Salon.com: With nearly 20% of office spaces currently sitting empty across the United States, and as multiple major property and asset management companies have collectively defaulted on billions in commercial-property loans, it may be tempting to think that the cult of workaholism is diminishing as its old cubicle-packed temples seem to continue to crumble, but one visit to a Panera or Starbucks on a random Tuesday afternoon quickly dispels that notion.
5 comments:
As a tea drinker, I could never relate to my family or friends who just need their morning coffee. My mom says her day doesn’t start without her 2 shots of espresso. She says she gets a headache if she doesn’t drink it one day, which shows the reliance of people on their coffee. I never liked the taste of it and the jittery feeling it gave me. I used to feel left out when my friends would go to Starbucks before or after school, in middle school I felt immature if I didn’t drink it. I used to associate coffee as a right of passage– it was traveling into adulthood (I still feel this way sometimes). Coffee is something that America runs on, America was built on a dream, and an idealist one which is sometimes cruel– still a dream. People came to America for hard work and a place to live, they were promised that through hard work, determination, and initiative they would have an equal chance at success. Hard work means long hours and pushing ones self out of comfort. Coffee has become a crutch for these workers and has become a cultural drink. I don’t drink coffee but I do like to think about its story.
This feels like a hyper-relevant article in our environment here which I would argue has many elements of the hustle culture. Across departments (especially the smaller technical ones) we are all often stretching ourselves to cover our enough positions across our long seasons so that shows have adequate personnel and that facilitates a culture where folks do tend to skip out on sleep in order to get everything done. I know a lot of people that caffeinate themselves frequently (myself included) - and that does have side effects, especially when coupled with a low amount of sleep. While this is at least partially a microcosm of at least one aspect of our industry, I think it’s something that we definitely need to be mindful of as it does have repercussions throughout parts of our lives. Caffeine, while something a lot of us down without thinking about it does have physical and mental effects, and we should be mindful about that.
I’m currently taking a history course at CMU entitled Coffee and Capitalism and can confirm that hyper-caffeinated is prevalent, though not limited, to the caffeine industry. I’m also writing this from a coffee shop where I’m now on my second drink (coffee, then chai) of the day so I’m not one to judge caffeine culture. While we’ve mainly focused on the history of coffee this mini and will get to health next semester, it has been illuminating to see how many Americans especially view caffeine as a substitute for sleep. This notion is widely incorrect and find it to be especially prevalent in the theatre industry. It makes sense given our physically demanding jobs and untraditional work schedule, however, is so unsustainable. I love a cup of coffee as much as the next, but also don’t drink it after 3 pm, and am known for my eye mask, diffuser, weighted blanket sleep routine. There’s a balance needed, and I hope the workaholic caffeine culture will change both in the theatre industry and society as a whole.
This might be a controversial opinion but I do love a good Panera charged lemonade. I know that they are not the best with the sheer amount of caffeine in them but I make sure to only fill a portion of the cup with charged lemonade then I fill the rest with iced tea. It is quite the delicious combo. Although this has become more difficult since they moved the charged lemonade containers behind the counter which makes a lot of sense as was the right and smart decision but it does make my drink harder to acquire. I did have a little chuckle the first time I went to a Penera after they moved the charged lemonades behind the counter after reading about the danger of them. Overall I could not agree more with this article, America does have such an incredible caffeine problem and we really do need to solve it.
I used to drink coffee for the taste rather than caffeine(I know, it’s really bad for you) but now, I’m holding back to only drinking caffeine when I absolutely need to, and even then I try to limit myself. I didn’t know there was a limit for daily consumption of caffeine, I knew that you can’t drink too much caffeine, but I was never told a certain number. But even with that certain number, its hard to grasp how much caffeine you’re actually drinking everyday, especially with so many unmarked drinks, like the one from Panera, Starbucks drinks, and even sodas. As someone who loves drinking tea, I’ve also never really thought about how the caffeine in tea has built up a tolerance in me, as I’ve been constantly drinking it all my life. A higher tolerance in caffeine can be bad for a lot of people, and they would require more than the daily maximum to get the same effect.
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