all this time

People used to mockingly ask the efficiency expert Frank Gilbreth, who did so much to streamline factory and office work in the 20th century, and who is lampooned in the opening scenes of The Pajama Game, "What are we supposed to do with all this 'time' we'll be saving?" He gave a straight answer: "Fishing, woodworking, volunteering at a hospital, sailing — whatever you want to do."

Of course, we now know the real answer. The relentless market insists that what you will be doing is working more and more. We have an incredible array of labor-saving devices, from factory-floor robots to Microsoft Word, and yet instead of working less we work more, so that we can have a lifestyle that would have made our great-grandparents' jaws drop. Your company demands that the extra productivity go to itself. You will be spending that time at the office.

Unless, of course, you guard it with your life. Guard it, with your life.

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