you work too much.
wednesday, july 5th. 11:14 a.m.
i'm sitting at victor allen's coffee shop, catching up on e-mails and reading blogs. i've been here for a little over 2 hours, drinking coffee and picking at my almond croissant. i love having no where to be.
i sent an email to an old coworker this morning, and she wrote back, saying, "Your note made me think of all the great letters I used to get from Steve when he was still living in California. He'd hang out at coffee shops after work and send me letters on the back of flyers that were posted on the walls. They were wonderful! Full of the thoughts from someone who has time to think. As opposed to those working too many hours a day. There was a piece on NPR this morning about how 1/4 vacationers were bringing work with them. The columnist was bemoaning our sorry set of values that don't recognize down time appropriately. And how having outside interests actually improves productivity. I agree."
Do you know how nice it is not to be thinking about work right now? I mean, the truth is, I do want a job that I enjoy. I want to work hard and earn a living. But, I want my sanity. I want to enjoy life in its fullness. And being chained to a desk for 8 hours a day seems wrong. How can I be productive when I'm running behind on doing my laundry, can't catch up with my parents, can't find time to make a grocery list and so just have to buy whatever quick meals I can so I eat something at all? This is not right.
There is too much information out there for Americans to continue believing we need to work this much. An article called "Work Week and Vacation Variances" points out that when the European work week fell from 40 to 35 hours per week, there was no loss in productivity. Moreover, all 15 nations in the European mandate that emplooyees be given a minimum of 4 weeks paid vacation per year. A minimum!
He notes that Americans and Canadians work more hours than anyone else, with Japan coming in second - but even then, Japanese law requires that employees be given a minimum of 25 days paid vacation.
There are so many stats to look at, but a good place to start is with The Simple Living Network. They argue that in any given year by October 24th, Americans and Canadians have worked the same amount of hours that Europeans will work all year. There should be a real focus on taking back your time.
Seriously, not working and knowing I don't have to be back at any office for weeks feels really good. I feel like my mind has been unchained. And I can think again! No one should go through life without a chance to think. That is just plain wrong. So I need to be prayerful about finding a job now. I think i'll say a prayer for all of us, and for our government, that we all learn how to reprioritize and choose LIFE and FREEDOM over obsession with work and overtime.
And if you haven't done it already, go take a vacation. You deserve it.
posted by Mary @ 9:18 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
This is really interesting, because I had a job that I more or less enjoyed (other than the extreme stress at times) but it was suited to me in many other ways.
However, I felt like I never had enough time to do laundry, think, cook, all those things you mentioned. Now, working just 40 hours a week and spending almost all of it at a desk with a phone almost feels like a vacation. I feel like I have so much more time to do everything else I want to do.
Not to say that people shouldn't have more vacation, and 35 hours a week would probably not lower my productivity in my job, since I waste away at least an hour a day with nothing productive to do..
I it's all about perspective.
Maria, I agree in saying that our country could use a paradigm shift. Rest. I want/We need to know how to and to practice rest. Work is great. Rest is too. Let's do both!
I was talking to Fermin about your job search (or pending search) the other night and I mentioned some of the things you had posted here about the 35 hour work week and how we work more hours than other countries..
He actually laughed out loud. I mean, Europeans clearly have a good system worked out, and although I don't know the statistics for Mexico, or Latin America or Asia or Africa for that matter, I would bet that the majority of people on these continents (minus the very rich perhaps) work far more than we do, and not only work more, but work harder, and don't have time to spend thinking, pondering life, etc, because they are just surviving.
I know I am being a bit of a downer, but interacting with immigrants has made me realize how privileged we are as so-called jet-setters to even have the resources and time to do anything but work to provide for one's family, eat, sleep, survive, etc.
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