What’s up everyone? Good to see you back at it to read another, hopefully interesting and thought provoking article. This one is dedicated to the same people that I have had my eye one from day one. Yes, Americans. Us and our hard-working, no-nonsense attitudes.
Let’s start today off with a story. I heard this story a while ago at a concert by an Irish pub band, along with some awesome music they shared one thing to the audience that both didn’t surprise me and completely left me awestruck all at the same time. The main singer, who is Irish, said that he loved America because we were so hard working which the whole crowd got very excited about. This left me awestruck since I kind of knew but never really believed how many people thought that was such a great thing. Well, the singer stopped the audience by saying that, no, that is not a good thing. Yes, working hard is good but working too hard is very, very bad. So I said to me self, this could be a blog post. I’m going to discuss three reasons why it is both good and bad to work less and vacation more. So, without further delay, I give you "Why You Should Work Less And Vacation More."
Reason one, productivity. Productivity is defined as the quality, state, or fact of being able to generate, create, enhance, or bring forth goods and services according to Dictionary.com. We love productivity here in America and CEOs love it even more than the most patriotic among our masses, but what if I told you that there is a point where the hours worked leads to a decrease in productivity? It’s true, working longer doesn’t lead to more productivity, simply the opposite is true. That can’t be can it? Sadly, once the research is done, it is true. In an article from the Harvard Business Review it highlights how working too much can actually lead to health problems later in life. I found a few info-graphics from The Society Pages depicting exactly this and I would like to share them. One is about the increase in the amount worked since 1990, another about how productivity falls as more hours are worked, and the final one shows that premature death increases based on hours worked.
Reason two, family. Family ties are strained due to overworking. This I can tell my personal story for and I challenge you ask yourself if you relate. First off, let me say that I love my father and I don’t mean this to be me disowning him or something. Back a few years my father retired from the Navy and we were a happy little family and all that good stuff. One thing led to another and we moved and dad secured a job working offshore with R.O.Vs (remote operated vehicles) that aid divers working on oil rigs from below. After a few years we began to grow more and more distant till now in which we barely talk. Among other reasons for this, one of them is work. He is gone almost half of the year working. This has strained ties since, as you can imagine, he is very tired when he gets home from his time working. Sadly, he has not grown apart from me but also my mother a little. Family ties are very strained when working is your life.
Reason three is the health problems that were mentioned in reason one. In an article by CNBC it’s mentioned that there are extreme health risks as a product of overworking. According to the article, a study done by Researchers at the University Of Pennsylvania Perelman School Of Medicine showed that many workers are trading sleep for more hours. The study found that people that claimed to sleep only six hours or less at night tended to work 1.5 hours more. This is concerning since copious amounts of research has been done on why sleep is very important. Other problems span the gamut from irritability to arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome.
These few examples only scratch the surface of the problem and all of its side-effects. Research suggest that overworking is harmful and that nothing really is gained from it. Many countries that have stable economies along with high GDP’s actually work less than most Americans do and take very lengthy vacations. So I challenge you, the reader, track how long you work in a week and then ask yourself, is this too much?
