Leave it at workCalm

unbry

Leave it at work

A short book about bringing the job home in your head and giving your family the leftovers

28 chapters13,973 wordsAbout 64 minFirst edition

What's inside

·Before you startThis is a short book and you can read it in two or three sittings. It's about one habit, which is leaving work at a reasonable hour and bringing it home…2 min
1The drive home, and the meeting that came tooIt's twenty to six and you're at the roundabout you've been round a thousand times. You couldn't say what colour the car in front is. What you can say…2 min
2Why the passenger gets inNobody decides to spend the evening at the desk. It's not a choice you make at the roundabout. The passenger is there before you've noticed the car's…2 min
3"Thinking about it is working"Look at your three lines from chapter 1. If your head was at work at nine, what was it doing there? I'd guess it was going over. The conversation again.…2 min
4"I can't help it, it's just there"You may believe you're simply built this way. Some people can walk out of the office and be somewhere else by the car park. You're not one of them, and…2 min
5"It needs me"The problem's not finished. It was half done when you left, and some part of you believes that if you stop holding it, it'll get worse. Not in any way you…2 min
6"It's only for the drive"You might accept most of this and still keep the drive. The drive is dead time anyway. Twenty minutes with nothing to do but steer, and if you use it to…2 min
7"I'm still here, I'm just quiet"You're not shouting at anyone. You're not on the laptop. You're at the table, you're on the sofa, you're in the room, and if you're a bit quiet tonight…2 min
8"They didn't do anything, so it's not about them"The snap at the boiler question wasn't about the boiler. You know that. Your partner didn't do anything, your daughter didn't do anything, and the…2 min
9"A serious job costs this"There's a version of the habit that's a matter of pride. You're not someone who leaves at five and forgets. You care. The job is serious and you take it…2 min
10"Once this project's over, it'll stop"The passenger has a name at the moment. The audit. The restructure. The client who's about to leave. The launch. It's a hard patch and it'll pass, and…2 min
11"I'll just check my messages"A look at the phone at half past seven isn't work. It's thirty seconds. It tells you nothing's on fire, and knowing that lets you relax, which is the…2 min
12"I think better at home"Some of your best thinking about work happens in the evening. The office is noise and interruption, and the quiet of the kitchen at nine is where the hard…2 min
13"I'm fine once I've talked it through"Your partner asks how the day was and you tell them. All of it. The meeting, what was said, what you said, what you should have said, what it means for…2 min
14"The weekend fixes it"Five evenings at the desk is bad, but there's Saturday. Two days with no meetings, no inbox, nothing due. Whatever the week took, the weekend gives back…2 min
15What the passenger costs youYou've read this far thinking mostly about what the passenger costs the people at home, because that's what the title promised. This chapter is about what…2 min
16What it costs the people at homeYour partner hasn't said anything. Your daughter hasn't said anything. Your flatmate, your parent, your friend on the sofa, none of them has complained…2 min
17What it does to the workThe one thing the passenger was supposed to be good for was the job. Whatever it took from the evening, at least the work got something. This chapter is…2 min
18The last tenThe method in this book has three parts, and the first happens before you leave. The last ten minutes of the working day are when the passenger decides…2 min
19The crossingThe second part is the move from work to home. For most of the history of work it was built in. You walked out of one building and into another, and the…2 min
20When the passenger gets in anywayThe last ten was done and the crossing was crossed and at twenty past eight, halfway through the film, the meeting is back. This will happen, and this…2 min
21The wrong address, deliveredYou did the last ten and the crossing and the passenger got in anyway, and at the boiler question you snapped. The sharpness in your voice was for someone…2 min
22What to do with the eveningAn evening with the passenger put down is an evening with a space in it, and if nothing goes in the space, the passenger comes back to fill it. This…2 min
23The decisionEverything so far has been the reasoning. This chapter is the decision, and I'd rather it were one sentence you can keep than a programme you'll abandon.…2 min
24Working from home, shifts, the self-employed, real emergencies, a bad patch, a partner who does it too, and living aloneThe method assumes a job with an end time, a way home, and people at the other end of it. Some of that's missing for a lot of readers. Here's what…3 min
25When the evening went to work againIt's Thursday and the last ten didn't happen because the meeting overran, and the drive was the rerun from the car park to the door, and the evening was…2 min
26The drive home, the empty seatIt's a Thursday, some weeks on. The meeting at ten past three went about as well as that meeting goes. At twenty past five you stopped, mid-task, and…1 min
·NotesThese notes give the sources behind the claims in each chapter, and say where I'm giving my own interpretation. The book isn't medical or psychological…8 min