Working too Hard

What is it with the American obsession with work? Why is it that we feel we need to work night and day to have some sense of self-worth?

Look at this comparison with other countries:

Average annual vacation days per year:

Italy 42
Brazil 34
So. Korea 25
France 37
Britain 28
Japan 25
Germany 35
Canada 26
USA 13

Interestingly enough, not only do Americans have the least number of vacation days per year in the developed world, many Americans do not even use the time that is allotted them.

The other day I was working late because of a project that needed to be completed. Normally I do not enjoy taking overtime; I'd much rather be spending my time at home with various other activities which make me much happier, but this was necessary on this day. While there I noticed this one woman who happened to be staying at her desk fighting with a spreadsheet. In an attempt to be friendly, I engaged her in conversation...

"I hope you're remembering to log the overtime," I said, her best interests in mind.

"Oh, I promised the client that I would take care of this, so no," she said with a forced "sweet" smile.

It was as if she felt she was being a "better person" by working late. She also was not intending on telling the client. She has no personal relationship to this client. She just felt that giving up her freedom for several hours was the right thing to do, regardless of the fact that the client is in business and would very likely charge any of their clients for extra time spent.

Yes, she is a nice person, but to me this is ridiculous. There was no benefit for her in staying late without charging for the time; she would not get a promotion, raise, or anything of the sort for this type of behavior. She just felt that she was being nice, regardless of the fact that none of it would be appreciated. Also, this meant that she was keeping her family waiting for her at home.

Why do people do this? Is it masochism? Is it lack of imagination? Is it fear of the empty void that stares at us when we have a gap in our activies?

Even on our days off, most people seem to need to be doing something very much like work; working on their lawns, painting their houses, rearranging their furniture, building a new garage, re-siding the dog...

This is not healthy. It is likely to shorten our lives... it increases the chances of various serious health problems, from ulcers, to heart attacks to strokes. Americans are not alone in this. The Japanese (who incidentally take a good deal more vacation time than we do... see above chart). Have a word... Karoshi, which means "death from overwork."

We obsess over money, forgetting what it is for in the first place. We try to find higher paying jobs, that take up more of our time, and reduce the quality of life. We keep striving for some unacheivable ideal of success. In fact, if pressed, most people probably could not come up with a clear definition of what "success" actually is... we wouldn't know it if we got there. There would always be some new task that must be accomplished.

It seems to me (just my opinion, but many might agree) that maybe we ought to take advantage of the short time we actually have and try to find things we actually like doing... but I dont have time as I need to get back to work now.