Perpetual anxiety

Work is worrisome. Time was, though, when you could leave the worries at the office. Not any more, Bauman says ( Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age , 76):

“Most of us take those worries with us, in our laptops and mobile phones, wherever we go – to our homes, for weekend strolls, in holiday hotels: we are never further than a phone call or a phone message from the office, constantly at people’s beck and call. Connected perpetually to the office network as we are, we have no excuse for not using Saturday and Sunday to work on the report or the project ready to be delivered on Monday. ‘Office closing time’ never arrives. The once sacrosanct borderlines separating home from office, work time from so-called ‘free time’ or ‘leisure time’ have all but been effaced , and so each and every moment of life becomes a moment of choice – a choice between career and moral obligations, work duties and the demands of all those people needing our time, compassion, care, help and succor.”