Arbeitenfaulenschmerz
November 29, 2018 10:32 AM Subscribe
Is there a word in any language for feeling peer-pressured into productivity by the busily working people around you, when you'd actually rather be relaxing?
i.e. the feeling I get on my day off when I'm relaxing / lounging around / accomplishing nothing, my housemates are getting things done, and I feel grumpily deprived of zone-time by my own feelings of shame that I am not in fact getting anything done, and should be working, but don't want to be working, but feel this itch to get up and do things because the people around me are?
I expect this word does not exist in American English because we always should be working all the time amirite, but you never know...?
i.e. the feeling I get on my day off when I'm relaxing / lounging around / accomplishing nothing, my housemates are getting things done, and I feel grumpily deprived of zone-time by my own feelings of shame that I am not in fact getting anything done, and should be working, but don't want to be working, but feel this itch to get up and do things because the people around me are?
I expect this word does not exist in American English because we always should be working all the time amirite, but you never know...?
I love Arbeitenfaulenschmerz! Great word. (I also love, "Fuck y'all - I got a 9 to 5 & I am tired!)
posted by Wylie Kyoto at 12:20 PM on November 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Wylie Kyoto at 12:20 PM on November 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
If we‘re going to invent German words I propose „Faulenzergewissensbiss“.
posted by Omnomnom at 12:50 PM on November 29, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by Omnomnom at 12:50 PM on November 29, 2018 [7 favorites]
guilt
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 2:18 PM on November 29, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 2:18 PM on November 29, 2018 [6 favorites]
Whatever this is, I have it too, but I suspect it’s related to anxiety
posted by nuclear_soup at 2:52 PM on November 29, 2018
posted by nuclear_soup at 2:52 PM on November 29, 2018
It sounds somewhat FOMO-related. Perhaps UGANDS? Unnecessary Guilt About Not Doing Shit.
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 2:56 PM on November 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by The Almighty Mommy Goddess at 2:56 PM on November 29, 2018 [2 favorites]
To the Stakhanovites, you'd have been a wrecker.
posted by Earthtopus at 5:31 PM on November 29, 2018
posted by Earthtopus at 5:31 PM on November 29, 2018
Sounds like a combination of Gruppenzwang and Leistungsdruck, an inferiority complex triggered by other's superior productivity/elan. Gruppenleistungszwang? Mindertüchtigkeitskomplex?
I feel for you by the way; I'm often drawn to driven, energetic people, but sometimes I get tired by merely watching them. Other times I'm indeed motivated to get off the couch by their example, and I suspect that's part of the reason why I tend to seek them out a bit. I just can't be around them too much.
posted by sohalt at 3:38 AM on November 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
I feel for you by the way; I'm often drawn to driven, energetic people, but sometimes I get tired by merely watching them. Other times I'm indeed motivated to get off the couch by their example, and I suspect that's part of the reason why I tend to seek them out a bit. I just can't be around them too much.
posted by sohalt at 3:38 AM on November 30, 2018 [2 favorites]
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posted by meijusa at 11:20 AM on November 29, 2018 [2 favorites]