Josh Cohen is both a psychoanalyst and Professor of Modern Literary Theory. Despite holding two jobs, he has also found the time to publish a book entitled ‘Not Working.’
And, for a man with more than one job, perhaps curiously, Cohen is also a passionate advocate for people attempting to find periods of inactivity within what most would describe as their increasingly busy lives.
It is this ethos which forms the foundation of his new book. Speaking to HR Grapevine, he explained that a “perpetually active mode is neither conducive to calm nor creativity” adding that “it’ induces a kind of anxious hurry that is bound to betray itself, one way or another, in the work we do.”
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Cohen’s words tally with research around the subject. Last year, researchers from City University found that consistently working too hard not only has a negative impact on wellbeing but on your career too.
University boffins found that there was a correlation between increased work intensity and inferior work outcomes regards job security and career prospects.
Not only that, there is increasing noise – anecdotal, media-drive, and research-led – that workers are feeling more and more burnout.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that 526,000 workers were suffering from work-related stress or anxiety in 2016/17. This subsequently resulted in 12.5million working days lost.
So, what can HR do to counteract this problem?
Cohen suggests one tack could be to change the culture of work to somewhere “where intervals of inactivity aren’t just grudgingly tolerated but encouraged.”
He continued: “That means employers understanding that workers are saner and happier when they feel they aren’t rushing in blind panic from one task to the next, that if they’re perpetually moving to a mental and physical rhythm that doesn’t feel like their own, both they and their work will suffer for it.”
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Cohen is not unaware of the different type of work, though. He understands that some work, factory-based tasks as one example, require worker busy-ness to be led by the needs of the job. However, if the work allows, he believes worktime inactivity could help workers create their best output.
“Work doesn’t only happen when we’re working – that is, much of what we call work happens in those intervals when we appear to be doing nothing, when even we ourselves aren’t aware of what’s taking shape in our minds,” he explains.
Yet, Cohen is aware of the challenges that might be present when trying to advocate for genuine downtime in the working day.
He states that because our society puts so much stock in work – “we’ve been led to locate our sense of meaning and self-worth in work” – it could be difficult to change this mindset. Especially considering that we now exist in the age of the internet and social media.
He adds: “Our networked devices create an internal atmosphere in us which is perpetually and often nervously trying to update and maintain our external profile, as well as to monitor what other people are doing.
“Between work and distraction, our minds start to feel uncomfortable with time that isn’t spoken for, that isn’t ‘filled in’ with something.”
“It takes courage, independence of mind and discipline to opt out of this environment for any meaningful length of time.”
For HR practitioners interested in how to fix falling productivity, worker disengagement and a culture of “always being on”, Cohen’s words might be worth considering.
Would your place of work allow “fallow” or “off” time? Should it. Tell us in the comments.
