It’s almost impossible to escape the constant, gentle ding of our technology. Emails, texts, and notifications have worked alongside social media applications like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to keep the world connected. Now, your childhood best friend is only a tap away. The thought of being all connected is beautiful, until the realization that all really does mean all of us. That includes your boss, coworkers, and professors — not just long lost friends you can reach out to from time to time. In reality, technology has gone beyond connecting us to our friends and family from miles away; it has given us the ability to work anywhere, and capitalism expects that we do.
Technology, Meet Workism
To be fair, the age of technology did not invent the American affair with work. Going to work was essential long before cell phones. However, in recent years, it seems the value placed on work has transcended its monetary reward. So much so that it has given rise to a new term: workism. This term indicates a yearning for work that goes beyond what we’ve seen historically. In the past, most people worked as a simple means to an end; work was vital for survival. But now, work has transcended this basic connection to become a means of finding identity for many. Workism is the idea that work is not just a means of economic production but is also a centerpiece for identity, community, and purpose.
In fact, America promotes work so much that many of the wealthiest people actually work the most. From 1980 to 2005, the highest earners increased the amount they work by more than 6 hours a week while the lowest earners saw a decrease of almost a full hour. This change resulted in the highest earners working on average four hours more per week than the lowest earners. This trend runs counter to the idea that we work to purchase leisure. It seems that the American elite continues to work far beyond what is necessary for survival.
Work and leisure are positioned as opposites, so it may sound absurd to say that people find comfort in their work, but this is often the case. Jobs are one of the first things we ask others about themselves and a common way to identify people. Beyond that, we often tell young adults who will soon join the workforce to “find their passion” in their work or “find a job they enjoy doing.” While I’m not advocating we advise students to pursue careers in fields where they don’t have interest, the narrative that your work should be your source of passion can quickly turn into one where work is a source of identity.
The merging of work with leisure is in line with findings that the U.S. drags behind other nations in how much we have cut annual work hours in response to technological advances in productivity. From 1950 to 2012, the U.S. cut work hours by an average of 60 hours while similarly rich and industrialized nations like France and Germany cut work hours by 684 and 991 hours, respectively. While other countries have used technology to generate more leisure time, America has not followed suit. More recent data also shows that college-educated Americans work hundreds of hours more per year than their counterparts without bachelor’s degrees. While higher education may often be positioned as the key to unlocking greater wealth, it also comes with the cost of more labor. It seems the middle ages — where the rich filled their time with balls and banquets while serfs spent countless hours toiling away — have been replaced by an era where wealth is used to buy both leisure and work.
The new era is where the power of technology comes into play. Now, instead of going to the office, we can work from home. Text and email are no longer just for relaxed correspondence between friends; they’re ways to disseminate messages among colleagues during off-hours. In some jobs, a response may even be expected well after the end of the traditional workday. What was once an impossible task — to be accessible at all times in all places — has become the norm, even for positions that aren’t as high pay and high profile as CEOs. And in our technologically advanced capitalist society, we have largely accepted this reality.
Quarantine vs. Capitalism
Now, imagine that a worldwide crisis was to cut off access to nearly all aspects of life that bring people joy. Besides grocery shopping for sustenance, picking up a few pills from the pharmacy, or a brief sanity walk, the outside world is off limits. That would be a situation reminiscent of the quarantine that COVID-19 has enforced on citizens around the world. It provides a unique lens to examine the relationship between citizens and their work.
Shortly after COVID-19 forced college students and working adults to return home, people designated rooms as” Zoom rooms” and cleared office spaces, so they could work from home. Companies set the tone for what working from home would look like with dress codes, background standards, and a brief lesson on the mute feature. There was a brief pause initially as people adjusted to their new environments and expectations, but rapidly, we were all expected to return to full capacity. Once guidelines were outlined, they were expected to be followed just as if we were in the office. And somehow, it didn’t feel unreasonable.
Despite this becoming our accepted reality, I implore you to consider what quarantine would look like in a less technological world. A world where being at home means being at home — not being at work from home. A hundred years ago, when the Spanish Flu swept the world, schools and businesses closed similar to today. However, citizens were not expected to attend school and work from home. Instead, they were left to expend the days’ hours as they saw fit. In contrast, we are bound to devices that keep us well connected to work but not well connected to each other.
Quarantine is a psychological stressor. It induces feelings of isolation and frustration that grow as the length of the quarantine increases. In the midst of navigating this sudden isolation and frustration, we are expected to work as if we are free to explore the world. Innovation in technology has allowed a pandemic that would have otherwise caused a universal halt to become a halt on everything except work. Schools still expected students to do readings and problem sets; workplaces still expected professionals to send off emails and attend meetings. The only change has been our ability to enjoy the niceties of life.
Enveloped by Expectations
The expectation of continuing work demonstrates a need to rethink our association with it. It seems unreasonable to expect the same output from employees and students amid a pandemic, but our frame of reference for work expectations denies this logic. If you’re working from home, that means work from home. The psychological strain of combining our work and leisure spaces, the loss of connection to friends and family, and the worry of contracting and spreading a deadly virus are all terms we’ve come to accept as we continue to work. We are forced to adapt as “unprecedented times” slowly evolve into simply “present times.”
It’s important to note that millions of people lost their jobs due to COVID-19. Working from home is a luxury that many haven’t been afforded. To have stability in a time of panic is a comfort. However, it is not free of charge. Continuing to work with the same expectations of output during a global pandemic exacts a psychological toll. Daily coverage of a rising death toll and a state of pseudo house arrest decreases people’s mental bandwidth.
It is vital that we are cautious as our affair with technology continues. Our mental health depends on our ability to parse out work and life. At present, with nowhere to go and no one to see but a calendar full of meetings, it seems the two have become one. This result is a product of our workism mindset before the quarantine was ever a thought. We must be more careful in walking the line between innovation and overwork, connected and enveloped before suddenly the gentle ding is gentle no more.
Image Credit: “Working from home during Corona Virus on coffee table with laptop” by microbizmag is licensed under CC BY 2.0