The “Blackberrization” of Our Lives

I didn’t need to use drugs because my bloodstream was manufacturing my own crystal meth. — WORKAHOLICS ANONYMOUS MEMBER

Recently I was invited to appear on a major network television show. Three minutes before airtime, the co-host leaned into me, referring to what she called her “crackberry”: “I used to sleep with my Blackberry,” she said, “so I wouldn’t miss anything. But then I realized I really don’t need to do that. Do I?”

Before I could answer, we were live in front of an American audience, with her asking me about society’s problem with workaholism and what we could do about it. In that same segment a recovering member of Workaholics Anonymous testified that “I didn’t need to use drugs because my bloodstream was manufacturing  my own crystal meth.” Even the producer of the show admitted that the more he read my book, Chained to the Desk, the more concerned he became about his own workaholism.

That day I realized a lot more education needed to be done before folks would fully understand the problems of workaholism. Although it had been only nine years since the first edition of Chained to the Desk was published, we had entered a new century. And a lot had happened in terms of work and workaholism in that nine-year period. Back then “blackberries” were something you consumed, not something that consumed you. If you had a “bluetooth,” you went to the dentist instead of to work.

The 1990s workday phrase “9 to 5” became obsolete, replaced by the new millennium phrase “24/7.” These trends were an indication of how work had slithered its way into every hour of our day—the “Blackberrization” of our lives.

. . .

The same year that the first edition of Chained to the Desk was published, the Families and Work Institute reported that the average American worker clocked 44 hours of work per week, an increase of 3.5 hours since 1977, and far more than workers in France (39 hours per week) and Germany (40).2 That 44-hour work week jumped to 47 in 2000, according to the US News and  World Report.

Even more disturbing has been the slow evaporation of vacation days. Years ago I never went on vacation without my computer, cell phone, and mountains of work. Although my old habits have changed, they are typical of today’s employees, many of whom haul tons of work on vacation. But an increasing number of workers no longer take vacations at all. The Economic Policy Institute of Washington, D.C., revealed that the average American took only two and a half weeks of vacation and holidays in 1990—less than workers in any other developed country, including Germany, where workers take six weeks a year. A 2004 survey by Management Recruiters International reported that nearly one-half of U.S. executives said they wouldn’t use all of their earned vacation because they were too busy at work. Another study by the Families and Work Institute found that 36 percent of American workers did not plan to use their full vacation. The average American worker left four vacation days on the table in 2006—mainly, workers said, because too much extra work makes it too stressful: “We have to get ahead of our workload in order to leave, and then we have to catch up to our workload upon our return.”

Fear is another reason. Increasingly, patients in my clinical practice say they are afraid to take vacation days for fear they will not be perceived as a team player. Some even said they were afraid to leave the office for lunch because if positions were cut, they would be the first to go. This worry has increased nationwide. In 1977, 45 percent of people felt secure in their jobs, according to the Families and Work Institute. That number dropped to only 36 percent in 2006. Another decline among workers is the drop in social relationships. A major study in 2006 revealed that Americans are becoming more socially isolated today than two decades ago, presumably because of our love affair with the Internet and our Blackberries. The study also reported a one-third drop in the number of people the average person could call a friend. So not only has the problem of workaholism not gone away, but it has worsened. Hence, this second edition of Chained to the Desk.

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