Workaholics of the World, Unite!

One in three Europeans say they might leave their jobs if American workplace culture continues to infect their places of employment. A survey of 1,000 employees in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom, written up in a trade journal called Human Resources Director, found that 86 percent of survey participants said U.S. corporate culture is influencing their own companies, and not for the better. 

Almost half (48 percent) say they would consider quitting if their “work-life balance” is hurt by policies originating in this country. Eight in 10, per Human Resources Director, “are worried that high-profile leaders under the Trump administration, such as Elon Musk, will have a negative influence on workplace culture in their country.” 

People on the other side of the Atlantic are especially worried about whether they will lose their “right to disconnect.” I had to google “right to disconnect” to find out what it means. It means they don’t have to be checking their emails constantly, like late at night and on weekends. I learned that, working on this article at 11 p.m. on Sunday. 

I think our European friends have a point. Americans have convinced themselves that working hard is a virtue in itself. The Wall Street Journal reports that “world-striding executives and businesspeople” are now waking up at 4 a.m., so you can bet they’ll be expecting their hirelings to do the same before long. In Josef Pieper’s 1952 book Leisure: the Basis of Culture he said that while post-war rebuilding was underway, Europeans came to believe that until that was done, “the only thing that matters is to strain every nerve.” Americans have been doing this, too, and except for Pearl Harbor, we weren’t even bombed. 

It’s in our blood. George Washington felt he had done a great service chopping down that cherry tree. When he was done, he filled out a timesheet and invoiced his father. Ben Franklin was wrong. Leisure is not “the time for doing something useful,” and on some level, he knew it. Franklin claimed to be “the laziest man in the world. I invented all those things to save myself from toil.” Thomas Jefferson, who managed to avoid manual labor by having people he owned do it for him, believed that of all the “cankers of human happiness none corrodes with so silent, yet so baneful an influence, as indolence.” 

Pieper, to be fair, was by no means advocating indolence. As his title suggests, he believed that a cultivated leisure was essential to the development of a healthy culture. But I’m beginning to believe that, in this hard-charging world, we could use a little more indolence.

I’ll say more. Laziness, in this country, has never received the respect it deserves. “Idle hands” have gotten a bad rap. There are far worse things than staring at a sunset with no ulterior motive. Or spending an entire afternoon fishing for bluegill without trying to “feed the family.” 

I think the “right to disconnect” should be the 28th Amendment, but I do not expect our caffeinated president—who is tweeting even before those “world-striding executives” get out of bed—to agree. Remote work could be great for people with small children, if they were allowed to do their job without constant interruption from their place of employment. Or having to check to make sure they haven’t been interrupted. A chirpy late-night text from the boss should never be defended by claiming it is healthy social interaction. It’s not. 

My favorite tagline is from La-Z-Boy. That’s the company that keeps more than 11,000 people busy day and night manufacturing recliners they probably never get a spare moment to enjoy. La-Z-Boy’s slogan is “Embrace the Lazy.” That’s my new mantra, and I think all American workaholics should adopt it as theirs as well.

Next time an eager-beaver coworker comes to you with a great idea, pause, look thoughtful and say, “Let me sleep on it.”