One advantage of being a philosophy major is that I can confound the easily confused, namely, the management. The whole time change thing is a classic example of management at its best.

For some reason, the management thought that since daylight savings time kicked in at 2AM, we should change the clocks on the telephone systems at 2AM. They had this perception that there were actually people working at 2Am who were going to be lost if the time on their telephone wasn’t change at 2AM.

In reality, anyone who is working at 2AM on a Sunday morning isn’t going to care that the time on their phone is off because either they have bigger problems to deal with or they are too low on the food chain to have a telephone with a display. Therefore, it would be OK to wait until morning to do the time change. Besides, it will be at least a week before the clocks on the walls get changed.

But, management being management, they insist that 2AM is the magic time to change the time. In protest, I point out that since we are springing ahead one hour, 2AM would never exist. Instead, we jump from 1:59:59 to 3:00:00 thus springing ahead one hour. There is no 2AM.

If 2Am doesn’t exist, how can the clocks be changed at 2AM? Judging by the expressions on their faces, I have just short circuited their brains. This is just like in the sci-fi movies where the killer robots are shut down by just such a question.

In a state of total confusion, the management starts mumbling incoherently, their body movements become erratic and take on a spastic disposition. “That does not compute”.

With Gantt charts in a total state of disarray, the management mumbles that 9AM would be fine. Defeated, they head back to their service pod.

I can’t wait until we “fall back”. I will then tell them that while there is a 2AM, there are also 2 one AMs! Dilbert would be proud.