If you are lucky enough to have a job, chances are you typically do work that should be handled by 2 or 3 people in the name of “streamlining”. Better yet, you probably do work that is vastly outside of the job description you applied and were subsequently hired for. This has been going on for what seems like forever; you turn 22, you get out of college and then corporate America owns your soul till you are 65. It is a cycle that puts more and more stress on each generation and there are no signs of it slowing down anytime soon.
Numerous studies have placed the US as one of, if not the, most overworked nation in the developed world, yet Americans get stuck with the stigma of being lazy. We are comparatively a sweatshop when you look at other countries and the benefits their workers get. To illustrate this let me share with you a pretty shocking statistic from the International Labour Organization; “Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers.” [1] We can throw the French out of the mix since they are sort of a special bunch, but it still illustrates my point, we work too much.
Why do we work so much? It has been ingrained into our head that we need to work as much as we can to show our worth in an organization and that hard work will let you advance. We also work to ensure that our jobs do not get outsourced to either another domestic company or another country. Finally, we do not stand up for our worker’s rights, we just let whoever walk over us and make us slaves to the system. I am not for an instant saying that hard work is a bad quality and that we should all slack off more, what I am saying is that it is OK to take a breather when you need it.
When the Recession started in 2008 companies cut hundreds of thousands of jobs, 780,000 between January and March of 2009 alone, and just kept going in the name of “streamlining” and “efficiency”. After cutting these jobs and letting the country settle down a bit from realising that we were not as doom as we thought, companies saw that they could get just as much work done with fewer employee. Fewer employees, in turn, meant less money they needed to spend for payroll. By 2010 US corporate earnings had risen 12% more then their earnings prior to the big crash, thus more profit, which was, do not get me wrong, a good thing. [2] However, this meant the average American worker had to put in longer hours, take on more work and have their stress levels increased due to these business practices and constant worry about whether they would continue to be employed.
Compared to other G-7 nations, the US has one of the highest unemployment rate and one of the lowest number of union members among the 31 countries in the Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development (OECD), at just 12% of employees. [2] So why it is that our economy is growing by leaps and bounds and corporate profits are soaring, but no jobs are being created? The simple answer is greediness of those at the top. CEO’s, on average, make 185 time more then the average worker and in some organization they can make up to 343 times more. To put this into perspective the average wage for the American worker is $33,190 while the average CEO can make $6.1 million to a staggering $11.3 million. [3] [4] So while you work harder and take on two other jobs which were left unfilled after a round of layoffs, without a change in pay I might add, there is a CEO somewhere who’s salary keeps rising due to the higher profits your hard work is responsible for. Now if that does not knock the wind out of your workaholic sails, I’m not sure what can.
So why do we not take breaks from our work? The sad answer is that we can’t. Of the 31 countries in the OECD the US is the only country that does not have some sort of legislation stating employees must get paid vacation time. Yes, there are employers that do give paid vacation time and it is a nice benefit with the job, however compared to the rest of the developed world we get significantly fewer days on average with 13. A similar employee in the UK would enjoy on average 26 days, a Finn would be granted on average 30 days and a Frechman would clock in at an average of 38 days. In fact every country in the OECD, excluding Canada and Japan, have some sort of policy saying employees must get at least 20 days paid vacation (Canada and Japan are 10 days). Unpaid vacation is often offered for employees, but many workers simply can not afford to lose one day of pay since their budget depends on it. [1] [5]
It is even worse if you desire to start a family. Paid maternity leave is not mandatory in the US, the only industrialized nation in the world that does not require it by law. Europeans typically enjoy at least 20 weeks of paid parental leave and the rest of the industrialized world enjoys an average of 12 weeks. [6] This does not even begin to touch on issues as the child gets older. In 1960 only 20% of moms worked outside the home,while the rest were “employed” full time as a stay at home mom (I’ve been around kids for a few hours at a time, I cannot imagine what stay at home moms go through daily). Now at least 70% of households in American have both parents working, leaving only 30% of mothers and fathers to stay at home with their kids. [1] This means kids are being raised in daycare, by a nanny’s or worse, fully by the TV, instead of having their parents interact with them. It is no wonder why so many kids do not respect their parents, they are never around to establish a parental authority.
There is also the impact on your “life balance” when you are overworked, you begin to put off things so you can stay that extra hour or two at the office or finish that last report. By the time you leave work you are so mentally exhausted all you want to do is go home and flop on the sofa. If you have kid you are more likely to deny their requests for playtime on the ground that you are too tired, or inadvertently take out your stress on them or another loved one.
Even those who do get vacation time rarely use all of it and typically do not take a long period of time off because they simply cannot afford to. They would be so backed up and behind with their work when they return they simply cannot justify taking time off. Even when an employee does manage to convince themselves to take a week long vacation, they still end up feeling guilty and check their e-mails anyways, even though they are supposed to be “out of the office.” This is because of a unspoken expectation that it’s irresponsible to leave business unintended for a week. It is like we have lost the ability to relax and enjoy life.
So here we are, a nation of overworked, underpaid, stressed out, workaholics who cannot seem to leave work at work. It is partially due to our work culture and to our lack of standards, but the real reason is we let it get to be like this. We allowed the companies to own our soul and let them govern our quality of life. We allowed them to let us be stressed out and in constant fear over the stability of our job because the company might not meet its projections (even though they would still turn a sizable profit). And we allowed them to take away from life’s great moments, like having and enjoying kids or going on a vacation of a lifetime. For whatever reason companies all to often overlook that a happy employee is going to be more loyal, a harder work and look out more for the company’s best interests. All I can do is scratch my head on why they do not seem to understand this. Maybe the impending apocalypse will be that all of the corporate drone out there will finally turn into zombies and kill us all. Just remember you can make some serious zombie fighting gear out of office supplies!
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
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