My Hamster Cage

If  "The World is Flat" as Thomas L. Freidman states in his book by the same name, then I live in a big round bubble. A plastic bubble that spins as I run inside it.  Freidman discusses in his book the beauty of the internet connected world and how it allows people to work remotely, from home,  India or even Indiana.  Workers can log on to a teleconference, view and work on co-worker's projects or take calls from half a world away. 

 

Yet I drive to work every day, to send those same emails, type those same instant messages, and take those same calls.  Why do I drive so far to plug into the super highway? Just the other day I instant messaged a co-worker 2 cubicles away. Why can't I do that from home.  I suspect many others are in the same figurative spinning wheel. Why?

 

If technology makes the world flat, politics keeps it round and siloed.  I drive to work each day because it's expected by my employer. That's just the way we do it around here.  How I wish it would change.

 

The reason for my rant is two fold. I've been listening to the audio book "The World is Flat" on my commute and I happened to be listening to it yesterday when I had to turn around a quarter of the way into the drive. I forgot my "office clothes" and had to go back home to get them.   I was already in my "gym clothes"  because of my new plan to get ready for work at the gym to save time. The delay aggravated me and the book's topic only escalated my disgust.  Why was I driving anyway?

 

Today was a bit better. I remembered all my clothes and I made it to the gym.  The rain however made traffic worse than usual though so I decided to only upper-body weight lifting to compensate for the lost time on the road.

 

Better luck tomorrow.