StMore and more psychologists are questioning the praise of the super work typical of the past decades. Even more later the pandemic which has upset the life rhythms of workers all over the world, and after the “discovery” of smart working and a completely different way of reconciling work and life times.
Change the world, work sick or zen?
And then, in front of the images of Twitter manager sleeping in the officeof the mass layoffs and threats of action if a “hard commitment” is not guaranteed by the employees of the company acquired by the multimillionaire Elon Musk, many have wondered what is the point of living to work. The end of the culture of overwork has been examined in a article from Financial Times.
To begin with, the concept of workaholism, the “work addiction”was introduced by the American psychologist Wayne Edward Oates in 1971 to indicate a typical phenomenon of those years, which however is still present today in some communities, including Italy.
More and more occupational psychologists are questioning the praise of overwork
Covid-19 has revolutionized everything
But as society evolves today, researchers are increasingly asking themselves whether it makes sense in running a good or ethical company to praise workaholism. Indeed, in the past, the overworked lifestyle, with the related risks of burnout, has gradually become one status symbol and a badge of honor.
But after the Covid-19 everything really changedand this is demonstrated by the number of professionals, especially the younger ones, who have started question the workaholic lifestyle it’s at carve out more free time.
Sick at work, China is also protesting
Even in China, where excessive dedication to work is widespread and known, in 2021 the tang ping movement (literally “to lie down”) as a symbol of protest against a hypercompetitive labor market and other social pressures faced by Chinese Millennials and Generation Z.
Hyperproductivity, yet another victim of the pandemic?
According to James Muldoon, head of the Autonomy observatory dedicated to changes in the world of work, interviewed by the prestigious newspaper, the idea according to which hard work is solely responsible for one’s success is now «misleading».. Also because, Muldoon always maintains, the invasive and challenging approach used by Musk to manage the Twitter affair does not seem to have helped much, at least for now. And he never knows what the umpteenth victim of Covid-19 is not exactly that hyper-productivity which is much heralded as a reason for personal success.
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