LIVE TO WORK OR WORK TO LIVE?

By SHAGORIKA EASWAR

The debate on the effect of Daylight Savings Time on sleep cycles and its pros and cons fades in the glorious sunshine of a Canadian summer. But in a couple of months, it will again occupy us when the thought of fewer hours of light in the evening and having to make the commute home in pitch dark will have critics voicing their opinions.

Our lives are run by, ruled by, clocks. People sign in and sign out at work on the dot. Bring a meeting to a hard stop as they have to hop onto another scheduled call. So many are paid by the hour. But is putting in more hours necessarily more productive?

Many years ago, we received an email from an organization in India, offering us a virtual assistant.

Were we looking for a cost effective and reliable person who could:

1. Research good quality information and news from internet regularly.

2. Update website with useful content (which helps in SEO).

3. Write useful content blog and update website.

4. Check emails.

5. Check Facebook and LinkedIn accounts and update them regularly.

6. Do intelligent email marketing.

They provided dedicated virtual assistants who could work an hour every day ($100/month); two hours a day ($200/month), three hours a day ($300/month), and so on...

I told my brother in India about this offer, sharing what I expected would lead to a chuckle.

“Grab it!” he said. “Think of the time you will save.”

A proponent of working smart and saving time, he reminded me of the book he had gifted me a few years prior to this conversation.

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, an instant New York Times bestseller in the day, has been expanded and updated since, and lists ways to enjoy mini retirements to outsourcing one’s life.

I had found it interesting, and though as a young mom with work commitments that seemed to spawn even more commitments overnight a virtual assistant may have been useful, I didn’t really see it as something for me. 

Pulling out the copy now, I see dog-eared pages and passages I marked. Among them:

A Seneca saying: Set aside a certain number of days, during which you shall be content with the scantiest and cheapest fare, with coarse and rough dress, saying to yourself all the while, Is this the condition that I feared?

I found many tips useful and on a reread, see some that I have managed to incorporate somewhat successfully.

Here are a few:

“Do not multitask. I am going to tell you what you already know. Trying to brush your teeth, talk on the phone and answer your email at the same time just doesn’t work. Eating while doing online research and instant massaging? Ditto.

“If you prioritize properly, there is no need to multitask. It is a symptom of task-creep – doing more to feel productive while actually accomplishing less. To repeat: You should have at most, two primary goals or tasks per day. Do them separately from start to finish without distraction. Divided attention will result in more frequent interruptions, lapses in concentration, poorer net results, and less gratification.”

Though I do have to add that as I prioritize my to-do lists, I also mutter that no woman who is responsible for dinner and laundry (and overseeing homework in the desi context) after a full day’s work, will ever say, “Do not multitask”. We survive because we multitask.

“Cultivate selective ignorance. It is imperative that you learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable. Most are all three.

“Create systems to limit your availability via email and phone and deflect inappropriate contact.”

Interestingly, Ferriss also extols the virtues of remote assistants and mentions one organization in particular, Brickwork, based in Bangalore!

Since my copy of The 4-Hour Work Week was published in 2007, I looked up Brickwork to see if they are still in existence. They are, and, according to their website, have supported 14100-plus clients across 179 countries and delivered more than 37,818 projects. Its clientele ranges from Fortune 500 companies, mid-size companies and start-ups to innovative entrepreneurs and busy CXOs across 60+ industries. Some of the clients who have leveraged virtual executive assistant (VEA) support include well known industrialists, senators, media celebrities, senior consultants, Wall Street firms and more.

The company was co-founded by Vivek Kulkarni and Sangeeta Kulkarni, who pioneered the concept of remote executive assistance “to enable busy executives optimize their time and become more productive and laser-focused on critical work, by freeing them from routine, mundane and non-core tasks”.

What made me go back to this book recently, though?

That would be a statement made by Narayana Murthy, the billionaire businessman and a cofounder of tech giant Infosys. He is listed among the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time by Fortune magazine and described as the “father of the Indian IT sector” by Time for his contribution to outsourcing in India.

One would imagine such a man, with his wealth of knowledge and experience, would know of what he speaks. And yet, during a chat with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai, he encouraged young people to put in 70-hour work weeks.

“They should say, ‘This is my country, I want to work 70 hours a week,’” he said.

However you break that down, 10 hours a day every day without a break, or 12 hours a day for the luxury of a day off – and we are not even talking about the time to commute here – this is just so anachronistic in this day and age.

It brings to mind The Circle, a disturbing, dystopian, and dark movie in which the normally affable Tom Hanks played a tech boss who wanted everyone to basically live at the work-place, life outside was actively discouraged.

When studies report that more and more people are looking for options that continue to allow them the flexibility to work from home. Once a perk only enjoyed by top executives, work from home became the norm for most of us except those in retail, and frontline workers and that’s how most of us would like it to stay.

A recent StatsCan study reveals that the time people save by working from home, by not commuting to work, is put to good use. They sleep a little longer, take care of household chores and spend more time with their children. In short, their quality of life improves.

While there are indications that remote work comes with its own issues, and a study by PsychTests. com reveals that:

41% dislike the lack of, or limited, social contact.

41% said they dislike not having all the equipment or tools that are readily available at work.

31% dislike having to prove that they are being productive.

26% are frustrated by the distractions at home (e.g., family, especially small kids; pets).

22% indicated that the temptation to slack off is hard to resist.

22% are annoyed by management’s use of tracking software.

21% feel that working from home goes against their desire to keep their work and home life separate.

16% are annoyed by the fact that they now have a heavier workload.

And funnily enough, 11% are worried about falling asleep!

However, an overwhelming 93% are glad they won’t have to waste time commuting or dealing with traffic.

92% enjoy the fact that they can make their own hours.

87% said that working from home saves them money.

87% indicated that they are just as productive at home as they are at work, if not more so.

84% feel working from home allows for more work-life balance.

83% love being able to start their day earlier.

80% are less stressed.

80% said remote work has allowed them to spend more time with loved ones.

73% are happy that they don’t have to dress up for work any more.

71% are glad that they don’t have to deal with office politics.

53% enjoy being able to sleep in.

“Adjusting to remote work became a sharp learning curve for many employees and managers,” explains Dr. Ilona Jerabek, president of PsychTests. “For some, it was a matter of figuring out how to juggle work and family life without the buffer of time apart. For managers, it was finding a way to make remote work technologically feasible, while making sure that employees were still putting in the same amount of effort.

“Clearly, adjusting to remote work has been challenging. The social isolation became an issue for many of us. Overall, however, the outcome has generally been quite positive according to our study, with most people enjoying the many advantages of remote work. Although there were a few worrisome statistics, such as the fact that 68% of remote workers used their work hours to catch up on chores and 46% engaged in distractions – playing video games, watching TV, making personal calls, taking a nap – for the most part, many workers and employers saw an increase in productivity, a decrease in work-related costs, and most importantly, a reduction in stress... aside from issues related to the pandemic. So all in all, remote work has proven to be an advantageous endeavour, and is likely to become one of the top job search and hiring prerequisites.”

There are also health-related issues that need to be factored in.

In an article in The Quint, Garima Sadhwani detailed what overworking can do to our body and why it’s vital to maintain work-life balance. A pulmonologist, cardiologist, neurologist and a psychiatrist weighed in. 

Excerpts, below:

Dr Sameer Gupta, senior interventional cardiologist, Metro Hospital, Noida, says that there is a reason that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) have set guidelines for work hours per week.

Estimates published by the WHO and ILO in 2021 said that people who work over 55 hours a week have a 35 per cent increased risk of suffering from a stroke and a 17 per cent increased risk of dying from a heart condition.

Between 2000 and 2016, there was a 42 per cent increase in deaths from heart conditions and a 19 per cent increase in deaths from stroke in people who worked longer hours.

“Your dysregulated eating and sleeping habits can give way to diabetes or other comorbidities which can ultimately lead to cardiovascular diseases,” he said.

Dr Kuldeep Kumar Grover, head of critical care and pulmonology, CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram, says that overworking can cause a “wear and tear” reaction in one’s body.

“If you don’t work out, exercise, or have a sedentary lifestyle because of your work hours, it will impact your musculoskeletal system. You’ll be tired easily. You’ll become more prone to viral infections and respiratory infections. If you’re overworked, it can cause anxiety and lead to tachycardia and this can precipitate respiratory issues like breathlessness.”

Dr Kedar Tilwe, a consultant psychiatrist, Fortis Hospital Mulund, and Hiranandani Hospital, Vashi, explains that overworking can not just upset your physiological rhythms but can cause mental health issues, too.

“Overworking does not increase efficiency. It, in fact, disturbs work-life balance which can cause precipitation of anxiety, depression, stress, and then burnout. And if your sleep cycle is disturbed, it can also cause excessive substance issue problems.”

Dr Sudhir Kumar, a neurologist, Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, says that if you face any of the above-mentioned issues, you are at a significantly increased risk for brain stroke. 

People who are overworked often miss meals or quality sleep which can push them towards diabetes, hypertension, or metabolic conditions like obesity.

It’s easier said than done but setting boundaries at work is one way to start taking care of your health, especially when there is scientific evidence of how overworking impacts your body.

A 2019 study, titled The Effect of Long Working Hours and Overtime on Occupational Health, estimated that working over 61 hours each week can result in high systolic blood pressure. Neck pain, back pain, stress, fatigue, etc, are all byproducts of overworking, too.

And a 2019 Stanford University study showed that if you are working over 55 hours a week, your productivity keeps declining with each hour.

“Corporate programs that support work-life balance promote productivity, reduce turnover, and improve employees’ mental and physical health.”

So are 70-hour work weeks a good idea? No, as many studies and experts point out.

Remember Parkinson’s Law? Work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. Many of us can recall days when we sat idle in front of a computer, doing our darndest to look busy. We can either go back to that mind-numbing formula or, now that we’ve seen the benefits of allowing employees to use their hours as they will so long as the task at hand is completed, perhaps we can do a rethink on all this mandating back-to-the-office that’s going on.

And what was Narayana Murthy thinking? Who knows?

To learn more about psychological testing, download this free eBook here.

HOW TO DO NOTHING

In her first book, How To Do Nothing, Jenny Odell wrote about the importance of disconnecting from the “attention economy” to spend time in quiet contemplation.

But what if we don’t have time to spend?

In order to answer this seemingly simple question, Odell took a deep dive into the fundamental structure of our society and found that the clock we live by was built for profit, not people.

This is why our lives, even in leisure, have come to seem like a series of moments to be bought, sold, and processed ever more efficiently.

Odell shows us how our painful relationship to time is inextricably connected not only to persisting social inequities but to the climate crisis, existential dread, and a lethal fatalism.

Saving Time, Harper’s Bazaar’s and Esquire’s Best Book of the Year, offers different ways to experience time inspired by pre-industrial cultures, ecological cues, and geological timescales that can bring within reach a more humane, responsive way of living.

“As planet-bound animals, we live inside shortening and lengthening days alongside gardens growing, birds migrating, and cliffs eroding; the stretchy quality of waiting and desire; the way the present may suddenly feel marbled with childhood memory; the slow but sure procession of a pregnancy; the time it takes to heal from injuries.”

Odell urges us to become stewards of these different rhythms of life in which time is not reducible to standardized units and instead forms the very medium of possibility.

The book tugs at the seams of reality as we know it – the way we experience time itself – and rearranges it, imagining a world not centered on work, the office clock, or the profit motive.

If we can “save” time by imagining a life, identity, and source of meaning outside these things, time might also save us.