The author’s latest book is ‘Lift As You Climb: Women and the Art of Ambition’Which is more noble: To work to the point of burnout? Or to be as idle as possible? Both are worn as badges of honour or of shame, sometimes depending on how you were brought up, when and where you were born and certainly which industry you work in. Sometimes it’s the call to Stakhanovism. Sometimes the call of the duvet. It depends on what’s going on in your life and which way the wind is blowing. Either way, most of us experience the pull of these two extremes at some point. And the polar opposites are now rapidly becoming highly politicised. 

In the British context, I suspect we envy people who have found a happy medium: those who seem to be fulfilled and busily happy while not overworking. But we Brits also harbour a not-so-secret suspicion that these high-functioning types are actually work-shy or even grifters, contriving things so that someone else has to do everything.

Plus, these people are all the more irritating because they have the nauseatingly self-satisfied “work-life balance” that we are all supposed to aspire to but can’t be actually bothered with because the balancing business sounds too much like bloody hard work. We are conflicted about this and perhaps at our most content when we can moan about other people’s lives. Hurrah.