Image from TED ideas: How working less could solve all our problems. Really.
For the last few weeks I have been really bothered by the direction in which my life is going. By chance, I happened to be one of the lucky babies that made it to a loving family where I would be sent to kindergarden, primary school, high school and then university to start my journey to “success”. What I find disturbing is the conception of success. Even though my parents constantly remind me to “do what makes you happy” and that “money doesn't matter as long as you’re happy”, it’s undeniable that success is commonly associated with someone, if they have the capacity and opportunity, who graduates and lands a stable job. It feels as though there’s been a path paved out for me, that includes having a job, where I’m expected to work long hours if I’m doing it right.
As I approach the end of my studies, I’ve been looking into companies and potential career paths more frequently and extensively and have come to a realisation that often a better job with better pay comes with more hours and responsibility. Studies have shown that people, regardless their current income, have the tendency to always believe that more is better, often believing that if they had a slightly higher income they would be happier and thus satisfied. This may lead to people wanting to work more and harder, constantly moving forward and upwards. I have to say, I feel an extreme amount of pressure in the form of excelling academically, in extra curricular activities and still maintaining a balance that includes having a social life and doing sports. Last year, I nearly suffered from a burn-out due to the extensive amount of activities I was involved in. To clarify, I voluntarily decided to participate in all the activities and may have gone a bit overboard, I do only undertake activities in which I am genuinely interested and enjoy. Thus, the problem also might lie in the fact that there are so many fun things to do and that I can’t make a decision.
Why are we working so much?
Shorter workweeks could help reduce accidents, combat climate change, make the genders more equal, and more, contends historian and author Rutger Bregman
To get to the point, the article: “How working less could solve all our problems”, perfectly addresses some of the problems I’m having. At the moment, if I want to have a nice job and do it well, I’m probably expected to work at least 40 hours a week and the more I work the more I will get done and the faster I can move forward. Regardless all the emphasis companies place on work-life balance when advertising their companies, I must say that I’m not quite convinced. Imagine a world where a work week was only 15 hours, how much time would you have to spend with friends, pursuing a hobby you never had time for, learning to cook properly or even learn a new language. Not only that, the article provides an interesting perspective that it could also be a solution to unemployment, inequality as well as climate change.
With all the recent babble about sustainability, climate change and pollution it’s interesting to consider these issues from a new perspective, namely by looking at the causes. Most of the focus is on encouraging businesses and the industry to shift to circular, sustainable models and for consumers to purchase consciously and push businesses into the newer models. Nonetheless, what about taking it one step further by looking at the origin of consumer behaviour where “consuming less starts with working less”, such that working less could actually reduce our ecological footprint.
Another final aspect that I can’t seem to make sense of is that there is such a high demand for educated people, yet there are also high levels of unemployment and lack of access to (quality) education. The article suggests that working less hours in a week could increase productivity and decrease errors, while simultaneously reducing unemployment and inequality. There’s another book, “The Four Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss which may be a bit extreme, but one of the interesting notions is that it forces you to delegate your time very selectively.
Of course, the situation is much more complicated than it looks and I’ve only explained the ideal situations, but meeting Ben van Beurden, CEO of Shell, at the One Young World Summit in the Hague got me thinking. Hearing about how busy his schedule is and for example that he got up at 4 am to prepare for a speech made me contemplate the way in which we see success and how we delegate our time. Although working less sounds good to me, it is probably a very difficult realise but the idea does give me a new perspective on what I want my future to look like.