Workaholics Anonymous

Image source: http://bit.ly/2ZAGiQ0

I have heard a lot of people talking about the virtues of “hard work” wherein sacrificing everything else in life is considered normal and almost always, expected. In my limited experience, I have learnt that nothing can be further from the truth. While I have never shied away from responsibility, I have generally ignored such “well meaning advice”. Recently, I came across two posts that brought this thought to the fore again.


The glorification of a sixty or eighty hour work week or similar nonsense is the clarion call of those who are terrible at managing their work or are generally clueless about what their priorities in life or work are or believe that employees should be available at their beck and call or worse, plain exploitative.


I have personally suffered at the hands of those who loved to schedule team meetings on holidays or wanted to have a discussion after six in the evening or regularly set unrealistic deadlines to ensure that they “extracted the most value” for the salary paid. Those relationships weren’t particularly long or healthy.


I learnt early on that the number of hours put in is not directly proportional to quality and productivity. It is quite the opposite. Creative energy flows neither from a sleep deprived brain nor from an unhappy soul. In a world where we are trained to slog away our lives, it is a difficult truth to accept. Sporadic work exigencies aside, there is just no logical reason that one may need to work long hours regularly.

When people have limited, regular work hours, they focus better. They make smart choices. They have a sense of purpose. They appreciate the fact that the organisation respects their personal life and space. On the other hand, once they get in to the state of mind where they know that they will be sitting in office endlessly, they get distracted and lose focus. It is detrimental to them and to the organisation.

“We don't burn out people. We give people space. We love real teams with real friendship forming. We understand the power of individual potential and proximity. Even our floor plan is designed to give small teams a pod all to themselves.”
Tobi Lutke (http://bit.ly/2tUzxMS)

Related thread by @DHH (http://bit.ly/2sv22R4)

In fact, if you ask me, such a lifestyle can only lead to mediocrity because you slowly become part of the mindless rats who live weekend to weekend, splurging on materialistic objects in the hope for finding a sense of fulfilment, fuelled by the constant advertisements stoking their insecurities and FOMO, urging them to try the next “big thing”.

People will disagree and I believe that it is perfectly alright. Different things work for different people. In the end, choose your path wisely and remember, it is never too late to change direction. As one grows older, one is able to discern the value of the limited time one has. Use it wisely because when the time is up, the last thing you will regret is not having worked hard enough. Your career is important yet it's not the all-consuming aspect of life that it is professed to be.