Never Not Working: Why the Always-On Culture Is Bad for Business–and How to Fix It – Malissa Clark

The always-on hustle culture creates an unhealthy, counterproductive relationship with work.

Many workers believe that to compete with other top talent they must embrace a culture that rewards long hours and constant connection to work. Businesses and society have encouraged this by endorsing busyness, overwork, and extreme commitment as the most valued traits in workers.

Sometimes that endorsement is explicit, as when Elon Musk told Twitter employees to work “long hours at high intensity” or get fired. But more often it’s an implicit contract, a buildup of organizational and cultural norms and the adoption of new technologies that increasingly make it easy to tether people to work. Either way, this workaholic behavior is unhealthy and counterproductive for workers and for organizations. It’s time to fight back.

Malissa Clark—the preeminent researcher on workaholic culture—shows you how in Never Not Working . Finally, a book that looks at overwork and burnout not just from the individual’s perspective but from an organizational perspective, too. Clark delivers a comprehensive, nuanced definition of workaholism, busting myths along the way—such as the idea that the number of hours worked is the strongest predictor of workaholic tendencies. (It’s not.) She also helps you see if you’re creating workaholics in your organization or if you’re falling prey to the phenomenon yourself. Clark shows you how to escape the trap of putting work at the center of everything and thus losing your well-being—or your company’s performance—in the process. Deeply researched and written for everyone, from leaders to individual contributors, Never Not Working is the essential guide to identifying workaholism in yourself and others and starting on the road to recovery.