Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Not Workaholic, Heroic: An ode to people who work long hours

I’ve been saddened, okay angered, by the change in how we treat our hard workers. They used to be almost universally admired. Today, many lesser lights diminish them as "out of balance" or pathologize them as "workaholics." My Time.com article yesterday is an ode to the people who work long hours.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Marty, it's really naive that all these people are working so long and hard because they're 'heroic'. People do this for power and status. The story of Jonas Salk is both inspiring and heroic, but it's naive to believe that people are working long hours to 'save the world'.

A person who takes no spouse, has no children, and has no one otherwise depending on him/her should be free to work to their heart's content, but once you get other people involved, you can't act like some put upon John Galt figure.

And let's not pretend that everyone is doing the important work that Jonas Salk was. Nowadays, most of those long hour workers are doing it because they want more money and status. For every person who wants to change the world for the better, there's 99 who just want other people to be in awe of them. Jack Welch certainly made GE powerful and profitable but I don't see how that made the world better.

Marty Nemko said...

Millions of less powerful pwople, like my father and all his friends worked long and hard, not for power or status, but because they felt it was a wiser, more contributory way to live their lives. I work 60+ hours a week--often for no pay or in anonymity--for the same reason.

Anonymous said...

Marty, this is the same anonymous. I would like to know what precisely it was your father and you think you're contributing by working more. Nowadays, it's to often fulfill the monetary ambitions of the owner and the shareholders who often only see employees as something to squeeze value out of so they can make more money while the employee gets to keep his/her job when the next round of payroll cuts comes around.

Marty Nemko said...

My dad felt that keeping his store open long hours enabled the poor people in Brooklyn to more conveniently shop.

My long hours are spent writing more how-to and policy-recommendation articles, and seeing more career counseling clients. I believe those make the world a bit better, certainly more so than if I spent work-week hours 40 to 70 hanging out with family, let alone watching TV, playing video games, getting high, hiking, etc.

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