This isn’t the first time I’ve posted about work-life balance, but it does feel that, in 2025, more people have the assumption that WORK has won and the imbalance is fine.
We know it. We’ve felt it. I’m sure some researchers have excellent terms for it, but I’m thinking of it these days as overproductivity. And it succeeds because we have zealots, who probably get up at 4am, who push for overproductivity. And when they, eventually, need to grab some sleep or give in to other human frailties, there are algorithms to reinforce being productive 24/7. Because if you’re not producing anything, do you really have value?
The video that started me thinking and exploring about this (well, this time around) was this four-minute piece noting the push to make any hobby or non-work pastime another form of work:
I’ve actually posted and linked to other material about this trend before. I am a huge advocate of having hobbies unrelated to your income as well as art-related hobbies. Basically hobbies should feed your soul and be allowed to be unproductive. For further articles, posts, and videos:
- Science says you should make art (and there are regular art events/rituals you can do with your kids, which is awesome).
- How I’m not going to be opening a paint-your-miniature business anytime soon, how being inexpert at things you love doing is perfectly fine, and how you can shush Puritan workaholics by pointing out hobbies are good for your job.
- How to pick up a hobby and a repeat (also linked in one of the posts above) about how “turning your hobby into a side hustle” is a trap.
- How it’s invaluable, especially for folks in creative pursuits, to have a hobby that is not subject to others’ judgement and approval.
Now there is a sticky wicket inherent in hobbies for those of us who enjoy creative pursuits and also don’t mind being paid for some creative pursuits. In every medium that I can think of, creators benefit from creating away from the often harsh light of assessment. Such assessment –and judgement– is part of social media’s DNA, as the video above points out. So one reasonable scenario is that one practices one’s art or craft first. This is an art or craft that you firmly want to make money enough to be your bill-paying job, but you may want to control how and how fast you try and monetize it and make it a bill-paying job. That question of when to make the leap into the commercial realm was difficult before the current digital age, but today? Today’s social media environment cares nothing for such reflection and caution: the content monster must be fed and fed constantly.
So what do beginning creators, or even creators that want to pause from being under the public eye, do? As you watch the next video from Jared Henderson, consider how the algorithms are our modern panopticon, though the video itself should be of interest to more than just creative folk:
I found this dissection about the origins and current expression of the Protestant Work Ethic to be useful, not because I’m new to the concept of why Puritans are no fun at parties, but because I found it useful to think of said work ethic in terms of our current time, social media, and, yes, the pressure to monetize hobbies.
And one of aspects of the video I appreciate that Henderson points out is that the Protestant Work Ethic is neither the sole means humans, even Western civ humans, have thought about work and life — nor is our current work-life imbalance a pre-ordained fait accompli. In fact, historically, people have had different ideas of what constitutes work and have not subscribed to the current implicit trend of “work” and “purpose” being a perfect circle Venn diagram (okay, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone go “on the record” with that notion, but some people clearly believe the notion).
This is where my discovery of the concept of Ikigai some years ago was so useful. As the social media memes go, you’re not on this planet for the purpose of working, paying bills, and then dying. You have a reason for being, and that’s what exploration of Ikigai can help with. I first wrote about Ikigai on this blog in 2018 and the graphic and article by Laura Oliver alone should be worthwhile if this post has piqued your interest. If you need other reminders that you need to break free from societal autopilot, consider that:
- You have identity and meaning outside of your job.
- Your dream job might not ‘solve’ everything
- Work doesn’t deserve to be your religion, and
- You can have more than one calling.
That last link was one of my original conclusions about Ikigai which remains today: I am unlikely to have one and only one job/purpose/time-consuming activity that scratches that Ikigai itch. Not only that, I’m afraid Ikigai, just like hobbies above, is being pressed on by this puritanical ethos to adjust itself to this workaholic age (see also, ‘purpose’ and ‘work’ being synonyms in that framework). It’s perfectly fine to have a job whose main objective is putting food on your table. Ikigai should help you identify a job that isn’t onerous and that you don’t mind going to most days, but your life doesn’t have to be just work anymore than you don’t need to be online 24/7.
My contention is that some people misinterpret Ikigai as a framework for understanding how to monetize one’s hobbies rather than better understanding what you might like and not like about your put-food-on-the-table job. I find too many people, even well-intentioned folks who want you to materially succeed in following your bliss forget that some of the things that provide the most meaning for you are not things people pay you for. And that’s neither restricting “things that provide meaning” to only art creation nor saying people shouldn’t have a profession being paid for art creation.
Consider that, so long as humanity doesn’t go full speed into a Mad Max future, many of us might just have a chance to retire. And I’ve talked with many a retiree and soon-to-be retiree about how they’ll get to fulfill their ‘reason for being’ more fully in retirement. And sure, some of the activities could be deemed “volunteer jobs” and therefore “jobs,” but this isn’t about meeting any market-based metrics. This is about being present for people and groups in one’s community.
And why can’t some some of that living and being present in one’s community happen before retirement? I’m thinking that might be good for our communities.
Seriously, Protestants and workers and people in general will be just fine if we let parts of the Protestant Work Ethic die. Don’t worry, someone somewhere will always be upset about the quarterly earnings statement. It almost doesn’t matter which quarterly earnings statement. You don’t need to join them in the Land of Never Satisfied.