Michigan Telephone, VoIP and Broadband blog

As someone who has suffered the scorn of early birds most of my life, I am so happy to see that finally there is some small recognition that we are all different, and that some of us have different rhythms, and we just don’t do well when forced to rise with the chickens (wake me up too early, and I’m likely to bite your head off with the slightest provocation)!

Quote from an article on the Toronto Globe and Mail web site:

“Why should we have the work hours of farmers and peasants forced upon us in this day and age?” says Danish engineer Camilla Kring, an emerging international force in the fight to recognize night owls in the workplace. “We all have different day and night cycles and it’s time workplaces created new structures that support our different rhythms.”

…..

This year, Ms. Kring launched B-Society, a group devoted to lobbying companies to stagger start times and better accommodate those whose circadian rhythms are a little delayed. In just six months, the group attracted 5,500 members and sprouted offshoots throughout Europe. The group’s website is adding a job board on which B-friendly openings throughout the world will be posted.

globeandmail.com: Late risers lobbying for workplace recognition

So, late risers of the world, rejoice – maybe if you push hard enough, you can have workplace accommodation for your sleeping schedule. In the meantime, you can always consider being a telecommuter for some company that’s located about three time zones west of wherever you live, assuming you are lucky enough to find such a position.

The expectation that everyone should be an early riser is a perfect example of what is sometimes termed “tyranny of the majority” – because the majority of people do things a certain way, everyone is expected to do it the same way. It’s like expecting left-handed people to write with their right hand, because that’s the way “normal” people do it (something that some teachers still believed back when I was in school).

By the way, I suspect that one reason online universities attract students is because no one is forced to take early morning classes. I don’t think that there was anyone who hated going to school more than I did when I was a kid, and while there were many reasons for that (it was almost a “perfect storm” of negatives, in fact), one of the biggest reasons was that I was always in a really bad mood when I had to get up early, which of course was the case on almost every school day. And while my parents would try to put me to bed at an appropriate time (I say “try” because I never wanted to go to bed that early), many was the night I would toss and turn until around midnight or later.

I had a friend who, during his high school years, almost NEVER showed up for his first hour class, and missed his second hour frequently as well (there were days he didn’t straggle in until almost noon). He was enough of a pain in the posterior to his teachers that they didn’t press the issue of his non-attendance (frankly, I think they were happy when he didn’t show up!). I think he only graduated because he was somehow able to pass the exams, and because the school really did not want to hold him back a year. It makes me wonder how many kids would do much better in school if the schools would offer an alternative of classes from, say, 11 A.M. to 5 P.M., or even noon to 6 P.M. (I’m sure they could find teachers who are not early risers by choice!). It would be an interesting experiment, if some district would agree to try it. They already have “alternative” schools for problem kids, so why not a school for night owls?

I have a suggested motto for the night owls: “To be woke before noon, is to be woke too soon!” Take THAT, Ben Franklin!