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Hello Samantha. Even more employees are demanding to work harder to rise the companies production. "The machine can´t stop!" They say. Consequently we spend ten, or even twelve hours a day inside of factories to guarantee that the engine is perfectly working and it gives profits to employers. As a result of living in a environment extremely stressful illnesses are frequent among employees, who try to backlash and wind down, however fewer ones are successful in their attempted. The time is very valued. However it´s valued to make more money. Downshifting maybe is a trend among top carreer employees who earn high salaries, but for the ordinary ones who still have to deal with uneployment ghost, downshifting is a dream so far to reach. Regards, Ana Paula.

hi,samantha. i like the discussions that you left for us. i am a teacher of a middle school and my husband is just a self-employed-business person.we have two stores so he is busy alomst the whole year.i don't like him to be a workaholic.i wish that he will have a little time to acompany me and our daughter. time and money are both important. but i think health is more important than time and money.if you don't have a healthy body you will no energy to do what you want to do and you will not have a happy life ,can't earn more money, so i think health is the most important. for the last question. you know china has changed a lot .people here are aggressive for money.i don't think downshifting is a trend in china.having a big house and a expensive car maybe is a stylish life, but i don't want to catch the stylish i just want to be happy, healthy and safty. best wishes .have a good weekend.

Dear Samantha, with interest I just have gone to read your next entry, and I've discovered new absorbing topic that you brought up for us! The words of your husband are very vise, I would add one think more, that you can't never get back the same relationship with people. One of the Polish modern poets says - "we should be hurry to love people because they are gone so fast" (ks. Twardowski). In fact it is difficult to downshift in this ages - ages of informatin and globalization. When you are not at the top, not keep the current news and opurtinities, not being in touch - you are outside! This is might be the reason that there are so many handicaps to wind down. People usualy run in the pace of others, in everage pace of a society... In my country most people work hard for long time. It is usual that an employee in a company works nine or ten hours a day - contrary to the low regulations. Why do they do this? - a part because they are afraid of their job, a part because they think it's normal, and a part because they wont. I sould finish this writting since I have some work to do, it's nothing that it is Saturday... Whole the week I really have done nothing, and at the evening I am going to the party. I must be hurry, world runs so fust. And with this ironic accent I wish you all the best, chill up! ps. outside there is unusal temperature: minus twenty degree cetigrade.

Dear Samantha 1. I think, there is an effort of our society to "bring up" workaholics. We can use various methods based on psychology knowledge. For example: overloading with work, salary motivation for working overtime, strong competition between co-workers... 2. Our society is characterized by omnipresent advertisement for perfect body shape, fashionable look, the best car and perfect kitchen... You can steadily admire high-society life on TV. But it requires a lot of money! 3. You must be a very strong personality, if you want to resist. I have met only few people who were able to downshift. They were older than 40. One was about 25 with cancer. I like your husband's idea about time and money. He is the life observer!

Hi,Samantha, I've found it difficult to wind down whenever my son has a half term.It's not easy to entertain him all the time. He is boundless and he does't need to recharge his batteries.He is full of energy and he seems as fresh as daisy all day long which make me exhausted and sometimes nod off on the sofa. Can you imagine whenever the poor mum is dropping off she gets big booed and frightened to death(i am a bit exaggerated here).I used to be a workaholic and I loved spending time on making the tasks perfect and never switched off.Looking back now,I wish I had shared and enjoyed my youthful time with my family more instead devotting the time to my job too much.The worst thing is I don't have much money which I was supposed to heve.I should have re-evaluated between money and time earier.By the way,how was your children's half term like? Have a smashing weekend!

Hello Samantha, Thank you very much for such lovely blogs. You must be very intelligent because you have identified many interesting concepts like time and money are interchangable. The other concept of yours where you explained how words related to weather are used to describe a person's personality was also very nice. Let me answer your questions in context of Indian society. 1.There are all kind of people in Indian society. Large number of people in cities are basically workaholic or the job expects them to be so. 2. In villages time in valued more than money and in cities money is valued more than time. 3. Downshifting in India!! No way. We are very proud about getting more and more business from America, UK and other developed countries. It is boom time in India. Most of the people want to climb high in the career ladder, earn lots of money. But some people in India are also realising the dark side of it and re-evaluating the values. I can give my example. I am a software professional, was working in one of the top twenty software exporters in India, worked in the UK for almost two years on onsite assignment. Though I was earning lot of money, I was unable to live a good family life due to long working hours and there was always a deadline to meet. I decided to take a break and gave up my job. I plan to strat working after few months. I believe your husband is very much right. Time once gone is gone for ever. Money can be earned later. Have a nice weekend.

Hi In sweden you cant work overtime, you can do it only a few times in one month. The government will never let you work overtime, this is because the unemployed people have to find jobb if there is a need for more labour. you can work only 8 hours that is about the official jobb. there is another kid of jobbs that called black jobb that means you work illegal and you dont pay the tax to the government. you can work more than 8 hours if you have a black job. So you cannot plan to earn more money in sweden if you want to earn through a normal jobb. But if you have your owen company then you can devote as you like from your time for you jobb that if you have a private copany.

Dear Samantha: I just have a question. Shall I say "write on the blog" or "write in the blog"?

Dear Samantha, thank you for your blog, I enjoy it very much, learning new words and phrases.Here my ideas to your questions: I think, the society I live in, isn't a really workaholic one, but I know a few persons, who are workaholics. Even when they are in holiday , they seem to be restless, always searching for action. I work in a social job and it's often very exert, so my colleages and I prefer time for money. You need time to relax but nevertheless you need money for your freetime. For example going to the cinema, to theatre, museum or for dinner...I think you can't observe downshifting in my society, perhaps it's possible for a few persons, who have a high salary, but people I know need their money for a normal live ( flat, family, food, clothes , a car and some freetime activities)I think it is a big issue and I can write and write but it is enough for now. Have a nice time and best wishes.

Hi Samantha This is the first time to post to you. I have read your blog since you starting. You're a really caring and kind teacher and always want to all of us having a good teaching. I acquire many practical knowledge from you. OK, regarding to my own society, in Hong Kong, many people have to work overtime. Let's take my experience as a expamle, working at merchandising field(trading company), that we're between client and factory. In order to achieve our clients' request, we have to push the factory to hurry up or receive the continuous modification from our clients but they never considers our situation. So that, we have to be the workaholic(from 9am to 9pm,mon to sat) despite not we are. Anyway, i hope i'm not depressed you. All the best, Marco

Hi Samantha!It may often happen that you can lose your qualified loved job or have to change it from various reasons in my country nowadays. Then you are facing to take a dull work, despite age have to learn new skills /which is good/ and maybe adapt to live downshifting. Fortunately there are some places where the fresh air and wan winter sun /and our wonderful community/ recharging our batteries!

I'd like to add something to my polish friend Wiesiek. I agree with him that Poles work very hard, much longer than others, but it's caused by a big distance in economy development between Poland and the rest of western Europe. We have one of the bigest unemployment which is about 14%. In comkparison to others it's really bad result. So to answer on your question, Polish society is rather workaholic. They valued much more money than a free time because they are still trying to catch the rest of Europe. There in no way downshifting. Best wishes!

Hi Samantha and everyone I'd like to ask you something about the meaning of "workaholic". Is that a name given to one who chooses to work a lot? or is it also for who is asked to work a lot? Here in Argentina people need to work long ours not just to have a stylish way of life and save money but, for keep the job and, in the other hand, as much people are low paid, anybody works a lot to reach enough to pay rent and satisfy basic needs. It's very difficult to get a well paid job around here. Being the owner of your own bussiness has the same characteristics, people work and work and are always short of money (and time of course) Thank you for the opportunity to write here. This is my first time.

hi samantha! it's my great luck to come across your blog. thanks to u, i think i'll be able to improve my english writing by leaps and bounds.by the way, talking about time, money , life which i have concerned for a long time, i'm also stucked with all these. each of my single day ends with tiredness, boredom and stress. as i study at two univeristies at the same time, it's quite hard for me to handle all. i have no weekend. i work on sunday as a profession assistant. i'm not qutie interested in it but i want ot earn money by myself and be independent of my parent. in my country, vietnam, now, everyone, especially the youth, all rush for life.we compete with each other to get the best opportunities in life. to me ,life is a battle and i cannot get out off it anymore.it seems like there is no word such as weekend in my own dictionary.in conclusion, i just want to say, i like your blog a lot. best regards to you, my new teacher.

Dear Samantha, I belong to India. Our society generally used to nurture a relaxed attitude towards work. But, thanks to the consumerist economy things are achanging.The new mantra in life is 'get moolah, acquire status & expensive possessions'. People are in a hurry to experience all the good things life has to offer. Consequently, putting in extra long hours at work and becoming an workaholic is very common nowadays. Personally, I believe the tag 'workaholic' is a misnomer. There are people I know who enjoy every minute they spend working. Work is essentially a relaxation for them because they love what they are doing, they belong to their job & their job is an extension of their being. We can hardly call them workaholics. if somebody decided to be generous with their time & money and wanted to give people a choice about it, the majority would pick money. So, I can safely say money is valued more than time. 'Downshifting' is a relatively new term. Fed up with the pace of life, quite a few quit at the peak of their careers, shift jobs, live plainly doing what really matters.

Hello, Samantha. It is long time no see. I haven’t been here for more than ten days. I have my reason, please continue reading my comments. Feb 17th was China’s traditional Spring Festival. I went home five days before that and I came back to Beijing the day before yesterday. I stayed at home for about ten days and had a very good rest. There’s no computer in my home so I couldn’t come here to read your blogs those days, and I missed you and other readers very much! Since yesterday I had began to reading the blogs I missed, and now I have finished reading and have time to send my comments. I do hope you will see my comments. By the way, I saw in the very end of this blog, you missed a comma after ‘Best wishes’. As to the tasks you gave us: 1. I never want to describe my own society as workaholic. During the weekdays, I know I must work hard, but when it comes to weekend, I just want to relax and meet some of my friends. 2. In my society, I think time and money are equally valued. Some people says, when we are young, we change money with health, when we are getting old, we change health with money. To be honest I must say that money is important for all of us, but I really don’t want to change money with health. So I prefer working less and having enough time with family and friends. You are absolutely right that we can get money back in the future, but we can never get time back. 3. Actually, I can’t see the trend of downshifting in my society, but I do hope I can see that in a short future. I know there are some differences between eastern and western cultures, therefore, I don’t know whether I make myself understood. I look forwarding to see your reaction. All the best! From now on, I will be here as frequently and regularly as I was before. Waiting for your update! Bye for now. Jill.

Hi, Samantha I am sending my mail from Greece, a place in which Aristotelis since a lot years ago said that balance in everything is wisdow.And even God in the world creation kept balance in time and rest on Sunday. Humanity have taken a lot of lesson in this area but I think we are very bad students. In Greece people work a lot without much rest or time for relax.

Dear Samantha, thank you for very interesting and useful entries! There is a stereotype that all russians are couch potatoes. But of course that is not totally true. I know quite a lot of industrious and hardworking russians. As to speak about myself, well, I am in two minds about it. If I like the work, I will be a workaholic, however if it bores me to death, I will be the worst couch potato you have ever seen :-) I suppose that russians value neither time nor money, we waste both. However, there seems to be an upshifting trend in our society, if I may say so. More and more people, especially the young, begin to value money. One of my fellow students keeps on saying that money rules the world. Sometimes it even scares me, as I don't suppose money so important. Best wishes, Tanya

Dear Samantha,I was out of town for all most one work, because of the family emergency. I missed you and my virtual friends. I feel that I have sense of bond with you all. I think that a healthy happy life is the most important thing in the world. I have two daughters, when they were small I worked part time and spent more time with them and I enjoyed being with them at time.That time was the most valuable time for me because You can't buy that time. Some precious times are not interchangeable.As your hushand says, you can get money back in the future, but you can never get the precious time being with precious little ones. It will be in your memories in your life time. But if you have demanding job or if you are single parent it is very difficult time to decide the time or money is more valuable. In this case money is the more valuable than time. In each situation people have to make decision which one the most valuable(monet,time, health).In the western world people are more materialistic, because of their life style and also too much presure at work place to compite with other company or get promotion or get bonus or finish work on time. I don't think that downshift is new trend in our society, because of the economic problem every people has to work hard to get their basic need.If you work hard you can get better life than other people. As my point of view, as long as you are young and single you can be workaholic. Nowadays the young generation is more materialistic, they passion by new technology,so they need more money to buy new technology things. But if you are gererous , you can devote your time and money to other people. How was your weekend. I was so busy,as a mother I never get relax on weekend. Kind regards.

I don't know if my society is workaholic. I think the best term would be moneyholic. People here like to work hard, sometimes in more than one job or go to other countries where they work in 2 or 3 jobs at the same time to save money, to help their families or to improve their life. However, my society has the necessity to meet friends after work, drink beer with them or make exercise or practice any sport and they love a party to recharge their batteries. The time and the money here are not more valued than friendship. People here like to talk. It can be dangerous If you meet a friend while you are going to work...you can be late. People here like to make the other happy. If someone goes to our house we give the best bed for him or her. We like to offer gifts. We are always asking if the visitor is having a good time. For us it is very important to be loved. Downshifting is a new thing here. We don't think too much about this maybe because we have many hollidays here and we balance our life between work and social life with friends and family. For example, I have 2 jobs but I don't think I have a stressful life because I have chosen 3 days of the week to arrive home early. I prefer as hobby to listen music, read and give attention to my son and at weekends I fish, I go to the beachs, waterfalls, watch movies, visit museums in small cities, etc.

Hi I am Galia I think working is good to have money is very important but you do not have to spend all time working. For example my husband is very hardworking, I know that he like to work but he spends most of his time working, he leaves at 10 a.m and comes back at 12 p.m. or 1 and when I told him about organizing our lifes he gets angry, I trust in him a lot I know he is good but no all is money and time.