Let’s Be Honest: Please, Take the Day Off
Work is a vital part of life, but there are other vital parts that can’t be ignored.
There’s an old phrase that I believe is poorly utilized in the U.S today: Work smarter, not harder. Why do I believe that? A few reasons: 54% of American employees failed to utilize all of their vacation time, 38% of Americans want to be seen as “work martyrs” by their bosses, 34% of Americans work on weekends, and 85.5% of males and 66.5% of females work over 40 hours per week.
But beyond the statistics, I also see a disturbing trend based on what I hear. I hear people brag about how little sleep they get, how many hours they work per week, and laugh sarcastically whenever anyone asks about what they typically do with their time off. There are a vast number of reasons why people behave in this way but really it all boils down to one oversimplified idea.
The “You Get Out What You Put In” Concept
Now, I am not going to argue against this concept, I am merely arguing against its perversion. The concept has malformed from an idea that quality begets quality to the idea that quantity begets quality and success. This isn’t a full-throat argument against quantity. After all, in order to create a high quality product or work performance there needs to be a certain amount of time invested into it. The problem is: there’s also a certain amount of time that can be invested into something that could damage the quality of the product or work performance.
You’ve likely heard the phrase “Too many cooks in the kitchen.” this applies to life as well. This phrase is an embodiment of an economic law called “The Law of Diminishing Returns”. This law states that with each increase in quantity there is a higher potential return. However, “The Law of Diminishing Returns” notes that there is a certain threshold for quantities where the return will be equal to putting less in or perhaps the return would be even less depending on the gap between the threshold.
This clearly applies to the amount of work an employee gives. Employees that describe themselves as “work martyrs” (those who don’t take vacations or work extra time) were 4% less likely to be promoted in the last year and had an equal chance of being promoted in the last three years when compared to those who don’t. They were also 6% less likely to receive bonuses in the last year and 5% less likely the last three years. This either means two things, these people are completely underappreciated or (and most likely) the quality of their work is just about equal to or worse than those that work less with more time off.
The fact of the matter is that success in work isn’t solely about the amount of time that is entered into work. In fact, it is predominantly about your work having vision. The most successful people in the world aren’t the most successful because they work the most. They are successful because they have the ability to see the world as pliable and attempt to bend the world in some way to their vision. The truth is, the best way is to focus on ideas beyond your work. This can often best be achieved by taking time off. Of course, there are other reasons why time should be taken off beyond work.
Be a Better Person
Starting with the obvious, working without taking any time off could lead to damaging physiological effects. Once again “work martyrs” were found to be 5% more likely to experience stress in the workplace and (more tellingly) were found to be 7% more likely to experience stress at home. Another study pointed that those that work more than 55 hours per week have a 33% risk increase in having a stroke.
Remember those people I mentioned earlier that brag about working more and under less sleep? I can’t really understand why any of those things are good or why these are things that should be bragged about. When I hear of successful people who barely sleep, I don’t think “Wow, impressive” I think, “Wow, just imagine how much more successful they would have been had they slept more.” I don’t even want to begin with the amount of damage a lack of sleep can cause to the body. I’ll just leave this here.
But beyond the physiological effects of not taking time off to take care of yourself, there also needs to be realization that there is far more to life than work. Time needs to be spent with family and friends. Time needs to be spent discovering your place in the universe and what you choose to believe about the universe. Time needs to be spent on hobbies. Time needs to be spent discovering. However, even more importantly in my book, if all you ever talk about is work and how much you do it, how will you ever go beyond what can be read in a Wikipedia page?
Don’t get me wrong, I find work to be incredibly important. But if you have time off to take, take it. You will be glad that you did.
