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Work to Live: The Book |
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> Read Excerpts |
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On Compulsive Task Obsession:
"Productivity Paranoia abducts you from your own life, imprisoning you in a mechanical world of perceived duty and guilt. You can never let up, never relax, because there's always something next on the list clouding the horizon."
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On the Ambiguity of Office Closing Time:
"When can you leave the fort [the office] without seeming like you're in a hurry to do so?..When did you leave yesterday? Did you put in only twenty minutes extra? Or did you fill space for a more respectable hour beyond the call of duty? Was the boss in a good mood? If you go out the door first, you'll be the odd one out, like an introvert in Italy. The tension builds as a Spanish Inquisition of guilt descends upon you. You feel the unmistakable angst of an Office Commandment: 'Thou shalt not be among the first to leave the office.'"
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On Taking All Your Vacation Time:
"The overwork culture promotes gobs of guilt for anyone who would want to take off more than the bare minimum that their consciences should be able to live with... which is a few long weekends and a week at the outside. Besides the guilt, there's fear, fear that taking all of your vacation time at once will mark you as someone who enjoys not working, which could undercut perception of commitment and work ethic. Summon the firing squad."
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On Our Mistaken Identities
"We can't draw the line on the job, because of the taboo against any hint that there might be something wrong with the creed that runs us: Work is the only source of self-worth. We've gotten our identities so wrapped up in the job as the sole provider of esteem that any restraint of hours seems sinful, turning us into blaspheming slackers."
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On the Overwork Bragging Sweepstakes
"One of the tip-offs of low self-image, psychologists tell us, is the need to boost your standing by inflating yourself in front of others. The braggart tries to prop up weak knees by saying his knees are stronger than yours. Of course, what it says is just the opposite--they're wobbling--which should tell us something about a workplace where this defensive behavior is as epidemic as the overtime. It's turned the job for some into a game of Ultimate Zombie, in which competitors vie for bragging rights to the longest hours on the job. "I worked till 10 p.m. last night," Johnny Workaholic will bluster. "I didn't get out of here till midnight," a fellow blowhard will boast. "I did an all-nighter," goes the next bag of wind. And on and on. "I put in 14 hours yesterday," "I came in on Saturday. If it weren't so tragic, it would be high comic action, the idea of competing to have less of a life than the next guy. And shouting it to the world. Yet our work culture is so skewed to excess that hours are worn like notches on the holster to cover the racing insecurity behind the trigger."
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On Bogus Work Guilt
"Unreal guilt is the silent slave driver, pushing you to stay at the office longer, skip vacations, stew over things you said, and push your health and work to the breaking point. So maybe it's not so surprising that guilt is also a major stressor, touching off the same flight-or-fight response as other work triggers and gradually undermining your health. The term 'sick with guilt' is an actual occurrence."
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