By Editorial Staff
Overworked, overstressed, and underappreciated—these are the cries of employees who feel trapped in a never-ending cycle of labor, often sacrificing their weekends, personal lives, and even sleep to meet the relentless demands of their jobs. At Life In Humanity, we’ve heard from workers who are so consumed by their roles that even in their sleep, some of them dream of performing their tasks. The crisis is likely to have even become a pandemic since you can scarcely find any nation where this crisis is not widely raised. This reality certainly reflects a broader crisis in the global workforce: according to the LinkedIn Workforce Confidence Index and Microsoft, 46% of employees want to quit their jobs in 2024, up from 40% during the Great Resignation in 2021. Among those looking to leave, 51% cite burnout as their primary reason.
It is inconceivable to see job-holding people crying under the weight of overwork, while unemployed individuals cry for the chance to experience that very pressure. Besides, it’s not just subordinate employees feeling the strain, but also executives. A record number of American chief executive officers (CEOs) resigned in 2023, and CEO turnover spiked again in early 2024, with burnout frequently mentioned as a top reason for vacating their jobs. The pre-pandemic era of glorifying overwork is quickly losing its grip on both leaders and workers who are now seeking alternative ways to thrive without the grinding toil. However, souls that have played a gigantic role in transforming the world are workaholics—those who don’t fear to work to even 14 or more hours a day. How to reconcile the two opposing realities? That is a question that this article seeks to address in addition to:
- Experts on the point that ‘always-on work’ is devastating
- Bloomberg attacking this claim
The questions “How to reconcile the two opposing realities?” “What enables people to be workaholics in a healthy way? Is burnout due to working in a sector incompatible with your talents and a discouraging environment?” will get the answers in the second part of this article to be published in the next edition.
Before diving into details to address the questions to be addressed in this part, Life In Humanity is going to come back to LinkedIn and Microsoft Survey. It involved over 30,000 individuals across 31 countries between February and March 2024. It highlights that 59% of U.S. job seekers feel stuck in their current positions and that 51% are burned out by their jobs. It shows that globally, 68% struggle with the pace and volume of work, and that 46% feel burned out.
CNBC in its May 8 2024 story “Nearly 50% of people are considering leaving their jobs in 2024—more than during the ‘great resignation’” about the survey, it reported “In 2022, at the height of the ‘great resignation,’ a record 4.5 million workers each month — about 3% of the U.S. workforce — were quitting their jobs. New research from Microsoft and LinkedIn forecasts that even more people plan to leave their jobs in 2024.”
Another different survey shows that the situation stands extremely worse in the U.S. A staggering number of U.S. professionals is considering a new job while job application surge has been noticed, indicating a highly competitive job market. CNBC reported “In the U.S., LinkedIn has seen a 14% increase in job applications per opening since last fall, with 85% of workers saying they plan to look for a new role in 2024, a survey of 1,013 U.S. professionals conducted between November and December 2023 found.”
Nonetheless, it is not only burnout which is causing workers to decide to withdraw from their positions. CNBC said that inflation was also pushing some of the US workers to seek new jobs. “It’s not just better labor market conditions driving more U.S. workers to consider a career change in 2024. Inflation is still squeezing Americans’ budgets; nearly half (45%) of workers planning to switch jobs this year say they need a higher income, according to Monster’s 2024 Work Watch Report. Job switchers tend to increase their salaries more quickly than those who stay put, per data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.”
However most of workers who left their posts in the Great Resignation harbor regret that they chose a wrong decision. Citing ZipRecruiter chief economist Julia Pollak, CNBC stated that more people could be planning to quit their jobs in 2024 because of dissatisfaction over jobs they accepted during the Great Resignation. “Between 2020 and 2022, people fled industries like personal care services and fitness for jobs in transportation and technology that were hiring thousands of new employees and offering better pay. But those new jobs haven’t always resulted in a lifestyle upgrade as many had hoped.
About 80% of those who quit their jobs during the great resignation regretted their decision to leave, particularly Gen Zers who miss working in an office environment and Gen Xers who miss the work-life balance from their previous jobs, a 2023 survey of 825 employees from HR and payroll solutions provider Paychex found. ”
While those intend to move from their current jobs to other ones deemed better, there are other employees resolved to establish their own businesses. Forbes with its 22 May 2024 story “After Burnout, Professionals Find Ways To Earn Without Overworking” says “Leaders and workers alike are less willing to uphold the pre-pandemic paradigm of overworking at all costs. They are finding new ways to make a living without the grind.”
It continues, narrating how Aundrea Cline-Thomas comprehending her value has assisted her to forsake overworking tendencies that led to burnout. “The former news anchor found herself exhausted after climbing the local television news ladder for two decades. Hard-working and high-achieving, she says she played the game to get ahead at work but eventually hit a wall. There were no opportunities to move where she wanted to go.”
She has said “I did the things that they said that the books say to do. You have conversations about maybe other opportunities within the company. They wanted me to stay and offered me another opportunity, but again, it just did not align with who I wanted to be. I had so much more potential than the opportunities would allow me to tap into.”
Forbes adds that after twenty years, she quit the television news field, yet that she initially became worried, “but her desire to work a different way overrode her fear. She left her job and started Mountain Court Media, a storytelling and media production business. Now instead of sharing stories television news, she shares stories through her podcast or as an event moderator. She says she’s loving this new way of working.”
She says “Sometimes you have to tell yourself who you are. I have two degrees. I am an Emmy award-winning journalist. That counts for something. I just have to find where that counts.”
Experts on the point that ‘always-on work’ is devastating
Several experts argue that the modern “always-on work” culture is harmful. It is emphasized in books like “Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business—and How to Fix It” by Malissa Clark of the University of Georgia, “The Overworked American” by Juliet Schor, “Sleeping with Your Smartphone” by Leslie Perlow, the “Meritocracy Trap” by Daniel Markovits.
For instance, in Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business—and How to Fix It, Clark examines the adverse effects of the always-on work culture on employees and organizations. Clark discusses how the expectation of constant availability, fueled by digital technology, contributes to employee burnout, reduced productivity, and deteriorated work-life balance.
Amazon constitutes a multinational technology company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 as an online bookstore but has since expanded into a diverse range of sectors. This company offers this book. Its abstract bears the date: February 6, 2024. Nevertheless, Life In Humanity has been unable to determine whether the date indicates the time when the book was received by the company or published.
The abstract of the book on Amazon reads “The always-on, hustle culture creates an unhealthy, counterproductive relationship with work. Many workers believe that to compete with other top talent, they must embrace a culture that rewards long hours and a constant connection to work.
Businesses and society endorse busyness, overwork, and extreme commitment as the most valued traits in workers. Sometimes that endorsement is explicit, as when Elon Musk told X/Twitter employees to work ‘long hours at high intensity’ or get fired. More often it’s an implicit contract, a buildup of organizational and cultural norms and the adoption of new technologies that make it easy to tether people to work.”
Technologies like smartphones, tablets, and laptops enable employees to stay connected to their work from virtually anywhere. Tools like email, messaging apps, and collaboration platforms keep it easy for employees to respond to work-related tasks and communications outside of regular office hours. Cloud-based services and virtual private networks permit employees to access work documents and systems remotely. This means that work can continue beyond the physical office, often blurring the lines between work and personal time. We can’t overlook the devices which are used to record the time when employees arrive and leave the office, helping to manage attendance and track working hours. All those are modern technologies which can render it easy for organizations to bind their employees to work.
The book highlights that this culture can lead to serious consequences for mental health and organizational efficiency. Clark uses research and case studies to illustrate how the pervasive demand for 24/7 connectivity erodes boundaries between work and personal life, resulting in diminished job satisfaction and increased stress. “Either way, this workaholic behavior is unhealthy and counterproductive for workers and for organizations. It’s time to fight back. Malissa Clark—a preeminent researcher on the culture of overwork—shows you how in Never Not Working. Clark examines overwork and burnout, not just from the individual’s perspective but from an organizational perspective too.
She delivers a comprehensive, nuanced definition of workaholism, busting myths along the way—working long hours, it turns out, doesn’t automatically make you a workaholic. She also helps you assess whether you’re falling prey to the phenomenon and whether you’re creating workaholics in your organization,” points out the abstract.
To counteract these negative impacts, Clark suggests actionable strategies for organizations, including establishing clear boundaries for work hours, encouraging regular breaks, and promoting flexible work arrangements. By adopting these measures, businesses can improve employee well-being, enhance productivity, and foster a more sustainable work environment. The book provides a roadmap for leaders to address the challenges of the always-on culture and create a healthier, more balanced workplace.
The abstract says “Clark shows you how to escape the trap of putting work at the center of everything and thus losing your well-being—or your company’s performance—in the process. Deeply researched and written for everyone from leaders to individual contributors, Never Not Working is the essential guide to identifying workaholism in yourself and others and starting on the road to recovery.”
Bloomberg attacking this claim or philosophy advanced by the authors
Bloomberg constitutes a global media conglomerate and provider of financial news and information, research, and financial data. In its March 13, 2024 article entitled “The epidemic of overwork is a dangerous illusion” and written by Adrian Wooldridge, it highlights the growing concern over workplace overwork and its consequences. Wooldridge, former writer at the Economist and author of “The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World” is Bloomberg Opinion’s global business columnist.
Bloomberg through Wooldridge says “Starting with the European Union’s 48-hour work directive in 2003, the majority of countries have introduced a maximum working time of 48 hours a week, and half have introduced a maximum of 40 hours. France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Ireland have all introduced ‘right to disconnect’ laws specifying hours when staff are not required to deal with emails. The global movement to shift to a four-day working week is gaining momentum.”
“Many young Chinese people are so worried about their country’s 996 work culture (9 to 9 six days a week) that they have started a ‘lying flat’ movement, or ‘tang ping’ in Chinese. ‘We employees are too tired. We have to lie down’.”
Wooldridge argues that in some nations people instead spend very few hours on work. “The best economic data show that, on average, people are working fewer hours than ever.” He specifies that working hours have dropped the most in countries with higher GDPs because “it takes fewer hours of work to earn a comfortable living. Housework is also much more efficient thanks to technology that now includes self-running vacuum cleaners and even lawnmowers. Most people have about 40 hours of free time a week.”
“The striking change is in the distribution of work rather than in the overall amount. A Harvard Business Review survey of ‘extreme jobs’ in 2006 found that 62% of high earners work more than 50 hours a week, 35% work more than 60 hours and 10% work more than 80 hours, and there is little reason to think that life has got easier since then. Young investment bankers frequently work 80-120 hours a week (a standard joke is that the banker’s 9-to-5 stretches from 9 a.m. to 5 a.m. the next morning).”
Wooldridge asks himself whether the writers of the books are right in their claims. “But are the likes of Malissa Clark right that we collectively put in too many hours? And is hard work really such a bad thing? The answers to both these questions are much more interesting.
Nor are extreme working hours necessarily a problem. Elon Musk is right to argue that ‘you can’t change the world on 40 hours a week.’ Extreme success usually requires extreme effort. Musk himself worked for 120 hours a week when he was building Tesla and often slept in the office. No detail was too small for him to obsess over.”
He gives two other examples of people who were workaholics, enabling them to reach where they arrived. “Honoré de Balzac regularly wrote from midnight until 8 a.m., fueled by innumerable cups of coffee, and once claimed to have worked for 48 hours in a row.
As prime minister, Margaret Thatcher got up at 5 a.m. every morning, took a brief break to cook breakfast for her husband and children, and then worked for the rest of the day. The 1980s would have been different without her relentless drive and formidable grasp of detail.”
Wooldridge instead warns that today’s people carry a key reason, to work harder. He says that today’s knowledge-workers must work harder than their predecessors, for the simple reason that there exists so much more knowledge to absorb. “Young professors have to read more papers (the average age of Nobel Prize winners is rising and so is the size of teams involved in doing the research).
Young lawyers must absorb more case law. Young bankers must command more recondite techniques. It is possible that AI will eventually reduce the pressure on knowledge workers, but so far, technological advances have had the opposite effect, increasing the tempo and complexity of transactions.”
In the next article, Life In Humanity will also critically analyze Wooldridge’s point.