People work too much, or at least
Americans do, according to self-confessed workaholic Al Gini, author of The Importance
of Being Lazy. This slim volume has your leisure interests at heart. At 162
pages there’s time to read it in full and still have time to do, well, nothing.
Gini’s point is that Americans have dramatically increased their productive
capacity since the Second World War, but they have not increased their capacity
to enjoy the fruits of that productivity. Instead, they work longer days,
longer weeks, and over longer careers. They even take their work on holiday,
reading email, monitoring data through the net, keeping abreast of
correspondence. Gini would have work-harried Americans chill out a little, take
more vacations and content themselves with whiling away the hours doing things
for the hell of it.       

The tone of the book is breezy and
chatty. There are seven fairly brief chapters covering topics like leisure, vacations, shopping, sports and retirement. The Sabbath gets a chapter of its own. Gini
gives examples of his own experiences, and there are frequent asides that make
the reading quite engaging. There are even photographs from the Gini family
album, including what looks like a young Gini and his Dad standing beside their
1950s Oldsmobile Rocket 88. Nice roll ups Al. Gini provides plenty of quotes
from his extensive reading list, and if these seem a little selective at least
they don’t slow the pace of the narrative. Those so inclined can always read
the originals. The sense is of a potentially scholarly work which, in keeping
with its subject matter, has been rendered in an accessible style.

Gini doesn’t have a theory, and
makes playful reference to his "research" consisting of questioning
the first 100 people he meets. That’s not to imply that the book itself isn’t
well research. It is liberally referenced, and there’s even an alphabetical
index, should you feel inclined to get serious about laziness. The bibliography
suggests plenty of people have done just that, and not only in our own time.
Work is mentioned in the Nicomachean Ethics, by Chinese philosopher Lin
Yutang, in the Bible, by Thomas Aquinas and numerous others.

Despite overworking the need for
down time is expressed in new, sometimes perverse ways. Viewing audiences for
major sports are increasing, and shopping is widely practiced as a necessary leisure pursuit. The latter is despite being described by former Czech Premier Vaclav Havel as a
"desperate substitute for living". (I wonder what he thinks of Praha
1 in the tourist season). If you believe Gini, there is a developing leisure crisis: the baby boom generation, enjoying a thirty year extension of their life span,
will have to give up work eventually, and then they will need Things to Do.

Gini generously concedes his own
unrepentant workaholism. Did he really need to write this book? Surely he’d be
better of throwing a Frisbee, or walking on the beach. He did us all a favor
though, altruistic soul that he is. At least we stand warned of the creeping
encroachment of work into our lives. It’s all done with a smile, so you don’t
feel panicked into cutting down your hours or saying no to that next project.
Gini knows that addicts aren’t that easily convinced. But lest anyone use that
old standby of denial to assert that "I work because I love my job",
Gini provides a nice little anecdote about Senator Ted Kennedy. On his first
run for the Senate, Kennedy was accused by his opponent of never having worked
a day in his life. The next day a factory worker consoled him with the words "Don’t
worry, you haven’t missed a thing".  

©
2006 Tony O’Brien

Tony O’Brien RN, MPhil, Senior
Lecturer, Mental Health Nursing, University of Auckland, a.obrien@auckland.ac.nz

Categories: General