A study came out that unearthed Southern Californians waste more than 72 hours a year commuting to work. As horrifying as that may sound, I'm not all that surprised--if anything, it seems a little low. Seventy-two hours seems like a lot...but then again, it doesn't. That's 4320 minutes a year. Say your average American works 200 days a year, that's like 22 minutes a day. Actually, that's not bad at all--11 minutes there and 11 minutes back. I better reread that article--something doesn't smell right.

I'm not a fan of commuting. I have no patience to speak of--that probably has a lot to do with it. When you factor in the cost of gas and the price of free time, it sounds like pretty much the most awful experience every. I hate the idea of driving 20 minutes to go anywhere. You know what I could do with 20 minutes? I could exercise (I won't--but I could...).

That's why I keep everything in close proximity. Work, my folk's house, The Girlfriend--if they weren't all close, I'd cut them out of my life. Hell, The Girlfriend used to live 15 minutes away, then ten minutes away. Now I've managed to convince her to move into my housing complex and she's a three and half minute scoot away. Yet here I am, seething that she doesn't live next door.

I hear the stories all the time. There are countless folks who drive more than 60 minutes just to get to their job. To me, that's about as horrible as life gets. An hour there, an hour for lunch, an hour back and just like that, an eight-hour job turns into an 11 hour day. So much for a personal life.

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At what point did eight-hour jobs turn into nine-hour shifts? You know the cliché--it's a "nine to five" job--not "nine to six". Dolly Parton worked from "Nine to Five." The first job I ever had awarded us 20-minute lunch breaks for shifts longer than six hours--and those breaks were paid.

I don't know when the shift happened, but at one point companies started realizing they were losing 12 per cent productivity by allowing people to leave an hour for lunch. It's kind of a load of garbage...and the nine-hour work day was born.

I can't speak for all jobs, but at my employer the only reason most folks put in eight hours is 'cause eight hours is what a work day is supposed to be. As far as I can tell, folks waste at least two hours a day chitchatting with each other about non-work related stuff. Most folks bail immediately when the clock strikes five--not because they're done with their work but because "it's time to go home." Eight hours is expected...but we could all probably work six hours and wouldn't see any less productivity. Alas, somewhere someone declared a work week is 40 hours (not including lunch breaks) and now we all hafta suffer.

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