two.  We want our holidays back, and the restaurants to open.  We want it back to normal, so we’re coming out of lockdown again and we’re easing the restrictions.

This, as always, makes me feel nervous.

When I’m very nervous, I try and remember Derren Brown’s advice in his book “Happy”.  He reminds us that we only have responsibility for the things we say, and the things we do.  Everything else is beyond our sphere of influence apart from the things we say, and the things we do.  I find that very helpful, when I start to worry about the changes and I repeat to myself, that I am only responsible for the things that I say, and the things that I do.

So, I wake up in the morning and if it’s a blue sky, I smile.

I enjoy the beautiful spring days of Dublin and the wondrous displays of colour from the flowers and the trees.  This part of the year is filled with new life and hope and the movement towards brighter things. The days are longer, and everything is alive again.  The moments of these days are not what we planned, but let’s try and enjoy them and be happy when we can.  Only worry about the things we say, and the things we do, and try and enjoy our days.

We should try and enjoy our days.