Personal grooming

Getting up early to perfect your look before work is an evil yet incredibly necessary chore. Various men and women consulted confirmed that if they didn’t have to partake in any personal grooming whatsoever they could have at least an extra 30minutes in bed, sometimes even an hour*. In order to look the professional part people sacrifice sleep… maybe this is a poor reflection on the values of society today, but it is the way it goes.

However there is always an exception to the rule.

Now I can understand coming in the office with drying hair, or arriving early to re-apply makeup. Heavens in my office we even have a shower available for all. Likewise most people if they needed a ‘little touch up’ shall we say, would discreetly pop to these facilities.

Again there is an exception to that rule to.

Cutting to the chase, this week saw one of my colleagues take his electric shaver out of his bag and begin a quick ‘touch up’ (?) at his desk while in mid conversation with both my manager and a senior member of the department. The word surprise does not even come close to what the rest of us felt!. Carrying on with the conversation at the same time. Shows a sign of being comfortable in ones surroundings at least!

Now again, is it just me or….

And I thought I was random.

*Note men and women consulted through unofficial means, probably biased after the above incident.

Extreme measures

What strikes me as particularly odd is the use of laptops during ones commute – you are not at work yet. Particularly when used on the tube.

The Underground during commuting time is, to put it mildly, horrific. Any sane human being would not subject themselves to such battery farming and find an alternative way to work, or ideally work somewhere outside of London. Me being me I seek none of these things.

Being a small person, space is still of a premium and spending a (short) tube journey directly staring at some commuters rear is really not uncommon, nor is being squashed up against the windows in a ‘Scream’ style. In this hostile environment the aim is to scarper as quickly as you can when you reach your destination. There is quite literally so little room to breath, let alone commence work.

However this is what I witnessed today. Same conditions. A young man hops on – same stop as me - finds a sought after space where he can lean against something (rather than someone) and before the tube doors shut he has his laptop out of its case and turned on. This caused much bumping and shuffling to accommodate this new ‘passenger’, but he ho.

Let’s just remind ourselves that this is underground, so therefore if phone signals are bad, than what must wireless be like? So we arrive at the next stop – the one I get off at - and Laptop man, closes laptop and puts in his case (much more shuffling for all) and gets off the tube. One stop later. Maximum of 5 minutes on the tube. I am quite surprised that he did not walk with it still open and on in front of him as he got off.

Surely work cannot be this pressing to make such time ‘count’? Now I know I have not maybe developed such a ‘pressing’ need for information just yet, but is this not working too hard? Or have I just missed the point and not established what being a ‘professional’ is truly about after all?