People work too much. I was walking out for my lunch break, and I noticed a bunch of coworkers heading back in with take-out from somewhere. I also see various other corporate types walking back to the buildings around us with “to go” food in their hands. This is a regular occurrence.
What is going on that’s so important that these people need to go back to their desks to eat? Sure, not everyone is going back to work while they eat their sandwich or whatever, but an alarming number are. Is the work they are doing really that important, or is this just a product of our “work work work” system?
We work too much, but the problem isn’t necessarily that we work too many hours per week (though 40 hours, I’ve found, is a bit of a stretch). The problem, as far as I can tell, stems from some artificial sense of urgency regarding company cash flow. What I mean is that employees are viewed as assembly line robots, expected to crank out more work per hour than they did the week before (just an example). It’s all about cramming as much money money money into each minute as possible. It’s less about the work itself, and all about the money.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but it seems to me that everyone’s goal is to just work as much as possible. People want to get through the day as fast as possible so that they can get through the next day as fast as possible, and so on. Then they get a little break on the weekend, and then start the cycle all over again.
“Working for the weekend” is no way to live. What happens after 30 years? Do these people wake up one morning and wonder why they’ve aged so much? Do they wonder where all the time went?
I believe that our culture gives some kind of weird social reward for what clever business owners call “hard work.” I think they are overdoing it. I think that everyone needs to slow down, quit worrying about money and productivity so much, and just live. Be still amidst the chaos and see what life really has to offer you. It’s sure as hell a lot more than 40+ rushed hours during the work week, followed up by some fake weekend reward time and a paycheck that is just never quite enough.
Seriously? What kind of life is that? What is waiting for you after you’re done with your little workaholic race? Maybe a decent retirement nest egg, maybe not. Don’t let life pass you by just so you can work your life away.
Work less. Live more.
