In a recent article entitled Americans Are Crazy Workaholics -- It's Time We Brought More Balance to Our Lives, Ariana Huffington writes about the high cost of American's being slaves to our jobs.

The prevailing culture tells us that nothing succeeds like excess, that working 80 hours a week is better than working 70, that being plugged in 24/7 is expected, and that sleeping less and multi-tasking more are an express elevator to the top.

Rendell's paean to workaholism epitomizes this wrong-headed approach to achievement. Indeed, the truth is the exact opposite. It turns out people are not only happier -- they are also much more productive if they are able to get away from work, and renew their passion and focus.

But it is not only work productivity that suffers. As humans, our health and the health of our families and our relationships with them can suffer from concentrating too hard on our jobs.

Research done by the University of North Carolina found that couples in a workaholic marriage tended to have twice the divorce rate as those who were in nonworkaholic marriages.

...Further, there is the effect on the children. Research has also found that children of workaholics have a higher rate of depression and anxiety mainly because that workaholic parent has placed severely high expectations on his or her kids, which links back to that desire for perfection.

This is a problem that is affecting our society as a whole. In fact, Americans work almost 200 more hours every year than we did in 1970- that's about an extra month.

Of course, it isn't just America. The global capitalist rat race has caused this to spread.

In Japan, it's called karoshi -- "death by overwork" -- and it's estimated to cause 1,000 deaths per year, nearly 5% of that country's stroke and heart attack deaths in employees under age 60.

In the Netherlands, it's resulted in a new condition known as "leisure illness," estimated to affect 3% of its entire population, according to one study. Workers actually get physically sick on weekends and vacations as they stop working and try, in vain, to relax.

Just as in the past, movements rose up to abolish child labor and fight for the eight hour work day, some say that we need to cut back even further.

This is not a new idea. In 1920, The New York Times published a pamphlet about the 4 hour work day.

In 1923, The Industrial Workers of the World wrote a pamphlet entitled Cut Down The Hours Of Work! outlining the benefits of shorter work hours as opposed to longer hours.

The progress of labor, in any way, either towards better conditions or better wages, demands the elimination of the unemployed. This can be done only by shortening the work day. The normal work day is now about nine hours. Cut it to six. There will still have to be as much product as before. The boss will have to hire some more men.

The IWW has fought for a 4 hour work day for over 60 years. An article by the IWW entitled Less Time for Work, More Time for Life! explains:

Immigrants, single mothers and the poor often work the longest hours, forced to take on two or three jobs just to eke out a meager living. Betty Reid Mandell, a founder of the welfare rights organization Survivors Inc., spoke of the implications of the continuing attacks on women forced to turn to the welfare system to support them in the work of caretaking. Ignoring the long hours required to raise children, U.S. government policy is to force these women into the paid workforce, where they find themselves in low-paying jobs, reliant on food pantries and overcrowded homeless shelters to survive.

Mandell contrasted the brutality of this approach with the widespread recognition in the 1970s that the means existed to provide a decent livelihood for all -- embodied not only in French sociologist Andr Gorz's proposal for a universal 20-hour work week, but also in U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 proposal for a guaranteed annual wage.

Lest you think that only labor groups desire shorter work hours, in 2002 The New York Times printed an article entitled Why Americans Should Rest .

...because the gains in income and wealth went disproportionately to upper-income households, most families could only realize higher spending norms by putting in additional hours and taking on debt. By 1997, the National Survey of the Changing Workforce found that nearly two-thirds of employees were on the job more than they wanted to be.

Putting in more work hours doesn't make you a better person. It simply takes time away from your spouses, children, friends, etc. It is our right to be able to lead rich, fulfilling lives. Obviously, this isn't something your employer will encourage because he enjoys amassing more and more wealth from your productivity at the lowest wages he can get away with paying you. But your life has value...more value than a paycheck.

Especially with the holidays approaching, take time to be with friends and family. Think about what really matters. To us as individuals but also us as a society.