WORK

(Published in the East Bay Psychiatric Association Newsletter, September 2006)


I recently heard about a study that found that people who take vacations function better in the work place. The study’s findings revealed what most of us probably already know. But unfortunately, the work force in our country is actually becoming more and more “work addicted,” either out of fear of losing one’s job because one might be seen as a slacker, or because social and economic pressures increasingly communicate to people that their worth as a person is measured in the dollars they earn--and staying on the job longer means more dollars. On average, Europeans get three times more vacation time than Americans. During the 1990’s, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark matched our productivity rate without our over-zealous work ethic. The explanation may well be that working extra hours does not make you more productive, because after a certain point, you are exhausted and burnt out.

How did we get to this place in our society where people have come to believe that they should not take time away from work? Where did our society lose its sense that a balanced life requires intellectual, cultural, spiritual, and recreational activities in addition to one’s job? Is our country’s raison d’etre simply a matter of getting more economic productivity out of its citizenry, rather than also promoting individual well-being and social progress?

Today, parents of newborns compete to gain enrollment in more and more competitive pre-schools for their little scholars-to-be. First graders get homework. Taking the SAT’s in high school is a nightmare for the competitive college-bound senior. And many high school students and their parents believe that not getting into a prestigious college dooms their chances for a successful life. Getting ahead means just that, and if you are not always working, perhaps you will not get ahead. In other words, children don’t get to have a childhood, and adolescents don’t get to have an adolescence. Everyone gets to be a “work addicted” adult right from the start.

I see adults in my practice who are the result of these overly driven and competitive childhoods. They are anxious, fearful, and lacking in the capacity to experience their lives as joyful. They may have panic attacks, high blood pressure, high blood sugars, as well as dysfunctional relationships with their spouse and children. In fact, they unknowingly have become unhappy as a result of following this prescribed course toward happiness, which apparently now includes the belief that taking a vacation might interfere with success.

The ability to step back from our work--whether it is by traveling to some distant shore, or simply by going to the shore--provides us a chance to relax and reflect on the meaning of our existence and to find new meaning in our lives. We become re-awakened by vacations and ready to return to a job with a new sense of vitality. Vacations allow quality time for a family or for an individual. It exposes us to places and activities that we cannot access in our ordinary work world.

Driving to and from work or the grocery store in vehicles with names like Yukon, Serengeti, Outback, or Tahoe, is not anything like being in those actual places. But if a person does take a vacation, he might actually come to understand first hand what all the fuss is about in places with those names, and he might even like his job more, knowing that it’s not an activity that will consume every one of the 52 weeks of a year.