Fuck the Overachiever
An anonymous rant by a Silicon Valley programmer

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: I'm a proponent of the ten hour work week.

Does this make me a slacker? Lazy? An underachiever? Perhaps. I've heard it mentioned that our aboriginal ancestors only needed to forage and hunt eight to twelve hours per week in order to sustain themselves. Add a few hours in order to build and maintain shelter, and I think at a worst case you can get that up to twenty hours of work per week.

So what on earth has happened to us that has cursed us with the forty-hour ork week? Personally, I think I would get a hell of a lot more done if my debt to society were fulfilled by just ten hours of work every week. I would get more meaningful things accomplished, I would have a lot more time for reflection, and it would cultivate for me an environment wherein I could be truly innovative. I would certainly be a lot more productive than I am now.

As a programmer in Silicon Valley, one could easily argue that I have it made in the shade since I don't punch a clock when I come in or leave. Instead of getting paid hourly, we so-called "exempt" employees get paid on salary, regardless of when we come in and what we do when we get here. Sounds great, right?

Yeah, sure. Does anyone remember anything about the labor movement? People formed unions and fought for workers' rights, things such as extra pay for overtime and holidays, mandatory work breaks, and the like. Now there's an entire culture of people who are weasling around it all under the mask of "exempt" status.

So how is that bad, since we are supposed to be making all that money, right? Those millions of dollars that people in the media claim forever is out there in the hands of the GenX slacker geek dude? Well, that money is out there, certainly, but only for the person who is willing to sell their own soul.

It all starts with the overachiever. You know, that guy you always see at work, no matter what time of day or night you go in? People always talk about that person having no life outside of work, they joke and laugh about that person, but nobody seems to take it very seriously. That person is not only neglecting their own life, they are ruining things for everyone else who works there, and at the same time, ruining the entire culture.

You see, that kind of behavior ends up getting rewarded. When that person's manager sees how devoted that employee is to the company's success, they really have no choice but to recognize that person above and beyond all of the other people who work there. The people who work there see that kind of behavior getting rewarded, then they all work harder. And so on.

Eventually, you end up in a situation where if you aren't working at least 60 hours a week, you're passed up for promotion at the next review. And no one will come right out and admit that it's the reason. Or maybe you work the full 78 hour week and are still caught slacking some 2 hours.

So fuck the overachiever. Double-fuck the overachiever. If I were the CEO of my own company, I would probably be Michael Palin as the sergeant major in Meaning of Life: "Is there something you'd rather be doing than marching UP AND DOWN THE SQUAAARE!? All right, well off you go!"