I had a colleague in my life for a while, and every single time I asked her how she was doing, she would respond, “I’m soooo busy. I mean, I can’t tell you how busy I am; I’m just crazy busy.” I would always walk away from that feeling like I was small and like, “Hey, I am busy too!” I mean, aren’t we ALL busy? I don’t know one person that doesn’t have enough to do.
Back in 2009, a study from the Center for American Progress showed that Americans put in more hours of work each week than any other country on earth — the so-called “American disease.” Since then, however, other research suggests that the rest of the world is closing that gap.
What’s especially telling isn’t just the fact we’ve gotten busier, but that it’s become a point of pride to be so. A 2016 study from the Harvard Business School shows how being “busy” has become a major status symbol in this country.