All work and no play

It was a wise man who said that only work without play would make Jack a dull boy. This has been the enlightened guidance for a long, long time. A few corporate heavyweights, having made to the top of their respective ladders have indeed earned the right to give the lesser mortals their ‘Gyaan”. We should all work for seventy hours, while another oracle of similar fortitude pushed the envelope further to ninety hours. This busybody went so far as to find it worthless to stay at home even on a Sunday because the majority of men have nothing better to do except ‘stare at their wives’ or perhaps other objects of endearment. The miniscule minority of one or two or a handful set are not staring at their wives and are devotedly working for the good of humanity. This clarion call from a hallowed office suite has led to a memes fest and a serious rethink by all the votaries of work-life balance.

As the Chinese keep saying, we live in interesting times. Freedom of speech is an inalienable right but there is no compulsion that speech should make sense or at least be based on an informed thought process of the individual. So it would not be fair to shut someone off for an outlandish viewpoint. With an abundance of artificial intelligence dominating the virtual world, we are bound to get weird responses in the real one. But we are getting away from the abounding toxicity in this world. The self-proclaimed builders of the modern world think that robotic minded humans would make up the ideal work force. Life is equal to full time, 24/7 devotion to work, is possibly the saddest equation that is sought to be made a benchmark of lived reality. No leisure, no pleasure, no joy of moments without care and hence no seeking excellence in creativity. A soulless world, it would be. Newton would not have discovered gravity, had he not been idly watching the apple fall from a tree in the garden of Woolsthorpe Manor, located in Lincolnshire, England. Archimedes should not have been in the tub full of water and the world of Hydrostatics would have been infinitely poorer. As life happens all the time, so does ones’ preoccupations look for ways ahead out of entangled situations of the workplace. A monofocal life is anathema to a purposeful and joyful existence. The world of arts, music, pottery, cinema and an incredible number of hobbies and personal pursuits add the needed zing to a wholesome human being. This is not to say that productive work occupies the last or least priority in the day of an adult.

There is indeed no gainsaying that an honest day’s labour is a contractual and moral commitment of an individual so placed. Doubtless, Nation building needs dedication, and devotion to one’s line of duty wherever and whatever vocation. But slavery and bonded labour have no place in the matrix of committed work. Yes, there are employers who have created working conditions so toxic as being nearly akin to serving in bondage and any assertion of need for rest and recreation is considered sinful. It is this work culture that creates unhappy citizens, who then have unhappy families who give rise to disjointed individuals and as a result the civil society becomes less civil. The citizenship has a right to be happy and even though not recognised as legally enforceable, is nevertheless a lawful entitlement in the scheme of nature’s bounties. Indeed, happiness has become a measure of a nation’s index and their geographies becoming most liveable when their environments become so fetching and attractive.

To give the devil some space, it is quite possible that these advocates of seven days working week have created such salubrious conditions of work that their workforce is so happy as to not want to go home. Remote possibility it seems, but a possibility for sure. Also where one’s vocation is also their personal passion, spending endless hours is natural with nary a thought for their emotional strings. This extensive commitment of time and energy is transient and linked to schedules and deadlines. Such phases come and go in every work life. To make seventy or ninety hours an imposition is bordering on a torture chamber like environment. Even a voluntary commitment for this kind of schedule will only lead to decays of body and mind, the latter being disastrous.

However, it is the ‘hustle culture’ pervading in various spheres of work that needs to be paused for good. Everything to be prepared overnight, presentations to be ready as of yesterday and several other unrealistic and many times unnecessary deadlines, have become a feature of working environments. There is no managerial realisation that this psychological pressure to outperform each other impacts personal milestones of the workers. A working mother could not go to her child’s school performance. And there are many examples of people sacrificing valuable personal promises by lowering their priorities so that their professional profile of dedication is not dented. There was this story of a hard working father who spent day and night in his work place while his children were growing up only to miss an emotional connect in their adult life, much to the eternal regret of the father. Such is the dilemma that is faced by millions in our land. Joseph Heller, the author of a best seller, Catch-22, was once told that a friend working as an investment banker, made twice as much money as his book did in a year. Heller, merely said, my book gave me “Enough”. There is an underlying lesson in doing enough and getting enough without going for the skies. Maybe it is best to settle for that. The famous poet WH Davies said it for all humanity,” A poor life this, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare”.

All said and done there is no conclusive position between the protagonists and antagonists.

The writer is Former Director, India Habitat Centre. Views expressed are personal