Modern man is distinguished by a rare workaholism. What is it for? Sociologists and psychologists have found out why we work so hard, why on earth we are proud of it and how it can end.
A hundred or even fifty years ago, the beginning of the XNUMXst century was seen by our ancestors as a happy and carefree time: all the hard work is done by machines, and people work only to enjoy realizing their talents. Well, the rest of the time they enjoy a free and joyful life. How did it happen that today we, workaholics, work more than our dreamers-ancestors, and even seem to be sincerely happy about this circumstance?
In 1930, British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that in 2030 years, in the not-too-distant 15, the working week would be 22 hours long. That is three working hours a day with two days off! Twenty years later, at the peak of the post-war economic recovery and the general growth of incomes, leading American economists and politicians predicted the 6-hour work week for fellow citizens in the future. But coupled with a 40-month vacation and a retirement age of 1960 years. Even more amusing today are the words of their opponents, who did not at all question the very prospect of the coming society of idleness – the prospect seemed inevitable to everyone. Opponents excitedly argued that boredom, hitherto inherent only in rich aristocrats, would become the scourge and curse of all mankind, which, well, would definitely have nothing to do with itself. Popular American television host Eric Sevareid, when asked in the early XNUMXs what the main threat awaits the United States in the future, resolutely replied: “The growth of idleness!”
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Fears were not justified. The working week in most developed countries today is at least 35 hours, vacation in few places exceeds 4 weeks, but that’s not even the point. And the fact that almost no one can afford to rest these 4 weeks (especially in a row). The length of the working week does not matter at all. We work late at night in offices, we work at home, and when we meet with colleagues after work in a bar or restaurant, we continue to work. And most importantly, we are proud to be workaholics.
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Since the end of the XNUMXth century, Western sociologists have been stating an amazing thing: over-employment has become something of a virtue. Respondents are increasingly admitting that they don’t have time to vote, go on dates, make new friends, get enough sleep, go on vacation, have sex, or even have a baby. And workaholics admit it with pride. The Washington Post journalist Brigid Schulte, in her just-released book Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time,* made an attempt not only to deal with her own lack of time, but also to find out with the help of specialists what this eternal lack speaks of ourselves. She quotes University of North Dakota psychologist and communications researcher Ann Burnett, for example: “If you’re very busy, you’re something. It means you live a rich and important life. Previously, unspoken competition with neighbors was determined by earnings, the size of houses and brands of cars. Now it is determined by the degree of employment. And if you lie in a sun lounger while your neighbor works hard, you have lost.
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Surprisingly, this is indeed the case. University of Chicago psychologist Christopher Hsee published a study in 2010 in the journal Psychological Science** that showed that idle people increasingly feel humiliated by looking at those who are busy. And they become happier, having the opportunity to also get involved in some kind of activity, even if it is very intense.
And the desire to “intelligently” use literally every second of life is already acquiring clearly grotesque features. In 2012, Harris Interactive, a marketing company, found that 38 million Americans are using their smartphones to shop online using their smartphones while sitting on the toilet “to save time.”
“Sometimes I really want to go down a mountain river in a canoe,” admits one of the focus group participants in which Ann Burnett studies the phenomenon of overwork. “When I was young, I really liked these trips. But now I work two jobs, I have two children with developmental problems, they need extra care. And I just can’t afford to relax … The very idea of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbrest seems to me … wrong, or something.
His words fully confirm the concerns of the philosopher and historian Benjamin Hunnicutt (Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt), a professor at the University of Iowa and one of the few researchers seriously engaged in the study of idleness today. “The very concept of idleness is hopelessly trivialized,” he states. – People think that only stupid girls can afford to be idle, all of whose activities are gossip and shopping. Work has become the core of our existence. We have replaced it with the search for answers to the main questions of philosophy and religion – who we are and what is the meaning of our existence. Everything is wonderfully simple: we are what we do, and the meaning of our being is in our work!”
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- Work that makes us happier
This is hardly true. If only because, while sociologists note our employment and pride in this regard, psychologists state completely different things. For example, the constant growth of clients suffering from burnout – exhaustion caused by continuous stress, the need to keep up with everything and cope with everything. Yes, and neurophysiologists are getting closer and closer to the scientific justification of the thought, the historical evidence of which is already enough: our brain gives rise to truly great and creative ideas rather in a state of relaxation and rest than in a situation of excessive stress.
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So why do we continue to shoulder more and more cases and be happy about it? The most obvious reasons are purely economic. Life has become noticeably more expensive, and in order to stay afloat, you have to work harder. For example, in Russia, according to research by the Higher School of Economics, from 1986 to 2006, the growth in spending on school education alone exceeded 110%, from 11% to 26% of the average wage****. No less important is participation in the consumer race imposed on us by modern life. A US Department of Commerce report states***** that in 2011, Americans spent $1,2 trillion on non-essential purchases—more than 11% of all spending. In 1959, such purchases accounted for only 4% of spending. It’s hard to doubt that American statistics also reflect global trends, if only because we all feel them first hand, again and again denying ourselves a vacation, buying what we could do without, and considering a two-week vacation an unaffordable luxury .
However, predicting idleness for the XNUMXst century, our ancestors were still right in some ways. The share of heavy manual labor in developed countries is indeed getting lower. And intellectual work – whether it be scientific research, creativity, research in technology or economics – in many respects corresponds to the concepts of pleasure and recreation in the view of, for example, ancient philosophers, says New York University sociologist Dalton Conley. And everything would be fine, but in a curious way, representatives of intellectual labor turn out to be the least protected category of workers. Their working day is often not standardized, and therefore no one pays them for processing. The criteria for their performance are vague and subjective, and therefore it is more difficult for them to protect themselves in case of problems with the employer. That is, they simply have no other choice but to continuously indulge in “pleasure and relaxation” in the ancient sense.
But perhaps that’s not all. Ann Burnett has an amazing collection of letters and postcards that Americans sent to their loved ones on vacation from the 1960s to the present day. Burnett studies the vocabulary of letters. And he states the avalanche-like growth of the words “hurry”, “turmoil”, “madness”, “too fast” and “on the run” since the beginning of the XNUMXst century. The large letter “A” in the collection marked only a couple of dozen of the many hundreds of letters. According to Ann Burnett, their content and style indicate that the senders were really relaxing, having managed to escape from the clutches of employment and enjoying leisure. And it is amazing, but true: in each of these letters there are not only vacation impressions and greetings to loved ones, but also words about the limitations and transience of our earthly life.
Perhaps Benjamin Hunnicutt is indeed right in assuring us that work has replaced philosophy and religion for us, which, alas, are going through hard times today. And that’s what makes over-employment so attractive to us. When we are unable to find answers to the main questions of life, can we at least load ourselves so that there is no time to think about them?
* B. Schulte «Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time» (Sarah Crichton Books, 2014).
** Ch. Hsee, A. Yang, L. Wang «Idleness aversion and the need for justifiable busyness», Psychological Science, July 2010; vol. 21.
*** technewsdaily.com/15558-toilet-shopping-online-survey.html
**** “The level and way of life of the population of Russia in 1989-2009”. HSE Publishing House, 2011.
***** blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/04/23/number-of-the-week-americans-buy-more-stuff-they-dont-need