Or, will the nominal 40- or 35-hour workweek become a thing of the past?
Many of us with jobs seem to be facing demands for more overtime. Although there may be extra money involved, it doesn’t make completely for lost leisure time, or at least in my opinion it doesn’t.
We also hear constantly about the challenge of outsourcing to the countries where the “low, low prices” of mass merchandisers are sustained by “low, low wages”, and, of course, “long, long hours”. Just today in the Los Angeles Times I read that two thirds of India’s population has less than two dollars a day to live on–and that is where I also read a small item which was decidedly unsettling in terms of what we have considered a way of life for several generations. This was in the careers section, where an author of a career guide for young college grads was quoted as saying, each and every week she heard from employers who said new hires all seemed to expect nights and weekends off, long lunches, and several breaks in the day. Granted, the full context is not given, and there are times when employees or candidates should not stress what they expect the employer to give them. This has undoubtedly remained the same for generations as well–and common sense does dictate some restraint on the part of the candidate. My last job was, I imagine, pretty typical for people these days, not just new grads but mid-life professionals like me: lunch breaks were practically non-existent, because of the endless need to schedule conference calls between locations across the country and across the globe, and two and three hours of overtime several days a week were the norm. We were entitled to overtime but rather strongly pressured to under-report it–which is to say that to document it adequately would have taken nearly as much time as the extra work itself.
I ended up a burnout case, although it probably wouldn’t have been so difficult for others better suited to the peculiarities of this job.
Given my experiences and those of people I know IRL and have heard of in the media, it almost seems that it won’t be long before employers simply call the animal for what it is and say that employees are expected to put in fifty-six or sixty or seventy hour weeks standard? Will this really happen, and if so when do you think it will? It’s rather unsettling to hear “nights and weekends off” mentioned in the same breath with “several daily breaks” and “long lunches”, even though it might have been understandable in context.
I’m not sure that it would ever get off the ground. If you had a company come right out and say that they expect a 60-hour work week, they’d be hard pressed to find quality employees. “40 hours with some necessary overtime” at least lets the prospective employee think there won’t be much overtime.
My office went the opposite way. We were putting in 60-hour weeks constantly, and it was burning me out. I fought and fought with the managers to get more people to spread the workload around, and it was only until I threatened to find another job and leave them holding the bag that they conceded. Our workforce grew, 40 hours became more common than 60 hours, and although it’s undoubtedly costing the company more in payroll, morale is up, we’re productive, and the company is able to accommodate extra work and new customers, where before we were working over capacity. I actually feel like I can take a vacation once in a while now.
For a lot of salaried jobs I did in the late 90’s to 2001, it was clearly stated that they expected a 45 hour work week. They didn’t get it from most people, or most of the time, but if they demanded it, you’d better do it.
I also seriously hated that when push came to shove, several of my bosses acted like they owned me, like every minute of my time was subject to their beck and call. No, and I’m not sorry. If there’s an issue, I’ll do the work, but if you’re demanding I work a weekend just because you’re being petulant, then you can go fuck yourself, and I don’t care how much you write me up for it. You’re just costing yourself a good employee because you’re a Power and Control Freak. There’s a word for that: ASSHOLE.
But like everything else, salaries and time demanded become subject to the Laws of the Times. In good times, when unemployment is low and it’s easier to get another job, demands become less, because you can go out and get another job. In bad times, when jobs are scarce, job demands get stiffer, because they figure you’re not going anywhere and they have more leverage.
But it’s like I said in another place a couple of days ago: The true test of character isn’t what you do when things are going well, it’s what you do when things are going badly. I tend to remember the character slips employers make when they think they have more power, and I remember them in the good times that follow.
I should make it clear that I’m not complaining about any and every employer who demands occasional extra hours of its staff. As an employee, I consider it entirely reasonable to be asked to put in extra hours from time to time, but continually having to do so is a different matter.
I don’t think it’ll happen… my reasoning why would also be the answer to the question of “why the heck would any employer pay above minimum wage?” Employers don’t wield ultimate power in the first place, and the power they exert over employees diminishes as the pay scale grows.
My anecdote to add to the pile is that I know of a rogue manager who was young and ambitious… and demanded a minimum of 60 hours per week from his engineers. It wasn’t long before he literally had no employees left.
First of all, the $2 a day people in India are not the ones competing for American jobs. In fact, India is getting relatively expensive, at least compared to what it once was.
If anyone is interested I can post the name of an interesting paper which showed that as you hit 50 hours a week, the increase in mistakes requires so much rework that the amount of effective work done is about 40 hours. Add to this the amount of turnover that you get, and more sick days, this is not going to fly, unless there is some big prize at the end, or the job is so desired (like video game designer) that the suckers will flock to it.
I worked at a place where we were expected to stay until about 9 pm, with dinner served. Not a hell of a lot got done after dinner. It was a macho thing on the part of the top managers, since I think it was supposed to show we were working harder than the opposing project. I got out, and the project turned out to be a world famous disaster.
The bigger danger is 24/7 connectivity. People won’t be at work long hours, but will be expected to log in at home and jump on every crisis or perceived crisis, no matter when.
I think one reason employers have more power now is due to the number of people who are living on the edge, financially. There is a reason a financial emergency fund is sometimes referred to as ‘fuck you’ money.
Please post it. I don’t currently suffer from them, but I’ve had bosses who requested and required 6x12 weeks out of everybody, whether you were behind, on time or (as I was) ahead.
what types of jobs are we talking about here? Each poster tells of long hours in the office, but nobody has said what branch of the economy they work in. Is the problem mostly restricted to high-tech and high finance?
Project Manager here, mostly IT deployments etc. I usually work an average of 35-40 hours per week. During crunch times however, that will usually double. It lasts for a few weeks and then gets back to normal. I get paid for every hour I work as a contractor so that is nice.
At the end of the year however, the weeks that I don’t work a full 40 usually nip away all of the extra hours that I work the rest of the time. The company and I both show a wash on the books. That needs to be considered in this discussion as well.
Were I a salaried employee, I’m sure I’d be pissed about it. Luckily that is not an issue.
I’ve worked in Silicon Valley almost all of my adult life, and although I have my own consulting business now and have a rather “relaxed” work schedule, when I was in the corporate world we all worked our asses off. No one questioned working as many hours as it took to get the job done. No one* I knew worked only 40 hours a week. In fact, I’d say 50 was closer to the norm, 60 wasn’t unusual, and it could easily spike higher than that during critical periods of a given project. Most of us made lots of money off stock options back in the day, so it was a trade-off we generally accepted.
*I’m talking salaried employees, not hourly workers
I was young and was ambitious as well and so I eagerly accepted the 60+ hour weeks.
The problem for the manager was that some people did quit…and since I accepted and was ambitious I expected to ‘move up’ in a clear an measurable way. When he didn’t do so I demanded that it be so. His actions fell way short of what I expected (name promotion with little salary increase and same duties/vague promise of future happenings and not letting himself get pegged down on specifics etc), so I found a new position.
When you prey on youths ambition to squeeze much extra work out of it…those ambitious youths expect something from it.
It’s an easy trap to fall into. Especially when you’re young and ambitions–or even just young–if you are lucky enough to be in a field yo enjoy, you are doing the hands-on actual work that you like doing, the hours pass so fast you don’t even notice. You look up and find it’s 2:30pm and you haven’t even thought about lunch. During my time as a programmer, actually writing programs, that’s how it was for me.
Later when I was working elsewhere, and expected to do similar hours when my work now consisted of incident management and reporting, and no development work at all, it was much more difficult.
The job I quite a month ago (after a mere 6 months) had a bizarre scheduling policy for us IT grunts.
Work Mon-Fri, off for Sat and Sun. Work Mon–Fri, off Sat and Sun. Work Mon-Fri, be off Saturday, and then start a stretch of between 21 and 28 days in a row, 12 hour shifts on the weekends.
I can’t find it online. When I google it, the top hots are my reference to it in my column. But my source is
Kenneth G. Cooper, “The $2,000 Hour: How Managers Influence Project Performance Through the Rework Cycle,” IEEE Engineering Management Review, Vol. 22, No. 4, Winter 1994.
Here’s the deal. Young workers (late gen x, y, and millenials) are known as being petulant, lazy, and wanting something for nothing. What is more accurate is that they place their personal lives, family, friends, and happiness above the company. They actually will work amazingly long and hard hours IF management will recognize and reward them for their efforts. They expect, (and rightly so to my mind), that hard work and creative thinking should be commensurately rewarded with bonuses, pay raises or time off. At the minimum they expect a thank you. The issue is that management has come to “expect” this attitude from older workers who have devoted their entire lives to the company. Shamefully it is these same workers that companies consistently screw over with early “retirement” or “downsizing”. Having seen their parents go through it, the younger workers have little trust in the company to keep their end of the bargain on anything. Since they are the workforce that will replace needed positions, they feel free to shop around until they find a company that will treat them right.
I don’t see the work week increasing, I see the opposite. As telecommuting becomes more prevalent to save costs, a flexible 30 hr week will become more standard.
I’ve actuall;y throught about writing a book suggesting that many office workers become every-other-day workers, and work around 6 hours a day most days.
The reason is that opffice work is extremely inefficient. There’s huge messes, people everywhere, noise, and nothing gets done. The only good aspects are that, theoretically, the people you need to talk to are right there, and the managers are there to help guide you. But increasingly the managers can’t help do squat, and the peopel you talk to are in another country 3000 miles away.
I find, in fact, that the actual work done takes between 3 and 4 hours a day. Everything else is communicating and coordinating. There’s ultimately no reason to be in the office for the actual work, and sometimes none to be in it for the C&C.