Dolly Parton’s 1980 song, 9 to 5, has a memorable tune and rhythm. It is one of hundreds of songs that I have portions memorized, but cannot recite or sing the entire song. The chorus, however, repeats enough times in the song and the song was played enough on the radio that I do know that much.

Workin' 9 to 5
What a way to make a livin'
Barely gettin' by
It's all takin' and no givin’

They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
It's enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it

I never really had a job where we worked 9 to 5. My first full-time work was farm work as a teenager. But before I worked on the farm during the summers, I was well aware of the general schedule of the shop at my father’s farm machinery dealership. The shop opened and work began at 8 am. At 10 am there was a 15-minute coffee break. The shop closed and work ceased from 12 - 1 for lunch. Another 15-minute break occurred at 3 pm and work stopped for the day and the shop closed at 5 pm. Of course, there were jobs that had to be completed for customers that caused workers to come in early and stay late. They were paid extra for overtime work and often were eager for the additional income. My father, however, never was constrained by the schedule. It was common for him to start his work day at 5 am and there were days when he didn’t get home from work until 6 or 7 pm. Often he was managing multiple businesses. He’d go to the airport early before the shop opened. He and my mother often did bookwork early in the morning as well. He was never a fan of those 15-minute coffee breaks. Although he supplied a break room and a coffee maker and often made the coffee himself, he thought the interruption disrupted productivity. Once he offered to trade employees two weeks’ additional vacation in exchange for them working through the break times. No employee took him up on that offer. Many of them were smokers and needed the breaks to smoke. Even those who weren’t were big fans fo the break. It was a time to socialize and tell stories. It was also a time to sit and relax.

At the farm our work day began when breakfast was over and continued until time for dinner. We either took a lunch with us or had lunch delivered to us in the field. During harvest, lunch and dinner were delivered in the field. The combines ran for as much of the day as grain moisture would allow. Machines had to be greased either at the end of the day or at the beginning and that was often done in the dark even on long summer days. I don’t remember minding the hours. Everyone else was working that hard. It wasn’t a topic of conversation, it was just the way life at the farm was. There were breaks when we would visit with others, if guests showed up at the farm. And we didn’t work on Sundays except during harvest. Although there were chores on Sundays as well. Animals needed to be fed and watered every day. The eggs had to be collected.

I worked and was paid by the hour at several jobs during my educational career, but they weren’t full-time jobs. I hd full-time hourly work during summers, however, so know a bit of the rhythm of a five-day, 40-hour work week. However, for most of my life I have worked at jobs where we didn’t count hours. I had significant control over my schedule and a good amount of flexibility. When there was work to be done, I worked. If there were multiple funerals in a week, I put in a lot of extra hours. If there was less going on, I had more time for personal projects and hobbies. There were plenty of days when I was at the office for 12 or more hours. Evening meetings have always been part of my work. Even now working part time an occasional 11-hour day is not uncommon.

It is also true that I have never fully known when I am working and when I am not. Because I have worked with my wife as a colleague as well as a home partner, we have never had a rigid barrier between work and home life. We talk about work and do planning at home, over meals, and when we are recreating. We take time out of a work day to run family errands on occasion. I frequently am thinking about a children’s sermon or planning a work strategy when I am at home and not in the office. That schedule has suited my style of ministry. I have often said that ministry is who I am and not just what I do. If I am visiting with a church member, I don’t keep track of the time it takes. If a church meeting runs long, I stay until it is concluded. I know lots of people who work outside of the church who have similar long days and don’t track work hours. Small business owners, like my father, put in whatever hours are required to keep the business going. I may have put in long days as a pastor, but I have always had members of the churches I served who put in similar long days. If a meeting ran long for me, it was equally long for the volunteers who served on the committee. Our church treasurer would participate in evening meetings even during tax season when her regular job involved 60 hours a week.

I am aware that there are times when I didn’t get the family time/work time balance right. There were times when our children wished we would spend less time at work. But I have always been grateful that I didn’t need to track hours our punch a time clock. I still get some of my best work ideas when showering and recreating out doors. I don’t know whether writing my journal is work or recreation. After all, I’ve invested quite a bit of time in the project without compensation. I guess it must be a hobby alongside other hobbies like mopping floors and doing the dishes.