Overworked!
1
In the song “Nine to Five,” Dolly Parton speaks for the overworked employee whose life is drained away by the clock. The amount of time Americans are working is on the increase, and Americans are growing weary.° Shorter workdays or more opportunities to take time off need to be available in order to provide a safer, happier, and more energetic workplace.
2
In her book The Overworked American, Schor writes, “The rise of work time was unexpected. For nearly a hundred years, hours had been declining. When this decline abruptly° ended in the late 1940s, it marked the beginning of a new era in work time” (1). Schor explains how this surprising increase has grown during recent years: “Each year, the change is small, amounting to about nine hours, or slightly more than one additional day of work. In any given year, such a small increment° has probably been imperceptible,° but the accumulated increase over two decades is substantial” (2). If Americans are gaining a little over a day of work each year, that is over ten days in a decade! This does not leave much time for family responsibilities or, much less, for leisure time. 3
Overworked employees may present a problem not only in the household but also in the workplace and even on the road. In his essay “Four Weeks Vacation,” Robinson writes, “The health implications° of sleep-deprived° motorists weaving their way to the office or operating machinery on the job are self-evident” (481). An employee may work a few hours of overtime, drive home in traffic for an hour, and then cook or eat dinner with the family. On top of that, there are errands to run and bills to pay. How much time does that leave the individual to rest? This schedule easily could lead to a “sleep-deprived motorist” or an injured machine operator.
4
The toll that overworked employees take on the family is also evident. In recent years, it has become more and more common for both parents to go to work to support the family. Time is a very important factor in keeping relationships in the household healthy. If both parents are spending a majority of their time working, it may be very difficult to find time to raise the kids and keep a marriage intact. In an article titled “Just What the Worker Needs—Longer Days, No Overtime,” Eisenbrey writes, “Women are working many more weeks per year and hours per week, on average, than they did 30 or even 10 years ago. Middle-class married couples with children and a head of household between the ages of 25 and 54 now work an average of 98 weeks a year, compared with 78 weeks in 1969. These changes clearly support Eisenbrey’s conclusion. Overtime for either spouse—but especially the mother— can have serious effects on a family.”
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All these added stresses, caused by overworking, are carried straight back to the workplace the next morning. Negative attitudes set in. Employees start to hate work. As a result, morale goes down in the workplace. It is a vicious° cycle that Americans are stuck in. How can this cycle be stopped? Overtime, for one thing, should not be required but only allowed as an option. If employees have too much extra work to do, employers should consider giving the work to someone else. This could mean hiring another employee or dividing the extra work among employees who are not as busy.
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Employees also need to have more opportunities to take time off. If the employee can’t take desired time off due to a heavy workload, which is common in the workplace, employers need to consider hiring temporary employees or going through a temp agency to find employees who will work during the regular employee’s time off. This work relief will make for a happier, less stressed employee. In an SFGate.com article titled “You Deserve a Month Off,” columnist Mark Morford wrote, “We need more time off. A lot more time. Longer vacations. Extended breaks. Chunks of contiguous° time which you can roll around on the tongue of your id°
