Trend Toward Increasing Hours on the Job
It's Sunday evening and I am doing what I usually do - checking email and getting myself prepared for the week. As I sit here, I notice emails coming in to my inbox with a fair amount of frequency. Others are doing the same thing - getting back to people, preparing their lists for the week and organizing their work activities. As I was doing one last check of my Bloglines before shutting down for the night (and off to my recliner to read a book that requires a hi-lighter), The Christian Science Monitor nicely reminded me that there is a trend in the United States to work more and more hours. The article, available here, is curiously dated May 2nd - tomorrow. Seems like the CSM is working on Sunday in order to get their front page articles up before Monday begins.
The article discusses the usual - that with email, voicemail and the like, everyone is expected to be available all the time. Also, three quarters of white collar workers work on weekends because of an increased workload. Why? Because of pressure for productivity. According to one source quoted in the article, one or two employees now routinely handle the work that five might have done previously.
The article further notes that this pressure to put in hours involves not only the corporate types but also independents and freelancers. Americans, they say, are defined by their work, think its cool to talk about how overwhelmed we are at work (as if not being busy is a sign of weakness), and routinely do not take all of our vacation time or don't take more than a day or two at a time.
Perhaps the most important lesson of the article is the notion that the stock performance of companies on the Fortune 100 list and the Working Mother List of the best companies to work for is about 15% higher than the average of the aggregate of companies on the NY Stock Exchange. Something to think about.
So as I ponder all of this, I think I will shut down my computer, get that book that requires a hi-lighter and sit on my recliner an kid myself that I am relaxing. For Lee, Joe and Fred (each of whom emailed me while I was working on this post), you guys need to take a break.
