Off-peak life
I've spent almost all of my adult life outside of rigidly scheduled 9-5 type settings. Indeed, one of the 'unique' perks people would discuss about the academic path (until 2020) was the flexibility you had relative to full-time employment in other professions. Sure, you might be working a 60-80 hour week, but that's a very different experience from cramming those same hours into periods that start at 9am, Monday to Friday. And that's before we get started on the time spent commuting on the London Underground in a full suit (I do not miss 2013/14). And the MS Excel stress dreams from being stuck working with inappropriate software for the task at 3am...ah, the myriad blessings of junior professional services jobs.
Post-pandemic, office workers in most industries retained a large helping of that flexibility. People are already forgetting how profound that shift was, and the irrationality of the previous regime. I still remember being recommended "The Four-Hour Work Week" (thanks Marta), which devotes many pages to strategizing and negotiating that rara avis, a remote working agreement. At the time, due to a cultural quirk, I could leave the workplace for a solid 1h30 lunch break in order to go to the gym, but taking part of that time at 4pm (quieter gym, fewer customers to call) was frowned upon by my manager.
Lucky for me, people in the cities I visit don't seem to be fully utilizing their newfound freedom. Alternatively, to the degree that they are, there is enough spare capacity outside of ridiculous peak hours to accommodate. Not many others seem to be living an off-peak life. What is that, you (didn't) ask?
Some illustration: I aim to use gyms at around 9 - 11am weekdays, depending on where I am in the world; I only want to go to the pub Sunday - Thursday; the last time I drove in rush hour traffic was to get my first covid shot in a far-flung suburb of Seattle, because it was hard to get an appointment at short notice; the last time I took a peak train was by accident, I had forgotten what day of the week it was.
I do admittedly now have a health issue that make standing still in long lines/crowded bars pretty much impossible, so the costs of the peak experience are probably lower for others. And there is something to be said for the buzz of such situations, but not as much as people pretend.
For co-ordination purposes I sometimes have to deviate from my off-peak life in order to see people. When I do, I try to steer us towards places with plenty of space, that aren't incredibly popular, that are in sleepier locales. An 80% quieter lunch experience is worth a 20% reduction in menu novelty -- I'm enduring peak time in order to have a conversation, not because I'm trying to get peak gastronomy.
Now, there are all sorts of institutional pressures towards peak life, even for the lucky members of the 'laptop class' who have gained location and schedule flexibility in recent years. Top of the list: children and family commitments, the need to fit around the school day. That's probably followed by partners and family members having jobs that do require a rigid schedule (everything from doctors to power plant workers). But I suspect that many people with the option of it are just not curious about an off-peak life, or would feel weird trying it out ("I want to fit. in."). Long may this continue!
If you too live an off-peak life, I hope to see you at the gym on a weekday morning, a cafe on a weekday after lunch (never on Saturday), or a pub at 9:30pm on a Sunday. More likely, I won't, because your favorite off-peak schedule is not mine ;)
Addendum on the recent UK school protests and response: are we seeing open fascism on the part of the school leaders (no bathroom access outside of peak times for anyone, under any circumstances, even if that leads to students experiencing abdominal pains and avoiding drinking water), or are they just struggling to cope? Porque no los dos.