I love waking up early in the morning, specifically to see the sunrise when I am in a place where it's possible to do so. It's mysterious, awesome and the ultimate beauty. There's something about the early morning stillness, calmness, coolness and quietness that inspires me. Truly, it's my favourite time of the day. This is when I feel most connected to God.
As I woke up before the sunrise this morning and looked out at Ponta Delgada's harbour, I had a memory of almost always being one of the first people to arrive at the offices I've worked at. Even there, I loved the quietness and settling in before everyone else showed up. I used to use this time to see what my day would be like, how much work was assigned to me and begin in the solitude of the day with my coffee beside me.
No matter which company I worked for, I found the early morning people seemed to get the shorter end of the stick. I don't know why, but it appeared that most of the management teams I worked for were night people and would stay in the office late. They expected to see their staff also working late alongside them. I can't tell you how many times I was scolded for not being a team player when I didn't stay as late as they did. They would not listen to how early I arrived each morning. Someone even had the gall of telling me that regular office hours do not begin when I arrive early in the morning. Those hours do not count. My reply that neither should the hours of working late in the evenings and night, past the time when the office closes. That didn't go down too well. I had a CEO tell me that he walks around to see who is working late. My reply was I see who comes in really early and is productive.
The end of my story of the times I worked for corporations was I continued to be a very early bird as it was my natural peak production time. Sadly, I spent a long time trying to please the corporation and worked until 10 pm. That was the worst thing that I could have possible done. I was so exhausted that I caused a car accident by my slow response time. I didn't hit the brake fast enough and hit the car in front of me. It was a wake-up call to change my life. When I married Ernest, he saw what was happening. He would take me to the subway to get to work by 8:30 am. I was totally uncomfortable with this as I was used to arriving between 6:30 and 7:30 am. He also told me to leave at 5 pm. I had to because he would pick me up. I felt guilty about leaving this early. My bosses commented on it. I eventually didn't care about their comments. I remember initially not knowing what to do with myself with all of the free time I had in the evenings being at home early.
Today I would rather use people's natural body clocks to my benefit as going against it is unhealthy. So much more can be accomplished if we used a mixture of both. I would also rather have people who work alongside me be rested, refreshed, happy, healthy and I'd be happier to know that each day they spent time with their families and friends. Morning people, you matter greatly in my books!
