Comments on: The cult of overwork

By: The top 5 new rules of productivity

The top 5 new rules of productivity — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:03:26 +0000

[...] Don’t let The Cult of Overwork ruin your work life. [...]

By: Jer

Jer — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:58:01 +0000

You know, I can agree with some of what this article is saying, and it can be especially true for employees of a corporation. However for me I’m stuck in the middle. As a subcontractor who enjoys the type of work im involved in, I also feel a lot of pressure to work extra hours, not only to please my clients, but to also impress my peers, to ‘keep up’ as it were with others in the shop that put in the hours. I used to be able to put in 14-16 hour days and be happy with that, proud of my work ethic and dedication. Nowdays I have a very hard time putting in an 8 hour day and most of my day is completely wasted. (I only get paid billable hours) So recently I’ve been working 4-6 hour days while being at work for 8. It kills my motivation which is in the ground anyway. It angers me to no end when i look over to see my peer happily putting in 12 hours at work. Its second nature for him to stay past 6 to tie up loose ends. I want that back. I WANT to put in those 12+ hour days. I WANT to be proud of what I got accomplished and right now I’m ashamed of my work ethic. When I leave work at 5 or 6 I feel guilty and ashamed of myself. I feel lazy and useless. Especially since when I get home I just plop onto the computer or tv. I completely waste my evenings despite being home early. WTF is wrong with me.

By: The Cult of Overwork is alive and well. Sigh!

The Cult of Overwork is alive and well. Sigh! — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:03:08 +0000

[...] The cult of overwork is the prevailing belief that the more hours people work, the better for the company. That notion is not only harmful, it is dead wrong, as this story from Arlie Hochschild’s book The Time Bind demonstrates. One executive, Doug Strain, the vice chairman of ESI, a computer company in Portland Oregon, saw the link between reduced hours for some and more jobs for others. At a 1990 focus group for CEOs and managers, he volunteered the following story: “When demand for a product is down, normally a company fires some people and makes the rest work twice as hard. So we put it to a vote of everyone in the plant. We asked them what they wanted to do: layoffs for some workers or thirty-two-hour workweeks for everyone. They thought about it and decided they’d rather hold the team together. So we went down to a thirty-two-hour-a-week schedule for everyone furing a down time. We took everybody’s hours and salary down – executives too.” [...]

By: transitvans

transitvans — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:03:23 +0000

I couldnt agree more with this. Those who seriously overwork themselves are, in the long run, going to be less productive, and actually get less done in the 60-odd hours they’re working than they would in the 40 hours they could be doing, whilst being happier and well rested at the same time.

By: Aron Goldenjoy

Aron Goldenjoy — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:00:06 +0000

I love the cartoon at the top. That is how it feels where I am employed. The truth of the matter is I LOVE what I do. I LOVE what the organization’s mission and vision is. I do not love the culture I work in. We have people at the top who are workaholics. They arive early…. stay late…. put their families and significant others at risk all for work. They put off Dr. appointments… children’s soccer games… etc. Not only that… they tend to lord it over everyone else. “Gee…. I had to be here 15 hours because……” The result of this is that people that do not want to do this have begun to so they too can be in on the inner circle. I have worked there for 20 years. I am very well received however… I will not stupe to conforming to this method of working myself into exhaustion. I meet all of my deadlines… I exceed all expectations… I smile and am happy at work and lately there has been some resentment by co-workers. This wave of work aholic behavior comes and goes. I noticed it is worse during bad economic times. The bad part is that we should all be fresh and ready to pounce on the situations at hand not exhausted and constantly angry at everyone. I used to be very happy at work and now I find myself searching want ads and listening in at meetings as to what positions are becoming available. I really do not want to leave my job and I have tried to talk to my supervisor who is the Ex. Director. Whenever I speak up to her things improve but others do not speak up and get mad. It is an ugly cycle and it makes me sad. My line of work is one that should be considered one of the happiest in town however for me lately it is not. I am getting particularly tired because I have been working with the same people for most of those 20 years and finally I have about had it. Anyhow…. that is my little vent. It is unhealthy to be a work aholic… to be supervised by them… to have a work culture that encourages such behavior. The proof is in the pudding…. These people put in ENORMOUS hours and hold countless meetings yet decisions almost never get made. How about working smarter as opposed to harder.

By: Lucy

Lucy — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:18:10 +0000

I found your site, because I am angry – I am one of those people who overperforms and have set a precedent that works to my disadvantage. There are times I love what I do, but things never get better. I told my boss once that I feel exploited, but that was swept under the rug. He said he couldn’t klone me. Plus the only way we can get our work done is if we work a lot of overtime. In a recnet review, my boss rated me as outstanding in work quality and quantity, but then mentioned that he’d like me to have more patience with people. It would be easier I do that if I were not exhausted all of the time. And I think it would be easier to be deal with some of the people who collect a paycheck and do nothing if I had a life besides work. I have to figure out how to get off this hamster wheel. And I will do it – I am there.

By: ALP

ALP — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:08:24 +0000

I fully expected one of them to go “I get up at 4 in the morning, half an hour before I go to bed, and work a 27-hour day, only stopping for a 3-minute lunch break in which two assistants stuff food down my throat like a foie-gras goose.”

– I laughed at this part, knowing this is the grim truth for many of the people here at the office. More grim is the fact that most of them are from the higher-ups, thus setting an unhealthy standard of working hours here.

As for some of us, we simply find ourselved driven to a corner, living lives of quiet desperation (as Henry David Thoreau puts it) by this complicated and fast pace they’ve set.

For instance, it’s already 1am here and I’m still at the office, working my butt off. And this is the Nth time in a series of all-nighters. I want out.

By: eredlorkili

eredlorkili — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:46:23 +0000

I’m new here.. just wanted to say hi!

By: The Advantages of Low Rent Living : Restless in Raleigh

The Advantages of Low Rent Living : Restless in Raleigh — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:06:13 +0000

[...] 5: Freedom to work less hours There’s no pressure on me to work 50, 60 or 80 hours a week. I can if I want to and sometimes I do and if I’d rather work 20 hours one week I can do that. I’ve once and for all left The Cult of Overwork. [...]

By: Rosemary Slosek

Rosemary Slosek — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:12:22 +0000

‘And I’m sure they know what they’re doing and have structured their life according to what works best for them.’

With that one sentence, you just validated what executives do.

Have a think about that :)