Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture is Bad for Business - and How to Fix It by Malissa Clark [2024]

BATB score: 9/10 🤔

Best as: workaholism is not only / not just putting extra hours at work, it’s a toxic mental illness

Best for: anyone who can relate > “Workaholism involves that feeling in the pit of your stomach that you can’t rest, that you ought to be working all the time. Workaholism also involves feeling guilty and anxious when you are not working. It’s the fact that even if you are not physically doing work, you are thinking about that email you should send, mulling over that upcoming work project, or ruminating about something that happened at work that day. It’s living with the fear of losing something - status, money, the job itself - if you’re not working.”

BATB lingering thought: damn, we need Workaholic Anonymous; damn, business idea!

BATB learnt vocabulary:

“Presenteeism” working on sick leave

“Zeigarnik Effect” a phenomenon where unfulfilled goals tend to persist in the mind

“Parkinson’s Law” work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion

“Korashi” + “Guolaosi” Japanese and Chinese for “death from overwork” respectively

“Karojisatsu” Japanese for death by suicide induced by overwork

Best to: proposed solution is a 4-days-work-week (but do you dare to introduce this change in your org?)

Best quotes: “the workaholic demonstrates immersion through fear or anxiety of being not immersed, not necessarily through genuine interest in the work”

“No matter the job’s requirements, the workaholic will always do more.”

“The racing and the busyness and the addiction to achievements and accolades and awards and grants and publications and titles. But then it’s overlapping in the sense that it’s an addiction to the process, that pressure, and that productivity.”

“The only time you rest should not be when you are dead asleep. You have to have rest in your waking hours.”

“The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate.”