does their job then when they leave the office the stop thinking about
their job and return to their normal life. That's one end. Then there's
the person who's job is their life.
No one really exists at either pole. I think people vary on where they
sit on this spectrum with time. The factors for the variance could be
many. I'm not going to guess at them now.
I think there is a higher percentage of people who are more prone to the
latter type of behaviour in the third sector. I'm not sure though. The
guess is based upon my experience. Call centre staff tend not to take
their work home and it may be rare to find a call centre employee who
would consider their work their life (some people truly understand the
value of doing a role, any role, as long as it's done well).
The technology, creative and other sectors have many people who would
fit the type of "my job is my life" and many entrepreneurs and business
owners may also find they are more often that type. Professional careers
in many industries outside the third sector require a large sacrifice in
personal time to the job and the education required for advancement. As
always there are exceptions to the rule.
There's a part of me that wants to evaluate which is better for mental
health: the person who does their role then leaves and lives their life,
or the person that lives their life and happens to work during it or the
person who just works and works and works.
It is at this point where the definition of mental health is vital
because without it the discussion is like talking about apples and pears
but we're using the word "fruit" to talk about them.
For the good of society it is necessary to have people who are dedicated
to their job and/or their contribution to society and/or their
achievement of their potential (flourishing? - the Department of Health
term that appeared last year in some of the literature. I think it was
originally coined and definitely promoted by Jo Nurse). That does not
mean that their contribution is any more or less than those with the
opposite type prevailing.
The type who are addicted to work may have worse mental health on a
different measure. The stress curve is a dangerous curve to ride. It is
a guess that the type that do their job then leave endure less stress
but are not as good at their jobs because of it. The type who value
performance or productivity (these are words rather than concepts I'm
defining) may be more stresssed and therefore have higher cognition but
risk the detrimental effects of too much stress: burnout.
The person who works to fund their life has more time. They may have the
time to be better parents. They may have the time to make better
relationships and establish better and more resilient social networks.
This is simply a factor of time. It is finite and that's fairly
obvious.....hmmm...so you can work the rest out.
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