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Productivity Work/life balance Workplace

Re-Thinking Workaholism

“Work is the only thing which makes life endurable to me,” Charles Darwin wrote, later remarking that work was his “sole enjoyment in life.” Darwin’s work allowed him to withdraw from the world to concentrate entirely on his genius.

Burying yourself in work is so ingrained and glorified in our culture to survive, that nowhere is safe, even the previously safe haunts of creativity where the tradition of daydreaming and an idle nature were once protected rights. Such inefficiencies are now subject to intense bright-lights examination.

One ad agency describes the process they went through to obtain ISO 5000, a certification previously reserved only for factory lines and manufacturing. The process revealed some “surprising inefficiencies” but came at a price. “All the hyper-efficiency can be exhausting,” reported the Chief Creative Officer Jeff Gabel. “You’ve removed your slop factor.”

Exhaustion is now the modus operandi. As such, workaholism is not a reaction to passion, but the inefficiencies of the modern workplace.

“The fact is,” Dave Balter, founder and CEO of BzzAgent, says, “few white-collar employees work 9-5 at all anymore. We’re expected to address work issues on weeknights and often on weekends. We’re constantly reachable and it goes without saying that many are reviewed on the merits of their ‘always on’ capacity.” (via Max Kalehoff).

Most of us are working the usual 9 to 5, but also when inspiration strikes. Whereas in the industrial revolution, work was indeed done when you completed your widgets for the day, the knowledge society demands your energy when it’s seemingly most inconvenient. Right before bed and long into the night, for instance, or first thing upon opening your eyes in the morning.

There’s a credible explanation for these 9 to 5 outliers, which is that the productivity pockets are cushioned by breaks – a tweet, sleep, dinner, interaction with friends and family. Such idleness is great sustenance.

Alain de Botton, best known for his philosophies on everyday life, agrees. There’s a glorious stubbornness to human nature, he says. We need a break, we need a pause, we’re not made for continuous action. Looking out the window is a fundamental part of human nature, he argues.

“Periodic breaks relieve our conscious minds of the pressure to perform — pressure that can lock us into a single mode of thinking,” argue the authors of Creativity and the Mind, a landmark text in the psychology and neuroscience of creativity. Their research suggests that regular breaks enhance problem-solving skills significantly, Wired reports.

We’re working all the time, not because we need to, or even because it’s effective, but because our jobs require us to show up, be seen, and scrub through the afternoon slump. But the truth is, no one is working at 3 pm. That should be nap time, argues De Botton. (Interestingly, those who nap have a higher capacity to learn).

The culture of workaholism, worn with a badge of narcissistic and perfectionist pride, isn’t mixed with a lot of real work, he says. In our squeeze for uber-efficiency, we’re making a giant mess of inefficiencies.

A recent Wall Street Journal post profiled a young “superhero” who “rises at 3:30 a.m., works out before work, takes three of his four kids to school, works flat-out all day, gets home for dinner and bedtime with the family and then works until midnight.”

If you were counting, the young superhero gets a whopping three and a half hours of sleep. Disgusting.

Workaholism is sick and it’s wrenching to watch the pedestal we build for it.

We are not drones,  and we should not  indenture ourselves to workaholic servitude. Our rhythms, what truly brings about the bliss of efficiency, require not the constant ticking of the clock, but a restful mind, a glance in the other direction, a check mark in a box that doesn’t exist on any spreadsheet.

That is, sometimes work needs a little life.

By Rebecca Healy

My goal is to help you find meaningful work, enjoy the heck out of it, and earn more money.

43 replies on “Re-Thinking Workaholism”

I go through periods of my life where I tend to drown my life problems out with work. It’s something I can control. I know I can be treated the way I want to be treated. I know that I can succeed. It’s a horrible mindset. Instead of fixing problems we tend to just escape them.

Good post.

I go through periods of my life where I tend to drown my life problems out with work. It’s something I can control. I know I can be treated the way I want to be treated. I know that I can succeed. It’s a horrible mindset. Instead of fixing problems we tend to just escape them.

Great post Rebecca.
One of the 16 fundamental principles of life (as I have been taught) is: Rest and Activity are the steps to progress.
Equal opportunity to rest is just as vital to productivity as the actual working part.
Great job gathering resources and links on this one.

@ Brant – In most drafts of this post, the first sentence read: work is an escape. For many of us, it does allow us to impose order, is the best distraction – especially from those big questions on life, and let’s us have greater meaning. That is the “great pleasure and sorrow of work” as De Botton says. Thanks for the comment!

@ Mehul – I like it! I saw my mother rest very little growing up, she was always working to support her daughters and then working hard to raise us. When I’m stressed though, she’s always the first to say “it’s okay to take a break.” Definitely needed!

Great thoughts, Rebecca! I think the reason many turn to self-employment/freelancing is to exercise that control. Implementing and maintaining a new normal is one of the most blissful aspects of working for yourself. Thanks.

@ Betsy – I’ve often heard it’s more difficult to do so when you’re working on your own, however. Kudos to you if you have found a good way – would love to hear your tips in that direction!

Great observations Rebecca! I do agree that the work environment (at least in big corporations) requires a lot of work, networking, and long hours. The economy has obviously pushed this to a maximum level. I really like ROWE (results oriented workplace environment) because I believe that people should just get their work done and not have to be “on the clock.”

well, in dealing with any addiction, a rational argument often gets frustrated (“maybe we should stop smoking today, as it is actually bad for our health.”). but unlike smoking, we encourage and admire such self- destructive behavior, as we envy the money made and the human cost is often kept hidden.

and by the way, why stop it? if you can scam people into working 80 hours instead of 40 for the same money by calling it noble, why not?

@ Dan – I love ROWE! I’m planning a post around the concepts sometime in the future. You’re right that the economy has made people unnecessarily scared. Whereas in some areas the recession has brought us forward, I think we’ve taken some steps backward in the workplace.

@ Justin – Ha, because those people aren’t actually working! No one is working 80 hours a week consistently, that’s ridiculous. It’s just making a great number of people quite unhappy and unsatisfied. Companies could speed up their success by rewarding results, not time clocked. Don’t you think?

Agree with you. At this point in our life (my wife Laura and me), there are three primary hyper-competing forces: our careers, our two kids in diapers. We’re blessed, we’re lucky. Though maintaining balance among these three is one of the most challenging things we’ve ever faced. There are other important priorities, too, but these are the major ones. It forces you to be highly specific and efficient with your time.

@ Max – As a twenty-something, I think I often miss the importance of the “life” part because I get so wrapped up into work. It’s great to hear that maintaining the balance is possible – even if it’s difficult. Thanks for sharing!

Rebecca, love how you aggregate all those articles and cite people’s view on workaholics and life.

I wonder as responsibility and pay increases, how I will continue striving to balance my life and job. I know you dive even deeper than the cliche “work-life-balance,” because work needs life.

People think it’s so bizarre to unplug. Last weekend for my birthday and wedding, I unplugged for five days and I feel fresh and actually EXCITED to be at work each day now. Isn’t that how it should be? Before I left my boss and I discussed how important it was to take a vacation, time away, or take your weekends and enjoy time “away” from the job. It was nice hearing it from him, he has three kids and is a VP of our startup company. No doubt, a lot of responsibility and he leads a busy life but even still, at every level, letting go a little let’s us come back and hold on stronger. It’s a give and take, an ebb and flow.

Beautifully written :)

One of my greatest bug-bears is that organisations still require a set amount of face time every day. Having to be present in a building for n hours a day when you might be more effective, efficient, creative or brilliant somewhere and somehow else seems crazy.

Isn’t this the 21st Century?

In “Drive”, Dan Pink suggests that motivation comes from autonomy, mastery and purpose – working hard is only good if it satisfies these qualities, otherwise it’s damaging.

As a self-confessed workaholic, I have been trying to reteach myself that I’m not defined by what I do for a living. Deciding to leave my cush job in advertising and transition into the social media space has not been easy.

It continues to be an emotional roller coaster fraught with tears, negative thoughts and self doubt on a daily basis, as I work freelance jobs in between applying for full-time positions.

I agree that we need regular breaks and extended periods of time to regroup, but not having deadlines, clients and status meetings has left me feeling like a very unproductive human being. It’s weird, but until you don’t have that professional title anymore you realized just how wrapped up your identity is with what you do for a living.

It’s a shame because there are so many facets to our personality, other than our title. But, like many things in life, it’s definitely easier said than done.

Great post Rebecca!

@ Grace – I too like unplugging, but more than that, I just like being away from behind my computer. I don’t care if I’m still working (aka SXSW), but I want to see people!! I think that’s an ENFP thing :) I’m so glad you had fun in Mexico, because I definitely missed you in Austin.

@ Steve – Exactly. We’re stuck in an industrial model on a knowledge society course. And the ride sure is bumpy that way! I’ll have to read Drive… thanks for the suggestion!

@ Andrea – Thanks so much for sharing your story. Going it on your own is so difficult and I appreciate the challenges that go a long with it. So many people want to jump in to that kind of life not realizing it’s often more difficult and can often result in more working, not less, because you’re trying find meaning on your own now – or what you described as having your identity wrapped up in what you do for a living. I think you’d love De Botton’s theories – definitely check his video out on Fora.tv!

A great collection of links bound together by your original writing style-great post as usual.

I think the workaholic culture is very much country-specific, which is a shame, because America could benefit more from the more relaxed work-life structures of companies like Spain and France. People in the United States regard work much differently than those in Mediterranean countries like Israel, where I interned, and where I learned that having a 2-hour lunch was sometimes not only ok, but necessary for sanity.

Your post also made me think of a workaholic I know-a very knowledgeable and together woman who is an absolute necessity at work and comes home around 9 or 10. But her daughter, who is bright, intelligent, and inquisitive and at an age where she needs a lot of her mom to explain the world, is growing up without her, which is sad. But what’s the solution? Workaholics never stop working on their own and American work culture remains static.

Well said, Rebecca!

And this brings us back again to the debate about what, exactly is “work” Only the tasks and projects I accomplish for my employer? Only what I do for a paycheck or compensation? Or eveything I do that involves my mind, my creativity, my input, my ambition, my dreams, my possibility? Becuase in a world like ours where personal possibility is increasingly expanding , “work” and its definition seems to be ballooning too.

The work/life, professional/personal crossover of our modern world and our hyper connectivity further complicates this, I think, and what I’m finding is that to embrace a life-friendly schedule isn’t just a question of “work” anymore, but of holistic life balance that finds time and peace to — and here’s the kicker — without GUILT enjoy the things I love simply for love’s sake.

Well said Rebecca. In the end, it all boils down to balancing all the things we need to feed our heads, hearts, and souls. What I found out after being in the business world for 28 years is that the best place to be is in that enviable position so well described by James Michener:

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both”

I’m getting ever closer to this ideal, because I figured out that my work couldn’t be on the outside looking in, and therefore had to be something I loved and enjoyed as much as I enjoyed a hike in a peaceful mountain valley, or a great Elton John song, or just hanging out with my wife.

Because of this, I haven’t given much thought to “Workaholism” in a long, long time. Nevertheless, by rebelling against it yourself you’ve most certainly put yourself on the same path. Happy trails!

All the best,

Terry

Rebecca, I still had your post and my comment left open in my browser and noticed it only partly made sense. I said “three hyper-competing forces” but I left one out, and that one is sleep. I’m lacking it right now.

Sometimes extended periods of effort are necessary. More and more, as a culture we’re caught up in continuous work – it has a very addictive quality and the boundaries are far less clear than they were even ten years ago. It also serves as a way to deal with anxiety and avoid things.

As an student of economics I was taught all about efficiency and I try to be as efficient as possible in my day-to-day life. Working like the professional mentioned by WSJ is not efficient I’d argue and definitely not sustainable.

The modern U.S economy is so different, as you mentioned, from the manufacturing-based economy of years past and it sometimes requires us to be thinking about work when we are not actually working.

For example in many professions one has to prepare before the work day starts in order to have a productive day once one sits down in the office. One can’t just go to the factory and go up to the assembly line to work. Especially with a weak economy companies are asking more of employees and trying to squeeze out as much efficiency as possible. Employers must remember though that you don’t want to maximize efficiency, you want to optimize it, and that sometimes means breaks and ideally nap time!

Oh, what a post. One part of me wants to say, “Yes, yes!” and the other part says, “But what about…?”

I agree, fundamentally, that work needs a little life – no matter how many, or few, hours you work. But I also think there is value to another view of this situation, which is that if you love your job, you should not view it as separate from your life. Poor Darwin may not be the best example of what I mean – but for those of us who work often from home and have passion for what we do, I think regular breaks combined with long hours (and clear boundaries – for me, having an office is essential) is key.

This is also highly industry-dependent – and having children, as in the example you cite, no doubt significantly alters just how “balanced” someone can be.

Reminds me of the martyrs who seem to be excited by getting to a stage in their career where they “have” to be plugged in all the time, including vacation, or else everything would fall apart at “the office”.

To me, that means they don’t trust their staff, can’t plan ahead, micromanage, self-aggrandize, or have been promoted to a level higher that they can function properly.

We are all expendable. The sun will come up tomorrow.

Wow, reading that back to myself I sound grumpy and cynical. Here are some exclamation marks to show that I’m just trying to add to the conversation!!

Love this post, and I couldn’t agree more! Working all the time without a break is detrimental on several levels. Productivity is affected, as are our health and happiness. In my opinion, life is too short to spend it working ourselves to the point of burn out.

I really enjoyed this article as well as the follow-up conversation happening in the comments. One of the most difficult transitions I had in my life was from a corporate position to the ranks of the self-employed. One of the most difficult aspects stemmed from confusing efficiency, optimization, and productivity – some of the previous commenters had alluded to this as well.

I work a lot – even more so than I did as an employee – and I worked more than most there as well. However I love what I do. I love what I am building and the colleagues I have surrounded myself with. Work can be, and often is difficult – but it can be equally enjoyable when focused in the proper direction.

Are your efforts focused in the right direction? Only you as an individual can answer that question. Trust your feelings and follow them.

I think we often get so caught up in the doing and achieving that we completely bypass the being. I can’t relate to the person who wakes up at 3:30 am and works all day just to do it all over again. We’re on a completely different level of being, and it’s sad, because I know it doesn’t have to be that way.

Our love of hyper-productivity, maximization of time, more is better scares me. Sure, there is much to be said for hard work and diligence, but work for work’s sake needs to end. Be with your family, be with your friends, be with yourself. Being the job will isolate you from all of those things.

One of the additional problems is that people like that “superhero” set a bad example for the rest of us. The more people who answer their phones at 10pm, the more that will become the standard and will become expected of all employees. Now, I don’t recommend intentional mediocrity, but I do wish that more people put their foot down when it comes to work/life boundaries. It really would help not only themselves, but everyone else.

Great article and I have been enjoying the ensuing conversation. Certainly the current state of US workaholism is linked to our presbyterian foundations and a contrast can be drawn between the typical hours here and those much shorter work weeks held in Europe and most notably the Norweigan countries, where a strict 40 hour work week is mandated. (Also can you imagine a month long summer break!).

While I can understand the joys of having more clear cut beginnings and ends to the work day I see two types of workaholics. The one is the corporate worker who due to a more competitive landscape is being pushed to longer and longer hours. The other is the passion driven worker who can’t rest or power down his.her computer because of an incredible level of interest (and long term enjoyment) gained from doing work that is viewed as critical.

While I don’t think increasing hours and work is sustainable for those who are operating under obligation, I am always impressed at how hard people are able to push themselves when working on a project they truly enjoy. Working on my current start-up company I often grapple with finding that right work/life balance, but the knowledge that I am spending the time on something I truly care about makes it count.

I like this line…

“The fact is,” Dave Balter, founder and CEO of BzzAgent, says, “few white-collar employees work 9-5 at all anymore. We’re expected to address work issues on weeknights and often on weekends. We’re constantly reachable and it goes without saying that many are reviewed on the merits of their ‘always on’ capacity.” (via Max Kalehoff).

I’ve a friend that works as a FC. When the management gave him a blackberry three years ago, he hated it because that means he is expected to be connected all the time. In other words, work creep into his private life. He still hates it now.

It’s true…it’s difficult to draw the line between work and personal life now.

But as a biz owner, I’m happy with technology and when the internet or phone line is down, I grumble like mad. I want to be connected all the time and love it! But I realized this part of work if get out of control can destroy our “non-work” life. Imagine this: having dinner with spouse. While waiting for the food to be served, this couple busy “working” via their smart phones, so called to be connected but in actual sense lost the real connection!

I loved the post. More than that, I love hearing all of these other voices sharing their struggles with overwork and many with examples of just saying no to workaholism! I love my work – LOVE IT! – but my life needs to be more than one aspect.

Kudos to you for stimulating such a wonderful conversation!

Great post – unfortunately there are far too few companies that take work life balance seriously. Personally, I don’t buy it anymore as I have heard it so many times from organizations that claim to have it when really its evaporates like smoke as soon as there is a lot of work to be done.

Think you and some of your readers might enjoy reading “Rework” by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson (http://37signals.com/rework/) – they talk about over-work, hiring and other learnings from a small business/startup perspective.

Nice Post – some nice insights here. I would say we always need to have a balanced life between work and home. If you have good time management skills i think you can achieve what u want

HHMMM…..I dunno, if you truly love what you do.. then why say “ah 5pm time to go home”…Being a creative person, my brain doesn’t work this way.. it’s off when the project/work is done. yes I do kill time surfing the net…but otherwise I work ’round the clock.. I see it this way: I’m not expected to have a family, and most of my friends are in the same industry. As far as I see it when I have my off time, its then I do my research trips. I have fun doing it therefore it’s not really work. I think if you really find something you love to do, then why set boundaries?….it’s only limits your time doing the thing you love most…

I worked as a Big 4 consultant for years. Putting in unending 16 hours a day in crushing, critical roles on make it or break it projects put me in the hospital. The levels I’ve seen ain’t nothing compared to what you folks see in industry. We live in a mad world and it is truly sick.

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