Not the 9 to 5

When I first set up the website I felt that the name of the site was self explanatory and would be understood by any readers who came this way. Now I am feeling the time is right to explain what Not The 9 to 5 really means.

9 to 5 is a well known phrase, in the west at least, and is a synecdoche, it is a description of a part of the world of work which stands for the whole of work.


Hearing the phrase 9 to 5 will invoke in many people an image of commuters jammed into a train, suited men walking across Waterloo bridge to the City, people head down hard at work in offices. In the USA it will summon the image of the ubiquitous cubicle familiar to anyone who has seen the Matrix or a Dilbert cartoon. In the UK where our buildings are older they may envisage people chained to their desks. 9 to 5 is a fairly neutral statement but it conjures slightly less than positive ideas of work being a chore.

In the pre-Industrial Age 9 to 5 made sense, daylight was available during those hours for most of the year and very little work could be done by candle light. Then the invention of machinery and electricity made it possible to work through the night but tradition and the need to interact with other workers meant that change didn't happen. Now we have connectivity and can interact with workers on the other side of the planet if we wish and 9 to 5 really makes very little sense. People working in London may have to work with people in Tokyo at 7am or San Francisco at 11pm, should they really be asked to work all the hours between? If your colleagues are a thousand miles away is it necessary to be in an office in central London or can you work just as well from home in the country?

In past jobs I have often felt how strange it is that bosses are happy for their staff to clock in at nine and out at five with very little regard for what they did in between. I knew staff who were penalised for not being at their desk on time or for leaving early and yet anyone working beyond those hours was never praised and anyone who achieved a lot in that time was given no more benefit than someone who slacked through the day. Seems a funny way to run a business to me.

I recently wrote on my other blog about ways in which the world of work is changing, hopefully for the better, in that some people believe a business should be measured not just by its bottom line but also on the good, or bad, it does in the world. The way employees are treated and feel about the company would be one of these measures. For now we live in a world in which there is almost nothing that is not business. Your health, wealth and free time are all tied to someone's business somewhere. How you meet, court and marry is now monetised. How you travel is almost never free, even walking costs shoe leather. Without money there is nothing in the modern world.

And yet we are still, by and large, tied to the 9 to 5 day. From shops and schools to doctors and bankers the majority live in the 9 to 5 world. But there are others breaking out.

Teleworkers, using home technology to 'be' at work any time of day. Crafters and inventors working in their sheds building beautiful things, people with big ideas about becoming Free Range, Multipotentialites or Paid-to-Exist. For many people there is no longer a need to be a cardboard cut out, boxed and packaged automaton or cog. And these roles don't need to be for internet geniuses. Any idea, any pursuit, any handmade item can be a success with very little start up funding.

Of course, Yahoo seems to disagree. But I planned this post last night and then saw this on my Twitter feed this afternoon:

Working life isn't 9-5 any more. The world is connected. Companies that do not embrace this miss a trick. Quote of the week @richardbranson
— Part Time Jobs (@timewisejobs) March 1, 2013

 So Not The 9 to 5 is a blog about all those other opportunities, ways of working, places to work and ways to monetise your life for yourself not some remote boss who has nothing in common with you. For anyone sick of being a desk jockey, anyone who wants meaning in their work, anyone fed up of being a nameless cog in a faceless machine, anyone wanting to break out and do things their way, the posts on this blog and the links on the Twitter feed are for you, they may be inspiration, information, advice or other resources but I hope that through them you will find a new way to work - Not The 9 to 5.

Laura. (Don't forget our motto - No Link Is An Island - when you follow a link and arrive at a new website have a clickabout and see what else is on offer.)

Preparing - the last part

You've done all your lists, you now have a lot of words related to your passions and skills.

Now you need to settle down with a beverage of your choosing and go over those lists and give scores to each word.

It can be whatever scoring system works for you; black marks and gold stars, graded from A - F, 0 to 10 or colours.

Focus on each word and think about all the possible connotations or ideas it represents. Think about how you feel about every possible meaning of each word and give it a score. Do you feel all warm and glowing when you consider accounts payable? Do you feel anxious and panicky thinking about sales? Are you indifferent to managing staff? Find a suitable way to score a range of reactions from very negative right up to very positive for the things you love to do most. Even if those things don't seem immediately to be work related.

Now everytime you do a job search refer to your lists. Use them as keywords to search by or for cross checking adverts to see how they match up to your responses.

Keep expanding your lists, keeping thinking about, and feeling your reactions, to each word and any that you add as time goes by.

Make sure you keep your lists handy as you go through your job searches and keep your ears and eyes open for new words, new ideas, new phrases, new skills or new things you love doing.

I wish you all the luck in the world with your job hunt or career move.

Check back here for more in the coming weeks and don't forget to look at the links posted on our Twitter feed - see left!

New year and your big lists

We have just a couple of steps left in the preparation stages.

Take your lists and for every word on them look up some alternatives.

This Thesaurus site is a good place to start.

Look up 

Write down all the synonyms you can find for the words on your lists and in a different colour write down some antonyms as well.

This will be your last list and probably the biggest as you will hopefully find a couple of words for every one you wrote on the previous lists.

For example if you wrote Writing  you will get these synonyms:

autograph, calligraphy, chirography, cuneiform,  hand, handwriting, hieroglyphics, longhand,  manuscript, print, scrawl, scribble, script,shorthand Some of them link to further words you could add. The next step is the last one in the preparation plan.

Happy New Year

Hopefully you had a nice break and feel refreshed and raring to go. A new year is a good time to think about new starts simply because of the date.

Did you make your Big Lists? Have you been looking at them from time to time and reviewing, editing and considering what you wrote down?

Now it's time for some word association. Read your lists and make a new list. This time your list will be any words that spring to mind when reading the words you wrote on your earlier lists.

Just jot down anything you can think of.

For example I wrote Theatre on one of my lists, so on my new list I am writing:
creative                                                  words
exposition                                              writing
director                                                  new worlds
stage craft                                             imagination
props                                                      team work
costumes                                                philosophy
masks                                                     speeches

I will be adding to that and writing out all the thoughts that come to mind regarding each of the other items on my lists.

This is something to be doing over the next few days.

Preparing for the New Year 3

OK so you have three lists, time for the one more:

My great skills

This one is straight forward. A list of all the skills you use for the two first lists and to amend or avoid the things from the third list.

For example if you wrote something about managing people you might include team work, leadership, communication, writing skills, evaluation, decision making, problem solving, people skills etc.

Easy peasy

Preparing for the New Year Part 1

Sincere apologies for the time out, it's been a while since the past post.

However the new year is just three weeks away and with it come resolutions including the renewed impetus to find the right career (and to write more posts on the blog).

First up, give yourself a seasonal celebratory gift. You've survived another year and it's time to take a step back. Time to evaluate the last year, or more if you wish, and decide what worked and what didn't.

So get out your diary and find an hour between shopping and preparing the egg nog to block off as Me-Time.

Get yourself a couple of sheets of paper, some colourful pens, maybe some sticky notes or a glue pen and a beverage of your choice.

Now draw up two big lists:
Things that worked out really well and Things I really enjoyed doing
Or make a mind map if that is more your style

Write down as many as you can remember. Then have a look for any patterns in it. It might help to photograph it and carry it around with you on your mobile. You don't need to act on it now, just keep it in mind and add to it over the next few weeks, but you might like to start a notebook with ideas for next year's big lists.

Stick your lists on a pin board or file them in a ring binder, just make sure you know where they are.

That's your task. An hour off from the chaos of this time of year to reflect. Easy peasy!

If you feel really ambitious you could try to write your own Performance Review instead.

All the planning posts can found through these links:

• http://notthe9to5.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/preparing-for-new-year-2.html
• http://notthe9to5.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/preparing-for-new-year-3.html
• http://notthe9to5.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/happy-new-year.html
• http://notthe9to5.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/new-year-and-your-big-lists.html
• http://notthe9to5.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/preparing-last-part.html
• http://notthe9to5.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/my-big-lists.html

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And have a look through the links on my Twitter page which are offered simply for interest but might work for you. Let me know what you think of them.