Why the overworking ‘cult’ lives on

Why the overworking ‘cult’ lives on

“We dehumanised the workplace a long time ago,” says Anat Lechner, New York University’s clinical associate professor of management.

“For many companies, it’s still: ‘If you don’t work, then someone else will come along and do it. And if that’s not gonna help, we’ll allocate it to the AI. And if the AI takes over, we’ll put together a gig workforce.’

Academics are pointing to this year as a critical crossroads for society as a whole. Is wellbeing really a priority, or as we learn to live with Covid-19, do we re-focus on work and careers and what will impress bosses? Management experts argue that we’re not entering a new period where health at work comes first at all: the cult of overworking is too strong, and nothing has really changed.

Since the start of the pandemic, figures suggest working weeks have only got longer for many workers.

“It’s not necessarily a message people like to hear,” Lechner points out. “They think they enter a relationship with an employer where the relationship says, ‘I work hard, you take care of me’. Again, this is a 20th Century mindset.”

Why we overwork

Historically, there are a range of reasons why overworking has gained in status and acceptance. Most recently, since the 1980s, there has been a romanticisation of work — especially among middle class knowledge workers — in films, TV and media generally. Overworking has been seen as being part of a successful life; the busier people are, the less they sleep even, the more glamorous their life.

“Workplaces can be very unhealthy environments – if there was any time to change the way we work, now is the time to do it,” according to Christina Maslach, professor emerita of psychology at the University of California. “If you take a plant and put it in a pot and don’t water it and give it lousy soil and not enough sun, I don’t care how gorgeous the plant was to begin with – it isn’t going to thrive.”

Practical wellbeing

“Nothing good will come from pretending that the new rafts of wellbeing programmes being introduced by employers are an answer in themselves,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“And hybrid working hasn’t necessarily meant less stress. In many ways the UK workforce is just feeling more pressures generally: the pressure to renew their levels of performance post-crisis, as well as pressure to take care of their wellbeing.

“For wellbeing to truly be a priority there has to be a level of trade-off in terms of working hours and performance targets, the expectations of management, so that for the longer-term our relationship with work becomes healthier. No more boom and bust.”