It
is seen to be the prestige symbol in the modern world that times of rest are
frowned upon. In the intensity of the workplace, lunches are to be skipped or
taken speedily at the desk, with the work e-mails attended to all at times
during the evening, night and weekend.
The
nation that is often held up as an example of overworking is Japan so that they have a word karoshi,
which means ‘death attributed to overwork.’ In a survey, it was discovered that
12 per cent of employees work 100 hours a month, which includes 80 hours (often
unpaid) overtime.[1]
In
2017, Silvia Belleza at the Columbia Business School in New York asked
volunteers in the United States to assess the status of fictional personalities
from short descriptions that were provided. If the person was described as
being really busy, he or she went up in the estimation of the volunteer, as
they thought the person was of higher importance and a greater achiever.
As
a contrast, the same study was undertaken with a group from Italy, with the
reversed results. Indeed, the Italian concept of dolce far niente – ‘sweet
doing nothing’ – was the standout component.
It
is almost reminiscent of the lyrics ‘Busy doing nothing’ from A Yankee in the
Court of King Arthur.
The
Italians seemed to have the right formula as, in 2018, Argyro Avgoustaki of
ESCP Europe and Hans Frankot at Cass Business School in London examined data
from 52,000 employees from right across Europe. They discovered that people who
worked intensely for long periods, ‘at very high speed’ or ‘to tight deadlines;
scored lower on the measures of mental and physical wellbeing. It tended to be
for no cause for those employees were less likely to be promoted, or feel
satisfied and secure in their jobs.
Hans
Frankot commented: ‘If you exhaust yourself, you are going to reduce the
quality of your work and, ultimately, you are going to lose out.’
He
continued: ‘We’re not saying less work is better, we’re saying less overwork is
better.’
He
was backed up by Professor Cary Cooper, an organisational psychologist at the
University of Manchester, who added: ‘It can be hard to judge performance in
some jobs, so managers still tend to look at visible things like how late
someone stays or how much pressure they appear to be under.’[2]
There
is the pressure to look busy all of the time, which has been evidenced by a
survey that showed that millennials are more worried than any other generation
about the consequences of taking lunch breaks, with 37 per cent of the
respondents not feeling empowered to break for lunch.[3] Often the result is
presenteeism, where it looks as though you are at work in the body, but your
mind and attention is elsewhere.
It
has been assessed that working 40 hours is too much with strong indications
that the maximum amount of time that a person can be really productive is six
hours. There have been studies that show that quality work is produced in five
or six hours with the other two or three hours spent in dealing with e-mails,
attending meetings, making phone calls, tea breaks and so on.[4]
In
a 2018 survey of workers in the United Kingdom, it was discovered that 70 per
cent reported lower productivity because they were not able to get away from
their desks for lunch.[5]
It
was reported in the United States in 2018 that almost half of all employees
were going to give up their vacation days in order to keep working.[6]
It
has been ascertained that not having breaks means that energy resources are
depleted, stress increases and productivity is reduced. An example of this fact
is that the Draugiem Group, an IT company based in Latvia, tracked the
behaviour of the top 10 per cent of the most productive employees who worked
the same amount of hours as everyone else in the company, it discovered that
those people took more breaks, with an average of 17 minute break after 52
minutes of working.[7]
Marcus
Aurelius stated: ‘If you seek tranquillity, do less. Or (more accurately, do
what’s essential. Do less, better. Because most of what we do or say is not
essential.’[8]
One
of the results of being busy all the time is what the experts call time famine.
Eldar Shafir, a behavioural scientist at Princeton University, described it as
‘Feelings of scarcity, whether money or time, prey on the mind, thereby
impairing decision-making. When you’re busy, you’re more likely to make poor
time-management choices – taking on commitments
you can’t handle, or prioritising trifling tasks over crucial ones. A
vicious circle kicks in. Your feelings of busyness leaves you even busier than
before.’[9]
The
sinking of the R. M. S. Titanic is a case in point, as the destruction
of the ship could have been prevented on so many levels. There were problems
with its boilers that could have dealt with had the time been taken. More
catastrophic was the fact that the ship’s crew did not listen to the pleas of
other vessels that the Titanic was sailing into a field of ice. The
radio operator on the Titanic was so overwhelmed with his workload that
he disregarded those other messages and infamously wired back, ‘Shut up, shut
up, I am busy…’
The
problem in not stepping back and taking note is that both the positives and
negatives are not considered – for example, in project management, lessons
learned documents are not heeded; in public enquiries, the conclusions and
recommendations lie gathering dust; in school workbooks, teachers’ comments are
ignored or not acted upon.
The
American biologist, E O Wilson, has
observed: ‘We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.’[10]
Often
our aims at work are the high level objectives that moves an organisation
towards its goals. It is rarely about the details and even less so about the
crisis that occur. It is often in the high quality thinking that details get
lost amid the jungle of tasks to be performed. The continual state of busyness
means that we never enter the position where unexpected connections and
insights can make an appearance. The ideal way in which these ‘light bulb’
moments can occur are where there is a quiet mind and a happy disposition.
Although
it appears as though there is idleness when people are daydreaming or letting
their minds wander, the brain is actually going full tilt. The unfocused
‘default mode’ permits new connections in the brain. When these are activated,
the new connections enable us to see old problems in a new way.
However,
this downtime is a rarity as tasks keeping piling in on top of us, with every
job crying out that they need to be accomplished. The result is that the new
connections and insights do not appear.
Mark
Beeman, a neuroscientist, states: ‘At work we expect people to pay attention,
to focus. To focus on one thing, you have to suppress a lot of things.
Sometimes that’s good. But sometimes a solution to a problem can only come from
allowing in apparently unrelated information, from giving time to the quieter
ideas in the background.’
His
research showed that we require two distinctly different types of mental
activity: the directed, focused attention that is usually expected of us in
work situations but can only be sustained for short periods, and the diffused
and unfocused state where we appear to be thinking about nothing in particular
and is often described as mind wandering. It is in the oscillation between
these two states that problems are solved.[11]
Manoush
Zomorodi has stated that: ‘We humans do our most original thinking and best
problem solving when our brains are allowed to wander.’[12]
It
is important that leaders think straight because their employees will base
their behaviour on what they observe. Adobe’s Northern Europe Vice President,
Gavin Mee, gave these pointers as to how to get a better perspective: ‘It makes
you a much better, more rounded person when you turn up to work if you’ve got a
balance between your job and your home life. When I get home I turn my mobile
off and put it in the corner.
‘I
schedule a couple of hours a week of thinking time into my diary and I do half
an hour of meditation before work every day. If it’s a busy place, I’ll plug my
headphones and use the Headspace app. I have a short attention span, and that
really works for me.
‘People
are more likely to pay attention to work life balance if they hear their leader
talking about it, so I’ve agreed on a bunch of standards with my team. I want
everyone to take their holiday, I want them not to turn on their phone and I
don’t communicate on weekends unless it’s a dire emergency.’[13]
There
is the necessity to distinguish between the urgent and the important.[14]
An
urgent task requires immediate attention, taking precedence over other tasks.
An
important task is one that has great significance and value. The outcome will
have significant consequences.
In
turn, these tasks are categorised into four areas:
‘A’
tasks are both urgent and import, which should be undertaken immediately and
other things should be laid to one side. Examples would include a crisis,
pressing problems, deadline driven projects.
‘B’
tasks are important but not urgent, which have the problem of always being
placed to one side without being addressed. This category should be placed in
your schedule after the ‘A’ tasks. Examples would include preparation, personal
development, relationship development, and planning risk analysis.
‘C’
tasks are urgent but not important. They need to be done but resources (such as
time) should not be overly utilised on them. Examples include non-pressing
interruptions, e-mails or letters requesting an immediate response, obscure
reports, and seemingly endless meetings.
‘D’
tasks are neither important or urgent, so it would be wise to determine whether
they need to be done at all.
In
order to ensure that all the important tasks are accomplished by the end of the
working day, it will be necessary to divide your tasks into the categories
above. It may be that there will be tasks that will not be completed on that
day and some may fall completely off the radar as they were of no consequence
in any event.
In
order to get a focused objective, there has to be time to readjust the vision.
If it is worth doing, do it well. Because we rush around, we produce few things
of note – doing many things badly rather than some things well. There is a
problem with presenteeism, where the body is present but the rest of you is
elsewhere.
Brother
Lawrence, a monk living in the seventeenth century, would pray before he
commenced his work in the monastery’s kitchen: ‘O my God…grant me your grace to
stay in your presence. Help me in my labours. Possess all my affections.’
We
are reminded in the psalms: ‘Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,
who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord.’ (Psalm 89: 15)
There
are the opportunities to commune with God – whether to praise Him or to
intercede on behalf of others – wherever you are, regardless of where you are.
It might be standing in the supermarket queue, stopping at a right light at a
traffic junction, on the platform at the railways, in the airport lounge, or in
whatever situation we may find ourselves in where there is a halt in our lives.
It is in the ‘wasted’ time that we glimpse what God is saying to us.
When
we slow down, we will interact more with our colleagues so more meaningful
relationships will be built that will increase our happiness[15], accelerate our
productivity[16]
and could even garner that sense of community at work[17].
Robert
A Emmons has discovered the connectivity between the discipline of gratitude,
wellbeing and resilience. He wrote that ‘grateful people experience higher
levels of positive emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, love, happiness, and
optimism, and that the practice of gratitude as a discipline protects a person
from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, greed and bitterness…[They]
recover more quickly from illness and benefit from greater physical
health…increased feelings of connectedness, [and] improved relationships…[W]hen
people experience gratitude, they feel more loving, more forgiving and closer
to God. Gratitude, we have found, maximises our enjoyment of the good…’[18]
Being
intentionally slower will mean that you will have time to thank your
colleagues, which in turn will increase resilience and reduce stress in the
workplace, as well as the obvious outcome of strengthening our relationships
with those with whom we work. It could be the smallest of things (such as a cup
of tea/coffee) or a major step (such as help in the completion of a project).
Of course, it could be done through the medium of an e-mail, which would be
helpful if there are a large number of people to thank, but it is preferable if
you stepped away from your desk and spoke to your colleague personally.[19]
It
is so easy to get caught up in our own lives that we neglect to give to others,
even in the simplest act of offering support. When it is noticed that you care
about them, it can lead to deeper conversations. If we are concerned about
other people and the amount of work that they have, it will be reciprocated in
the future.
It
is time to get from behind the computer screen or lay down our tools, we will
benefit from having those face-to-face conversations. The e-mail or text that
is misinterpreted by either wording or the tone will be replaced by a person
interacting with another, showing that the colleague rather than the clock is
the priority.[20]
Not
being able to step away from work will have consequences in all parts of our
personal and domestic life. One of which is that the inability to switch off
adversely affects our sleep.[21] It is because we do not
allow ourselves enough time to recover from work demands, before we have to
start off on another treadmill.
The
researchers stated that: ‘Employees who integrated work into their non-work life
reported being more exhausted because they recovered less. This lack of
recovery activities further explains why people who integrate their work into
the rest of their lives have a lower sense of well-being.’
The
conclusion was: ‘After all, impaired well-being goes hand in hand with reduced
productivity and reduced creativity.’
There
are many studies that show that, when people work less, they are more satisfied
with their lives.[22] This finding is
substantiated by a poll among German woman workers who were asked to describe a
‘perfect day.’ The largest proportion (106 minutes) would be allocated to
‘intimate relations,’ followed by ‘socialising’ (82 minutes), ‘relaxing’ (78
minutes) and ‘eating’ (75 minutes). At the bottom of the list were ‘parenting’
(46 minutes), ‘work’ (36 minutes) and ‘commuting’ (33 minutes). The researchers
commented that ‘in order to maximise well-being, it is likely that working and
consuming (which increases GDP) might play a smaller roles in people’s daily
activities compared to now.’[23]
When
we work as God wants us to, we will live according to ‘The God-given rhythm of
life both corrects laziness and offers relief to those who feel pressure to be
industrious at all times. The Lord teaches us to work, then pause to sleep,
eat, pray, and rest each week.’[24]
[1]
Edwin Lane, ‘The young Japanese working themselves to death,’ BBC News,
2 June 2017, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39981997
[2]
Studies and quotes: Chris Sims ‘Your Workplace Survival Guide,’ New
Scientist, 12 January 2013, pp. 35 - 36
[3]
Mike Pomranz, ‘Millennials fear lunch breakl ‘stigma’ more than other
generations,’ Food & Wine, 4 June 2019, https://www.foodandwine.com/news/millenial-lunch-breaks-office-study?utm_source=Newsletter_AH&utm_medium=Thrive
[4]
Sara Robinson, ‘Bring back the 40-hour week,’ Salon, 14 March 2012, https://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/bring_back_the_40_hour_work_week/
[5]
Jerome Smail, ‘Over half of office-based employees have no area to eat lunch in
the workplace,’ Employee Benefits, 22 October 2018, https://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/office-employees-lunch-workplace/;
Alan Kohill, ‘This is how working lunches are making you bad at your job,’ World
Economic Forum, 31 May 2018, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/05/new-study-shows-correlation-between-employee-engagement-and-the-long-lost-lunch-break
[6]
‘Many US workers are going to lose their vacation time this year,’ CNBC,
20 November 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/20/us-workers-to-forfeit-half-their-vacation-time-this-year.html
[7]
Cited in Chris Sims ‘Your Workplace Survival Guide,’ New Scientist, 12
January 2013, p. 38
[8]
Quoted in Aytekin Tank, ‘Why Today’s Best Business Leaders Look to Stoicism –
An entrepreneur’s guide to this ancient Greek philosophy,’ Entrepreneur,
23 September 2019. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/338735?utm_source=Newsletter_AH&utm_medium=Thrive
[9] Cited in
Oliver Burkeman, ‘Why you feel busy all the time (when you’re actually not,’ BBC
News, 12 September 2016 http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160909-why-you-feel-busy-all-the-time-when-youre-actually-not/?utm_source=Newsletter_AH&utm_medium=Thrive
[10]
Quoted by Nicholas Kristof, ‘Starving for Wisdom,’ New York Times, 16
April 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/opinion/nicholas-kristof-starving-for-wisdom.html
[11]
Jan Hills, ‘Are you busy or you thinking?’ People Management, 30 January
2014
[12]
Quoted in Kells McPhillips, ‘By scheduling time to do nothing every day for a
week, I learned the secret to creativity,’ Well and Good, 4 July 2019, https://www.wellandgood.com/good-advice/how-to-do-nothing/
[13]
Quoted in Adam Gale, ‘Why you should schedule downtime into your diary,’ Management
Today, 14 March 2019, https://www.managementtoday.com/why-schedule-downtime-diary/any-other-business/article/1579032?utm_medium=EMAIL
[14]
See Charles Hummel, Tyranny of the Urgent (Inter Varsity Press, Downers
Grove, Illinois, 1994) http://www.olemissxa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Tyranny-of-the-Urgent.pdf
[15]
Beth Azar, ‘Friends and Co-workers,’ American Psychological Association,
January 2012, https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2012/01/relationships
[16]
Joe Avella and Rachel Gillett, ‘A happiness expert explains why having work
friends is vital to your success,’ Business Insider, 21 September 2017, https://www.businessinsider.com/annie-mckee-friends-work-coworkers-vital-2017-9?r=US&IR=T
https://www.businessinsider.com/annie-mckee-friends-work-coworkers-vital-2017-9?r=US&IR=T
[17] S
Leonard Syme and Miranda L Ritterman, ‘The importance of Community Development
for Heath and Well-Being,’ Community Development Investment Review, https://www.frbsf.org/community-development/files/syme_ritterman.pdf
[18]
Robert A Emmons, Thanks! How the new science of gratitude can make you
happier (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, New York, 2007) pp. 11 - 12
[19]
Francesca Gino, ‘Be Grateful More Often,’ Harvard Business Review, 26
November 2013, https://hbr.org/2013/11/be-grateful-more-often
[20]
Phyllis Korkki, ‘Conflict at Work? Empathy Can Smooth Ruffled Feathers,’ New
York Times, 9 October 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/jobs/conflict-at-work-empathy-can-smooth-ruffled-feathers.html?emc=edit_nn_20170608&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=75920095&te=1&_r=0
[21][21]
Ariane G Wepfer et al, ‘Work Life Boundaries and Well-being: Does Work-to-Life
Integration Impair Well-Being through Lack of Recovery,’ Journal of Business
and Psychology, 33 (6), December 2018: 727 – 740 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10869-017-9520-y
[22]
Nicholas A Ashford and Giorgos Kallis, ‘A Four-day Workweek: a policy for
Improving Employment and Environmental Conditions in Europe,’ The European
Financial Review, April – May 2013: 53 – 58. https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/85017
[23]
Christian Kroll and Sabastian Pokutta, ‘Just a perfect day? Developing a
happiness optimised schedule,’ Journal of Economic Psychology, volume
34, February 2013: 210 – 217, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167487012001158
[24]
Daniel Doriani, Work: Its Purpose, Dignity, and Transformation (P &
R Publishing, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 2019), p. 131
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