60-hour workweeks (or more!) kill people. That seems bad and we should probably stop it. In this video I explain how we get back to or even below 40 hours of work a week. References from the videos CNN’s article on “The Secrets Of Greatness. Jack Ma and the 996 Rule. Working hours in different … Continue reading The Cult Of Overwork
The New York Times has a great article called ”In Silicon Valley, Working 9 to 5 Is for Losers” that examines workaholism in startups. It even quotes one entrepreneur as saying “I rarely get to see my kids. That’s a risk you have to take.” I wonder if he asked his kids if that was a … Continue reading The Cult of Overwork is Killing Startups
Thought: Only the truly incompetent need to work 80 hours a week to succeed at something. Discuss.
Yikes – overwork can kill you: … those working a 55-hour week face 33% increased risk of stroke than those working a 35- to 40-hour week. And to make matters worse, all those extra hours don’t even mean you get more work done: [Overwork] … doesn’t seem to result in more output. So overwork is … Continue reading New research: Overwork kills productivity AND employees
Once and for all: Consistently working more than 40 hrs/wk means you get LESS work done.
End the #cultofoverwork.
European workers don’t work enough hours compared to Americans. That is the message in this article written by a London-based venture capitalist. From the article: As anyone who’s ever been there or visited will attest, in Silicon Valley everyone is working *all of the time*. And while this might seem unhealthy, not scalable, obsessive, manic … Continue reading The Cult of Overwork is alive and well. Sigh!
Here’s a question that came in an email on Sunday(!): Hi Alex, I’ve just being surfing your website after typing in ‘overwork’ in Google and found it most interesting. I’m an environmental consultant working in a medium size risk management consultancy. I’ve just been working on a report for a client on Sunday while my … Continue reading Ask the CHO: Overwork
Office Lady asks this question: I have a question, can anyone help? On our contracts, we are supposed to work 39 hours a week (excluding lunch hours). So we all come in at 9 am and leave at 6 pm. But since we are supposed to work 39 hours only, we supposedly can leave at … Continue reading Ask the CHO: Implied overwork
Stan has some questions about the cult of overwork: 1) When/where did the cult of overwork start? Or has business/marketing/office work always been a race towards more & more hours? 2) Upper management at our company work 6+ days a week, have sacrificed their family lives for the past 15 years to build the company, … Continue reading Ask the CHO: Fighting the cult of overwork in upper management
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, … Continue reading The cult of overwork (again)
