The Myth That Americans Are Busier Than Ever
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The Myth That Americans Are Busier Than Ever
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Re: The Myth That Americans Are Busier Than Ever
#2I'm not really sure what this "work-hours" data is capturing.
My parents were teachers and I remember them marking after school and some weekends. My wife is now a teacher and she has after school meetings at least once a week, spends hours marking every night and weekends, plus a lot of her holiday preparing new lessons and admin. Contractually she has the exact same hours and holidays my parents had but her life is nothing like theirs.
For myself I'm a scientist and people have worked long hours since I was a student - but it used to tail off as people got into their 30s and became more secure, maybe got a stable position, teaching, and students of their own. Now this seems to have been pushed back to an ever receding horizon and people work long long hours competing to get the next grant or next placement, to keep their heads above water right up till retirement. Of course academics all contractually work a 40 hour week.
I guess its anecdotal but I see the same sort of things amongst my friends in tech and pharma. Their laptops and mobiles have enslaved them.
Maybe I was blind to it when young but I don't remember my parents generation - their friends, my relatives working like that.
Re: The Myth That Americans Are Busier Than Ever
#3I'm not really sure what this "work-hours" data is capturing. My parents were teachers and I remember them marking after school and some weekends. My wife is now a teacher and she has after school meetings at least once a week, spends hours marking every night and weekends, plus a lot of her holiday preparing new lessons and admin. Contractually she has the exact same hours and holidays my parents had but her life is…
The data looks like it comes from the American Time Use Survey.
It's collected via time diaries, not contractual hours worked.
Re: The Myth That Americans Are Busier Than Ever
#4As a European I am always amazed how much the US-citizen work. Very little vacation, very little security and a atmosphere of a very (very very, haha) competetive nature.
Re: The Myth That Americans Are Busier Than Ever
#5If you include all Americans, not just working Americans, the amount of time spent not working has spiked dramatically. Kids are staying in school longer; the labour force participation rate is dropping as blue collar jobs disappear; people are retiring earlier and living longer.
Re: The Myth That Americans Are Busier Than Ever
#6Recently posted, related article (New Yorker) and discussion (144 comments)
Article: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/05/26/14052...
Re: The Myth That Americans Are Busier Than Ever
#7This article defines leisure as "time spent not working" and then observes that the underemployed segment of our society gets to enjoy an abundance of (presumably, in large measure, involuntary) "leisure."
Re: The Myth That Americans Are Busier Than Ever
#8"High pay is highly rewarding," Kolbert writes, and in a winner-take-all economy, we're motivated to put in extra-long hours to, well, win.
We trade time for money. If you enjoy your work, and someone is willing to give you a large sum of money for your time, then working long hours makes sense... but only if you couldn't be doing something that you'd like even more than money with that time. For example, a reasonably high level executive position might pay you $250k/year for 20 years - so $5m - but it'd take you away from your family doing business travelling for 2 weeks out of every month. Would you trade a total of 10 years away from your family for $5m? Some people would. I wouldn't.
Re: The Myth That Americans Are Busier Than Ever
#9As a European I am always amazed how much the US-citizen work. Very little vacation, very little security and a atmosphere of a very (very very, haha) competetive nature.
As an American I am always laughing each time I read this. There are people on both sides who choose to work a long number of hours. I would not be surprised to read the numbers are not to dissimilar.
Far too much of this workaholic issue only occurs because people want lifestyles they otherwise could not afford. Two cars, the big house or exclusive location, the island vacations, and such, are not necessary for a happy life. Yet there are many who think so and adapt to make it happen. I don't begrudge them for a minute
Re: The Myth That Americans Are Busier Than Ever
#10As a European I am always amazed how much the US-citizen work. Very little vacation, very little security and a atmosphere of a very (very very, haha) competetive nature.
> a atmosphere of a very (very very, haha) competetive nature.
I would call it fear. There is very little actual competitiveness in the workforce, but it looks that way as people go about trying to look important as they fear the next guy who can and will do the same job for $1/h less. The fear of taking vacation is part of this, well, for the few that get vacation time.
American priorities are messed up, work yourself to death so you can retire and enjoy life when your too useless to work.