The Dilemma of Long Work Hours
When it comes to long work hours, many employees face the same dilemma. If they continue to work so hard, they risk experiencing everything from health problems to strains on family relationships. But if they don't, they fear letting down their companies, damaging their careers or even losing their jobs.
It's a dilemma for businesses as well, which want to maximize productivity and yet must be wary of burnout, turnover, overtime, lawsuits and lower employee morale. The costs come in the billions. The Economic Policy Institute reports that mandatory overtime costs U.S. businesses up to $300 billion per year in problems related to stress and fatigue, reports USA TODAY.
Even the numbers related to mandatory overtime, however, don't capture the true scope of the problem. As everyone in the corporate world knows, a lot of today's work is performed offsite and after official work hours. Salaried employees, in particular, work while traveling or at home via laptops, cell phones and other devices.
A huge number of U.S. employees are also giving up their vacation time. A May 2003 poll conducted by Expedia.com found that U.S. workers were taking 10% less vacation time in 2003 than they had the year before. In fact, workers are giving back over $21 billion in unused vacation days to their employers.
It all adds up to a worrisome long-term trend. "Combined work hours for dual-earner couples with children rose 10 hours a week, from 81 hours a week in 1977 to 91 hours a week today. Clearly, today's working couples have less time for their lives off the job," reports the Families and Work Institute.
It's little wonder, then, that there are signs of a backlash. In the U.S., grass-roots organizers are trying to establish a national event called Take Back Your Time Day. The Web site devoted to the concept describes it as a "nationwide initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our families and relationships, our communities and our environment."
And individually, employees clearly crave more leisure time. Even working fathers, who have traditionally been willing to put in long hours on the job, are starting to rebel. About a fifth of male executives have "downsized their aspirations, with sacrifices to family and personal life being the most highly cited reason," according to a 2003 study by the Families and Work Institute, Catalyst, and the Boston College Center for Work and Family.
Another study cited by USA TODAY, this one by Lee Hecht Harrison, found that 10% of senior HR executives said they're seeing more and more high-potential male employees leave their organizations or refuse a promotion due to work/life obligations.
If they can't have more leisure time, employees at least want greater flexibility. A recent survey developed by staffing firm Office Team asked 613 employees about which types of work changes would give them the most job satisfaction. The most common response was flexibility in their work schedules.
In Britain, where employees log the greatest number of average work hours in the EU, some workers are eager for a particularly dramatic form of flexibility. In Human Resources magazine, Chris Bones observes that more employees are looking to "balance" their extended periods of concentrated work with extended periods of time off.
Bones calls this phenomenon "binge working" and sees it as a danger signal. "We ask for greater adaptability from those who work for us, yet many of us show reluctance to create real flexibility in how we define the employment relationship," writes Bones, group organization effectiveness and development director at Cadbury Schweppes.
How will employees and employers adapt to a 21st-century workplace rife with work/life conflicts? Some companies may opt for greater work schedule flexibility, perhaps even offering more sabbaticals, while others may choose to discourage after-hours work, creating sharper boundaries between work and home life. Whatever strategies are used, however, it's clear that the costs of ignoring these dilemmas are high for employers and employees alike.
For Stephanie Armour's article "U.S. Workers Feel Burn of Long Hours, Less Leisure," go to
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2003-12-16-hours-cover_x.htm
For an Armour article on how more men are seeking work/life balance, see
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2003-10-08-men_x.htm
For an article on how U.S. workers are taking less vacation, see
http://hr2.blr.com/Article.cfm/Nav/5.0.0.0.27653.0/PrintPage/O
For an article on how parents are spending more time at work, see
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6931739.htm
For information on the Take Back Your Time Day initiative, see
http://www.simpleliving.net/timeday/
For a press release on the transformation of the roles of women and men in the workplace, go to
http://www.familiesandwork.org/press/globalrelease.html
For a PDF version of the executive summary on the Families and Work Institute's "Feeling Overworked" report, see
http://www.familiesandwork.org/summary/overwork.pdf
For an Office Team press release entitled "The Keys to Happiness at Work," go to
http://www.officeteam.com/PressRoom?LOBName=OT&releaseid=365
Other documents used in the preparation of this TrendWatcher include:
Bones, Chris. "Binge Working Is the Latest Cry for Help." Human Resources. ProQuest. February 2004, p. 18.
"Flexibility Linked to Job Satisfaction." HR Fact Finder, September 2003, p. 7.
It's a dilemma for businesses as well, which want to maximize productivity and yet must be wary of burnout, turnover, overtime, lawsuits and lower employee morale. The costs come in the billions. The Economic Policy Institute reports that mandatory overtime costs U.S. businesses up to $300 billion per year in problems related to stress and fatigue, reports USA TODAY.
Even the numbers related to mandatory overtime, however, don't capture the true scope of the problem. As everyone in the corporate world knows, a lot of today's work is performed offsite and after official work hours. Salaried employees, in particular, work while traveling or at home via laptops, cell phones and other devices.
A huge number of U.S. employees are also giving up their vacation time. A May 2003 poll conducted by Expedia.com found that U.S. workers were taking 10% less vacation time in 2003 than they had the year before. In fact, workers are giving back over $21 billion in unused vacation days to their employers.
It all adds up to a worrisome long-term trend. "Combined work hours for dual-earner couples with children rose 10 hours a week, from 81 hours a week in 1977 to 91 hours a week today. Clearly, today's working couples have less time for their lives off the job," reports the Families and Work Institute.
It's little wonder, then, that there are signs of a backlash. In the U.S., grass-roots organizers are trying to establish a national event called Take Back Your Time Day. The Web site devoted to the concept describes it as a "nationwide initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our families and relationships, our communities and our environment."
And individually, employees clearly crave more leisure time. Even working fathers, who have traditionally been willing to put in long hours on the job, are starting to rebel. About a fifth of male executives have "downsized their aspirations, with sacrifices to family and personal life being the most highly cited reason," according to a 2003 study by the Families and Work Institute, Catalyst, and the Boston College Center for Work and Family.
Another study cited by USA TODAY, this one by Lee Hecht Harrison, found that 10% of senior HR executives said they're seeing more and more high-potential male employees leave their organizations or refuse a promotion due to work/life obligations.
If they can't have more leisure time, employees at least want greater flexibility. A recent survey developed by staffing firm Office Team asked 613 employees about which types of work changes would give them the most job satisfaction. The most common response was flexibility in their work schedules.
In Britain, where employees log the greatest number of average work hours in the EU, some workers are eager for a particularly dramatic form of flexibility. In Human Resources magazine, Chris Bones observes that more employees are looking to "balance" their extended periods of concentrated work with extended periods of time off.
Bones calls this phenomenon "binge working" and sees it as a danger signal. "We ask for greater adaptability from those who work for us, yet many of us show reluctance to create real flexibility in how we define the employment relationship," writes Bones, group organization effectiveness and development director at Cadbury Schweppes.
How will employees and employers adapt to a 21st-century workplace rife with work/life conflicts? Some companies may opt for greater work schedule flexibility, perhaps even offering more sabbaticals, while others may choose to discourage after-hours work, creating sharper boundaries between work and home life. Whatever strategies are used, however, it's clear that the costs of ignoring these dilemmas are high for employers and employees alike.
For Stephanie Armour's article "U.S. Workers Feel Burn of Long Hours, Less Leisure," go to
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2003-12-16-hours-cover_x.htm
For an Armour article on how more men are seeking work/life balance, see
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2003-10-08-men_x.htm
For an article on how U.S. workers are taking less vacation, see
http://hr2.blr.com/Article.cfm/Nav/5.0.0.0.27653.0/PrintPage/O
For an article on how parents are spending more time at work, see
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6931739.htm
For information on the Take Back Your Time Day initiative, see
http://www.simpleliving.net/timeday/
For a press release on the transformation of the roles of women and men in the workplace, go to
http://www.familiesandwork.org/press/globalrelease.html
For a PDF version of the executive summary on the Families and Work Institute's "Feeling Overworked" report, see
http://www.familiesandwork.org/summary/overwork.pdf
For an Office Team press release entitled "The Keys to Happiness at Work," go to
http://www.officeteam.com/PressRoom?LOBName=OT&releaseid=365
Other documents used in the preparation of this TrendWatcher include:
Bones, Chris. "Binge Working Is the Latest Cry for Help." Human Resources. ProQuest. February 2004, p. 18.
"Flexibility Linked to Job Satisfaction." HR Fact Finder, September 2003, p. 7.