“Results so far have been excellent,” Says Ernie Enbert, a guy who does a job at a place that makes things that help other people make other things that help people do their jobs in other places. “So far this summer I’ve had three long weekends in two weeks, made all of my daughter’s baseball games, went for nine runs, and lay in the grass with my wife for no particular reason more than once. All without officially taking any time off work.”
The key? “I just say I’m going to the bathroom. What I don’t say is which one. And that I’m not coming back.”
Enbert is one of millions of Canadians unofficially taking part in a post-work experiment commonly known as ‘summer,’ in which many employees count on their bosses being too hot, on vacation, drunk, or in league with them, to spend the absolute minimum amount of time at work needed to avoid being fired.
“We refer to this as the underground post-work economy,” says Abigail Cadabee, an economist for Scotiabank, and author of the book Go Berserk: Why Twerking Is The New Working.
“Rather than officially request time off, many employees just count on the fact that no one in Canada actually expects anything to happen between June and September, and instead just put in the occasional cameo to shuffle papers, brew coffee, offer that coffee to everyone so their presence is noted, and then go home as soon as humanly possible.”
Perhaps predictably, at this juncture Ms. Cadabee offered a visiting reporter coffee, excused herself to go to the bathroom, did not say which one, and did not subsequently return. A screech of tires from the direction of the underground parking lot the only sign that the interview was over.
Categories: Business
The Out And Abouter 