You work all the time because you think “that is what we do in this country”
Key Insights
While some countries value hard and efficient work, others reward excessive, never-ending work
These values influence not only how many hours we work, but also our well-being
When I moved to Philadelphia in 2011 for a visiting postdoc, it did not take long to feel like an alien who had landed on a new planet. This planet had rules I did not know and unwritten behavioral codes I did not master. It escalated on the second day, when I biked to IKEA to pick up a table leg to replace the faulty one I'd bought the day prior. Fifteen years ago, this industrial area was highly car-dependent. There was no safe way to get there, or a rack to park my bike in. People stared at me even on the way there, when I wasn’t yet biking with a table leg sticking out of my backpack.
When I later told the story to a PhD student at Wharton, he looked at me incredulously: “You did what? You can’t do that here! Are you trying to kill yourself?” I decided that it was probably best not to tell him I also biked to South Philly, through extremely shady neighborhoods, to pick up some paint.
I wasn’t trying to kill myself at all. I was just doing what I was used to. I had followed the Dutch rules for running errands. You need something? You hop on your bike. That rule applies as long as your purchase can reasonably be carried on a bike. I can give you twenty more ‘mistakes’ I made in that first year. It took a while to master the hug, to refrain from suggesting an actual day and time when someone said, “let’s have coffee soon”, and to figure out you are not meant to truly answer the question “How are you?” from the cashier at the grocery store.
Culture has a huge impact on how we behave. Everyone who has ever traveled outside of their country knows that. What you might not know is that your behavior is influenced by what you think is the norm in your country. In a recently published study led by my colleagues Brad Huang and Fritz Götz from the University of British Columbia, we found that this also applies to how people think about work. We looked at people’s perceptions of cultural work ideals. Work ideals are beliefs about the ideal way to engage with work. Should people work all the time, at the cost of anything else? Should they do the bare minimum? Or should they work as efficiently as possible between 9 and 5? Such beliefs are labeled ‘cultural’ if they are shared by many people in a country. Perceptions of cultural work ideals are someone’s view of what the work ideals in their country are. These perceptions predicted not only how many hours people worked, but also their health. But let’s back up for a second.
We distinguished between two work ideals: the “hard work” ideal and the “excessive work” ideal. Societies that value hard work praise employees who use their time wisely, are dedicated, and work hard on the job. Societies that value excessive work expect employees to prioritize work at all costs, work long hours without asking questions, and minimize taking breaks and vacations. Hard work thus centers on efficiently getting a lot of work done, while excessive work is about working a lot.
In multiple datasets, we asked people what they thought was valued in their country – hard work, excessive work (or both). We also asked people about their values, work attitudes, what drove them at work, and various well-being and health outcomes. We found a very distinct pattern. People who thought that hard work was the norm in their country valued self-reliance, quality, innovation, and sustainability at work. They were diligent and efficient at work. Their motivation came from within – either because they enjoyed work or because they found it valuable. People who thought that excessive work was the norm in their country found it particularly important to be better than others, and cared less for quality and innovation. At work, they focused on being present, regardless of whether work time was used meaningfully. Not surprisingly, their motivation for work did not come from within; they either worked because not working made them anxious or because they saw work as a necessary evil.
By now, the most interesting result might not shock you. Those with excessive work ideals had much poorer outcomes than their hard-work-admiring counterparts. We measured a host of well-being indicators (cynicism, performance anxiety, subjective well-being), some work outcomes (work engagement, job satisfaction), and two physical health indicators (sleep and health complaints). Across the board, those who thought their culture valued excessive work scored poorer on all outcomes. People who believed their culture valued hard work were less cynical, more engaged at work, more empowered, and more satisfied with their work-life balance.
What does this mean for you? For years, we have thought people work excessively because they are type A, or perhaps addicted to work. Maybe we ascribed it to a workaholic boss or an overwork culture in the organization. These factors are important, but it is only part of the story. How your culture values work also plays a role. We constantly look around us to check what behavior is expected of us. How am I supposed to behave here? What should I do to fit in? That is the social nature of humans, and that is why our social context has such a big impact on us. (Had I adjusted to my new context a little quicker, I would never have biked to IKEA). But it also means that we have less control over our behavior than we might think. Do you actually want to work 65 hours a week? Or do you do it because you think that is what you ought to do? These are important questions because they determine your happiness and your health.
More awareness might help you think less about “what does an employee in my country do?” and more about “what is healthy for me right now?” If more people start doing that, the norms will change, too. That is a tedious process that will take time because cultural norms are very sticky. If you don’t want to wait that long, it might be time to move to another country. That is not meant as a joke – it is just difficult to come up with better advice. Supervisors, policymakers, and influencers can play a role in raising awareness and changing how the always-on work culture is idealized. So we can certainly start there, because leaving your home country isn’t easy (trust me). But if nothing changes, moving to a country that values a healthier approach to work might be worth the sacrifice.