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According to a study by the National Sleep Foundation, the average employed American works a 46-hour work week; 38% of the respondents in their study worked more than 50 hours per week. Assuming that Mr. and Mrs. Average American will work for 35 years before retirement, that is 83,720 hours of their life spent not participating directly in their lives.

Unfortunately, they aren’t enjoying those 83,720 hours much at all. Indeed, in late 2003, the Conference Board reported that U.S. job satisfaction hit a record low: Over half of all Americans are unhappy with their jobs. The Gallup Organization asked 1.7 million employees in 101 companies from 63 countries, “At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?” Only 20% of the responding employees working at large firms answered yes. Finally, a 2004 Gallup poll found that over 70% of U.S. workers are “disengaged” from their jobs, meaning that almost three of every four workers have mentally checked out and lost any real commitment to their work or their company.

Given that 83,720 hours is more than a third of the 305,760 hours total in those thirty five years and that the average American gets about seven hours of sleep a night, more than half of their lives are completely gone before they ever think about doing anything they might actually like doing or find rewarding. How depressing is that?