Stress and Working Yourself to Death

We all must work. Whether it is an honest job or not, we all work somehow. Many of us, however, work ourselves to the point where we can no longer work. Doesn't have to be physical. Some of the hardest workers I know barely lift anything over 5 pounds in their work day. But this is the point of this whole damn entry- most of us, and I mean as a nation (U.S.A.), work way too long, and way too hard.

Where does it end? With debt, cost of living, unexpected expenses, most people have to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Many other countries that we share the planet with set a maximum hour limit to a work week. America does not. We also among the countries that have the most of our men and women working over 40 hours a week.

There are no laws regulating paid sick days (a company does not have to offer them) and employers expect more and more and more from us on average as money and resources get tighter. The article listed in this paragraph begun to suggest that this type of cycle is more insidious than circumstantial: and that's not just me whining- there is only so much a human being can do in a day before work suffers. Before life suffers.

Here's a look at offered vacation days around the world that'll make you sad:

Source: http://20somethingfinance.com/american-hours-worked-productivity-vacation/

Don't understand the graph? Me either. So, I found this webpage that details it all. And I quote:

"This report reviewed international vacation and holiday laws and found that the United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers any paid vacation or holiday."

Now of course this doesn't mean that NO-ONE takes vacation days, but what I found interesting is that Americans actually wind up giving back vacation days, i.e. not using them. In this article, it is stated that, "In 2009, harrumphs Expedia, Americans 'gave back' a total of 436m vacation days." That number has probably increased since then. If we do get offered vacation days, sometimes we don't take them to try and do more at work to get ahead. When we do take them, we typically don't use all of them, and sometimes? We can't use all our vacation days if they're not paid. We can't afford to miss work!

What have we become? Forget America for a second. What has a human being become? We just...work until death? Is that what we are? A tireless, bio-machine that simply goes to work, keeps working, and then expires without retirement benefits. People. We're not meant to live our lives this way.

Easier said than done of course. But. Yes, there's always but. But. I wanted to see what working does to your body. According to this website, "the latest findings discovered by scientists at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health support results from a 2011 British survey that revealed that doing more than 11 hours of work a day raised heart disease risks by 67 percent." The article then suggested that poor diet, lack of exercise (these two most commonly associated with office jobs in my opinion AND from personal experience) creates a well? In a word? Fatal combination.

Then, being under the constant stress of working all the time, your body produces cortisol, which is good in short amounts, but when your bloodstream is flooded with the stuff 24/7, you can see all sorts of dangerous side effects, like increased blood pressure, and a compromised immune response. And then, you can enjoy a nice heart attack for all you hard work and dedication.

Source: http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/coronary_artery_blockage_000441.htm

But as Americans, we work more than most other 1st world countries. Which is startling. Aren't we always told that Americans have zero work ethic? Have no spine for true, hard work? Not all of us. Some? Sure. But not all of us. Not me. Probably not you, either. Here's what I found (quote taken from here):

"The UN International Labour Organisation said the average Australian, Canadian and Japanese worker worked about 100 hours, or 2.5 weeks less than the average American per year. Brazilians and British workers worked 250 hours, or more than five weeks less, while Germans worked roughly 500 hours, or 12.5 weeks less."

We all work hard. But it seems that America is working the "hardest". And this is not a completely good thing. Americans, whether they were born and raised here, or immigrated from a different land, work way too much. Race doesn't play into it. Location does. Why America? Why do we demand so much for so little? Why are we not the only ones thinking this way? I have no idea. One could speculate, of course. Economy, ethics, greed, this list could go on and on. But the fact of the matter is we, humans, all work too hard. Life winds up becoming weekend to weekend, and if you work on the weekend, you may have no rest at all!

So what are we to do? I don't know.

Do you?