Praise for "wasting time

When I started working, the bosses were very attentive that employees did not waste time drinking coffee and discussing the weekend's happenings. Today the struggle is different. Employees should take off their headsets and know with whom they are sharing their desks.

Many zoomsThe new software, big presentations, pivot tables and Anglo-Saxon words are the norm in everyday working life. But do you know the name of the children of the co-worker who lends you the PC charger when she stays at home? Or did you find out that the mother of the person who cleans your wastebasket every day was found with cancer? We are, but really the absence is greater. We know the details of the latest romance of a TV presenter, but we can't even imagine that the office secretary has just had her heart broken. 

When my mother was still preparing my snack for school, a teacher quoted a phrase from a priest in her class. "Do what you must and be in what you do."basically was a leap into the future, which in today's language would be: "Say no to the multitasking". If you have a drink with your dad, do it with all your senses there; if someone tells you an anecdote, immerse yourself in the details of that story; if you are preparing a report, don't look sideways at the WhatsApp the neighborhood. All things I don't do and actions that seem simple on paper, but titanic in real life.

The answer? I don't have it. Life is demanding and society rewards the quickest response, foolproof efficiency, even if that means pills with green stars and hours in a doctor's office that you could be spending chatting with a neighbor. When I have done well at avoiding surfing the wave 24 hours a day (which has been on rare occasions), the question I have asked myself is; will anyone die? Is it really that bad if you send a quote in another hour, if you answer that message after lunch, if you "waste" time listening to that client who excitedly tells you about her grandchildren's achievements? No. No one will die and you and I, I don't know if we will live longer, but I am sure we will live better. Shall we give it a try?