Like most people, you probably dread Monday.
That day when the workweek gets reset, and it’s back to the grind.
Another 40 hours of toil, stress, and never having enough time. In fact, if you’re struggling to make ends meet in these tough economic times, your 9 to 5 might have already morphed into an 8 to 6.
Many studies indicate that ever-increasing hours of work cause a host of health issues for employees and may be outdated given the phenomenal advance of technology over the last half century.
But there is another detrimental factor to overwork that you may not have considered:
The toll on the earth.
Climate scientists have repeatedly proven that consumption needs to decrease for humans to achieve a sustainable society. We need to dial back consumption of travel, materials, and more to decrease emissions and reel warming back.
Yet, the worldwide trend has been one of ever-increasing consumption: of energy, fuel, forests and clean water. Clearly, this desperately needs to be addressed.
But how can we curb this consumption, while still increasing or maintaining a good standard of living?
The answer lies in reducing the amount of work we do.
Yet Another Reason For Better Work-Life Balance
Think about it…
Working involves hours of commuting, a full work wardrobe, buying take-out lunches with throw-away containers. Not just that, but working takes a lot of our time, and more importantly, energy.
By decreasing work done, production would decrease, leading to a decrease in emissions as well.
This reduction does not need to be done all at once.
If you reduced the hours you work by only 0.5 percent every year until the end of the century, we’d be able to reduce global warming by up to 50 percent.
Even though some warming is locked in, there is still a large portion that can be reduced – and this portion will determine how catastrophic the long-term effects of global warming will be.
We just need to work less.
Take Friday Off, Every Friday
Reducing the workweek could be achieved not only by reducing hours per week, but also by taking more vacation.
Not only would this lead to less production, and therefore less consumption, freeing up your time will give you the chance to participate in low-carbon activities – amplifying the greenhouse gas emission diminishing effects.
Things you just cannot find the time for, such as cooking and gardening, would now be available during your extra leisure hours. You may chose to take transit and walk more often, seeing as you just won back a few hours of your days.
Sounds too good to be true? There is one caveat.
One drawback to this approach is that it would reduce your ability to buy stuff.
Compared to the 1950s, US house size have doubled. We throw out up to 40 percent of the food produced. The average American throws out 10 pounds of clothing per year.
Clearly, there is room for reduction in consumption to go back to reasonable levels before we see any decrease in our level of living.
And perhaps our perception of what is a “good way of life” is misguided.
Over the last half-century, we’ve chosen to trade in our extra wealth for more material possessions. Has this made us happier? Apparently not. A recent Harris Poll showed that only one third of Americans consider themselves “very happy.” Many are starting to suggest, like Treehugger.com’s founder Graham Hill, that less material possessions lead to more happiness.
So, maybe it’s time for a different experiment.
We’ve played around with hyper-consumerism for a while now. The earth is now signaling to us that it’s time to try a new approach.
Global warming may seem catastrophic, but maybe the answer is that we just need to sit back, enjoy life and work less.
Featured image “Coworking Space in Berlin” by Deskmag – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons
