Just one hundred years ago we could see O’Henry’s little secretaries typing for ten hours a day. Weak and deprived of rights, they could be easily dismissed, experience sexual harassment or encounter health problems. They had nobody to be protected by, nobody to turn to. Dark rooms, bad air, and sitting for whole day. It was cruel, but innocent world. Hours, after work, spent in front of windows of an underwear store, cheap food and little dark rooms with gas lighting in the evenings. When she stepped outside her office, she forgot where she worked, she stayed alone with herself, she was on her own planet, she was in her own world.

Today we can see the same girl in front of the same underwear store with a mobile phone in her hand giving orders to bank or suppliers. Life has changed. Rhythm has changed. Conditions have changed. For good or bad? Our little hero can’t be dismissed anymore, just because boss’s wife doesn’t like her. She can’t be forced to make things she doesn’t want to do. There are days when she works for 16 hours, twice more than she should, but she is paid for these hours. Her office is cozy, bright, and comfortable. She can be promoted. She can be s

All this solutions are good, but in the short run. They are temporary solutions, they cannot solve the whole problem, which is much more deeper and much more complicated.

New technology has raised productivity growth and it has also improved the quality of jobs in organizations with high performance work systems. Computerized offices provide us with economy of time and place (no need in dusty archives anymore) in preserving and finding information. In short, the combination of technology and high performance workplace practices leads to more skilled work and high quality jobs for workers in different fields (Eileen Appelbaum, 2001). But there is a dark side as well.

It’s proved that lack of natural light and good air circulations affects our mood. People become drowsy, bored by themselves, and their concentration abilities decrease. Such conditions can cause bad mood and even depression. Indeed, try to put plant into closed dark room; it will not survive even a week. But people do survive.

Work-related low back disorders caused by static postures in front of computer, covering both low back pain and low back injuries, are a significant and increasing problem. “Studies suggest that between 60% and 90% of people will suffer from low back disorders at some point in their life and that at any one time between 15% and 42% of people are suffering. Data from the European survey on working conditions reveal that 30% of European workers suffer from back pain, which tops the list of all reported work-related disorders.” (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, 2001).

well air-conditioned offices, protected by contracts in our pockets and by armies of different employees associations. We have become more productive with the help of personal computers, electronic mail, scanners, facsimile machines, and voice message systems. Our mobile phone can take us out of bed to solve urgent problems. “Super” clients can keep us at work on the birthday of our little daughter. Where is our privacy? Where is our real life? “Buying” rules have changed and so have “selling” rules. The reason for offices having become more “home like”, more cozy, and comfortable lies in the fact, that we spend more and more time at our work place. The comfort of our present work places, looks, at the first sight, like an advantage, while, in fact, it’s a sad truth about our lives, the center of which shifted from “Home Sweet Home” to the upper floors of Diamond Towers.

With women it is even worse. Yes, there are laws, but woman who is making career will not really show her boss that she is aware of these laws, she will just go on to achieve her goals. If it’s bad or good, it is only her decision. I was acquainted with one business woman, mother of three children, who owned her own firm, I don’t need to say, that children didn’t really recognized her face, meeting her on weekends.

Obviously, these simple solutions do not solve our main problems - working for many hours and of lack of privacy during and after the working day, but they certainly make our existence more pleasant and bright.

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