# Were people more relaxed before the 2000s?

- **Episode:** [222](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/222.md) (2025-08-12)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** relaxation, 2000s, nostalgia
- **Time:** 12:23–17:10 (start 743s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/222?t=743](https://truthliesandwork.com/222?t=743)

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[12:23] Leanne Elliott: It was. It was. Speaking of which, there was a question that was similar, actually. Let me find it when we're on the subject. Yes, number 19. Were people more relaxed before the 2000s? The follow-up was, I've heard before that people used to be more relaxed back in the days before the 2000s. Is that true? I'm not sure people were more relaxed necessarily, but I think they had clearer Mm-hmm. Of what was work time and what was relaxation time. I think about my dad, you know, my dad had a fairly kind of high-pressure job that would require him to be on call and things like that. He was an electrical engineer, high-voltage substations were his world. So, you know, if there was a weather event, then he would be on call and he'd have to go in to make sure that, you know, Manchester still had electricity. But that was rare. And it was literally like what you call it, like an act of God, isn't it? Like a freak weather event. Whereas when we were on holiday, he didn't have a mobile phone. He didn't have a laptop. There was no way of anyone from the office contacting him unless they wanted to actually phone the hotel he was staying in or send something via mail, which people just wouldn't do
[13:37] Al Elliott: No, you wouldn't do that
[13:38] Leanne Elliott: So, for him, I think he had a very high-stress job. But I had very clear times where it would be work isn't even accessible to me right now. I can't even check that email if I wanted to. So, I think maybe people maybe had a bit more balance, a bit more, their rest and recovery time was more effective perhaps. So, during those times, the people probably were a bit more relaxed
[14:05] Al Elliott: Yes. And also to a certain extent, you were limited by capacity. Because my dad used to bring home paperwork and he had like, you know, a 1980s old school briefcase, which meant that you are literally limited to the amount of stuff you can bring home. Whereas if you are at home, then you, you, and you're working, you likely have got everything on Dropbox, OneDrive, whatever it's gonna be. You've got access to everything. So in theory, someone says, can you do this thing for me? You can't go, well, I've not brought it home with me because it's gonna be in the cloud and you'll be able to access it. So it was almost like a capacity thing and a, and I think there was a double thing because I think my dad was very stressed and I remember him working Saturdays and at the dining room table and late into the evenings, probably same as your dad. So maybe they weren't quite as relaxed. It was maybe the problem might be that it took longer to do anything because you were doing things in triplicate. I remember my dad having these, like, these, what do you call them? Carbon, like, copy things?
[15:02] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, yeah
[15:03] Al Elliott: So young kids, if you're wondering what CC stands for in an email, it stands for carbon copy. And they used to carbon copy someone in. So you just usually used to literally write a memo on one piece of paper, it would go through a carbon copy into 2 others, and then one would go to the person, and then one someone else would go to their secretary or admin assistant, and then someone would go into the file or something. So anyway, blast from the past. Sorry, what was the question again?
[15:25] Leanne Elliott: People more relaxed before the 2000s. I think probably overall, I think yes. I think overall yes, but in certain periods of time
[15:38] Al Elliott: Yeah. And I think that we all thought that the internet and mobile phones, everything was gonna make— was gonna be the answer. We all thought AI was gonna be the answer because then you'd be like, well, life's gonna be so much easier. I've got someone defer all my tasks to that. Wouldn't it be so much easier if I could just quickly check something up on On the company drive, you know, what were our sales figures last quarter? Type it into, you know, into your database and it brings you up. You didn't have to go down to the records department and go and speak to Marjorie, who was generally about a 90-year-old woman who would be in charge of the records. You didn't have to go and do that. So you'd think, oh, it's gonna make things easier. But in actual fact, no, it's kind of done the opposite because there's the expectation that it's simple to look up a document. So therefore, why wouldn't you say to someone, oh, do us a favor, Well, I know it's Saturday, but just look up that document and send it to me
[16:26] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, absolutely. And also the things that are lost in that interaction, the actual having to walk, take a break away from what you were doing, really great for, for refocus and those micro opportunities to rest and recover. Having a conversation with Marjorie, relationships, one of the best ways that we can, we can build our sense of connection and wellbeing and belonging. So, there's all those little moments that used to be part of everyday working life that are now completely taken away. Because it's all, it's all just behind the computer screen
[16:56] Al Elliott: Yeah. And also, you wanted a coffee or a sandwich, you went to the coffee shop or the sandwich shop. You didn't get on Uber Eats and get it delivered to your desk. So you had, like you said, you had that micro-break
[17:07] Leanne Elliott: All this convenience is basically just giving us more opportunity to work