Perhaps this is what is meant by "an armed society is a polite society." <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Thanks, ben.

In all seriousness, I think Ben hit on something. We act like our 9-5s are life-and-death. For some of us, like Pete, it can be, but for most of us, we are chasing paper in our nice, safe, well protected lives that are full of people who don't want to kill you. If you have to stay late because traffic sucked in the morning, stay late, move paper from pile a to pile b. Or stay late, move paper from pile a to pile b, email your boss explaining that you put in some flex time and that you will be bailing early tommorrow, and miss TWO rush hours, rather than suffer in one. For most of us, I bet our daily stress isn't the job, but the commute. If I'm going to have a heart attack some day, I want it to be at my desk, not behind the wheel.

I have no problem being late to work and missing a meeting (usually about the meeting next week, to discuss the meeting we had a month ago, in reference to next year's strategic vision) and being there in a good mood, rather than being being late and being angry and tired becuase of a traffic jam. While it wouldn't be advisable for Benjammin, one of the most important things in my edc is what ever book I'm reading. It goes into the bag in the morning, along with fresh water bottles and alongside the most recent catalogs of wilderness and survival toys to drool over,then it come out at night, and if I need to pull into a stripmall parking lot and read while the traffic thins, big deal. I also keep a travel alarm clock in my car.

I also have had a lot of pretty mellow bosses.