If only we could navigate our divided lives with seamless ease-except what if ease isn’t what most of us really want? In 2012, the University of Maryland sociologist John P. Guilt about recent lethargy kicks in as productivity mind gears up, and apprehension about workaday pressure builds as leisure mind cedes power. For several hours a week, on Sunday evening, a psychological tug-of-war between these perspectives takes place. In leisure mode, the thrumming subsides, allowing us to watch a movie or finish a glass of wine without considering how our behavior might affect our reputation and performance reviews. When we are under the sway of the former, we are time- and results-optimizing creatures, set on proving our industriousness to the world and, most of all, to ourselves. Imagine the 21st-century worker as accessing two modes of thinking: productivity mind and leisure mind. The deeper cause, I thought, might have something to do with the modern psychology of time. But capitalism also exists Monday through Saturday, so why should Sunday be so uniquely anxiety-inducing? He said that the culprit was clear, and pointed to late-stage capitalism’s corrosive blend of performance stress and job insecurity. S everal months ago, I got into a long discussion with a colleague about the origins of the “Sunday scaries,” the flood of anxiety that many of us feel as the weekend is winding down and the workweek approaches. This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. This article was published online on December 13, 2020.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |