English Version | I work, therefore I am?

My stomach drops every time I see emerging within me the sentence: "Miguel, you have to work." Miguel is my 20-year-old son and it's obvious that work is necessary. But the narrative has to go further. That's why, as a rule, I quickly rectify my speech: "Miguel, working is necessary so that we can live without worries, so that we can be independent, so that we can, in short, live life on our own terms." I also have a habit of bringing up the maxim that work dignifies us as human beings - few things are as damaging to mental health as idleness. It was in his studies of Protestant ethics that Max Weber, considered one of the founders of Sociology, stated that "work dignifies man." Weber pointed out that work was one of the noblest and most dignified social actions in society. Nevertheless, dignity, which is a right of the human person and, in this specific case, of the working class, should be respected and demanded so that humanity has the minimum conditions to live (or survive) in peace, including with the social valuation of work. According to data from 2023, people in Portugal work four more hours a week than the European average, which means that the average working week in our country is 40.2 hours. The data revealed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that Portugal is above the average for the eurozone (36.4 hours) and the European Union (37.1 hours). The average salary, however, does not reflect these (high) figures, being actually well below the European Union average: according to data from Pordata, the average annual salary (in PPS) in the European Union was 40,510, while the Portuguese average was only 29,809 - the PPS (Purshasing Power Standard) is a fictitious currency used to compare welfare and spending levels between countries, eliminating differences in price levels. In terms of the national minimum wage, in 2016 Portugal was 11th on the list of EU countries, with 711 PPS, with Luxembourg (1615 PPS) and Bulgaria (491 PPS) in first and last place respectively. These facts bring us to the subject of a possible (although unlikely, as we'll see later) work-life balance. Studies show that 68% of Portuguese workers prioritize work-life balance, while 34% live in expectation of receiving help from their employers in order to cope with the rising cost of living. The data comes from Randstad's Workmonitor 2023, which also reveals that almost 80% of older workers believe that their retirement age is getting further away due to their current financial situation. Some 22% even say they need to stay in employment, delaying their retirement age. Work dignifies man, yes, but not when it deprives him of his life.

"On average, three out of ten people find it difficult to maintain a work-life balance," says psychologist Catarina Graça, from Clínica da Mente. She explains that today people no longer reconcile their professional and personal lives, but rather the opposite: "They try to fit their personal lives into their professional lives as best they can. You work five out of seven days a week and in a whole year of 365 days only 22 are actual vacations." An article published on the Psychology Today website states that “the conventional way of thinking about work-life balance in binary terms presents a zero-sum game. Increasing time to spend with family means less time for managing one’s career. But if you don’t take care of your career, you will not be able to provide for your family”. In The Work-Life Balance Myth (2021), author David McNeff takes a different approach. While he argues that there is no such thing as work-life balance, he suggests an alternative which he calls the "seven-slice approach". Rather than looking at the problem as work or family, McNeff describes the seven domains in which people spend their time: family, professional life, personal life, physical activity, intellectual activity, emotional activity, and spiritual activity. According to the author, people need to see these seven pillars fulfilled. "The physical consequences of the imbalance between professional and personal life are the first to appear. Physical wear and tear becomes evident when the same level of stress is maintained day after day," says the psychologist. He assures us that occasional stress is good for us - it helps us overcome barriers, makes us more confident and secure. However, as a result of the hectic and demanding pace experienced in practically all professions, stress starts to become corrosive, manifesting itself in the appearance of signs of tiredness, difficulty sleeping, lack of concentration, muscle pain... "When the situation reaches this point, it means that the lack of well-being and happiness is being transmitted by somatic signals and the body is warning that something is wrong," he says. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the workplace has seen an increase in awareness of the importance of this work-life balance. In a 2022 survey of 1,120 American workers by Forbes Health, the only thing that rivaled financial stability was this balance, with 90% of respondents considering it "an important aspect".

It has to be said that balance and flexibility have become such a priority for workers that many are making career changes based on these same standards. This has been one of the main drivers of the Great Resignation, which in the United States alone saw more than 50 million people leave their jobs by 2022. Data from Microsoft's annual Work Trends Index Report that year showed that more than half of Millennials and Gen Z who resigned cited the imbalance between work and leisure or a lack of flexibility as the reason. It's true that, from a broader point of view, achieving this balance isn't so simple, it feels a bit like rowing against the tide, but to give up is to accept living conformed to this lifestyle. "Change is scary. The reality may be bad, but at least it's a reality you know. 'What if I change thinking I'm going to get better and then end up even worse off? Fear of the unknown is a catalyst for inertia to change. And the problem often lies in the fact that this awakening to change happens late", says Catarina Graça. This is not an unfounded fear. A document that analyzed the worplace, which was drawn up with the participation of 35,000 professionals from 34 countries, showed that there is growing concern about the economic uncertainty on the planet. At a national level, almost 31% of respondents say they receive help from their employers to cope with the rising cost of living, and 52.2% say they would like to receive such aid. 27.3% say that they would be interested in receiving an allowance. The possibility of becoming unemployed worries 48.1% of the Portuguese participants and 66.8% say they would not take up a new job that did not offer stability. However, "while 63.8% of the Portuguese fear that economic uncertainty will affect the stability of their work, in global terms the percentage drops to close to half," Randstad said in a statement. "Sometimes tiredness, unhappiness and exhaustion are so great that there is neither the strength nor the discernment to change wisely and consciously. Impulsiveness is a huge enemy in these situations. But the truth is that at a very early stage, we intuitively sense that something isn't right. It's our happiness barometer that's starting to show signs. We shouldn't ignore that. It's essential to have our concept of happiness well defined so that we can easily see whether we're sticking to it or gradually moving away from it without realizing it," explains the psychologist.

*Originally translated from The Coming Back Issue, published September 2023. Full credits and stories in the print issue.