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Why Working Long, Hard Hours Gets You Behind (?)

By Andy Parkinson, on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

I was at a dinner party the other day and observed the following fascinating exchange (names have been changed to protect the innocent ):

Cheryl is enjoying her wine and poking away at her Blackberry when she notices her acquantance Jude had just arrived. Cheryl gets up and walks over to Jude. They greet eachother with a hug’s and hello’s. Jude asks, “Hey! How have you been?”

Cheryl proudly replies, “I’m stressed out! I’ve been putting in 10 hour days to finish a very important project at work and I can barely sleep at night. Its all I can think about.”

Jude, appearing to feel inferior, retorts, “That sounds great! But, I wish I had your schedule. I’ve been working 10 hour days and most weekends recently!”

Cheryl gets a bit defensive and quickly shoots back with, “Well, I’d trade my weekends to get rid of these headaches. At least you don’t get migranes twice a week! But it’s worth it. I bought a new boat, its a beautiful 40 footer. I’m just not sure when I’ll be able to find the time to use it!”

At that point I had lost interest and stopped listening. I’m pretty sure the pissing match continued for a while longer…

High Stress = Success!

I’d wager many of you have observed, or even participated in, an exchange simlar to this one. While stress is an inescapable part of life, I find it sad that there are people like Jude and Cheryl who brag about it like its a badge of honor. Stress has become another measuring stick for how successful they’ve become.

Convential wisdom says that in this fast-paced, digital world, we cannot disconnect from work… Especially in this economy! We must sacrifice our lives, our relationships, our hobbies and everything else that bears any real importance in life so we can sell more widgets for the company, get a promotion, get a bigger house, buy more cars, a bigger TV, etc.

For the majority of working adults, the biggest source of stress comes from the inability to disconnect from work… We all seem to struggle to find the elusive beast we call “work/life balance.” Of course at the end of a long, hard week we know its worth it because working those long, hard hours is how we get ahead, right?

Gotcha!

A recent Freakonomic-esque study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggests this conventional wisdom is quite wrong. I don’t actually follow such prestigous publications, but I’m fortunate that my good friend and business partner, Dr. Ken Nowack, does. In a recent post on our blog for talent development professionals, Results vs Activities, he shares:

In a new study using self-ratings, manager and peer ratings of 9,627 leaders in 33 countries found that managers who were rated higher in work-life balance were rated higher in career advancement potential than were workaholics.

I highly recommend you check out the entire post.

It’s important to acknowledge that the study did not tell us whethor or not those who had higher potential to advance actually did. I do know from other studies we’ve done that your managers and peers are generally looking through different lenses when they are rating others. Often peers are looking at leadership potential (and often they are pretty darn accurate). Managers generally rate on how well someone delivers bottom-line results. Both of these factors contribute greatly to your career advancement potential, which makes this study all the more important.

In addition to workaholics being less likely to advance, it is commonly known that they will experience more of the standard stress-related health effects, such as increased blood pressure, stomach issues, gray hairs, skin issues and sexual disfunction.

Manage Your Time, Work Less & Get Ahead?

As most readers know from first hand experience, practicing some sort of productivity system, (GTD, ZTD, 7 Habits, etc.) tends to very quickly result in increased productivity, which allows your to get more done in less time, which of course allows you to increase your work/life balance — provided you can downplay your competence just enough so that your boss doesn’t “reward’ you with extra work.

My interpretation of other stress & health info that I’ve been exposed to suggests that combining time management techniques like GTD with other work/life balance management techniques (to be discussed in later posts) create magical & multiplicative increases to your overall productivity.

So for those of you who practice productivity, keep it up… And Keep ignoring the dirty looks from your co-workers as you leave the office every day at 5:00 sharp. After all, they’ll probably be working for you one day.

This post represents the first of many in a new Stress & Health category here at The Cranking Widgets Blog. There is just too much data available linking stress & health management to productivity to ignore it as a very important factor in getting things done, living a better life and reaching your goals.

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http://www.organizeit.co.uk/ James @ Organize IT

Great read. Now that I feel I've “got” productivity it's such a refreshing experience because I seriously feel like I'm moving forward. I'm not just using it to just get more and more things done anymore, I'm being very selective and applying the productivity to key interests. I've got the techniques and habits in place that allow me to write regularly and consistently… and do it all without any stress and other ills.
http://blog.crankingwidgets.com/ Andy P @ Cranking Widgets

Hi James, thanks for the comment.

Glad you enjoyed the article. I think that is what it is important for people to remember… Eventually productivity becomes a way of life and us productivity geeks need to re-focus our attention on the more important parts of life.
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Stress management is very important, there are two type of stress, a positive and negative one. The positive one is really stimulating and results in sucess,but the other one may have bad consequences on your overall health. Thanks for this post.
http://www.gtdagenda.com Dan @ Gtdagenda

Great read.
Not only working long hard hours is not the way to productivity, you'll also be constantly living with a feeling I can describe as “doing one thing while feeling like you should be doing another”. Not too pleasant.
You have to also spend time unplugged.
http://www.gotomaxx.com/portal/erechnung.php joemel

more stress = success? its like killing yourself slowly, how can we taste our the products of our sweat if we still keep on working and not giving time for ourselves… by the way nice post.. I totally agree with you on these one.

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another thought provoking article you made, you made me think for myself…
keep it going, I'm loving it!!
——————————————–
Wandern Scharnitz
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Good working doesn't mean to spend all of your time to it. It will really give you stress. Give time for your self..
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Great read.
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After a long weekdays must spend your time relaxing to enjoyed your fruit of your success.
lovephileo1

I strongly agree with this post. However, I do not discount those hardworking, workaholic people who strive to get rich and make it. That's the way they understand success so they are highly motivated to press their body toward their goals. On the other side, there are many smart people but failed otherwise because they lack discipline and diligence or other failed because they fall short of attitude. I believe we are all called with unique dynamism and gifts to perform for our success. But I further believe if we can just perform by smart and hard ways and spice our life with character, then what can we call that? That's a double portion of success. Success upon success. My success story was inspired by a business coach mentor from kamja to which I owe moral credit.
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I stupidly had a fling well over a year ago now,….at the time my husband and i were going through a very rough patch…he was fighting in court with an ex business partner, he was working very long hours, no family time etc and taking me completley for granted,…and i felt really unloved and lonely at this time…so when this guy came along showing me the attention and affection i had been craving i'm affraid i took him up on it…i seen him 3 times in total then called it quits as i knew the harm it would cause,…and deep down i just wanted the man back i fell i love with many years ago…anyways my husband found out about it about 10 months ago, and however hard we try he cannot put it behind him and move on…i love him dearly as i said and i am soo ashamed and sorry for the hurt i caused him…i just want us to be happy again but he wont let it be he brings it up nearly every night and he is now stating to get very abusive, and was threatening to through me out in the rain at 4am,…thats how bad its got.he scares me…he wont seek any help…i'm at my wits and and feel like im ready for a breakdown…i know what i did was wrong but surely i cannot put up with this for long…i just want to have a happy future together and try and get him to move on with this because lifes too short…what can i do?
http://BurningMouthSyndrome.boomja.com Burning Mouth Syndrome

Yes I think it is important to have a work and life balance, otherwise not only one's health will be affected, work productivity will go down the drain as well. I have recently just finished several projects and I can tell you that I got miserable and feel stressed when I have too much on my hands, human is just not built for excessive multitasking, at least not for men, LOL!
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WSDOT was able to reopen one lane in each direction at 11 a.m. this morning. Crews were hard at work early this morning clearing snow from lanes of I-90 Snoqualmie Pass. Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond wanted the public to see how hard crews were working to get the highway open

regards
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nice thinkning about work. i liked this post very much. please post some more interesting matter next time…
http://www.nlp-training-devon.co.uk NLP DEVON

Not only working hard brings everything. It's obvious that you need to be smarter too. If a dumb ass works hard that means nothing
Jerry london

Agreed if your work hard you need to be very smart on the job you get. Yep if your a little dumb they will take the micky out of you not good been their done that.
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High Stress = Success! Well said! It's tough but you'll be rewarded, It's tiring but you'll get your vacation.
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Time management is really important especially to those who are always in a hurry like me (lol) Its been a while now since I figured out myself how to do the management effectively. I have so many passions that until now did not materialize. One of this is the loved of becoming a kiteboarder soon. I loved to fly but then again, the hindrances are tremendous. Again, time management should be applied no matter what.
niki23

When you take a pleasure in doing your job, the stress is not that tangible in my opinion.
http://www.skillsconverged.com/ Chelsea

Good article, I certainly used to think hard work and long hours equals success. I would feel guilty for not working as hard as some of my colleagues even though they did not achieve more than me! I've changed my ways after reading The 4 hour work week and by using GTD system. I feel much more relaxed and way more productive without working 9 to 5.
X Chelsea
cashadvanceloan

I would like to say that hard work should be always combined with an active rest!
carloscastellon

Great article. Personally, giving myself time really helps me “sharpen the saw”. Some people actually think that you're not being productive just because you're not panicking and agonizing over your tasks, when in fact, we know that the opposite is true.
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hello.. i want to thanks you..
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