The “work hard， party harder” idiom has shifted into “party hard， work harder” gear. So that young executives who coop themselves up in their stale-aired office 1）cubicles for hours on end have started， by default， to get a buzz from overwork. Working late is fashionable and indicates a nonstop brain， handy utilizing of 2）insomnia and an addiction to meeting deadlines. So that the excuse of not being able to make it somewhere for personal purposes because of work is met with furious nods. It is now considered cool to hang out at the office.

What it does to one’s social life， food habits and vital organs though is not pretty.

Pradnya Paramita， who worked as a copywriter at US-based 3）MNC 4）Young Rubicam， died in December last year at the age of 27. A winner of national awards for her output in advertising， this is what she tweeted before she went into a coma： “30 hours of working and still going strooong.”

Moritz Erhardt， a 21-year-old intern with 5）Merrill Lynch， reportedly succumbed to an 6）epileptic seizure in his London home after a 72-hour shift in August. A 24-year-old man employed with 7）Ogilvy Mather in China—said to be putting in overtime most nights—collapsed at work from a heart attack in May.

These sad stories point to one of the truer truths in modern times： the human body is not designed to handle too much work. Stress， both mental and physical， coupled with any other 8）miscellaneous stress of the moment， including financial and domestic， wreaks havoc on the body’s ability to cope.

We witness this during exam times at school or college； how the bright ones， the ones singled out for future championships and scholarships， don’t make it in the end. How， when the actual time comes， they cannot perform. Apart from general anxiety， there are also the all-nighters， the studying round the clock， the 24/7 alertness that take their toll.

If you make it out of the rigorous academic 9）rigmarole then more 10）carousels await. Walking the career catwalk takes up all of your body， all of your mind. You start off trying to look busy and end up just plain busy.

Perhaps there is a ban on 11）lethargy， loafing around， twiddling thumbs， or stopping to smell the roses. Around two decades ago， vacations had finally begun to make sense to the average middleclass Indian. Soon he started to arrange meditation sessions and massage getaways， in a bid to soothe his soul and straighten his spine. The whole “eat pray love” thing made sense； he discovered the package tour.

But then he realized that others toiled and got ahead while he slept， that it was not staying in but staying away from the work environment that gave him the 12）ulcers. He needed to be where the action is. Or， he feared， he’d become a has-been before his time. So here he is， lining up like an urban 13）Oliver Twist， asking for more work， please.

To be worked to the bone， ah， that is today’s 14）yuppie dream. The wolves of Wall Street know what they are about. So that even relaxation is 15）regimented， all planned and booked and taken into account.

Striving for promotions and senior positions is all fine and good， but make sure there is a you to promote. No one gets out of life alive， but there is no bar on getting out of work alive.

那句流行習(xí)語“努力工作，更拼命玩樂”已然調(diào)整成“努力玩樂，更拼命工作”了。于是，年輕高管們長時間把自己關(guān)在空氣悶憋的辦公室隔間里，別無選擇地，開始加班成癮。工作到夜深成為了時尚，彰顯自己時刻運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)的大腦，對失眠的善加利用，限時急趕的習(xí)性。于是，以工作為由無法抽身參加個人活動，獲得的回應(yīng)是點(diǎn)頭怒贊。如今，在辦公室混才叫夠“酷”。

然而這種做法對個人的社交生活、飲食習(xí)慣和重要器官來說卻不是什么好事。

普萊雅·帕拉米塔，曾在一家名叫揚(yáng)雅廣告的美國跨國公司擔(dān)任廣告文案，她在去年12月猝死，年僅27歲。廣告作品曾獲得全國性獎項的她，在陷入昏迷前發(fā)了這么一條推特微博：“連續(xù)工作了30個小時，依然拼勁十足?！?/p>

莫里茨·艾哈特，一位在美林證券工作的21歲實習(xí)生，據(jù)報道稱八月份在連續(xù)工作了長達(dá)72小時后，最終在他倫敦的家中癲癇發(fā)作身亡。一名在奧美中國分公司工作的24歲男子——據(jù)說在大多數(shù)晚上都被迫加班——五月份的某天在工作中因心臟病發(fā)作而去世。

這些悲劇指出了現(xiàn)代社會中眾多更為真實的真相中的一個：人類的身體無法適應(yīng)過量的工作。壓力，身心兩方面，再加上當(dāng)下其它各種壓力，包括來自經(jīng)濟(jì)和家庭的，會對人體的應(yīng)對能力造成嚴(yán)重破壞。

學(xué)?；虼髮W(xué)的考試期間，我們可以看見大量例子；那些為將來的錦標(biāo)賽和獎學(xué)金而選拔出來的聰明學(xué)生為何沒法在最后時刻取得成功。為何，當(dāng)真正的時刻來臨時，他們無法發(fā)揮正常水平。除去一般性焦慮外，還有通宵開夜車，晝夜不停地學(xué)習(xí)，以及全天候緊繃的狀態(tài)這些因素讓他們嘗到了功虧一簣的后果。

如果你能成功完成嚴(yán)格的學(xué)業(yè)流程，那么還有更多（令人暈頭轉(zhuǎn)向）的旋轉(zhuǎn)木馬在等著你。在職場天橋上走秀會占去你全部的身心。你一出場便努力做個大忙人，結(jié)果卻只是“窮忙”收場。

可能有這樣的禁令：禁止昏睡、游手好閑、玩手指或是停下來聞玫瑰香。在大約二十年前，普通中產(chǎn)印度人終于領(lǐng)悟到了休假的意義。他隨即著手安排參加冥想班和按摩度假團(tuán)，為了撫慰心靈、拉直脊柱。他開始接受那套“美食、祈禱和戀愛”的論調(diào)；他學(xué)會了參團(tuán)旅行。

但接著他發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)他在睡覺的時候，其他人卻在努力工作并迎頭趕超了他，而且讓他潰痛的不是埋頭工作而是離開了工作環(huán)境。他需要回到競技場上?；蛘?，他害怕，他會過早地被人淘汰。結(jié)果從那時起，他像一個都市里的“霧都孤兒”奧利弗·特維斯特一樣排起隊來，不斷地懇求更多的工作。

工作到極端狀態(tài)，啊，那就是今天人們的雅皮士之夢。華爾街之狼們知道其中含義。于是，甚至連放松都充滿條條框框，任何事情都必須要計劃好、預(yù)定好和仔細(xì)考慮好。

為升職和更高的職位奮斗是沒錯，但要確保留得小命方可晉升。沒人能活著走出生活，但要活著走出工作，豈有不可。

小鏈接

Eat， Pray， Love美食、祈禱和戀愛

《Eat， Pray， Love》（又譯《一輩子做女孩》）是美國作家伊麗莎白·吉爾伯特（Elizabeth Gilbert）2007的暢銷書，也是作者的親身實錄。吉爾伯特原是《紐約時報》的一名人氣作家，30歲以后她發(fā)現(xiàn)自己既不想要小孩，也不想要丈夫。在漫長的離婚拉鋸戰(zhàn)后，她踏上了周游世界的旅途，在美食、祈禱和戀愛中，認(rèn)真地思考人生的種種。在這一整年的追尋快樂與虔誠之間的平衡中，她終于發(fā)現(xiàn)：“拯救我的人，并非王子，而是我自己操控我，拯救我”。

同名電影于2010年上映，由布萊德·彼特?fù)?dān)任制片，朱莉婭·羅伯茨主演。