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What do you think about people that value work just for the sake of work?

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At a previous job a co-worker bragged how he worked 72 hours a week. At the same time, there's a note in his cubicle written by his son saying he loved his dad and wished he didn't work as much.

To me, bragging about how many hours he worked was like a big middle finger to his son.

I work to live; I don't live to work.
 
Alone said:
I work for the sake of working and I don't expect others to. I do enjoy my off time but when I'm at work I like doing my job as best as possible.
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That's not to the extent that I was talking about then.
I know some people that while not at work simply can't sit around(or do whatever) and relax since they feel that's wasting time.
 
What I don't get is, why someones work ethic bothers you? Are you afraid it makes yourself look bad in comparison? Jealousy? Are you looking out for their well-being? It's their business and choice to work as hard as they want. Just chill out and let them be.

Also, there are fields where people with the "I work to live; I don't live to work" attitude would not bode well for the business or society.
 
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James3shin said:
What I don't get is, why someones work ethic bothers you? Are you afraid it makes yourself look bad in comparison? Jealousy? Are you looking out for their well-being? It's their business and choice to work as hard as they want. Just chill out and let them be.
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I don't care what other people do, but I am free to voice my opinion -- which is what this particular thread asked for in the title. Why would I be jealous of someone working long, long hours? I used to do it and then I wised up and even better, I still got top reviews and raises without having to work all those hours. Work smarter, not harder.

I feel sorry for those people because unless you're in a profession such as medicine, where you can legitimately say "I work to save lives," you're going to wake up one day and say "Why did I waste my time working all of those hours to the exclusion of time with friends or family?" The guy I mentioned earlier who works 20 hours a day -- trust me, no lives are being saved and in 50 years, no one is going to remember anything he did.

Also, there are fields where people with the "I work to live; I don't live to work" attitude would not bode well for the business or society.
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Like? It is one thing if you're a doctor and having to work long hours due to being a surgeon or something like that; you're saving lives. It is another if you're Joe Blow project manager and you're working 80 hours consistently because of unrealistic expectations of your employers. That used to be me, and then I realized it was not actually benefitting me so I stopped doing it. Guess what? I still got top reviews and top raises. Note that I am not saying it is bad working long hours; there are occasions when all of us have to do that. What I am saying is that it is bad if you're ALWAYS working long hours.
 
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I learned my lesson when I was repeatedly given "urgent!!11!!!!!" tasks at 5:00 each day that "HAD TO BE DONE!!!!" by 8:30 AM the next morning. I'd work late (often until 9:00 PM or later) getting the work done and turn it in, only to see that weeks later, no one had even reviewed my work. That was an instance of the boss crying "Wolf!!" too many times so after it happened one too many times, I just didn't do it. I figured that if my personal time was viewed as being so worthless or unnecessary, I needed to readjust his expectations so the next time he gave me yet another "urgent!!" task at 5:00 for the next morning, I pushed it off to the side and left on time. Predictably, nothing was said to me the next morning but eventually he did say "Where is that analysis I asked for?" I looked at him and said "I didn't have time to finish it. I'll have it done by the end of the week." It was amazing how well that worked out and I know that my boss got my message loud and clearly because the late urgent requests really subsided.
 
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IndyColtsFan said:
That should be everyone's motto and fortunately, I learned it while I was still relatively young.
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Except for people who really love what they do. If they want to devote themselves to what they love, hey more power to them. Admittedly there are too few of them to account for the number of workaholics.

I'm kind of conflicted on this topic. On one hand, it's their business to be a workaholic, and it does create productivity (this may be debatable as sometimes people tend to produce worse results when working overtime), on the other hand, they foster unreasonable expectations from employers, creating misery for others or even themselves. I personally think too many people are pressured into being workaholics by external or internal expectations, and it doesn't really make them happy, and that's wrong. Some people though may find genuine happiness in working just for the sake of working (i.e. not from some form of pressure or monetary reward). I'm not sure what to think of them.
 
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James3shin said:
What I don't get is, why someones work ethic bothers you? Are you afraid it makes yourself look bad in comparison? Jealousy? Are you looking out for their well-being? It's their business and choice to work as hard as they want. Just chill out and let them be.

Also, there are fields where people with the "I work to live; I don't live to work" attitude would not bode well for the business or society.
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Agree here.

I work to live, not the other way around, but society is better off because of people who do live to work. They may make me look lazy by comparison but I don't really care. I still do good work at my job, I just wouldn't cut it at certain highly demanding jobs and that's okay with me.
 
It's all trade-offs. If I had all the time in the world I would probably do everything myself, just to learn it. Cutting my lawn is easy enough that I do it myself, it's a 15 minute thing (my lawn is very small). I also tiled a small room myself (7 ft. by 7 ft.). It's not about saving money, it's about "I'd like to try this, it shouldn't take that much time, and I should be able to do it, so I'll just do it myself".

On the other hand, I had to get my patio resurfaced due to leaks. I did some research on how I might go about doing it and realized it would be a pretty huge task for me (no real experience in that kind of work, the patio is big, and a mistake could be catastrophic since leaks would mean serious damage to the room below). So I paid someone else to do it.

One of my co-workers has basically the opposite mentality from me, so when he needs something done he happily pays someone else to do it. I think both are perfectly valid ways of doing things. I just like the experience of doing things myself when it's within reason (I certainly have enough leisure time right now anyway).
 
I don't think either methodology is ideal. You need to have a balance.

If you don't enjoy your job then you're doing it wrong. "Working to live" is incredibly stupid.

Working for the purpose of working is an oxymoron, who does that? You work either because you enjoy it or need the money.

And the reality of the society that we're in, is that there are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate, to enable them to buy things they don't need, to impress people they don't like.
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http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/nigel_marsh_how_to_make_work_life_balance_work.html
 
Old Hippie said:
And that's as far as it goes.

Anything other than that is shouldn't be anyone else's business.
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Argh! What is it lately on AT where we have all these "it is none of your business" kinds of posts?!?! Of course it isn't our business (duh!), but we were asked for our opinions. It isn't like we're going out and forcing people to stop working.
 
bhanson said:
I don't think either methodology is ideal. You need to have a balance.

If you don't enjoy your job then you're doing it wrong. "Working to live" is incredibly stupid.
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I see what you're saying, but here is how I think about it. If I won a lottery which is large enough to support me the rest of my life, would I keep working? The answer is definitely NO and there is zero hesitation in that response. I don't enjoy my work that much. It is an OK job and like most jobs, has its highs and lows, but there are many other things I'd rather do and unfortunately, none of those pay the bills as well. I have sweet perks and benefits and from experience, the grass isn't always greener on the other side, so I am not sure what the future holds for me. I am working on my PMP certification as a starter and it may lead me to a new company eventually.
 
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i knew someone who was "working" 80+ hour weeks, but all he did was send e-mails asking other people to do his work the whole time.

The point is, are you sure he's really doing all that stuff that he claims?
 
gophins72 said:
i knew someone who was "working" 80+ hour weeks, but all he did was send e-mails asking other people to do his work the whole time.

The point is, are you sure he's really doing all that stuff that he claims?
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If you're talking to me and my story about the exec who was working 100+ hours a week, I think it was a case of both -- he did a large portion of the work himself but also sent tons of email. Based on my interaction with him in this major project we're working on for one of his departments, he micromanages down to the smallest level of detail.

As an example, one of the systems we have (without getting too specific since I don't want to reveal my company) deals with project management and has tons of prepopulated task lists for seasonal projects. This system was developed recently but before he took over this large department. One of the things he did was read through EVERY SINGLE TASK list and start complaining about them. Come on -- this system was developed with the work of lots of people on staff, including another Sr. VP, who have TONS of experience in this area and know what they're doing. But he wants to make all these changes because he apparently knows best, which is ironic considering his old group NEVER uses the system they developed for a similar purpose. Yes, he is in charge and by all means, well within his authority. But IMO, as a Sr. executive, you just don't manage down to that minute level of detail unless there are complaints or issues being caused by these systems (there aren't). You rely on your staff or you delegate an underling to review and report back to you. I think he is a textbook case of someone needing to work smarter, not harder.

Anyway, we've looked at the VPN logs and this guy works so much he literally wears out his Blackberry and laptop and needs a new one very 6 months. I am not joking or exaggerating either. We got him a Panasonic Toughbook once and had a department pool on how long it would last. It lasted 6 or 7 months.

Also, I need to make a distinction here. There is a difference between working for a company and working for your own company. If I had my own company, I'd work tons of extra hours with no complaints because I'd be the boss and I'd be doing something I absolutely love and have full authority over. Sure, there would be components of the job I wouldn't like, but working for yourself is much easier to justify than working for someone else. Contrast that to working for someone else, when you're often given projects that make no sense or have no real business justification and you're stuck doing busy work.
 
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Why would you worry about somebody that does enough work to take care of themselves? There are plenty of other people that try to mooch off the work of others, they should be the ones you are angry at.
 
my friend and coworker is like that. i think it's awesome. whatever gets someone up and going in the day, more power to them. i value work and i like working as well.
 
child of wonder said:
At a previous job a co-worker bragged how he worked 72 hours a week. At the same time, there's a note in his cubicle written by his son saying he loved his dad and wished he didn't work as much.

To me, bragging about how many hours he worked was like a big middle finger to his son.

I work to live; I don't live to work.
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I remember you saying that one before.

I had worked a 70hr week when I was assist project manager, and had alot of fun doing that. Despite how exhausting it was.
But I don't have friends, or a lover. Rather just go 25/8, while I'm still young, dumb, and have energy to burn. Employers don't seem to value my suicidal work ethic though.
 
Sounds like my dad, if you're not working on something, you're lazy. Ironically, he's the laziest guy I know. Especially since he retired. 😛
 
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