Working Too Hard, Not Playing Enough?

For my entire life, it has been drilled into me that in order to be happy I need to be successful. My education was an investment. Thirteen years of my hometown’s top private school, competitive dance lessons, traveling sports teams, and now a private school college education - these expenses very quickly added up.

While I am of course so unbelievably grateful for the opportunities my parents have worked so hard to provide for me, the pressure I feel to land a good job and make money is building up as my graduation and entrance into the real world is approaching ever so quickly.

I believe these are common feelings my peers and I share. It is our goal to strive towards a better life and build off of what our parents gave us. Work hard, play hard : this is the American way.

Work hard, play hard - yes. But maybe not this hard.

And this drive is great. It is what pushes us to perform and succeed. However, it also leads us to look at life as work. Wake up, clock in, clock out. Vacations? Absolutely not. As reported by the American Management Association, one in four Americans do not even receive paid time off or paid holidays, the only advanced economy in the world to do so. This divide is evident in the working world.

I can distinctly remember coming in during my first week and trying to get to know my coworker that sat near me. A bit intimidated by him, I began to converse about what I knew best: home. I asked him if he had ever visited the US, and he replied that he was actually planning on visiting California, LA in particular, in a few short months. Immediately, the first question I asked him was: “Oh, for work?”. He shrugged it off and explained he was taking time off from work to visit, simply because he had always wanted to, and while there he might even do a bit of filmmaking just for pleasure.

This of course was shocking to me. Here you had a man, likely in his early twenties, the very onset of his career, and he was taking time to himself to go travel and pursue something he actually enjoyed doing?

Unheard of.

While this is just one example, I think this story clearly highlights the difference in work attitudes between Americans and Europeans. While we are driven and motivated to find and achieve our ‘American dream’, what is at risk of getting lost is passion, discovery, and even our spark. Perhaps we can afford to learn a lesson or two from our overseas neighbors.