The other day, I was telling my friend about how good it felt when someone complimented my work ethic. She paused and asked, “What do we mean when we say someone has a good work ethic?”
As noted by Cari Romm in “There’s Such a Thing As Too Much Work Ethic,” work ethic is perceived as a “binary” trait, in that “having it is good, not having it is not.”
On its surface, having a good work ethic would appear to be better than lacking one. That is to say, it would be absurd of me not to recognize the value in being motivated and pursuing goals.
But work ethic has evolved beyond an indication of an individual’s dedication to achieving certain goals. It’s turned into a toxic “first-in-last-out” mentality where longer hours are falsely equated with a better performance.
The binary way we view work ethic as “having it is good, not having it is not” leads to dangerous consequences. Unlike other binaries such as night and day or cold and hot, there is no way to define this binary’s boundary.
We must stop applauding people for having a good work ethic.
Something as complex as work ethic — a characteristic itself composed of many other characteristics — cannot be reduced to merely good or bad.
This rhetoric perpetuates a dangerously ambiguous binary that leaves people overworking for the sake of convincing themselves — and others — that they’re part of the desired, good work ethic group.
In 2019, 60% of Americans working 50 to 59 hours a week felt overworked, and a staggering 77% of those working above 60 hours felt similarly. These feelings of burnout have only increased since the pandemic.
It’s hard to shake the notion that the more we work, the better we’ll be. This mindset has become entrenched over many years and affirmed when billionaires like Michael Bloomberg state, “I am not smarter than anybody else but I can outwork you — and my key to success for you, or anybody else is make sure you are the first one in there every day and the last one out to leave. Don’t ever take a lunch break or go to the bathroom, you keep working.”
Michael Steger, a psychologist at Colorado State University, describes our idealization of work ethic as the process of “introjection,” where the importance of hard and persistent work becomes dogma through years of people telling you it’s important.
We need to question our conceptions of work ethic and the “first-in-last-out” culture. When we compliment someone on their work ethic or their seemingly constant productivity, we must stop to think about what it is we are applauding.
“Unhealthy is what happens when the belief that work is inherently good transforms into the idea that downtime is inherently bad,” continues Romm in her article.
When we sacrifice our mental health in the name of work ethic, are we really being more productive? Will our long hours yield greater results?
As you might be able to guess, research says no. A study done by Boston University’s Erin Reid found that performance reviews between employees working 80 hours a week and employees pretending to work 80 hours did not differ. In other words, managers cared more about hours clocked in than actual performance, and working excessive hours did not actually yield more success in the workplace.
Besides the ample evidence that overwork negatively affects employees’ mental health and quality of life, it also negatively affects businesses. According to a report published by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, “long hours are associated with declining gains in productivity” and “overwork lowers demand for other workers, meaning there are fewer jobs to go around.”
For these reasons, I’ve resolved to stop complimenting people on their work ethic. I’ve also resolved not to compare the hours I commit to school or work with others.
In doing so, I’m releasing my commitment to the Bloomberg-perpetuated-dogma that overworking myself will somehow prove to myself and others that I am dedicated to achieving my goals and am therefore worthy of an interview, a promotion or even just my own self-validation.
We need to ask ourselves what it is that we are praising — or envying — when we compliment someone’s nonstop work ethic.
Can we consider a work ethic good if it’s unhealthy? How good is a work ethic if it’s at the expense of the individual’s mental health and personal commitments, and even at the expense of the company’s output as well?
