Long working hours don’t kill you. Misery does, laziness does, bad attitude do, resentment does.
We have entered an era in which we seem determined to convince ourselves that doing less is good.
Four days weeks, people who say ‘thank god it’s Friday’.
Go back to when they opened up retail hours and days, the unions said firstly Saturday was the end of the world and family life, and then when it wasn’t, they said the same thing when we opened up retail on Sunday.
This week’s survey around hours and heart disease is not about hours, it’s about choices. We choose how we live.
There is nothing wrong with working less or part time or indeed not at all if you can afford to, but the danger of the conversation is that work and contribution is now set in a negative light.
It’s not to say we can’t learn and maybe we are, maybe we will settle on some sort of middle ground.
The same way we have learned in this past year that working from home is, one, a hit with many, and, more importantly, you are actually, it seems from studies, more productive.
Going in we thought home was an invitation for slacking, so we learn as we go.
What hopefully we also might learn is that an obsession with hours doesn’t lead you anywhere, because hours and work are not the issue.
Love and work is. Love what you do, the hours are irrelevant.
If the challenge is there, if the progress is there, hours don’t count.
It’s why the entrepreneur works for themselves: not because it’s not a risk, not because it isn’t hard, because it’s yours and it’s a dream, and that’s what drives us and inspires us, and as far as I can work out, it’s what keeps us alive.
We all need a series of multiple purposes: someone to love, someone to love us, family, community and work, some sort of tangible challenging contribution to make.
Too many make the mistake and see work as a means to an end, as money to pay the bills. See if that way, then the hours kill you, because your attitude is all wrong.
Measure joy and fun, and challenge and results, instead of hours, you’ll get a way better insight into the future of work.
And if the work isn’t fun, don’t do it, it’ll kill you, one way or another.
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