Study proves less work doesn’t make you less miserable

Everybody hates work. You work harder and harder and have nothing to show for it and you come home and your lousy kids are looking at you with those accusing eyes and your husband is more interested in Matt Harvey’s elbow than giving you a shoulder rub. If only you could worse less, you tell yourself, then everything would be great. Sadly, sociology is here to dispute that notion and inform you that working less won’t make you happier. Sounds like someone’s stopping at the liquor store on the way home from work!

The Atlantic shares a study from The Journal of Happiness Studies, where, ironically it is depressing to work. In the study, researchers looked at the effects that a Korean law mandating the reduction of working hours from 44 to 40 hours per week. The results? People were happier that they got to work fewer hours. But they still weren’t any happier in general. The researchers theorized that due to the reduced hours, people got less vacation time and were expected to work harder and more intensely while actually there, which led to reduced happiness in life in general.

But we’ll theorize it’s because no matter how few hours people work, they’re still aware of the niggling thought at the back of their head that one day they’ll be nothing but dust with nary a monument on Earth to attest to they having done anything.

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