Recline, don’t ‘Lean In’ (Why I hate Sheryl Sandberg) - The Washington Post:
The
general American tendency to think that “more time at work” equals
“better work” is exacerbated by the All Crisis All the Time culture of
foreign policy. Global crisis never sleeps, and neither do the
overworked staffers at the Pentagon, the State Department or the White
House. It’s little wonder that many of the gifted young female staffers
who enter these workplaces hit a wall at some point, and come to the
painful realization that work and family obligations aren’t always
things you can simply “balance.” Often, these weights become too heavy.
They can crush you.
And
this isn’t just about women. Men — and our society more broadly — also
suffer when both work and parenting are intensive, round-the-clock
activities.
Back in the day, Henry Ford didn’t advocate the
eight-hour day for his auto assembly line workers because he was a nice
guy. He advocated the eight-hour day because research demonstrated that
worker productivity cratered after more than eight hours. As Brigid
Schulte documents in her forthcoming book, “Overwhelmed: Work, Love and
Play When No One Has the Time,” humans can only take so much for so
long. When a workplace is full of employees who always lean in and never
lean back, it’s full of employees who are exhausted, brittle and
incapable of showing much creativity or making good decisions.
Sometimes,
overwork gets downright dangerous. We have tough legislation mandating
adequate rest periods for truck drivers and airline pilots — not because
we think they need their beauty sleep, but because when overtired
drivers and pilots make mistakes, people can die. When did we come to
believe that crucial national security decisions are best made by people
too tired to think straight?