Society is in full transformation, and the way we work and the time we spend there are no strangers to this great change. It was said that we would emerge stronger from the pandemic, but something is going wrong, especially in one part of the working world. It is precisely evoked by the prestigious The New Yorker, the weekly that portrays the social problems of the West on its covers. Next week, the first page will be titled "Deadline" and it shows a worker in front of the computer while looking out the window at some fireworks.
The work is the work of the artist Bagnarelli and he explains it like this: “I often work during the holidays. In the beginning, I think I take advantage of small moments when the world stops," he says. "But then I realize I'm missing out on all the fun and it can be bittersweet." It is, therefore, a criticism of certain professions in which work time invades leisure time.
The debate is not new and goes back generations. It could be summed up in the dichotomy of whether you have to work to live or whether you have to live to work. The answer seems simple, but it is not. There is debate. Tweeter Carlos Spottorno, for example, has pointed out: "One should never feel sorry for a person who works. The problem is when you don't work."
What seems obvious is that there are red lines that have been crossed in recent years, dangerous drifts that have led to a rhythm of life that Bagnarelli wants to denounce.
There are those who already speak of a "plague" in intellectual work carried out at a distance. A series of professions without breaks or with fuzzy boundaries that are killing free time. In other words, the hybridization of work and personal life is jeopardizing free time spaces.
"Where is the leisure? How do we look for creativity? How do we internalize what we learn?”, ask the users who are sharing the front page of discord.
The New Yorker got it right when it bet on it in the first edition of 2024, as did the companies that, to the extent of their possibilities, promote the four-day working day if this increases productivity. There are jobs that will always exist and there are others that will be created, the key is to progress, not regress. Put "deadlines".
