Meaningful Returns

Some of us have no trouble doing this, but I know plenty of you do–both for personality-related reasons and industry related reasons. But I promise you none of those reasons are actually good ones.

This piece from the Harvard Business Review explains why the reasons are empty, but my favorite part is this part:

Here is the cherry on top. Many people have become work martyrs, thinking if they give and give, they will be more successful. But it doesn’t play out that way.

In NBC’s The Office, while trying to get a promotion from his boss Michael Scott, the awkward and overeager Dwight Schrute shows a spreadsheet documenting that he has never been late and has never taken a day off from work. He does not get the promotion. And that is exactly what the data bears out.

I used to work for a Big Four public accounting firm so I know a work martyr when I see one–it ain’t easy to just snap your fingers and stop being one. But come on folks, we gotta do better. Life without rhythms of work and rest is just a misspelling of the word “Stress.”