We’re all getting ready to join the working world, but I’m not sure we realize how much work it’s really going to entail.

An alert professor gave my class an article that ran in the Oct. 4 Des Moines Register, “U.S. workers wonder what happened to the eight-hour day.”

From reading the article, I learned that people in the U.S. work over 40 hours a week on average.

According to a 1998 study by the Families and Work Institute quoted in the article, the average person worked 46 hours per week, which was up from 43.6 hours in a 1977 survey.

I believe this statistic is true, because almost everyone I know works too much. My parents, my sister, my boss and her coworkers are all frazzled all the time.

Even I fit into this category. Although I’m not a true member of the work force yet — I still write “student” on the line that asks for my occupation — I work 40 hours a week at a job and an internship in addition to my classes.

As many of you know, it’s not much fun.

We all know we’re working too much, but we don’t know what to do about it or how to fix the situation.

Now, most of us think being overworked is a problem, but some of you are probably thinking that there’s no such thing as working too much.

Everyone is supposed to work hard to make money, help the company and build character. The more the better, right?

I bet almost all of you who feel that way have been influenced by that terrific (or terrible, depending on how you look at it) Protestant work ethic. Work is our goal in life. Sitting around socializing or taking vacations is evil.

We joke about how it’s not OK to sit down in my family, but it’s true that my parents strongly encouraged my sister and I to work hard.

Having a good work ethic is something most of us hope the people we list as references on our resumes will say about us.

It’s a compliment — something to be proud of in our society. But is it really the best way to live?

According to the “eight-hour day” article, a 1998 U.S. News Bozell Worldwide poll found that 49 percent of Americans think we put too much value on work and not enough on leisure.

We don’t seem to be especially happy with our work schedules.

The American dream is that you can get anywhere or have anything if you just work hard enough.

When I hear people talk about the dream, however, I can’t help thinking of the sign above the gate of Auschwitz, “work brings freedom.”

Now, I know our situation is a lot different than that of the victims of the Holocaust, but the promise didn’t work for them, and there’s no guarantee it will work for us just because we live in America.

I’m not saying working hard is a bad thing, but I do think we need to keep our work in perspective.

I don’t think our work should be more important than the people we love.

Some people have to work as much as they can in order to survive, and I respect them for doing whatever is necessary to support themselves and their families.

I’m not saying everyone should rely on welfare, either, although I think it’s important that we do have a welfare system.

I’m just encouraging everyone to take stock.

It is important to pay off student loans, but how important is it to have a big screen TV and 500 channels?

Do we really need as much money as we think we need? We’re working so much we don’t have time to enjoy all our things, anyway.

Some of you may not know that before agriculture became the standard, people worked a lot less and still survived just fine.

Although there are theories as to why the early humans switched from hunting and gathering to agriculture, no one really knows.

All we know is that we work our butts off while those people sat around and snorted drugs and ate until they puked.

It doesn’t seem quite fair, but I guess it’s our fault for not figuring out a way to ditch agriculture and take up another, easier way of life.

I think I might be willing to live on bananas and nuts if I only had to work five hours a day, but that view is probably the result of my current over-stressed state of mind.

I may be overreacting to the stress a little bit, but I do know that my definition of a good job has changed in the past few years.

I used to think I needed a job that paid really well. Now I think I just need one that I like, that pays OK and that doesn’t involve a lot of stress.

Easier said than done, I know.

Take that 60-hour-a-week job if you want to, but don’t say I didn’t warn you that work isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

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Catherine Conover is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Mapleton. She is features editor of the Daily.