Fellow SMEs – Stand With Me in My Defence of the 9-5

Let me be clear from the start, this ain’t going to teach you nothing, it is more of an observation and a call to arms.

We live in a World where, As Dizzee puts it, “everyone wants to be famous” and the yoof of tomorrow allegedly don’t want to experience the cut and thrust of the 9-5, or the 6am to 11pm as some SME’s may know it.

I am here to redress that balance though, to point out how much it grates on me and my fellow SME’s whenever we hear an X-Factors Got Talent contestant utter the immortal line “I could never go and work in an office and do the whole 9-5”.

Now come on, there is nothing wrong with working in an office, and more importantly, there is nothing wrong with actually wanting to work in an office.

If you are anything like me, someone who maybe had a slightly rocky start to trying to find a “career” then you will know where I am coming from when I say that I really wanted an office job, ideally with a future.

Yes, the fame brings many exciting opportunities, not least a certain level of wealth, but as we have seen recently with a former No1 Chart Topper ending up at PC World, not everything lasts forever and the level of wealth associated with fame is vastly reduced to yonder years.

This week we also found out that fame can bring you a GOLD Burger King card where everything you order is free. Step forward Jay Leno who tried to use his, only for the burger dispenser boy not to believe such a card existed.

Us 9-5’ers, we are proud to be able to afford to buy our own burgers.

We are a group that is dedicated to the cause. We are not afraid to put in the extra hours without needing an extended break for exhaustion, we can go to back to back meetings, day after day, without the need to moan that we have not had chance to take in the cultural sites of the places we have visited.

We don’t mind waking up and immediately setting about our tasks, in my case firing up the iPhone and checking emails at all times day and night, most commonly from the toilet I should, or maybe shouldn’t add.

Yes, we tell the occasional white lie about just “playing on our phone” during vital Sunday evening family time. The reality being that we are checking and replying to emails to get a head start on the week.

We and our celebrity cousins also share the same plight of family and friends worrying about us getting burn out due to the long hours. Our stresses coming from spending time taking calls from clients, colleagues and business contacts at evenings and weekends. But... secretly, we love it!

Us office dwellers should never shy away from shouting about what we do. 9-5 is the new rock’n’roll, maybe, well, you get what I mean.

So, my fellow SME’s, lets stand up and give a collective double fingered salute to each and every one of those fame-hungry singer-warblers who are dissing our wonderful 9-5.