Health
Why You Need to Stop Bragging About How Busy You Are By Lisa Evans
Author Brigid Schulte says companies should stop rewarding overworked employees and focus on productivity instead. Do you rush through the morning paper, barely skimming the headlines while answering emails and making kids’ lunches? Do you compete with coworkers over how late you stay at the office each night? When journalist Brigid Schulte found herself immersed in one of the most hectic, time-crunched industries, she, like many of her busy coworkers, was feeling overworked and overwhelmed by the demands of her work and home life. “I was just feeling so busy and holding on by my fingernails through every day, trying to work crazy hours, not only being good at what I did, but great and amazing at what I did, and then [at home] I was trying to be supermom,” she says. Baking cupcakes until 2 a.m. and hosting professional interviews while sitting on the floor outside her kids’ dental office was the norm for Schulte. Logging in long hours and complaining about not having any time in the day is considered a status symbol and a sign of success. Yet even though she was working as though her hair was on fire, she felt unproductive and
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inadequate. Schulte had bought into a “culture of busy.” That is, a work environment where logging in long hours and complaining about not having any time in the day is considered a status symbol and a sign of success. Now, in her new book Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time, Schulte argues a workplace culture that rewards those who are overworked is flawed and she challenges managers, business owners and leaders to adopt a new attitude of work, one where performance rather than time, and a life outside of work rather than a life consisting of work is the norm.
A culture of busy “In our workplace culture, we reward people who work all hours, are completely workdevoted, and don’t care if they have a life [outside of work],” says Schulte. This culture of busyness began in the 1980s as economic uncertainty set in and white collar workers began logging in more hours, trying to make themselves stand out amongst the regular 9 to 5ers. “There are many workplaces that still measure hours and not performance even when hours aren’t really what matter.”