The reading of the book “The Richest Man in Babylon” prompted me to write this short article. I cannot restrain myself from sharing my observations here.
I won’t elaborate on the entire book here (that time will come later). I’ll focus only on one quote.
Remember, honest work is good for the worker. It makes him a better person.
These words strongly collide with the current approach to work in Western society. Today, the most important thing is “work-life balance.” I understand this to mean that current generations of workers don’t want to have anything to do with their work. Ideally, they show up at the workplace for 8 hours and then get on with life, separating with a very thick wall what happened at work and what happens after it. At least that’s how I understand and perceive all these videos, articles, TikToks, and other materials about “work-life balance.” But I have one problem with this entire movement. Whenever I hear this statement, one question appears in my head.
Is “work” not a part of “life”?
This whole talk about balance between work and life is incomprehensible to me. Because how should such a balance look when (in my opinion) work is a part of life? It’s impossible to balance such an equation:
# If below means euqal
work = life
# Then if we assume:
life = work + life
# Then that means:
work != work + lifeBecause if you were to assume that this mythical balance can be achieved, you would have to accept that work is not a part of life nor is life a part of work. And if so, how should it look? Should I “die” when coming to work? Should my corpse perform my work? And then what? Should the revived me take care of my life?
And what about the work I have to do at home? Cleaning, cooking, laundry, taking care of children? Can this be part of my life? Or is it work? If it is work, then what constitutes my life? And if it’s not work, then what about thousands of mothers who work hard at home for their families? Are you able to tell such a woman that she actually hasn’t worked in her life and doesn’t deserve rest? I am not, because I know very well how hard that work is.
Emotional part.
Now I’ve only looked at the purely practical part. But what about the completely emotional part or the state of mind?
By endorsing the division between work and life, you should also assume that your life in no way affects your work and vice versa. Is this possible? In my opinion, it’s not. Because you can’t emotionally detach from what happens at work. People often vent work-related stress at home. Some fall into addictions or other unpleasant things happen to them. It works the other way too. You can’t work effectively and be fully engaged when you have various private problems occupying your mind.
Since it’s therefore impossible to separate and balance life from work, why is there a growing number of “work-life balance” supporters?
Social media the reason?
Unfortunately, in the age of social media, we see happy, smiling, beautiful people with drinks on the beach from every angle, who boast about how they can afford expensive vacations, beautiful cars, and so on while “doing nothing.” In most cases, this isn’t true. Often it takes a lot of hard work and liters of sweat shed from effort. Unfortunately, this isn’t visible. Work isn’t “sexy.” No one wants to watch videos about sleepless nights, hours spent on basic matters that simply need to be handled. Instead, we have hundreds of likes under photos showing expensive, rented cars or palm trees and beaches that the poster could afford because for 5 years they diligently saved for the trip of a lifetime.
Income inequalities perhaps?
Social media certainly have their influence, but we cannot forget about the deepening disproportions in wealth distribution. As a conservative and supporter of capitalism, I must admit that the disparities between the rich and poor continue to deepen. According to an article on pewresearch.org, incomes of different social groups have significantly diverged. In 1970, the income of the wealthiest households was about 6 times that of the poorest. Currently, this value for the wealthiest households is already 10 times (data as of 2018). So the rich can afford more and more while the poor can afford less and less. Additionally, social media show this difference very vividly. It’s no wonder that people have thoughts like: “Why should I work like an ox when my boss, thanks to my work, drives expensive cars or is on vacation every month.” And this is a completely justified question. No wonder people feel discouraged and don’t want to work at all.
The other side of the coin: “hustle culture”.
There’s one more thing I want to mention. In opposition to “work-life balance” stands the so-called “hustle” culture. I call it the “grind culture.” At one time, I strongly fell into thinking in these categories, but I believe I’ve already cured myself of it.
The grind culture assumes that you must constantly work, act, do. Only goals and achieving them matter. Nothing else. Relationships can also be treated as goals. People too. Constant action is what counts. Keep moving forward and don’t think too much. Push, push, push. Can’t handle it? Impossible. After all, you haven’t achieved anything yet. You were surely slacking off. Push. You went to bed at 10 PM? How do you expect to achieve anything while sleeping? You refused overtime at work because you can’t handle it? You’ll never amount to anything. You’re a loser.
And after a short time of such “life,” you’re fed up with everything. The promised rewards most likely won’t appear, and you’ll be left with various problems that emerged while you were “pushing” as the American gurus instructed. I’ll write a separate article about this phenomenon, as I myself fell victim to this “culture.”
What does all this have to do with the quote?
Let’s return to the main topic of this article. Today, major media and celebrities want to convince us that work is just an unpleasant obligation and we should do everything to work as little as possible. I, however, believe that it is work that makes us more human. It allows us to develop, improve, and find meaning. Of course, various conditions must be met. Such as fair pay, normal treatment, or respecting workers’ rights. These are the basics without which this discussion makes no sense. Work is supposed to make us better. So what does the lack of work provide? In my opinion, it throws us into a bottomless depth of hopelessness, boredom, and lack of purpose. It condemns us to living through the next episodes of a Netflix series or a new game from Ubisoft. It strips us of depth and the desire for self-improvement. And all of this leads to the collapse of our society and, as a result, our entire civilization.
What should be done then?
I don’t know. That’s precisely why I wanted to share my thoughts on this topic, and the quote above appeared before my eyes at the perfect moment. I would gladly continue the discussion on this subject.
Remember, honest work is good for the worker. It makes him a better person.
If you’ve made it this far, I’m impressed. Leave a comment and share your thoughts on this topic. Thanks!
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