Lol...Never gonna happen.
When I had employees I would talk to them about their overtime. Excepting unusual circumstances, in every other case there was no need. They either had a problem at home or they thought the perception of being dedicated was needed. I found that they did no more work in 50 hours than they could easily do in 40. I told them that they’d need to justify overtime to me. Productivity improved.
For the most part I don’t know where the people who didn’t want to go home went. One joined a gym and by the time he got divorced he looked awesome.
In my area job descriptions for engineers read like a novel. I refuse to apply for it is nonsense. One can only do so much and be effective.
I work in IT. A 46 hour work week sounds like a dream right about now.
If you’re working, you put in the time, because you know it’s an employer’s market right now. I’m young, I have time to bitch about work/life balance. In 10 years, if this pace keeps going, I’ll burn out, but right now, I’m going to ride the biggest wave I can to get as far up the ladder as I can before I get to that “middle age” where the younger prospects can outperform me.
I’ve observed most government workers put in 40 hours (or a bit less). At 5:00 pm work simply stops at the county offices. Don’t be standing in the doorway or you’ll be trampled by the herd leaving the building.
Drive down the street to a corporate headquarters. A few young females are driving out of the parking lot at 5:00 to pick up kids at day care. At 6:00 p.m. the parking lot is over 50% full. At 8:00 am the corporate office parting lot is full and the county office lot is empty. about 8:55 am cars start arriving at the county office lot.
Two different worlds.
I once had a job where all the people around me were getting little by little fired because the place was shutting down and they didn’t want to give unemployment, and so I was doing multiple jobs, and then I got fired for doing multiple jobs; I was told I should have left it to the person whose job it was, who by the way was fired.
If he gets clinically treated for sleep management and fitted for a continuous positive airway pressure machine, he'll get effective restorative sleep and be ready for 60 or more productive work hours.
For some humans, "work" is play, and the most delightful allocation of their time they can find. Being forced into it may be "iffy," but some people just can't cut it and need to find another job.
Well you take out the 20 minute chat at the coffee mess, smoke breaks, longer lunch then allocated, and just general BS, companies rarely get 40 hours out of their workers. And I will be first to admit that some days I don’t give my usual 500 percent.
I usually put in more than 40 hours, because there is so much to do. But unless something is critical, I don’t put in 60 hour weeks.
That one boss who insists that his employees not put in over 40 hours really does not “get it” as the article says. Sometimes, there is a project which one person is working on, and because of time crunches and so forth, that person has to put in extra time to get it done. That does not mean that more than one person needs to be put on the project, because that can actually lead to a loss in efficiency. That’s because two people have to spend a lot of time coordinating, reviewing what the other person has done, etc., especially if there are not clear and separate tasks on the project.
In work, as with everything, moderation is the key. An employer who pressures everyone into working no more than 40 hours per week is just as unreasonable as an employer who insists on 60 hour work weeks. Work loads are variable.
I’m glad I’m salaried, not hourly, so I don’t have to worry about overtime.
At one point, I had a boss who would do nothing all day, then at 4:00, he'd get busy. I was expected to stay over to complete the work while he took off for home and family. He and others had the attitude that as a single person, I had no life, so I could work 24/7. When I complained, I was told, “but you're being paid overtime.” That wasn't the point.
Eventually, all that work damaged my health. There were a number of factors besides the stress, but I developed heart disease culminating in a cardiac arrest in 2008. Complications ensued and then I couldn't work anymore.
My sister-in-law puts in a lot of overtime and is under an extreme amount of stress. I worry that one day she will end up like me. It's just not good to work yourself to death, no matter how well you are compensated.
I put "work" in quotations because the word implies drudgery. I like what I do. I don't consider it "work". Mowing my lawn or unloading the dishwasher is "work." Generating business and new revenue streams for my company is not. It's how I make my living and provide my family with a well above average lifestyle. I always felt that the "40 hour work week" or "8 hour day" had socialist implications to it. I also consider it demeaning to punch a clock, fill out a time sheet, or have a "supervisor" hovering over me. I prefer to be accountable to myself and I am my own most demanding boss.
I'm a self-starter. I never "call in" sick. I never make excuses or whine or complain. I like the feeling of getting a large bonus check for exceeding my revenue and profit plans. I also like having the responsibility over my own P&L statement and running my own operation/department.
I am employed at a large corporation. I see all the office drones stampeding the doors at the 5 o'clock hour so they can sit in traffic for an hour. I also see them sitting in the parking lot in the morning because they don't want to come into the office even one minute before their shift. So afraid they might be giving an extra minute or two to "the Man" without "compensation." Those people are dead-ending their own lives and careers.
“Of the more than 1,200 adults surveyed, 21% said they worked 50 to 59 hours while 18% said they worked 60 or more. Another 11% estimated 41 to 49 hours.”
I would have to say all this is based on the personal debt.
After I retired for good, I found a couple of part time jobs, neither of which gave me 20 hours.
I always thought that a forty hour work week was something dreamed up by Utopians. Kinda like that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Another thing I see is the ridiculous amount of bureaucracy in both the govt, edu, mil and commercial sectors. Doesn’t matter who/where, there is a crap-ton of waste due to shuffling unnecessary paperwork.
Either through govt regulation or spineless CYA policies, when you attempt to mitigate any and all risk, you will drown yourself in paperwork doing it and in the process handicap each and every worker’s productivity.
Of course, another point of view is that it’s not the managers/CEOs/Directors driving it, it’s the lawyers. It’s lawyers pursuing any & every lawsuit imaginable and lawyers in legislative houses setting the stage for those lawsuits.
While in uniform, there were some really easy times when we could "let our hair down" and then there were times and assignments that required one to dig a bit deeper. The year I spent in Korea, I think I had about 3 weekends totally off and the rest were at least a Saturday and also a number of Sundays.
I will concede that many businesses abuse the "salaried positions" to screw some employees - "salaried" should have a fair wage attached instead of how some poor schmucks making $30K/year and working 50-60 hour weeks.
Nothing new. We were taught in high school (1960-1964) that in the future the work week would be 30-35 hours because of the increase in population.
In my life, the average work week was 48 hours a week, often more!
Or because the boss needs something at the last minute.
I was a senior design engineer who doubled as the CAD system manager for my employer. I spent my weekends running system backups and installing software updates. I did this mainly because I found it fun and enjoyed the time on the system by myself.
Regards,
GtG
PS I retired at age 53 w/ a golden parachute...Not all rewards come in timely manner!
PPS Employer was Robert Bosch Gmbh, 630,000 employees world wide!
Smart companies are figuring this out. Lots of overtime reduces productive, and increases turn over. Where I’m at we never do OT, “team building” (some deathmatch video game or other) starts a little after 4 and the work day is done, play or go home. I go home. We get a lot done, we ship on time, and we get to enjoy our non-work lives.
I thought the problem was the 29-hour work week, going on zero hours, not the 47-hour.