By Henry Foenander

Just who is the 5 o’clock hero?

 The normal working day in the UK consists of 8 hours, Monday to Friday, 9 till 5 (what a way to make a living, I couldn’t resist). After 5pm we are set free, the shackles of work are lifted and we can release our true potential as humans, by eating crisps and watching EastEnders.

 It’s always struck me as a strange phenomenon that we have set working hours. It somehow doesn’t seem natural, to so abruptly fence off our pre and post 5pm lives. To me, it’s almost schizophrenic to be able to go from one state of mind, to another in mere minutes.

What’s more, during the classic working day, there’s this weird contradictory feeling of having both not enough time, and too much of it. People are either racing to meet deadlines or quotas, or twiddling their thumbs and checking Facebook wishing the minutes would go by faster.

I think maybe this is how you know when you’re in the right line of work. Since being at SCA I’ve noticed that the working day doesn’t really stop…or start. Sure, I physically get to the building in the morning and leave at various points during the evening but I don’t think of it as stopping. On the way home I’m looking at ads plastered on busses and billboards, and when I’m home, I’m scrolling through Campaign or youtubing my favourite TV coms.

And from the other perspective, this means I’m never really starting work. I’m going to the studio and learning the history of the industry from Alex Taylor, or testing out a new creative technique, this isn’t work, this is being in a playground. Even when it’s pure idea generating it doesn’t feel like work, it feels more like a sport. It’s definitely tiring but I actively want to be there, participating and soaking up information.

One thing I’ve noticed is that we don’t have a clock in the studio. And I think we should keep it that way. So hopefully there will continue to be no such thing as ‘I hate Mondays’ or ‘Thank God it’s Fridays’.