Work cult: how to survive if you are a workaholic

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Working hard and striving for the top are wonderful habits. But they can turn into a nightmare. We are consumed by the cult of work, and we only notice it when it's time to go to the hospital. Blogger Jason Langstorf, who almost lost his beard due to work, spoke in detail about how this happens.

Who would have thought that everything would end this way. The nightmare crept up unnoticed.

It all started so well. You earned money by doing what you love - your dream job. You were creating something, and not sitting out your pants. You wanted not only to receive a salary, but to leave a mark on history.

At first, you just loved your job. It was difficult and proceeded at a rapid pace. Everyone around was crazy and smart. In your spare time, you did a brainstorming session. They took work home. We came to work on weekends. And we never felt tired, because what a job it is! It's a way of life.

You plowed more than 40 hours a week, but who was counting? Was great.

However, the weeks added up to months. And here's how it ended: you work 60 hours a week or more. And when you greet red-eyed colleagues, you exchange jokes about the need to drink coffee for survival.

The work is still cool, but the old fuse is gone. Days pass by and you don't understand how it happened. You don't even remember what happened.

Life outside of work came to a standstill. You might want to try making a real cheesecake at home, but you don't have time to rush out for the ingredients. Of course, you have to go to the gym, but something happens all the time and you miss a workout.

"A little later," you promise yourself, "I'll get to everything."

This is not to say that you are unhappy. But something is wrong. It's hard to say what exactly. It just seems like it could have been better.

Routine sucked you in

You are lost to society. You have been swallowed up by the cult of work.

Followers of this murderous cult believe that working more than 60 hours a week is a prerequisite for success. Moreover, it is an honor.

The cunning of the cult is that it uses your best qualities: dedication, ambition, the ability to bring things to an end, responsibility.

The cult says we need to work better, stay in place longer, only sleep when we are dying of fatigue. The cult says that you can't succeed in life if you don't come to work first and leave last.

Skillfully and cruelly, the cult confuses us with our own achievements. And if we do not leave this sect, we are doomed.

Work cult kills - save yourself

Balance is the first tool that will save you from the clutches of the cult.

Start with health. Don't miss a visit to the gym because you are busy. Don't gobble up convenience foods because you don't have time to cook. Then think about a hobby. Do you all the time at the computer and work, work? Forgot about everything because you are busy?

What about communication? Friends no longer call - they know that you have no time. Sometimes the only person with whom you exchange a few words is the courier who brings the business lunch.

I also lived like this until I lost my beard.

Canary in the Mine, or How I Shaved My Beard

At the end of 2012, I was working on the largest project of my career (at that time) - a website for a large trading company with a Black Friday sale. I was afraid and worried. Such a project could take my company to a new level, and I decided to do everything in my power to make it the best.

The designers had great ideas, I stayed at work to make sure we got it done. We came up with a breakthrough idea based on the latest technology. The client liked it.

Then the bureaucracy intervened. The lawyers made changes: the presentation of the brand was contrary to the law. Designers are too far off schedule.

By the time the design was approved, a third of the planned time remained for the entire project. And since the case was about Black Friday, it was impossible to reschedule. Either we were on time, or it was a complete failure.

I was exhausted. I was delirious. But damn it, I made it.

In order not to be defeated, I spent the last days before the sale at work. I slept for a total of six hours in four days. Skipped the family's Thanksgiving dinner to devote all his energy to a final dash at work.

The client was delighted. The site has won several awards. I think they hit their yearly sales target over the weekend.

And then my beard began to go bald.

Over the course of several months, the mustache thinned until it fell out altogether. Very quickly I realized that I had to forget about the beard altogether. I had to choose: either walk with skin smooth, like a baby's, or with a beard that hangs in tufts.

I was so nervous that my body forgot how to grow a beard. And for what? To plow 19 hours a day, embodying crazy ideas of designers?

I was devastated. The body refused. I was overwhelmed, unhappy, lonely. And with one mustache.

I have blindly followed the precepts of the work cult. Something had to be changed.

How to tell if you are under the influence of a cult

The clear signs that you are being sucked into the sect are:

• You often work more than 40 hours a week.
• Sleep less than six hours a night often.
• Feel guilty about spending time not working (even if you devote those hours to family and friends).

This does not happen overnight. The cult is gaining followers gradually. When this happens, we don't admit it. But it is foolish to deceive yourself. Yes, this is a sect.

Deceiver Cult

The voice of the work cult sounds in your head like the song of a siren singing about healthy ambitions: "To achieve something, you need to work hard." We are told about this all our adult life.

So we do what we think is right. But the cult of work was not invented for those at the top.

Although the germs of the cult make their way out of good intentions, it leads to the emergence of habits that do more harm than good.

Let's take a closer look at the symptoms of adherence to a work cult. It will immediately become noticeable that each of them is harmful in the long term.

Frequent overtime (more than 40 hours per week)

Often, overhauls seem to be mandatory - it's part of the corporate culture. We think that colleagues / boss / pets will judge us if we work less than others. You can't move forward if you don't work harder.

Working overtime will help us achieve everything, right?

No. In general, not at all, not at all.

Researchers have proven time and time again that it is impossible to stay productive by working more than 40 hours a week (at least for a long time). Henry Ford introduced the 40-hour work week in 1914 because he noticed - through research - that workers remained at their peak of efficiency when working on an 8/5 schedule.

More than 100 years have passed since that research, but many companies still keep their employees in the workplace for longer than they should, especially during periods of approaching deadlines.

But look at productivity. The irony is that after just two months of 60-hour work, productivity drops significantly compared to the results of 40-hour employees.

Got it? By working 150%, you lose more in the long run.

Sleep less than 6 hours a day

Somehow, the lack of sleep has become honorable. We boast of our "exploits", we say that we slept only two hours a day, and pride shines in our red eyes.

"I never sleep, sleep is the younger brother of death." "So many projects, so little time."

Believing that nightly vigil over projects will help you advance your career is a cruel, fatal mistake.

Intellectually, after 18 hours without sleep, you become the equivalent of a drunk driver. Problems accumulate: if you don't get enough sleep once, fatigue comes faster the next day. After a few days without sleep, you look like a zombie.

We don't go to work drunk, so why do we go to the office after four hours of sleep when we do more harm than good?

Worse, lack of sleep leads to. The cult of work is literally killing you.

Feelings of guilt for every hour spent without work

When we fall into the trap of a work cult, we feel guilty for every hour we don't work.

I would go to a party, but I really can't. The project will not do itself.

It seems like minutes without work are wasted.

But science claims the opposite. Overwork leads to increased stress levels and burnout, which are associated with high health risks. And vice versa: free time leads to a surge of creativity and other joys in life.

If we take as a basis that we need to work 8 hours a day, sleep also 8, then we will have 8 more hours for everything else.

Free time gives us a chance to recover, to set a boundary between ourselves and our projects, it gives us the opportunity to remember why we like work.

How to get rid of the power of the cult

Perhaps you have already fallen into a sect of admirers of work, but it is not too late to escape from there.

It is a trap. Using our best qualities, we develop habits that should make us better. But in fact, they spoil us: we work worse, we don't get pleasure from life and we don't feel happy.

Using the same qualities that the cult of work exploits, you can really regain a taste for life.

After losing my beard, I felt the severity of the burnout. I was burnt to ashes. You had to either quit your job, or completely change your attitude towards it.

I had to make a number of promises to myself that saved me from the cult of work:

• I will work as long as I can, but not more.
• First of all, we must admit that you can work effectively no more than 6-8 hours a day.
• Longer work hours won't make me more productive. The longer the working day lasts, the worse the result.

I chose efficiency and applied several radical strategies to control time. As a result, I cut my working hours from 70-90 hours a week in 2013 to 38 hours in 2014.

I expected that my professional success would decline, but I would achieve balance in life, and was ready to make such a sacrifice. Instead, it turned out that my productivity at work was increasing. Wasted time was reduced and I didn't miss deadlines.

At first I was surprised by such results, now I understand that they are natural.

Sleep is priority # 1

Adequate amount of sleep is essential anyway. But this is exactly what we sacrifice in the first place because of employment.

Lack of sleep interferes with thinking clearly, that is, it has an extremely negative effect on work.

After reducing the number of working hours, I stopped setting the alarm. Since I’m not overworking, I turn off my computer at 6 or 7 pm, and by eleven I’m in bed, where I read before bed. I wake up by myself at about seven or seven thirty.

It turned my life upside down.

Waking up the alarm before I’m rested means the day will start with stress. A natural awakening when fully asleep brings a good mood in the morning and gives you energy to start the day.

Time is needed not only for work

This is the hardest challenge of the work cult. I love what I do, I want to see things through to the end. It’s easy to miss how everything that doesn’t concern the job is thrown away.

But taking breaks from work helps keep pace. During the pause, interest in the case reappears. Rebooting your brain allows ideas to flow freely and helps you make better decisions. After all, taking a break reduces stress levels and improves creativity.

Make sure you have time to rest, even if your inner voice resists.

I walk a lot. I don’t reach my phone when I’m out with friends or having lunch. I set aside time for hobbies, be it writing or hunting for the best burger in the world. Today I am happier than ever in my life. I work with inspiration, relax with pleasure and spend time with my loved ones.

Life is Beautiful.

Run from the cult, save life

After the death of my beard, I got scared. What if this is just the first signal and my health is deteriorating? I imagined my future if nothing changes. And I realized that I was on my way to loneliness, ulcers, alopecia and heart attack or stroke due to stress.

By changing my lifestyle, I was able to change the situation. It took only a year of balanced life for my beard to grow back. I lost 13 kg because I started walking and found time to go to the gym. I won over drowsiness and began to smile more.

When I stopped being a clergyman, things got better. Nothing went wrong.

Are you ready to escape?

If you are brought into the work-worshiping sect, then you are not alone.

You may face pressure from public opinion to keep pace. You can merge with your workaholic image and feel useless if you stray from this path. But I guarantee you: despite all the attitudes that the cult has put into you, this is worth quitting. It will be better for your career. For health. For relationships. For happiness.

You fell under the influence of a cult because of your intelligence, ambition and determination. But your best qualities have turned into your worst habits.

You are smart enough to overcome everything. Bring back freedom. Find the happiness and success that you were striving for at the beginning of the journey.

Turn off your computer. Go outside. Call your friends, they miss you.

What then?

If you are like me, then you want to escape from the cult, but do not believe that this is possible. I was wrong: it was difficult just to take the first step.

Don't waste your time. You can get rid of the addiction now.