RE: What time do you think geeks should have to get to work?

in reply to What time do you think geeks should have to get to work?

My opinion on this is that eventually it won't matter. I think that the further along we get into globalization through the use of the Net, the less dependant we'll become on the Sun to determine the times to get up and go to bed. I beleive that in a number of years, many services will remain open 24 hours a day. Already we have convenience stores and large scale grocery stores (At least the one near my home) that are open 24/7. We have the credit card customer support lines that have people taking calls all night long. I agree with the previous post saying that some degree of cohesion is good and it'll probably remain, but in a mutated form. There'll be those who work in the day, those who work in the evening, and those who work late at night. Folks will probably come in on the hours or half hours, because of the tendency for people to like round numbers. Aside from that they might just come in whenever, knowing that no matter what time they arrive, the client will be there as well. (A rather harrowing prospect)

This will of course have profound changes on the rest of the work "day". In a best case scenario, rush hour will even out and distribute itself across the day, providing a constant low key amount of traffic. Worst case scenario is that rush hour will be permanently bad. We'd also need a drastic shift in the economy, since we're doing good with employing the population in one eight hour shift with only minimum staffing of the other two. At the rate we're going populationwise, we'll have the requisite number of bodies by that time. Nonetheless I think this'll happen in the next 50 years.
Anyone else agree?

~W

Comment on RE: What time do you think geeks should have to get to work?

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(kudra: there are also movements away from 24/7 culture) RE: RE: What time do you think geeks should have to get to work? by kudra (Vicar) on Sep 11, 2000 at 09:51 UTC
I think that you're looking a lot at how the US is and not so much how other countries are. Take the Netherlands for example. It's only in the last couple of years that I've seen grocery stores open until 9 in the evening, instead of closing at 5 with the exception of Thursday or Friday (late shopping night). They're still all closed on Sundays. There are 'nightshops', but these are small and sell only a few essencials, and they are really only found in cities like Amsterdam. Credit card support at all hours? Hah! Credit cards work through bank accounts, so you get the same hours as for banks (something like 9-4, except on Mondays, when, like most shops, they don't open until the afternoon). Public transport stops for a few hours--for about 5 hours in the city I live in. Try getting a pizza at 4 in the morning. Now it's probably clear why I said in my other post that I need flexible hours just to get anything done for myself. Will this change? It's already changed a little bit, and it will probably change a bit more, but it will take a while before there is acceptance for even the amount of night jobs in the US, in my opinion. I believe that working at night is considered unpleasant and therefore people who work at night get extra pay (Jouke or ar0n would be better at verifying or refuting this). It just costs more to have people work at night (you need more lighting as well). But the main reason shops aren't open at night is that it isn't seen as fair and isn't allowed without a special permit. It's thought that if large supermarket chains can be open all night, smaller grocery stores wouldn't be able to compete (which is probably true). It's also thought that if smaller shops were forced to close it would be a loss to the community. This viewpoint can also be seen in the US: for example, many communities have objected to the establishment of Barnes & Noble bookstores on the grounds that the company deliberately pushes local bookstores out, thus robbing the community of the culture surrounding these bookstores. The future could hold a 24-hour monoculture. But it might not.	[reply]

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(kudra: there are also movements away from 24/7 culture) RE: RE: What time do you think geeks should have to get to work?
by kudra (Vicar) on Sep 11, 2000 at 09:51 UTC

other post

Will this change? It's already changed a little bit, and it will probably change a bit more, but it will take a while before there is acceptance for even the amount of night jobs in the US, in my opinion. I believe that working at night is considered unpleasant and therefore people who work at night get extra pay (Jouke or ar0n would be better at verifying or refuting this). It just costs more to have people work at night (you need more lighting as well).

But the main reason shops aren't open at night is that it isn't seen as fair and isn't allowed without a special permit. It's thought that if large supermarket chains can be open all night, smaller grocery stores wouldn't be able to compete (which is probably true). It's also thought that if smaller shops were forced to close it would be a loss to the community. This viewpoint can also be seen in the US: for example, many communities have objected to the establishment of Barnes & Noble bookstores on the grounds that the company deliberately pushes local bookstores out, thus robbing the community of the culture surrounding these bookstores.

The future could hold a 24-hour monoculture. But it might not.

[reply]

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