
The Cult of Work You Never Meant to Join - jlengstorf
https://medium.com/@jlengstorf/the-cult-of-work-you-never-meant-to-join-cd965fb9ea1a
======
Chinjut
There is a frequent pattern which concerns me of primarily justifying the
desire for reduced work hours in terms of the alleged increase in productivity
this will bring about (by allowing recharging, preventing burnout, etc.).

I worry that this already concedes too much. This allows for just as much
stressful dominance of work over the rest of life, and shame over any
deviation from this script, as maximizes productivity.

Even if my shorter-work-hours productivity doesn't match my longer-work-hours
productivity, I'd still prefer shorter-work-hours, with no guilt over having
those preferences. My goal in life is not to optimize everything I do for
maximum benefit of my employer; I have my own priorities and trade-offs to
worry about.

~~~
jsprogrammer
You can't look at yourself solely as an individual (unless you only depend on
yourself), but have to look at yourself in the larger picture of our
ecosystem. If your 'shorter-work-hours' results in everyone else needing to
put in 'longer-work-hours' to satisfy global needs and/or demands, then there
is an argument that you are a free-rider.

Instead, the totality of 'work-hours' needs to be examined in detail and we
need to think about whether the distribution is 'fair' and how we can reduce
'work-hours' across the board, for all individuals.

~~~
zaccus
Bullshit. Everyone else doesn't "need" to put in longer hours so I can have a
reasonable schedule, and it's in no way my fault if they decide to do that.

I'm not a "free-rider". If my employer isn't satisfied with what I can do in a
40-hour week, then they shouldn't be paying me. I will absolutely not work
60-hour weeks on a regular basis.

If my individual interests clash with those of the "ecosystem", then my
individual interests take precedence. If I don't look out for my work-life
balance and overall happiness, then who will?

~~~
jsprogrammer
You examine yourself in a vacuum. Does your food come free? Does your water?
At the current time, someone must do some work in order for you to remain
living. Some of those people who do that work are not afforded the work-life
balance others are able to achieve.

Can you eat your employer's bank credits?

~~~
c22
Considering the vast majority of humans are doing "work" that doesn't help
anyone get food or water I think this argument is a little specious. Who
defines the necessary attributes of this environment?

~~~
jsprogrammer
I'm not sure that(vast majority)'s accurate. I'd guess many people go to a
food distribution center daily, or at least weekly, to select and transport
food for their family and friends. Many work in the food and beverage service
industry, either serving or preparing food for consumption. Many are employed
by manufactured foods factories. Transport trucks that go from production
sites to distribution and/or manufacturing centers don't drive themselves yet.
There are also those who actually work on raw production.

~~~
abarron
Most of the jobs you're listing here are hourly jobs with 40 hour workweeks;
or they're at least paid overtime.

The salaried workers doing 60-70 hour weeks every week are not doing anything
related to providing food or beverages. They're programmers, advertisers,
sales, lawyers, etc. Not exactly life giving jobs.

I'm sure some Coca Cola, Nabisco, and McDonalds employees work 60+ hour weeks
but they're not serving food, they're maximizing profits for the company.

We could all be well fed and hydrated without a single person working 60+
hours a week.

~~~
jsprogrammer
Hmm, it sounds like you only consider people in the United States, which is
only about 5% of the human population.

------
scottious
It has always bothered me that it's so common for people (including me) to say
something like, "Man I've been working since 7:30 this morning" as a way of
bragging "oh look at me I have such good work ethic, I'm so much better than
people who work less than me."

But what really bothers me about it is that it's so hard to NOT work that much
when other people ARE working that much. Like sometimes I'll come into work in
the morning and there will be pages upon pages of conversation from the night
before on HipChat. I have to now read all that stuff and try to understand the
context or I'll fall behind just because I didn't want to stay up until
midnight working.

I recently took a vacation. Only 4 days. I had a lot of fun but I couldn't
help but feel regret for taking a vacation when I got back and realized how
far behind I was because of how much stuff has moved on in just 4 days.

So am I part of this cult? Yes, absolutely. Luckily for me I'm not super deep
into it: I still go to the gym and play piano. But I know I have a problem
because every time I think about having kids, this resentment wells up inside
of me because I know having a kid will make me less competitive at work. That
can't be healthy... but I'm competitive and I fear getting left behind because
my co-workers might choose NOT to start a family and instead stay up until
midnight working.

~~~
Loughla
I've been there. I'm officially topped out in my career field for the next
20(ish) years because of children. Anyone who moves past my current point
either has no obligations, or have children who are out of the house as adults
already. I made the choice to not let that stuff bother me. I miss out on some
choice assignments. I miss out on some really interesting work. I miss many
late-night brainstorming sessions and conversations with coworkers that are
intellectually and professionally stimulating.

But I also got to take my kid to the circus for the first time last fall, I
took two weeks' vacation this spring to just monkey around with the 2 year old
for a while because the weather was supposed to be nice and trees were
starting to leaf out, and tonight we have a play-date at a local jungle-gym
while I know some of the other individuals at my level will be here until 8 or
9 working on a new center (and big-time resume boost).

As with everything, it's all about identifying and sticking to your
priorities. You'll lose in some aspects professionally, but work isn't
everything.

What did it for me was volunteering at a nursing home. Listen to the folks in
those places. Do they talk about the choice work assignments they had? Do they
talk fondly about the long hours they worked? The money they made? The stuff
they bought?

Nope. They talk about travel, family and friends.

~~~
cousin_it
> _I miss out on some choice assignments. I miss out on some really
> interesting work. I miss many late-night brainstorming sessions and
> conversations with coworkers that are intellectually and professionally
> stimulating._

That's not very nice of them, actually. Have you tried raising the point
(civilly, of course) that it might be more convenient to switch to midday
brainstorming instead of late night? A good employer ought to play to
everyone's strengths.

~~~
sheepmullet
At most companies sitting around and brainstorming etc is not really
considered work. Nobody really minds when you are doing it late at night
though.

------
AndyNemmity
I think the cult of work has a different meaning for me. I've found that work
is the one place where I am respected by many, and appreciated for output and
creativity. Thus, I am drawn towards it to satisfy my own desire to have
worth. I value it more than almost any other activity in my life, and that
causes me to work more often than not, simply because it's the way I can feel
better about myself?

Having a bad day? I can help another team's project and clear tons of their
roadblocks. I now feel successful.

It's less subordination, or the other aspects for me. It's validation of self.
I've spent my entire life working on technology, and I know it better than I
know anything else.

That's where I need to escape. I am in the process of trying to create new
hobbies to gain value in, because even though _I_ don't think there is a
problem with me working constantly, it clearly is a problem to my family and
friends who don't see me as often as they could.

~~~
normloman
If you're looking for places to gain value, your family and friends is a good
place to start.

------
mangeletti
There is an even more interesting, medical story hidden in this article.

Hyperthyroidism is thought to be affected, even caused, in some cases, by an
abundance of stress. Having your beard turn gray and "ultra fine" are
literally direct results of having too much thyroid hormones in your
bloodstream. There aren't other pathologies that would lead to such a symptom,
especially when presented suddenly, and ephemerally.

In other words, this guy might have had a temporary case of hyperthyroidism
that could be directly attributed to a period of high stress.

Disclaimer: This is not medical advice or advice of any kind, and I'm not a
doctor.

~~~
toomuchtodo
> Having your beard turn gray and "ultra fine" are literally direct results of
> having too much thyroid hormones in your bloodstream.

I'd love to see if this is true via a blood test. I'm 32, and my beard has
gone from a dark brown to very much gray in the last 12-18 months due to a
highly stressful life. My brother calls it the "Obama Effect" due to how
quickly Obama's gone grey over the last ~8 years (supposedly due to how
stressful being POTUS is).

~~~
mangeletti
Also note, the graying of your hair or beard isn't necessarily related to
thyroid hormone levels, unless the hairs themselves are also becoming very
fine. Graying, of course, can also be related to stress.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I guess I'll get a blood test and find out :) Could also be something in my
genome, will have to check that tonight on Snpedia.com

------
EvenThisAcronym
> Henry Ford introduced the 40-hour work week in 1914 because he saw — through
> research — that workers on five eight-hour shifts kept up the highest
> sustained levels of productivity.

Why does this ridiculous meme keep popping up? The 40 hour work week was a
long and hard-fought battle, full of blood, tears and sweat. It was an uphill
slog against the most powerful corporations in the world; lavour unions
fighting tooth and nail for every minute of time away from work. It wasn't
some flight of fancy by Henry Ford because it made his workers more
productive, or so they had more time to buy stuff, or whatever other pieces of
false history have been dreamt up.

------
corbinpage
While I don't agree with everything in the article, I did enjoy its hyperbole
and think it touched upon some really good points that are sometimes difficult
to convey. Especially within an organization where the standard groupthink is
hyper-driven and hyper-competitive.

I've observed similar patterns since joining the workforce at a large
consulting shop several years ago. It's one of the reasons I started
freelancing and will always seek to BYOB (Be your own Boss).

~~~
mtbcoder
The problem with freelancing is that you are essentially becoming your own
company and shifting the burden of finding continuous work, as well as
absorbing all the inherent risk of running a business, on to your shoulders.
Given that there are practically zero social safety nets in the US, this is a
large undertaking not to be taken lightly. Simply put, it will add to the
amount of hours you are working per day, not reduce them.

~~~
explosion
Going from working for a company to freelancing has definitely increased my
number of daily work hours.

However, in between contracts I have the ability to take long breaks to work
on my own projects or travel. Overall, the benefits have outweighed the risks
for me, but then again, I'm just one data point.

~~~
mtbcoder
Unfortunately, in this scenario, since a freelancer does not receive paid
vacation time, they suffer 100% of the opportunity costs of missing out on
billable hours as well as lost funding for things like retirement, paying for
healthcare or the rising costs of housing. These are all exceedingly high
costs that they must burden just to take time off. The situation gets even
worse when there are large gaps between contracts. If a freelancer is young,
he/she can absorb this for a while, but eventually it will become
unsustainable and then they are right back to where they started from of
working 40/50/60+ hours a week without vacations.

From my point of view, being a consultant/freelancer/contractor, whatever you
want to call it, isn't a solution to the "Overkill Cult". If anything, it
exacerbates the problem in the long run. What we need (in the US) are cultural
shifts and at minimum basic policy changes such as mandatory
maternity/paternity leave and increased annual leave that matches other
western countries.

------
late2part
It's important to balance work and life. Whether you do it on a daily basis, a
weekly, monthly, or yearly basis, make sure to do it. I worked 70 hour weeks
for the first 10 years, and my health suffered, but then I learned to take
long vacations and enjoy the fruits. I recommend you consider the same.
Similarly, I may not have been able to take these enhanced balanced actions if
I hadn't worked so hard early on. But, i believe it's more about working smart
then hard.

------
ams6110
The patches of beard that stopped growing looks like alopecia areata[1]. It's
an autoimmune condition, and can't find any indication that it's stress-
related. I have it in my beard, it started a couple of years ago for no
apparent reason. (in particular, I was not/am not overstressed at work).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alopecia_areata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alopecia_areata)

~~~
marcocampos
Almost 7 years ago, I started suffering from Alopecia Areata on my head. Also,
my beard hair started to slowly turn grey/white. At that time I was working
about 90h/week. I still suffer from it to this day and it's most active when
I'm stressed about something in my life, more and bigger bald spots than
usual.

Not to say that all cases of the disease are caused by stress, but I've meet a
few people (via my dermatologist at the time) where stress seems to have some
relation to it.

~~~
hkarthik
Wow, I had the exact same thing start happening to me, roughly 7 years ago as
well. And yeah it comes and goes, even to this day. My head hasn't had it in a
few years, but I get it on my beard occasionally. Sometimes clears up within
months, sometimes persists for a year.

At one point a blood test did show a blip in my thyroid levels but not within
the range of a diagnosis for hyperthyroidism.

Periods of stress can definitely induce it. Which is why I'm trying to
exercise a lot more and reduce stress.

------
jrdnmadrid
This is really interesting. When is John Keynes' prediction we'd stop working
because of massive gains in efficiences going to come to fruition?

------
niche
I am always working in the sense that ideas pop into my head at times that I
can apply to my "work"...but I really only work about 20 actual hours a week,
that being said, I am salaried and do not really get paid that much, I work
with cult members but am a marked non member which makes things interesting
and conversely makes me valuable. Try it out!

------
michaelochurch
The "Overkill Cult" is an artifact of a working world built on subordination
rather than progress. When the VP is working till 7:00, the Director better be
there with him and then some (if the VP delegates out the door). In many
companies, this ripples down the chain. It's a very old rule: don't sit when
the king stands, and never appear more relaxed than your boss. To not
participate in shared suffering is taken as rude, even if there's no good
reason for that suffering to exist. Unfortunately, an attempt to remove that
suffering from existence will upstage the VP and end one's career even faster.

The Big Lie is that most people aren't being paid for their intelligence or
creativity or even their "potential", but for their availability. They're
excess capacity. For a variety of social reasons, though, management needs to
come up with 8 hours per day of work for them. Worse yet, there's a fucked-up
incentive structure. Since a manager's job is often to make work, set
meetings, and change what people are working on, you have a culture where
overachievers end up overmanaging and that usually devolves into
micromanagement or some other pathology. If a manager over-does his job, you
don't get an efficient organization: you get monstrosities that look like
Scrum. A good manager over-does his job upfront and very briefly (to remove
standing problems) but then sits back and underworks at the management thing.
His job is to make himself not needed.

Before about 1975, the culture of subordination made sense. It's an age-old
pattern: subordinates do the work, and dominant people "lead" or "manage" or
"order". It's failing us now because computers simply outperform us in all
ways-- availability, cost, reliability, context-agnosticism-- when it comes to
subordinate work. They work 24-hour days and don't give a shit about whether
they're being trained up to something better (like their boss's job). We now
live in an era where there's a strong social pressure to work in a way that
makes one eventually replaceable by a machine or, at least, a person of lower
skill (e.g. a "commodity Java programmer" instead of a hacker magician).

The old industrial regime didn't only require widespread subordination, but it
required layers of educated, intermediate subordinates. They had to be given a
sense of importance (19th century clerks, 20th century middle managers and
"junior executives") but their working lives needed to be mediocre, because
making people into a machine is hard and making a large group of people into a
machine is _so_ hard that it demands hierarchy and it demands an elevated-but-
still-subordinate tier. This need for intermediate subordinates meant that our
(errant?) tendency, in human organizations, to promote people based on their
being good subordinates, rather than creative ability or leadership, didn't
hurt us that much-- not back then. Now it does, because this skill of turning
a mass of people into a machine is far less useful, because actual computing
machines are better machines than we could ever be.

Unfortunately, I don't see this changing, because humans are short-sighted and
too often focused on relative dominance rather than absolute prosperity. It's
like the Chinese finger trap. Technological unemployment and underemployment
are real and the severe mismanagement of the prosperity that technology
generates means that average people (and even computer programmers) have to
fight harder to get the dwindling number of jobs. You don't deliver genuine
progress by "fighting"\-- it takes time and reflection and collaboration-- but
our instinct amid scarcity is to fight each other and the behavior of
competing-to-subordiante (as in a chieftain's harem, or in capital's harem,
also known as the corporation) is quite old as well. You get the macho-
subordinate culture (i.e. a race to the bottom) of Scrum and open plan offices
(violent transparency). It's a losing battle because we're fighting to do
something that we, as humans, are no longer competitive at. Ultimately,
anything that can be done by a ScrumDrone in 2015 will be done by a compiler
or a tool in 2030.

Personally, I would rather accept this and focus on progress instead, but it's
hard to make that statement without drawing the "you just don't want to be a
subordinate" rebuttal (and that's true, I don't) and be painted as "not a team
player". So little progress is made and, from what progress does occur, the
prosperity it generates is badly invested. Thus, we have a world in which
people work harder _and_ more productively, but for a personal take that is
stagnant at best and quite possibly (considering hyperinflation in the Satanic
Trinity of housing, health expenses, and tuition costs) declining.

Long hours persist because, ultimately, the most measurable way to subordinate
is to spend an ungodly amount of time in the office, which is a place where no
one-- _especially_ not the people who enjoy the work and want to be
productive-- really wants to be.

~~~
XJOKOLAT
"never appear more relaxed than your boss."

This is so true and has gotten me into trouble many times.

I'm highly focused, I worry a lot about the downside, I work hard but my calm
exterior and relaxed, aproachable manner has led this type of comment: "You're
a pretty laid back kind of character, aren't you". Meant as a criticism, not
compliment.

I hate it. Not sure what to do about it. Submit to the corporate BS, or
startup on my own with my own rules.

~~~
mhurron
Stop being a slave to looks. I'm as laid back as I can be. I don't panic when
something happens. Yes, I've had management get mad at me for not screaming in
a panic with them, but I don't care.

Of course, I don't care about their profits either or how they look to their
boss. Yes, that makes some management types annoyed that you don't sell your
soul to the company.

Show up, do your job well. If you do you will be calmer. You are just there to
do the job you were hired for. Stop caring so much about anything else.

~~~
maemilius
I think that reflects more poorly on you than you might think. Not because
you're calm and laid back but because you don't care. If you're working a job
that doesn't excite or, at least, interest you, you're not doing anyone any
favors by continuing to work that job.

Do yourself a favor and find something you like to do and a place you like to
do it in.

~~~
mhurron
> I think that reflects more poorly on you

Only if you are interested in climbing the corporate ladder. And I don't care
about that.

Yes I suppose it's bad that I'm not passionate about making money, heaven
forbid.

~~~
bkeroack
You're advocating simply refusing to participate in the game, which may be a
good choice for you personally but probably isn't applicable more broadly. As
an overly-extreme example, imagine if a woman responded to sexual harassment
by refusing to ever get a job again. It may have solved the problem for her,
but it's not good advice to give someone experiencing the same thing.

