The Wire-to-Wire Workday? Completely Pointless

Everyone works, right? Whether we work a “9-to-5”, the night shift, have contractor positions, or write for Vocal, work is work. I recall that old biblical adage, “if a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat”. This rings true for all of us in our capitalistic society; we have to work to afford basic necessities, as well as the extras that make life a little easier. That's the simple part.

Where it gets complicated is here. We go into a school system that can't help us, and then plow headfirst into society with little to no plan. And then here we are, buried in student loan debt, seeking a job or build a brand to make ends meet. And given the pressure we’re under just from that (I’m not even talking about those of us with spouses to partner with or kids to support), we get to our routine, and feel like we have to be wired from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to sleep.

Whose brilliant idea was this, anyway?

Think about it; our entire day is centered around our work schedule. We get up, move our kids around, go to sleep, and even unwind in relation to how much work we do. It’s an additional mental burden on top of the traditional 9-to-5, 40 hour work week, which itself is an archaic construct, eroding our psyche. Societal pressure incarnate. How can I say this? Simple. Because of how we work. Everyone has heard of Facebook right? Instagram? Even the more recent hotness of TikTok? Well it is the time we spend on these apps during our workday that eat into that schedule and cost productivity. And more archaic mindsets of executives were very worried about this. And while some of those mindsets still exist, there are other studies that say social media is an asset to employee morale.

So who is right?

Your peace. That is who is right.

Whether it is social media, listening to music, reading a book, going for a walk, or even eating lunch, we need that time. In fact, not feeling comfortable with that basic lunchtime to unwind in the middle of the day can affect employees and the company’s bottom line (you know, because the company’s labor force is its life blood). And no, I mean “affect” to the point of suicide ideation. Even with this data, we have this societal paradigm to be “productive”, we have to be on “100” from the time we wake up until the time we go to sleep. And that’s just untrue.

Studies have shown that just four hours of focus can produce the same productivity as the “wire to wire” mindset. In fact, some studies say that is our limit. I’m not saying to completely discount employers, clients, goals, or whatever, and none of these are “hard and fast” rules to me. But societal pressures say we have to be on “go” all day in relation to our work, and I don’t think that is sustainable. Even in grad school, where in the biosciences, folks worked 40-45 hours a week when experiments were running smoothly (and this is the exception, and not the rule), the pressure to be “productive” is compounded, and mental health is all the more critical.

If you work a traditional job, or even a contractor position (even more so in that case), whether it is the “4-hour rule”, or some other method to pare the “burden of productivity”, find a way to balance things out. We often let life pass us by being wired to the rat race, costing us hobbies, family, friends, lovers, goals, and even our “raison d’être”. And that’s tragic, as companies ultimately have to protect themselves, and if heaven forbid we killed ourselves working or otherwise were rendered invalids, our old job would go up before our obituary. It is what it is. In short, don’t look at your work as unimportant; just look at yourselves as more important.

Go be productive, my friends!