The Daytime Idle: What do they do?

I’m always yelling to my co-worker in the next room (mainly because I can’t ever remember how to use the intercom feature on my phone), “Why are we here? Who are all these people leisurely strolling down the street at 10:00 am on a Tuesday?”

I’ve long been intrigued by the seemingly “daytime idle”. Who are they? Why aren’t they at work? Where did I go wrong that I get up every day, drive in traffic with all the other drones, and, sit in an office?

Chris Colin of the San Francisco Chronicle researched it, so I didn’t have to do it. OK, he doesn’t really know me, but, he answered some of my questions in his article, “The Mystery of the Daytime Idle: Why Aren’t You Working?”

He simply asked people he saw at leisure during the work day, “What do you do?”

The article is interesting as I know people with no real jobs who somehow buy groceries and gas. Sure, there are people who have extenuating circumstances, but, they’re still outside on a pretty day like today, and, I’m not.

Do they have it right, and, I just don’t realize it? Perhaps I just subconsciously want everyone to be bogged down with a job with regular pay, and, benefits like I am.

But, then again, my kids are funny about wanting dinner every night, and, we’re funny about wanting to be able to take them to the doctor when they’re sick, so, I guess I’ll stay with the huddled masses here at work until I can think of something else.