Daylight What Time?
Once more North America and Europe engage in the semi-annual tradition of screwing up our clocks. And one of the enduring legacies of the Bush administration is that this mind-numbing practice is foisted on us earlier than before and lasts longer. I find it ironic, as I look at the Wikipedia entry on Daylight Saving Time, that while most of the world has abandoned this archaic practice, the main holdouts are those regions where the practice of flex time and flexible schedules have made the practice literally obsolete.
Is there any good reason for DST? As far as I can tell, the only benefit has been to the computer programmer industry, which has had to implement these periodic changes in the countless programs and systems that are affected. Numerous studies have found that not only does DST not save any money or energy, it actually results in greater cost and energy usage.
The last time I petitioned my government to do away with DST back in 2007, their response was to actually extend the effective hours. Since I don’t want to change my clocks on Christmas, I’m not going to bother calling my congressman or senator. Instead, from now on I’m going to implement my own time change system.
Since (as I mentioned) we have flex schedules, this spring, I’ll just change my work hours to move back an hour, and in the fall I’ll move them forward again. In other words, call it whatever time you want…I’m going to start and end work at the same time. Let the world shift under my feet, back and forth.
I know what time to wake up, even if congress doesn’t.