Your blood alcohol level endangers everyone around you.
Our global team won a huge deal. We got emails and voicemails raving about how the team worked together, pulled all-nighters, and managed to get everything in sync for the big bake-off. The win was the largest in the company’s history. Wasn’t that fantastic?
Sure, from a revenue standpoint. But here’s the rub. The company promoted work/life balance and taking vacations, but the most celebrated salespeople were the ones who worked around the clock. There’s a disconnect there.
I wasn’t on that global team. There’s no way I could pull an all-nighter or work 18-hour days. Most of us can’t and still be on our game.
This “working till you drop” behavior has become increasingly challenging in our gig economy. My Lyft driver said he worked six days a week. He drove for Lyft in the afternoon and evening and had another job in the morning. He got about four hours of sleep a night. I’m glad I was only going a short distance. I sensed his reaction time was off when he made two U-turns in the middle of city streets.
Think you’re different? Check out this well-researched BCC article by José Luis Peñarredonda, “What happens when we work non-stop.” He writes:
It makes accidents more likely, boosts stress levels, and even causes physical pain. But the real problem is that many people just can’t afford not to do it.
According to [the] latest International Labour Organization statistics, more than 400 million employed people worldwide work 49 or more hours per week, a sizeable proportion of the near 1.8 billion total employed people worldwide.
