Max Mckeown

Life Comes First…

It is wise to take notes of the hero’s words in the cult film, The Princess Bride. He speaks to his true love, “Life is pain! Anyone who says different is trying to sell you something.”

Changing, unshrinking, improving, overcoming self-defeating behaviour, altering long held but false prejudice and forgiving, all require real effort, even pain. This is not a popular idea. In our world, the only things worth pain are typically “a six-pack stomach”, a “six figure income”, and the supposedly easy life that goes with it.

When enough people believe in the myth, that work is more important than anything else, then you find a conspiracy of compromise. Employer and employee both unhappy in stereotyped roles where they think that they have to remain.

It’s the sad truth that, “”The workplace gives a lot of lip service to family-friendly policies, but when it comes to crunch time and a male employee isn’t there, he’s considered disloyal. In fact, if he puts his family first, he’s considered a wimp.”

Needing money and the job that goes with it can lead to compromise after compromise until life becomes a tottering pile of them. Hey, we have all got to make decisions (finite time, finite resources) but let them be active choices. Figure out whether you really need to live the way you are living.

My mother would often say to my father, “Just leave your job and do what you want to do – the worst thing that happens if that you have to go back and get the same type of job again.” So figure out what the worst thing will be if you just do what you think will really be best. This isn’t about self-delusion or obsession! It’s about becoming a complete person.

We lead our lives with what we could term “elective multiple personality disorder”. We can try to be a different person at work, at home, in our relationships, with our friends, in the quiet of our minds. This creates a lot of work! Not every personality is compatible – many say and do conflicting things. To be mentally healthy is not as easy as not being mentally ‘ill’ and what we are working towards here is mental fitness, health, and vitality. Not the self-help steroid filled aggressive mental muscles, but the peace that comes from knowing that you are one of the good guys.

If you do too much of any one thing you will suffer the consequences of over-training. The natural balance (or homeostasis) of your body, mind, (and soul) becomes disturbed, exhausted and will not return back to normal without more than usual levels of rest. All people have their limits and when these limits are exceeded in any one area, damage can be done. 

“Depression, fatigue, irritability, bad mood, anxiousness, confusion, excitement, desperation, lack of concentration, unwillingness to work, feeling of inability to go on, sleeping problems, bad appetite, shaking hands, abnormal sweating, palpitation, nausea, dizziness, obsession with work.”

Which is more important to you – your life outside work or your work itself? Which is the priority? Where do you spend most of your time? Do you work to live or live to work?

When people are viewed as just another piece of office or business equipment or even a job description or set of annual objectives linked to bonus schemes, they are reduced to simple, one-dimensional versions of themselves. Layers of humanity stripped away or ignored so that only what is viewed as ‘work related’ is recognised or acknowledged. It can become so ingrained that workers themselves can believe that they should put their work before families, feelings, and health.

Physical and mental health can both be put at risk by poorly designed jobs and sweat- obsessed working cultures. Many businesses still believe that more good is done in the long if life and ‘well being’ are sacrificed upon the altar of commitment. In this knowledge economy, we still have a majority who think that it is simply not possible to work too hard or give up too much for the business. Look at the following definition of work overload:

“Work overload is characterised by (usually a combination of) the following conditions at work: long and difficult working hours unreasonable workloads pressure to work unwanted overtime (paid and unpaid) less rest breaks, days off and holidays faster, more pressured work pace increased, excessive performance monitoring unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved with the available time and resources additional, often inappropriate, tasks imposed on top of ‘core’ workload (doing more than one job).”

The Australian unions who produced that list the characteristics of work overload estimate that each year it leads directly to stress related costs of about 2% of GDP (just as it does in the UK). In the US, the total direct cost of occupational disease and injuries is more than $171 billion every year. The unions that put forward these campaigns choose to focus the argument that overwork is either just plain wrong for the employee (who should fight it on that basis) or that overwork costs more in injuries and disease than it brings in increased productivity. They take for granted the premise that workers exist to bring their bodies to work – the myth is unquestioned that life gets in the way of work. 

AREN’T WE MISSING THE POINT? For the west there is no point competing with effort. The west cannot out produce the rest of the world based on hours worked per employee. The cost of labour gap is simply too huge to overcome by just staying longer at work. We have been overworking too long in the wrong areas. Economic growth is not fuelled by ‘putting our backs into it’ but instead relies on ‘putting our minds into it’. 

We need people who are capable of speaking up against the majority view, just as we need people who can support and stay loyal. The two should exist for the same purpose: the betterment of society and the world. Whistle blowing is a vital role that brings openness and scrutiny to illegal, ineffective, dangerous, and unjust situations.

In one such incident, Stephen Bolsin, professor and anaesthetist, went to the press with evidence that cardiac surgery of children at Bristol Royal Infirmary was taking far too many hours to complete which had led to the unnecessary deaths of some of those children.

In another, yet more famous, case, Jeffrey S. Wigand, used knowledge that he had acquired as an executive at a subsidiary of British American Tobacco to help win a $246 billion settlement to pay for the health costs tobacco-related illnesses.

Why did they do it? Listen to Jeffrey’s explanation

“I am at peace with myself. I have a good name now. It’s a very good name and I protect it very much. My name stands for integrity. I can’t describe to you what it is like to have that feeling.”

(Excerpt from Unshrink by Max Mckeown & Philip Whiteley)