The American work ethic has forced several generations to work more and more, and it is damaging our health, our families, our communities and our environment, according to John de Graaf, national coordinator for Take Back Your Time Day.
But something can be done to stop it.
Today marks the first Take Back Your Time Day, a day designated for Americans to take off from work and gather to discuss how our work lives impact other areas of our lives. The date was chosen because it happens nine weeks before the end of the year about how much more Americans work than Europeans, according to timeday.org., the Take Back Your Time Day website.
The event also happens during October, which was recently named ‘National Work and Family Month,’ after the United States Senate unanimously passed a resolution co-authored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D.-Mass.) asking President Bush to make ‘reducing the conflict between work and family a national priority.’
To celebrate Take Back Your Time Day, events will take place in cities nationwide. Boston will hold festivities at Faneuil Hall’s Great Hall from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., hosting local professors, authors and researchers familiar with the issue and encouraging audience members to participate in the discussions.
While many universities are holding sit-ins to raise awareness for the movement, Boston University spokesman Colin Riley said he did not know of any events taking place on campus.
Students especially should be interested in the day, de Graaf said in an interview, because generation after generation works more. The intense American lifestyle does not just affect working adults, de Graaf added – children are encouraged to participate is as many activities as possible.
‘By the time kids get to college, they’re burnt out, depressed, taking pills, seeing therapists,’ he said.
American consumerism drives people to work more, de Graaf hypothesized. Upper-class citizens work more so they can earn the money to buy large entertainment systems, sport utility vehicles and other expensive items, he said, ultimately raising the bar of what is necessary for ‘the good life.’
‘It keeps us on this treadmill, often getting into debt and having to work doubly-hard to get out of debt,’ he said.
Americans have none of the work-awareness other industrial countries have, and de Graaf said he hopes the Take Back Your Time movement will lead to discussion and reflection, and eventually policy changes.
‘It’s really a consciousness-raiser,’ de Graaf said. ‘It’s not a hell-raiser yet.’
Still, de Graaf said it is important for Americans to realize this overworking is an epidemic that requires examination to be cured.
‘When huge numbers of people have the same problem [such as stress and lack of time], it’s no longer a personal problem – it’s a social problem,’ he said, ‘and it has to be thought of and understood that way.’