A Professor at Columbia University tells reporters that he regularly snorts heroin to maintain a "work-life balance." Meanwhile, former U.S. presidential candidate Andrew Yang advocates for a 4-day workweek to boost Americans' mental health.
Carl Hart teaches psychology and neuroscience at Columbia University where he heads the psych department and studies the effects of psychoactive drugs on humans. He regularly snorts small amounts of heroin at the end of each day, leaving him feeling "refreshed" and "prepared to face another day."
"Like vacation, sex and the arts, heroin is one of the tools that I use to maintain my work-life balance."
The fifty-four-year-old married father of three finds his narcotic use to be "as rational as [his] alcohol use." In his new book, Drug Use for Grown-ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear," (Penguin Press) the professor advocates for decriminalizing possession of recreational drugs. He hopes to see President Biden work toward federal regulating and licensing of such opioids.
Meanwhile, CNN political commentator Andrew Yang pushes the U.S. to seriously consider a four-day workweek to improve workers' mental health and accommodate those with unique schedules.
The idea to increase Americans' weekends has gained more traction amidst the coronavirus pandemic, which has required companies to adapt to new working schedules and circumstances. Yang's tweet highlights a Washington Post report that indicates higher worker productivity and satisfaction in the workplace during a four-day workweek rather than a five-day workweek.
An experiment done by a Microsoft Japan subsidiary saw a 40% increase in productivity when switching to a four-day workweek. Moreover, New Zealand entrepreneur Andrew Garden transitioned to a four-day workweek after finding that it benefited both his employees and the overall company. Yang notes that a shorter workweek leads to benefits other than boosts in productivity. The change could also increase employment and create jobs for those who cannot work a typical five-day workweek. According to the report, a four-day workweek could minimize inequalities and help women get an equal footing in the workplace by "shifting childcare responsibilities to fall more evenly between men and women."
Is America's Current Workplace Sustainable?
In reading these two articles, I found a common thread–– both point to shortcomings of American workism and its effects on people's quality of life. While Hart looks to drugs to cure stressful workdays, Yang calls for more time away from work to protect employees' mental wellbeing. From multiple angles, it is evident that America's workaholic culture does not serve its people emotionally.
Samuel P. Huntington writes in his book Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity that Americans "work longer hours, have shorter vacations, get less in unemployment, disability, and retirement benefits, and retire later than people in comparably rich societies."
History shows that the formula for achieving success ––the American Dream that is–– entails long hours and little leisure time for status and income. Yet as a one of the richest countries in the world with the biggest wealth gaps, we see how America's poorest citizens work longer hours than America's wealthiest. Thus, this "long hour" equation does not work for everyone and instead results in "collective anxiety, mass disappointment, and inevitable burnout" (Thompson, 2019). Although work is necessary for a functioning economy, perhaps a new approach to how and when work is done is long overdue for American society.
There always a problem between work and balance. As a guy who's pursuing 'normal business graduate career path,' I have talked to a few bankers and consultants from investment bank and consulting firms. For investment banking, 100hours+ is a norm. In other word, there is no balance at all. Being a financial analyst means no life.
Elisa, I just wanted to start by saying I love what you wrote. When you talked about this piece in class, I was very compelled to look into it more. It is quite interesting to think about how the "American Dream" tells us that if we work hard, we will get there, even though people work long hours towards their dream and never get there. I think it creates a false sense of hope for many people and like you said, many different anxieties. This leads to how people create a good work and life balance. With working taking up all your time, you have no life, and with fun/life taking up your time, there's no work. As you said…
Super catchy blog post! The interesting idea for me is that there is a need for humans to work less for our own mental health, but at the same time, there is also a declining amount of jobs and requirements for work as a result of automation in the tech industry. This would point towards a shorter work week but I agree with your point that there is a cultural failing due to the American Dream ideal of working endlessly till success to the detriment of one's mental health, which may cause a problem in seeing more people taking that route.
This all just sounds so great! I was fully on board until I remembered that myself is in the entertainment industry. I've been a circus performer since I was 5, and I learned as early as I could remember, that I was an entertainer which means I work the most when during other people's holiday. Mondays were my weekend, Christmas, New Year, and other legal holidays were when I had the most work. Now that I'm starting career in film industry (hopefully), our usual on-set schedule is 12 -14 hour per day, 6 days a week. As burned-out and biologically messed-up the crew usually are, this schedule is very unlikely to change because in film, time is money. If it's…
This was an extremely interesting blog post to read. I never thought I would learn about a person who was able to use heroin in a controlled manner. Its a different opinion on one of the most dangerous drugs in our world and a feat that he is able to do it and stay productive. I think Andrew Yangs proposal for a four day work week is an interesting one but I wonder if the hours would stay the same or would they drop? If they didn't end up working the same amount of hours would this effect those living paycheck to paycheck negatively? Really cool post.