1. In Judy Rebick’s essay The Culture of Overwork, her purpose is effectively to re-examine the cultural norms of ‘overwork,’ defined here as a pattern of workaholic behavior characterized by long hours, high stress, guilt at unfinished work, etc. Judging the essay by standards of completeness and the relevance of the essay’s support, Rebick’s essay is somewhat solid, though there could be further support and elaboration on her part to further prove the inherent ethical and physical problems with overwork, as well as finding solutions for the problem.
In her arguments, Rebick makes use of statistical data and infers from global precedent to make the point that overwork is a rapidly-changing phenomenon in which Canada should catch up to the rest of the world in reducing. The negative aspects of overwork are implied to be depression, stress, illness, family stress, living conditions, and an overall lower quality of life. Where the essay falters is in connecting the introduction and conclusions to the body of the essay - Rebick’s own perspective is inserted at the beginning and the end, starting with a single example of her feeling stressed out by work as an indicator of a cultural trend of overwork. While these sections of the essay are entertaining, they do not connect well to the overall body of the essay, in which the negative aspects of overwork are explained.
2. Rebick’s use of sources, while admirable, is also somewhat spurious and tenuous. In one section, she responds to the rhetorical question of continuing to work unhealthy hours, “Money is the obvious answer but, according to StatsCan, most of the one-fifth of Canadians who worked overtime during the first quarter of 1997 did so for free” (p. 398). This quotation in particular is somewhat confusing; while Statistics Canada is established, this data is simply mentioned in generalized terms without citation. To that end, I am unable to judge the data’s accuracy not only because it is given as a rounded number, but no link is given to allow for fact-checking.
Furthermore, the quotation is not given further context later on in the paragraph; it simply ends there. Knowing how these Canadians worked overtime for free, or why, is not appropriately explained in further paragraphs other than a vague sense of gratitude for having a job in the first place. Giving the proper information and elaboration on these kinds of references is important, as it offers a more objective stance on the data rather than spinning it through a subjective lens that can obfuscate the data’s meaning.
3. Throughout the essay, Rebick utilizes both facts and opinions to support her argument that overwork is a bad thing. In many ways, she is largely successful; she correctly points out that overwork a)leads to health and emotional problems like stress, depression and weight gain, b) is somewhat exploitative on the part of companies, who capitalize on this culture to guilt people into working more for them than is healthy, and c) Canada lags behind much of the rest of the world in reducing work hours to limit overwork.
However, due to the brevity of the essay itself, some of the facts and opinions do not go far enough into connecting into cogent ideas. For instance, all of Rebick’s facts (e.g. “France adopted a legal 35-hour workweek last February”) and statistics deal largely with the idea of overwork as a society-wide problem. Rebick’s opinions seem mostly rooted in her personal frustration with her own sense of motivation – she talks about how “Overwork is becoming a cultural norm and it’s bad for us,” but speaks about it in a very generalized way that does not appropriately measure how pervasive the culture of overwork is, or how bad it is for us.
4. There are a few biases and assumptions made in the article. While Rebick does make a point to provide some statistical data to back up her assertions, her opinions sometimes seem unsubstantiated and unrelated to the text; it is only near the end that Rebick mentions overwork as a specifically female issue. She opines that, in Quebec, “the reality of women’s lives seems to get more attention,” without connecting that concept to the issue of overwork (p. 399). The specific gender issues of overwork are never established; it is simply assumed that the reader understands and agrees with her. Rebick’s assumption is that women have it harder than men in the workforce, and therefore overwork affects them more. While this may or may not be true, no evidence for it is provided in the text.
5. There are a few fallacies to be found in Rebick’s article. For instance, the aforementioned emphasis on women and overwork late in the essay is a non sequitur – a conclusion that does not follow from the premise. The premise here is that overwork is bad; without introduction or explanation, Rebick says that overwork is specifically bad for women. Her introduction also appears to be a piece of anecdotal evidence; because she feels guilty and overworked, Canada is overworked and that is a problem. This does not adequately explain how overworking is a problem for everyone. Anecdotal evidence is also found in the paragraph about Tara Cleveland, whose single case of long working hours is shown to be a case study in an overall trend in overwork within dot-com businesses. There are also many appeals to authority within the essay; Rebick merely assumes that Europe has a lower overwork problem due to lower hours, not explicitly connecting the two ideas together.
6. For the most part, I do agree with Rebick’s essay; in a general sense, we do tend to be overworked, and we place an ethical premium on that (thinking it’s normal, or that it is simply what everyon does). I agree that we need to make cultural changes to our attitudes toward work in order to be happier; the essay added to my former knowledge by offering some statistical support for the negative effects of overwork and precedent for practical ways to improve on the culture. Reading this essay, I am reminded that I need to adjust my thinking when taking on too much, or feeling guilty about not working; my focus needs to be on valuing myself and my experiences with others over a basic sense of productivity when determining my well-being. Making myself more cognizant of the effect overwork has on my emotional and physical health is very important.
References
Rebick, J. (2001). The culture of overwork. In Reader’s Choice (5th ed.)., Pp. 397-399.
