The Future of Work: Workaholism and the Race Against AI

Work life has changed dramatically in the last few years. Technology has encroached on our personal lives, leaving many of us with the ability to work anywhere, anytime with no end in sight. Paradoxically, we are enjoying more leisure time than ever before.

According to the most recent American Time Use Survey (ATUS), American men spend an average of 5.8 hours on leisure time daily while American women spend 5.1 hours on the same.[1] If another one-third of the day is spent sleeping, we work a lot less than we think. So why is it that workaholism and burnout are so prevalent in today’s culture?

Malissa Clark, author of Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture is Bad for Business and How to Fix It, has found that workaholism is not defined by the hours worked, but by our feelings about work itself. According to her research, about one-half of US workers are self-proclaimed workaholics while 53% of UK employees feel overworked. At the same time, one-half of US workers and less than 40% of UK workers fail to take all of their paid time off.

Clark designed a simple survey to determine our level of preoccupation about work.

• “I work more than what is expected of me.” (Perfectionism.)
• “I always have an inner pressure inside of me that drives me to work.” (Internalizing societal pressure.)
• “It is difficult for me to stop thinking about work when I stop working.” (Rumination.)
• “When something prevents me from working, I usually get agitated.” (Fight or flight mode, living with an omnipresent threat.)

According to Clark, modern-day workaholism is about work preoccupation. Having tech gadgets as visual reminders diverts our attention toward work more than we like to admit.

Since the pandemic, employees in Europe and South Asia have experienced a significant drop in well-being. Much of it is related to our unhealthy relationship with the work we do — and perhaps also with where we do it. Working from home has been both a blessing and a curse for many, making the ability to distinguish between work and home a more difficult task. Technology is a driving force behind our always-on culture as it dictates where, when and how we work. Artificial intelligence (AI) contributes to our heightened anxiety, especially with the implicit threat that it might replace that which is dear to us: our sense of purpose through the jobs we do. We need to work to feel purposeful, but US employee engagement numbers in 2024 that have hit an 11-year low of 30% reveals that work is not providing that feeling at all. [2]

What is driving this trend? Part of the issue stems from the speed with which companies are operating, propelled by AI adoption initiatives that disempower or even threaten employees' sense of belonging.

David DeCremer, author of The AI-Savvy Leader: 9 Ways to Take Back Control and Make AI Work, takes an optimistic view about technology and how leaders can adopt it without forgetting crucial leadership skills such as empathy, balance, inclusion, purpose, emotional intelligence, communication, life-long learning, mission and vision. AI should augment, not replace, human beings. He offers leaders a roadmap to ensure AI adoption is conducted with sensitivity toward the human condition.

Machines do not understand what drives human behavior, which is rooted in a deep need for meaningful work and connection. While technology solutions provide the allure of ease and efficiency, their implementation can backfire miserably. Well-intentioned leaders with no understanding of the impact of AI adoption tend to forget that their employees are not robots. On some days, we just need mindless tasks to give us a sense of progress even if a machine could do it in a fraction of the time.

“When you unthinkingly automate away all the iterative and rule-based practices but leave the most difficult and often emotionally demanding parts of the job to the human, then you’ll create a recipe for boosting anxiety and hurting the well-being of your workers.”[3]

Our way of working today has indeed changed, requiring more flexibility than ever before. At the same time, we need to learn to set boundaries to ensure we spend those five-plus hours a day on something leisurely and regenerative. Instead of snapping open that laptop, consider a brisk walk in the woods or an hour on your favorite hobby. Life is too short to work it away. Or to spend your off-hours thinking about it.