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Why do we work so hard?

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  1. #1

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    Why do we work so hard?

    Excellent long read on 1843 (just discovered this) an Economist magazine of sorts....

    One possibility is that we have all got stuck on a treadmill. Technology and globalisation mean that an increasing number of good jobs are winner-take-most competitions. Banks and law firms amass extraordinary financial returns, directors and partners within those firms make colossal salaries, and the route to those coveted positions lies through years of round-the-clock work. The number of firms with global reach, and of tech start-ups that dominate a market niche, is limited. Securing a place near the top of the income spectrum in such a firm, and remaining in it, is a matter of constant struggle and competition. Meanwhile the technological forces that enable a few elite firms to become dominant also allow work, in the form of those constantly pinging emails, to follow us everywhere.



    This relentless competition increases the need to earn high salaries, for as well-paid people cluster together they bid up the price of the resources for which they compete. In the brainpower-heavy cities where most of them live, getting on the property ladder requires the sort of sum that can be built up only through long hours in an important job. Then there is conspicuous consumption: the need to have a great-looking car and a home out of Interiors magazine, the competition to place children in good (that is, private) schools, the need to maintain a coterie of domestic workers – you mean you don’t have a personal shopper? And so on, and on.


    The dollars and hours pile up as we aim for a good life that always stays just out of reach. In moments of exhaustion we imagine simpler lives in smaller towns with more hours free for family and hobbies and ourselves. Perhaps we just live in a nightmarish arms race: if we were all to disarm, collectively, then we could all live a calmer, happier, more equal life.

    https://www.1843magazine.com/feature...e-work-so-hard
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  2. #2

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    Most people who grow old look back on their life and think very little about their past jobs. It's relationships with people that matter most, yet most people invest a lot more time in their job then they do relationships.

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  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Open Casket:
    Most people who grow old look back on their life and think very little about their past jobs. It's relationships with people that matter most, yet most people invest a lot more time in their job then they do relationships.
    Yep most do and I don't envy them. Thankfully I got off the mouse wheel 15 years ago and took control of my life by working a lot smarter. It's great when you take control, very liberating
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    what'd you do skyhook?


  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Open Casket:
    Most people who grow old look back on their life and think very little about their past jobs. It's relationships with people that matter most, yet most people invest a lot more time in their job then they do relationships.
    Read the article. It highlights that these days many professional people's social lives tie together with their jobs - so the relationships and the job become much less easy to separate. I have many friends who are also work colleagues so it resonates.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by HK_Katherine:
    Read the article. It highlights that these days many professional people's social lives tie together with their jobs - so the relationships and the job become much less easy to separate. I have many friends who are also work colleagues so it resonates.
    I did read the article, thanks. In this day and age people are working so much that they only have time to make work friends. A sign of the times for many....
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  8. #8

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    I think he is generalising way too much. For the vast majority of working people it is go to work to get paid then sod off.

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  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by hullexile:
    I think he is generalising way too much. For the vast majority of working people it is go to work to get paid then sod off.
    Doubt they're the audience that the article is aimed towards.