Employment illusion: why we do not have much to do, it seems to us
A Life / / December 19, 2019
We often have the feeling that we are all the time busy. We are continually overworked and friends and not enough time for a family. It may seem that everything is logical: we now feel more engaged, because we have more cases. But this is not the case.
The total amount of time that people spend on jobs in Europe and North America over the past few decades not grown. Moreover, the findings suggest that people who consider themselves to be very busy, usually not too busy.
Gershuni Jonathan (Jonathan Gershuny)
What's the deal?
On the one hand, this is due to the economy. When it develops, and per capita income is growing, while literally becomes more valuable. Every single working hour is more expensive than before, so we are at all times strive to catch as much as possible.
On the other hand, affects the type of work. Earlier when people were mainly engaged in agriculture and industrial production, though the work was physically hard, but had a certain scope. You can not harvest a crop before it matures; impossible because the amount of material available to produce more products.
Now everything has changed. As Tony Crabbe (Tony Crabbe), author of the book "Insanely busy. How to get out of the whirlpool of endless affairs"We live in an" infinite world. " We are always waiting for new incoming messages, ordinary meetings, should always be something else to read or think. Thanks to modern technology we can work wherever we are: at home, on holiday or in the gym. Naturally, as a result we feel overloaded.
Despite the fact that our physical capacity and energy reserves are limited, we are trying to carry out an infinite number of cases. We constantly feel the social pressure at work and at home and try to do everything, but it is not only difficult, but it is physically impossible.
No wonder we are constantly looking at the clock. In this psychological studies confirm that this obsession with time actually leads to a decrease in work performanceMichael A. DeDonno.Perceived time pressure and the Iowa Gambling Task. Not to mention the ability to empathizeJ. M. Darley, C. D. Batson.From Jerusalem to Jericho: A study of Situational and Dispositional Variables in Helping Behavior. . Therefore, when we are overwhelmed, we often fail distribute his time: we take for what we can not finish, or perform minor first case, a significant reserve for later. That's a vicious circle.
Perhaps the worst thing is that this way of thinking applies to our spare time. Even when we issued an hour or two to rest and recovery, we think that they need to carry out "productive."
If there's a cure for this epidemic of employment, in addition to the widespread introduction of 21-hour work week, it is the knowledge, how illogical became our outlook on life.
Previously, a symbol of wealth, success and social superiority had the opportunity to not work. Who is an indicator of high status - employment. "Wealthy people in our society are often very busy, and not without reason - says Gershuni. - If you ask someone if he is busy, most likely answer you will hear: "Of course, busy, because I'm not worse than others!" "
conclusions
Too often we measure its value not by the results, which have reached, and by how much time is spent. We live at a frantic pace - partly because it gives us a sense of self-importance. If you think about it, it makes no sense. Maybe we would have understood it if taking time to reflect. That's just we're always busy.