For Better Work-Life Balance, Work More
You heard it right. I like Lifehacker, they usually put out good content that’s helpful in many aspects of life but they’re definitely not immune to the absurd and outrageous. A few weeks ago they ran this hilarious post that for a second I thought was a joke. Alas, it was not.
Yeah, for better work-life balance, work more. Work on Sunday nights, because that’ll make things better. More specifically as the author writes,
You already spend Sunday night stressing about getting back to work. And maybe, just maybe, if work is already ruining your weekends, you may as well get something out of it.
He should have ended that with “if work is already ruining your weekends, just work more”. After all, that’s what he’s recommending.
If you’ve seen the Turnip FIRE! section of my blog you know that I’m a fan of the Onion. This Lifehacker post reminded me of this from the Onion, but the Onion of course is satirical….
Now, I’ll cut him a little bit of slack. What he’s really really trying to say (I think) is that if you’re stuck in a job that you’re trying hard to get out of to have less stress and improve your life, then you might as well make the best of it and try to minimize the existing stress you have now.
But that’s still crappy advice and not getting to the root of the problem. In other words, the real advice here should be:
If you think the advice in this article is good, then you need a new job.
He ends the short post with another head-scratcher
But if work is eating up your personal time, maybe sacrificing some of your time will help you recover the rest.
If work is taking too much time, take more time for work. And somehow that will free up other time? Maybe he knows of a some weird space-time continuum that’s specific to working on Sunday nights that Einstein and Feynman weren’t aware of. Anyone? Bueller?
The Peanut Gallery
Lifehacker readers tend to be smart and funny, and their comments section isn’t as full of hate and vitriol as other cesspools on the interwebz. Here’s some good comments on the post.
Gin & Panic: “In order to improve your own work/life balance, be sure to ruin everyone else’s by ensuring their inboxes are packed with work before they log in on Monday morning.”
RF: “This might be the worst advice I’ve ever read. Sure it works, it’s practical, but it boils down to “does your work life balance suck, then just work more and fuck life!”
hazelsdottir: “Surely it would be better to reserve 1 hour or so on Friday afternoon to ensure work is all set up and ready for your return on Monday morning? Seems to me if you can’t spare the time to organize your work during the actual work week, you’re working too much.”
josh anime: “It’s time to improve your work-life balance by doing some unpaid labour during your precious few free hours!”
Yeah, I wasn’t the only one confounded by the post..
Bottom line, if your job stress is ruining your weekend and the coming workweek is all you can dread on a Sunday night, you need to try to find a new job. I’ve posted about stress before, it kills.
However finding a new job can be difficult. So if you are in this situation and trying to get out of it, could slaying your emails on Sunday night help relieve stress and prepare for the week? Possibly. But what are you giving up? And hell, you’re probably not even getting paid for it.
No one ever said “I wish I spent more time at work” on their deathbed.
Your turn readers – Am I crazy here? What do you think of this Lifehacker piece?
You raise the main issue, which is that if you’re in this position then you most likely need to find a new job. I am actually in a similar position right now, and I have drawn the same conclusion for myself.
Some of the those in our office work absurd hours, that frankly I can’t justify. Literally the other day, a co-worker of mine said they will be working/cutting a hard deadline for their work at 9pm…On a Wednesday night…And our work isn’t that extensive hahaha…Unless something drastic needs to be done, Mr. FMM gets ALL my time once I leave the office.
“Hard deadline at 9pm”. That’s crazy. Not a good life to live unless you absolutely love your work.
I think a busy schedule allows you to do more things productively with your time. I know my busier years were filled with so much learning and errand running was so quick! When life slows down, I feel like I’m taking forever with my tasks. Oops!
But yes, I do agree that if work is causing that much stress you should consider a new job! Unless it’s something that is deeply fulfilling and leads to something better in the future :).
I think what you’re referring to is called “optimal anxiety” Olivia. Which is being busy and having ‘some light stress’ but only enough to make you excel. That’s the sweet spot. The article is referring to something different.
I agree that optimal anxiety is a productive thing, and a good pace to be.
I get the sentiment of the article; maybe you will feel less stressed if you just tackle the work.
I’m going to have to agree with you that maximizing your efficiency while you’re actually at work combined with trying to get the hell out of the job is probably the better solution though.
Absolutely. He would have done himself good by addressing the issue from an entirely different perspective. Thanks for the comment Katie!
Yeah, this guy had good intent, but totally missed the mark. I was just meeting with some execs who said they intentionally stopped sending emails on weekends for fear that their staff might actually read them and respond. In other words, respect work life balance!
For the longest time I was a victim of the Sunday Night Jitters. Hated the anticipation of what awaited me the next day. You know what happens? Over the course of a 20+ year career, you realize that there’s a next monday, and a next monday, and so on. I finally got to a point, oh, five years ago, where Sunday nights were as relaxing and easy as a Thursday or Friday night. No work required either.
My working career is over 25 years and while I did sometimes get over the Sunday-nights, they’d sometimes come back. It depended on my actual job, and I had many during my career. As a manager, I usually had the Sunday night dreads.
Sounds like you’ve got the mental game won. That’s a great place to be!
It’s a pretty depressing idea. I have to say that I have read a few FIRE blogs that seem to agree with this even if it’s not explicitly stated. The blogs are from after the person retired so not a lot is spoken about their working life, but I recall posts talking about how much they hated their job but it was high paying and would help them retire early. That’s not for me personally. We don’t know how long we have and I want to enjoy the journey.
The are some FIRE blogs out there that recommend killing yourself and just going full-bore and getting out as soon as possible. That’s not for me. I realize we as humans can’t be happy all the time, but I think the best way to approach it is to try to maintain as much happiness as possible, while still working towards your goal. If that’s FIRE, then you have to find the balance.
As you said, how much time we have is a big, fat mystery. Use it wisely.
That’s funny! The answer to “I hate what I’m doing” is never do it more! I think switching jobs makes more sense!
Truer words were never spoken 🙂
A friend of mine worked (briefly!) at Disney. Their slogan was “If you’re not here on Saturday, don’t BOTHER coming in on Sunday”. Funny and sad. How did we come to this point where working more is a badge of honor, and now the solution to working to much is to work even more. Nice one for a turnip-ish day!
The historian in me thinks it boils down to the Protestant work-ethic, which is a good thing at it’s root. But like America does with everything, we’ve super-sized it….
Wow. I’m not sure there was good intent here even. At least not good for your health. Work does not define you nor should it define your entire life.
Is anyone else wondering why “Work life balance” was even used? I’m thinking because a whole generation of workers is figuring out that you can ask for this sort of thing and it shouldn’t be outrageous. Balance – he must be arguing for asymmetrical not symmetrical.
Great commentary!
Balance is key to almost everything in life. Except good pizza, I feel okay going overboard on that 😉
Thanks for the compliment!
That sounds crazy. Working more will just burn you out faster. I want to see a follow up article after about a year. This guy should try working every Sunday and let us know how it goes.
Ha – I’ll drop him a note and tell him to check in with you Joe!
The idea of working more for a better work life balance does sound counter intuitive. This might as well have been written by the Onion. As you mentioned above some think its best to work as many hours as possible to get to FIRE asap. But it really isn’t worth it to slave away and ruin your life and potentially family members just to retire a few years earlier than you could otherwise by working a more reasonable schedule.
That dividing line between enough and too much will be different for us all. The key is to find your line and ride it out!
Very true. Thanks for your insights!
I think working better, not more is the answer. If I am very focused, I can get a lot done in a day. Then I go home feeling productive, and don’t worry about work until the next day. But my job goes through phases when it’s all consuming… and the more physical hours I work, the less productive and efficient I am, and the harder I find to let it go. Sometimes it doesn’t feel possible, but finding the balance improves your work life and your home life, because you’re able to be fully present in both.
Yes! It’s about working smarter and having more focus. Modern tools like social media and cat videos are a major hindrance to that for many of us. Sounds like you have great focus!
To some extent I get his sentiment to some I don’t. I knock out emails overnight to make my days go more smoothly. But I do it often so I can do things like walk on my lunch break and not get overwhelmed the next day.
However, I don’t stress Sunday night about work. I don’t work ridiculous number of hours including email check. So I guess what I’m saying is there’s nothing wrong with working an extra hour or two to ensure work goes more smoothly. However if your doing it because you are stressing that much you need another job.
Then again for some people another job won’t help. I’ve met workaholics that just can’t shut it off. Not sure what to recommend to them. Counseling?
I know the kind of people you’re talking about. A few of my friends fall in that camp. They’re either obsessive, or perhaps have addictive personalities. If they love their job then it’s not such a bad thing, but when the job sucks, that kind of obsessiveness just creates life-threatening stress.
i’ve said it before, but sometimes it’s good to be a goon or worker bee. anything over 40 hours is ignored unless the overtime meter is running.
Love your perspective Freddy, and as I’ve gotten older and burned by management I see more and more value in being a “worker bee”. There’s a sweet spot between being an important manager and being a low-level nobody. That’s what I’d like to get back
you’ll get it back. i’ve identified several sweet landing spots around here if i wanted to go to the salaried ranks. you see the ones who never look stressed or hurried and see them leave more or less on time.
I would be confused with that as well, like seriously who thinks that way
The poor guy is probably gearing up for Sunday night emails already and it’s only Friday
I’m so glad I am not in that lifestyle anymore 24/7/365
While it does sound crazy it might, rarely, fall under the work smarter not longer strategies. I gave up some small amount of free time early in my Career that led to promotions and lots of extra pay and let me rise to positions where I made more but Worked less hours. So I think it might not be crazy for a limited subset of fast movers. It comes down to where the point of diminishing returns is and if you love your job vs hate it. For me, financially independent and retired, I don’t regret the personal time I invested in my career because it paid off with a fun career and wealth. But I am an outlier I know.
I can see your point, especially if you want to “front-load” your earning years. If you do really love your job then it’s fine advice – do what you love. but as we all know most folks don’t.
It’s a good thing I’m paid hourly and therefore they’d have to pay me to do things like work on Sunday or have my work email on my phone! But even if that were an option, I have zero interest in any of that. Which maybe explains my salary 😂 (no, just kidding, it’s 100% the fault of my company. I need to make even a lateral move to somewhere that’ll at least pay me better)
Hourly employment does indeed help with this bad advice. When I was in college I worked a blue-collar job driving a forklift and they paid double time on Sundays, but they didn’t have much need for Sunday hours. We all tried to get a Sunday shift!
I can imagine! It’s the same with my second job when someone needs someone else to cover a shift. Not because they pay extra for any shifts, but because most of us don’t mind an opportunity to work on weekends we’re available but didn’t get put on the schedule! I’m trying not to put myself down for every weekend I’m in town going forward, but while I do want some weekends where I’m not working, it’s hard not to take the chance for some extra money!
The only way this works out for me is if you’re getting paid more for doing this and you’re doing on a short term planned basis to save more and free yourself up for a job search or retirement. In that case, if you’re thinking about work, might as well work and work on getting out of there quicker.
And, actually, thinking more, I kind of get it… I wrote a post about disabling my work email on my phone because if I saw something that I would fixate on I kind of “had” to deal with it to move on mentally, diminishing the quality of my time off. But if you’re stressing about work that often without specific incidents drawing your attention to it, maybe look for a new job.
“Look for a new job” is the right pretext behind any of the messages from the article, but he doesn’t seem to frame it that way. You make a great point though, if you kill an email or 2 that might otherwise have you staying up all night about a project, you might get better sleep. But again, the pretext behind that message is – you better be looking for a new job at the same time.
Honestly, this is EXACTLY what I’m always saying to the people who are hustling even harder to reach FI because they’re so miserable at their jobs. Life is way too damn short to be that unhappy, even if it’s for “just three more years.” Figure out a way to make your job at least tolerable, or go find a new one. Even if it pays less and your FI timeline gets a little bit longer.
“For just three more years”… that’s a great point. Ya gotta wonder if they’d want those 3 years back when they’re on their deathbed.
I know I certainly want them.
What a timely article and the kick in the backside I needed. It’s Friday night and I planned to work all weekend to ‘catch up’ after already putting in 60 hours this week. And yes, I mean all weekend. My rich and extremely profitable multi billion dollar company has repeteadly downsized to save money on staffing so everyone left has been doing the work of three (5?) people for the past few years. But really, why sacrifice my personal time, health and well being when it will barely make a dent in my workload? New plan for Saturday and Sunday: leisurely breakfasts, walk the dog, yoga class, and a bit of gardening. Thanks for the reminder to lift my head up from my desk and get my life back.
Awesome Molly, I’m glad it came in time to hopefully save your weekend. Don’t let them steal you weekends away!
I hope it is intended as a call to change one’s circumstances in a bad working situation, rather than to be widely consumed as advice for all. I occasionally do some work on a Sunday evening so I’ll have less to do on a Monday evening and more sleep during the work week. But that’s not work/life balance, it’s 7 hours of sleep both nights instead of 8 and then 6.
Yep, the math doesn’t lie. More work is more work.