It has been six months since I started work and I must say that I’m still not quite sold on the idea. Oh, I love the extra cash I get near the end of the month and I love the time out but I don’t love squeezing quality time into two hours during the weekday and all weekend while juggling housechores, reviving an online store and well, making time for myself and the other half. Sometimes things get really tiring that I find myself reaching for an extra pick-me-up in the form of supplements and a nap (it puts a damper on my weight loss plan and I’m not keen on taking pills, even the diet pill that works).

But I don’t have it as bad as Nil. While my company doesn’t believe in overtime and forbids it (they even resort to locking up the building after a certain time during the day as well as the weekends and getting locked means the top guns will be notified when they need to let someone out), his is the fairly typical Asian firm. He has been working overtime for too long – in fact, I have lost count of how long. To make matters worse, he is not paid overtime unlike in Switzerland, not even in the form of time off. No matter what people say about Singaporean companies, a good many are no different than Malaysian ones. A lot of people I know will tell you that working overtime is encouraged and even expected in some industries. Failure to stay back after office hours on a regular basis means that you’re not hardworking or putting enough effort. Sad to say, even the older generation think that working overtime is perfectly normal.

I remember listening to some Singaporean DJs a few months back discussing productivity in relations to the time spend at the office and the Singaporean work culture. One DJ actually mentioned that he believes that working overtime will contribute to a nation’s growth. But at whose and what expense? I believe he wasn’t looking very far ahead when he made that statement on national radio. If only he knew that most of the time, people work overtime because of bad management – themselves (surfing the Net during office hours, sleeping, etc) or the company (under-staffing, taking in too many projects, profit over people, etc).

When a single person works overtime, it eats into the time that s/he spends on themselves, building and maintaining relationships, be it parent-child, friendship or romantic. Of course there is the matter of self-rejuvenation. We all need some time to destress, enjoy another part of our lives and well, grow in the process. When one spends 10 to 12 hours at the office, there is hardly any time to rest, let alone grow as a person. It is no wonder that many people I know think that live revolves around work, sleep, food and the opposite sex, and it shows. How many of us have the time to explore hobbies like writing, photography, sewing, and so forth? That is just growth in skills, but what about inner growth? How can we have time to self-reflect, seek focus in life and build character when we are more busy working, resting and well, living day to day. We are surviving…not thriving.

When a married person works overtime, it affects their partnership. There is only so much a spouse can take and whether we want to admit it or not, intimacy is affected by the amount of time and effort you put into it. We get married because we want to share facets of our lives with someone but how can we do it when that person isn’t around most of the time? When all the time we have with them is just a hurried kiss in the morning and a dream of a warm body next to us? Is it any wonder why the rate of divorce is climbing in a culture that once saw divorce as taboo? Why many young couples are complaining of the lack in intimacy – I am not talking about sex but the coming together of two minds – so early into their marriage? Why a growing number of people have fertility issues that are related to stress?

When a parent works overtime, it affects their parental role and relationship with their child. Many people – I have observed – excuse this conveniently to “your child will know you no matter what”. While blood may be thicker than water, just knowing is not the same as knowing. A positive, respectful relationship is built on the effort we pour into our children’s lives. In this age where the purchasing power is stronger than ever, many parents make the mistake in assuming that money can buy love and ultimately a relationship. To a child, the most expensive and wanted commodity is not a toy but time given freely from a parent. I have seen this before in Eva and she is not even two years old. You can give her a comb, a toy, anything but after five minutes, she crawls or drunkenly stumbles over and demands for some time (and naturally attention).

Is she any different from us adults? Human beings are social and self-reflective creatures. When there is an imbalance in any aspect of our lives, it affects not just us but the people around us, our communities and ultimately our society. A culture and community that takes the time to step back and allow its people to grow, better themselves and build better relationship profits in the long run in every aspect, from how it grooms its future citizens to economic growth…more than a culture that is only concerned with short-term so-called profits.

Now if only some companies here could look that far ahead…