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We Need to Rethink Our Overwork Culture
2020 Democrats are feeding into the “dignity of work” mantra. They should be talking about the “dignity of life” instead.
Recently, while out to lunch with a colleague, I found out that her four-year-old daughter had just received a study guide for an upcoming test. She mentioned this casually, as if the idea of a preschooler studying for an exam was as normal as a person staying late at the office or taking up a side gig. “These kids have barely learned how to play,” I told my friend incredulously, “and they’re already being sent home with test-prep booklets.”
“I guess it’s a bit strange,” she conceded. “But what can you do?”
I shouldn’t have been surprised by this. The idea that work should always precede play is central to America; it’s hammered into us as early as preschool. And, as we know, Americans work too much. We plow through the standard 40-hour work week. We rarely take vacations or personal time off (even if our employers offer it). We honor our virtuousness as workers with catchphrases like “always hustling” or “you’re crushing it!” — only to try to convince ourselves that fetishizing labor is good and healthy.
But, in fact, work is killing us.
