Are you part of the “achievement society”?
This is a term coined by Korean-German philosopher Han Byung-chol in his book. Burnout Association, In this exploration of contemporary capitalist culture, being part of an achievement society manifests as an internal pressure to achieve more, do more, achieve more, and do more.
The idea of ”work hard, play hard” has been part of the American psyche for centuries. From anecdotal evidence of the pursuit of the American Dream to the very real fact that paid vacation is not mandated by law and is left entirely to the employer’s discretion, American workers spend more time at work than their European counterparts.
2023 Report International Labour Organization (ILO) The survey found that 13.3% of Americans work more than 48 hours a week, compared to 7.9% in Europe.
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However, the report also highlighted how the COVID-19 lockdown and the resulting shift to remote working as the norm has enhanced work-life balance by eliminating long working hours and gruelling commutes.
All work and no play?
But where do we stand four years after this dramatic change?
From mandatory RTOs to mass layoffs to fears of an economic downturn (the technology sector in particular has seen 525,000 layoffs since the start of 2022), the pendulum of power seems to be swinging back in favor of employers. Workers are once again working long hours to keep up.
An extreme example is the so-called “996” culture, where workers are expected to work six days a week from 9am to 9pm.
Long work hours, which stem from China’s tech culture, are supported by CEOs such as Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Tesla founder Elon Musk, the latter of whom is notorious for Declare X “Nobody changed the world in 40 hours a week”
For Musk, the magic world-changing number is 80 hours a week, because “pain levels increase exponentially after 80 hours,” but what are the physical and mental effects of such extreme work?
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by who Musk’s 80-hour workday hypothesis could be deadly: Long working hours were responsible for 745,000 deaths from stroke and ischemic heart disease in 2016, a 29% increase since 2000, according to the World Health Organization.
Of these deaths, 72 percent were men, and most of the deaths were in people aged 60 to 79 who were between the ages of 45 and 74 and worked more than 55 hours a week.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed the way many people work,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of the survey results.
“Teleworking has become the norm in many industries, blurring the boundaries between home and work. Moreover, many companies have been forced to scale back or suspend operations to save costs, and those who are still receiving a salary are being forced to work long hours. No job is worth the risk of stroke or heart disease. Governments, employers and workers need to work together to agree on restrictions to protect workers’ health.”
“Working more than 55 hours a week has serious health risks,” added Dr Maria Neira, head of the World Health Organization’s Environment, Climate Change and Health division. “It is time for all of us – governments, employers and employees – to wake up to the fact that long working hours can lead to premature death.”
Looking to the future
Gen Z’s opting to “quietly quit” and “lazy work” — completing work during regular hours and not working overtime or on weekends — may have initially been dismissed by older generations (especially millennials, who cemented the concept of side hustles into modern workplace jargon), but it looks like they’re onto something.
In addition to worrying about the health effects, Further research Working excessively long hours (over 50 hours a week) has been shown to have a negative impact on productivity and therefore the bottom line.
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