Party On, Garth ⇥ foreignpolicy.com

Charles Kenny, for Foreign Policy magazine:

Working 24/7 isn’t the road to prosperity, much less happiness, and there are numbers to prove it. In fact, across rich countries, it turns out there’s no close link between the average hours people put in at the office and how much they make. So go ahead: Take that vacation.

There’s a certain culture, particularly within the tech industry, that’s obsessed with how many hours one puts into their job. Some people feel a sense of one-upmanship; that if they get to work at 8:00 in the morning and don’t leave until 10 at night, that it somehow makes them better, or more important, than those who stick to a 9-5 schedule.

I was talking with a colleague about the distinctly French attitude of working as little as is possible. They regarded that as lazy, and as a sign of weakness. I thought it was the smartest thing one can do. I love my job. I really, really do. But I prefer to spend as much of my time elsewhere as is possible, while still earning a living.