The culture of processing is flourishing; we view overtime and constant fatigue as indicators of success. Why do we buy into it, despite everything we know about burnout?
In 1987, the unscrupulous Gordon Gekko from Wall Street told the world that greed is good. The picture shows the tycoons obsessed with work and wealth, working overtime in tall skyscrapers to close deals and increase their earnings, sweeping everyone out of their way. The message of the film is clear - if you live and breathe work (and also have enough moral flexibility), then your reward will be amazing and impressive.
While many of us associate overly ambitious workaholism with the 1980s and the financial world, the trend towards dedication to work and the idealization of overtime culture remains equally persistent. In fact, under a slightly different guise, it is now infiltrating other sectors and professions.
New research shows that workers around the world spend an average of 9.2 hours per week on unpaid overtime, up from just 7.3 hours just a year ago . There are posters on the walls of the coworking spaces urging us to "work hard" or "be energetic . " Billionaire tech entrepreneurs say it's worth sacrificing sleep so people can "change the world." And after the outbreak of the pandemic, working weeks became longer ; we send emails and messages to Slack at night because the lines between our personal and professional have become blurred.
Spiritually we are not that far from the days of Gecko. But something is different: we now know a lot more about the effects of overwork and the damage burnout can do to our mental and physical health . Given how ingrained our love for the culture of work under high stress is ingrained in us, cultural change is required to combat our obsession with overwork. Will the world after the pandemic give us a chance for this?
When and why did it happen
Recycling is not just a phenomenon in Silicon Valley or Wall Street. People work outside of hours all over the world, and they have different reasons for doing so.
In Japan, a recycling culture emerged in the 1950s, when the government made tremendous efforts to ensure that the country quickly recovered from World War II. In the Arab League countries , the burnout rate is high among healthcare workers; the researchers suggest that the likely reason for this is that the League's 22 members are developing countries with congested health systems.
Reasons for overtime depend on the industry as well. The first burnout researchers suggestedin the 1970s, that many people whose job it was to help others, such as those working in clinics or crisis centers, tended to work overtime, leading to emotional and physical exhaustion. The same trend was found during the pandemic .
But many of us recycle because, for some reason, we find it delightful - reworking as a status symbol that guides us on a path to success, whether it's wealth or an Instagram post showing that we are living a wonderful life and have a dream job. The romanticization of work is especially common among "knowledge workers" in the middle and upper strata of society. In 2014, New Yorker magazine called this commitment to recycling"Cult".
“We celebrate this lifestyle: you breathe, you sleep with someone, you wake up and work all day, and then you go to bed,” says Anat Lechner, clinical associate professor of management at New York University. "Over and over and over again."
The phrase "Money Never Sleeps" became one of the messages of the 1987 film "Wall Street", and many think that the energy of workaholism became a symbol of the 1980s as a decade, and is prevalent to this day.
Origin story
Where did our penchant for overworking praise come from? Why is it widely believed in wealthy Western countries, such as the UK and the US, to brag about work to the point of fatigue?
This phenomenon has its roots in the "Protestant work ethic" of the 16th century. It is a vision of the world, created by the white Protestants of Europe, in which hard work and the pursuit of profit have become a virtue. Professor Sally Maitlis, who teaches Organizational Behavior and Leadership at Oxford University, says that "later on, the drive for efficiency that grew out of the Industrial Revolution further reinforced in us the value of constant hard work, often at the cost of personal well-being."
Now fast forward to the yuppie era, when Thatcher and Reagan were at the helm, and the trend was to work overtime in the office to support your mobile lifestyle and consumerism . After that, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, workaholics took off their blazers and put on hoodies, because at this time tech startups began to turn into giants like Google and Facebook, and the center of influence moved to Silicon Valley.
Society began to celebrate entrepreneurs who said they wanted to change the world and how they structure their (very long) hours to achieve maximum excellence. Maitlis emphasizes that the power of motivation has shifted from the Gordon Gekkos to the Mark Zuckerberg of our world; the latter declare that they are inspired by "a love for a product or service, or a desire for a higher goal." (The irony is that thanks in large part to these new technologies, there is a problem of recycle and burnout that we have to contend with today.)
Many people these days work overtime to pay off loans, just to keep their jobs, or to take the next step up the career ladder (and in many cases, companies expect employees to work overtime and stay connected). But for those who embrace the culture of recycling, there is also the ostentatious element: a new car to boast of, a “dream career” where you do something meaningful, or simply fatigue that can be displayed as some strange trophy.
In past centuries, “people fought in duels and received scars on them, which became a kind of token of honor: you fought and won,” says Christina Maslah, an emerit professor of psychology at the University of California. "Today we boast that we are not sleeping."
The fast path to burnout
Along with the worship of work comes its unpleasant consequence - burnout. “Burnout has cycles - it shows up, then fades, then shows up again,” says Maslakh, who has studied burnout since the 1970s.
At the time, burnout was being studied with volunteers at drug rehabilitation clinics and other social workers. Many of them could be called to work at night: they reported headaches, depression and irritability. A decade later, with economies booming in countries like the United States and Britain, the fixation on capitalism was maximized and people worked long and hard. Overtime was appreciated, but burnout was an unpleasant consequence.
Burnout is defined by the World Health Organization as a syndrome “arising from chronic stress in the workplace and not receiving adequate treatment,” characterized by feelings of exhaustion, negative attitudes toward work, and decreased professional performance. In other words, because of him, a person feels dehumanized, physically and emotionally exhausted, begins to wonder why he chose this job at all. In 2019, the organization recognized burnout as a "professional phenomenon."
“Hell has opened up today,” says Lechner. Several decades ago, "the prevalence of this phenomenon could not be compared with what we have now." While the culture of burnout has largely “come from Wall Street,” it has intensified today because we put technology entrepreneurs on a pedestal who barely sleep. (CEO Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk wrote in a tweet in 2018 that "there are companies in which it is easier to work, but no one has changed the world, working 40 hours a week.")
“The old division for day and evening, the principle 'we work until five, and then we go to a bar and go to bed at ten', remained in the 20th century. The 21st century is completely different, ”says Lechner. “We live in a 24/7 culture. Social networks work 24/7, communication takes place 24/7, Amazon Prime works 24/7, everything is 24/7. We no longer have these fixed boundaries. "
Praise for rework has been around for decades, whether it's celebrating prestigious jobs in luxurious offices or working hard to make your dreams come true.
Future
Despite the fact that we are working harder than ever before, and young workers face a potentially toxic combination of increased financial pressures ( student loans , lower wages and higher housing costs ), the desire to find a "life business" and the desire to find stable jobs in an increasingly unstable labor market , there are practically no signs of a change in the situation.
A poll was published in March 13 analysts in their first year at Goldman Sachs. The respondents reported that on average they work 95 hours a week and sleep five hours. “This is already far beyond the boundaries of 'hard work', this is a real inhuman attitude and abuse,” said one of the respondents. On TikTok , Gen Z users openly talk about mental health issues and create communities to discuss depression, panic attacks, and burnout.
In addition, the pandemic has made us look at work-life balance in a completely different way . In April, LinkedIn conducted a surveymore than five thousand users: 50% and 45% reported that since the beginning of the pandemic, flexibility of working hours / place of work and work-life balance have become more important for them, respectively.
“The pandemic not only brought the most important things - health, family, relationships - to the forefront , but also destroyed some of the procedures and systems that prevented people from getting out of the vicious circle,” says Maitlis.
Some companies have responded by offering better mental health programs for employees, including such benefits.like free psychotherapy sessions or free access to apps to support healthy lifestyles. Nevertheless, experts believe that we are unlikely to enter a new era that prioritizes well-being over processing.
For example, while technology has made unrestricted work from home possible, it is simultaneously trying to tie us to it all day. If employees from London, Tokyo, New York and Dubai have to participate in the video call, then some people will have to wake up at two in the morning. And if they don't want to, then the company will find someone to agree to it, because as long as we continue to praise money, status and achievements, there will always be people willing to work hard to get it.
Ultimately, companies want to make money. “We have dehumanized the workplace for a long time, and I say this without the slightest pride,” says Lechner. In many companies, the principle remains the same: “If you don’t work, then someone else will come and do your job. And if this does not help, then we will shift this work to AI. And if the AI ​​fails, we will hire temporary employees. " Work overtime or leave.
That is why Anat Lechner does not believe that the problem of burnout will be solved in the foreseeable future. “People don't like to hear this message. They think they enter into a relationship with the employer according to the principle "I work hard, you take care of me." But, again, this attitude remained in the 20th century. "
We're at a crossroads: prioritizing our well-being, or sending a letter at three in the morning to impress our boss. The ability to work from home so far eases that burden - workers need to realize that their goal should be to end burnout, and companies need to stop making workers feel obligated to overwork.
“Workplaces can be very unhealthy spaces, and today is the right time to change the way we work,” Maslach says. "If you take a plant, plant it in a pot, don't water it, fertilize it, and don't give it enough sun, then no matter how beautiful it was, it won't bloom."
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