Yesterday, I heard in the news that prominent figures in the business community are calling for a change to our work / life imbalance. Carlos Slim, the world's second richest man and leader of Mexico's telecom industry, is saying that people should not work more than 3 days a week.
He is joined by Google co-founder, Larry Page, who also is suggesting society should consider a restructuring of our work week. So what is giving rise to this new focus on our work patterns?
For one thing, a study by the U.S. Travel Association, shows that while 23% of Americans don't receive any paid vacation from work, of those that do, only around 60% actually take their entire allotment. This leaves 430 million unused vacation days per year, which if actually taken of would generate 160 billion dollars in sales, not just in travel related businesses but across several other sectors as well. This would promote the creation of 1.2 million jobs and an additional 52 billion dollars in earned income for Americans. Therefore, working less and taking more time off is actually good for the economy.
So how does our work/life profile compare with other countries? Europeans have a different relationship to work and are guaranteed at least 20 paid vacation days per year. In some countries, that rises to as many as 25 or 30 days. Germans work 600 hours less per year and are actually 70% more productive. In fact, the accounting firm Ernst & Young discovered that for every 10 additional hours it's employees were away from work, there was an 8% improvement in productivity. By contrast, South Korea has one of the most workaholic cultures. They are also the most sleep deprived nation and as a result, in spite of working more hours, they are only about 66% productive as Americans. The South Korean government is beginning to see the toll this excessive focus on work is taking on their population and has responded by requiring employees to take up to a one hour nap during the work day.
As social scientists and demographic observers continually dissect patterns emerging in our culture, they struggle to define these behaviors by giving them names, leaving the rest of us only able to surmise that what was once considered normal, even admirable conduct is actually a disease. Meet "The Work Martyr". Turns out a lot of Americans have what they call a “Work Martyr Complex,” even if it costs their health, well-being and relationships. “We found that people have this whole busyness as a badge of honor thing,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “We’re becoming a nation of work martyrs. People really wear it on their sleeves, how they don’t take time off. Everyone around the world looks at Americans like we’re crazy.” Managers didn’t set a good example either. The survey found that nearly half answer emails on their vacation, three in 10 return work calls and just 37 percent of senior managers surveyed fully unplug from work while they’re away.
What motivates the office martyr? “Self-esteem lies at the heart of it, as there is this constant drive to trump a ‘personal best’ so that they can never be accused of failure,” believes Angela Baron, HR expert.
"For some, it also stems from the fact that work is fundamental to who they are", says Dr Wilson Wong, senior researcher at the Work Foundation. “The identity of an office martyr is driven by career, so the validation they most understand is based on their work performance.” And this is self-perpetuating. The more we pander to it, the more it encourages them. “If even one person thinks they are indispensable, they have succeeded,” says Wong
And we can't entirely blame this pattern on the recession. There’s another social trend which is making its mark on office culture and that’s the need to be “so busy” in every facet of our lives. So if your social or romantic life isn’t quite as charmed as you’d like, filling your weekend with a report which simply must be done by next week and couldn’t possibly be done by anyone else validates a weekend that isn’t jam-packed with friends, dates and hobbies. But surely an office martyr is not a bad thing if it means the work gets done. Right?
“Office martyrdom is actually an addiction. People think it’s an effective tool to get them noticed, but may find co-workers actually resent them for it,” says psychotherapist Rachel Shatock Dawson, a psychotherapist. “It then turns into a vicious cycle – the feeling that your huge efforts are going unnoticed breeds resentment and anger which could seep over into your personal life as you offload your frustration, and may ultimately lead to depression.”
It’s a lose-lose situation: you feel overworked and undervalued while your co-workers are quietly doing the same amount and get increasingly irritated by your martyrdom. "I don’t appreciate employees who are more worried about their status than delivering.” says Fiona Thorne, CEO of a leading public relations company. “I’ve worked with individuals who have gone from hugely appreciated, committed colleagues, to people who drive everyone bonkers by taking on too much and then endlessly complaining about it,” she says. The irony is it also undermines how you're perceived by others at work. If you have to stress to everyone that you couldn’t possibly make after-work drinks because you have so much to do, it may suggest you can’t manage your time effectively or that you’re not capable of doing your job.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that employees who have the highest productivity are also the ones who work the least number of hours.
Are you an Office Martyr? Do you derive much of your self esteem from your work? Do you wonder why your work sometimes seems like a refuge from your personal life? Don't you think it should be the other way around?
Here is another way to understand how work, with all of it's inherent imbalances and politically charged issues, has come to have such an influence on our entire lives.
When we think about human life and societies even as little as a hundred years ago, work and family time were woven together. The family worked as a unit, to create and maintain a homestead, with agriculture and livestock that needed to be cared for and harvested, repair and maintenance that was ongoing and then more family centered activities, like meals, home schooling and socializing. As work has increasingly become a function performed away from home, the workplace has evolved into a kind of surrogate family, a home away from home. Whereas parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles comprised our extended network of human interaction, from which we derived our self esteem, connectedness, sense of purpose and joy, our employment has now replaced many of those emotional elements of our lives. The fear of losing our value to this de-facto family unit or worse: being "terminated", instills terror in the hearts and minds of those effected. To say nothing about the fact that it seems as if one's economic survival is dependent upon maintaining a good standing with our managers (parents) and coworkers (siblings and extended family). Additionally, many depend on their work to maintain health insurance and retirement plans. So, it's not hard to see how this seemingly imperative relationship can quickly become toxic and unhealthy.
Conclusion: It would seem that work and the workplace will continue to be a fundamental component of our society for the foreseeable future. It's still not clear whether working from home (telecommuting), helps us to reestablish more of a balance in our personal lives. Certainly for some, it does, but others just bring the stress of work into the home, causing an imbalance in both spheres. It would seem then that the take home message is to not feel guilty about taking vacation (all of it), if it's offered and if you can afford it. Saving some for family emergencies is prudent, but don't let the seductive influence of feeling indispensable at work creep into your psyche to such an extent that you feel compelled to commit more of your personal capitol there.
Make a clear distinction between your work and home life. Becoming a whole, integrated person requires responding to challenges from both spheres. Defend the sanctity of your personal time and don't allow your boss or coworkers to browbeat you into being "more committed". Very often, those who feel powerless to extricate themselves from a toxic psychological process would rather justify it by sucking others into their vortex rather than dealing with the personal issues that are conveniently obscured by their work.
No one will thank you for sacrificing happiness at home to gain hero status at work. Corporate loyalty is a thing of the past.
Those who imagine themselves to be indispensable today, may be the one's standing in the unemployment line tomorrow. Make your home, your personal life, your family, your hobbies, your friends and your interests the foundation of your life. Remember that work is a means to an end. It is where you should derive your income and associated benefits, not your sense of self worth or connection.
Ultimately, happiness arises from who you are, rather than what you do!
S.E. Mathias
If you have questions or comments about this article:
All above content was generated by S.E. Mathias.
Please contact the author regarding republishing any portion of this article
To receive free notifications of new content on The Happiness Tree, please send an email to The Happiness Tree
Copy and paste "SIGN ME UP" into the subject line.
Thank you!