I got into business writing from sociology, in which I got
my bachelor’s degree and spent an ill-fated graduate year. Since then, as I showed in my books and
elsewhere, I have tracked the effect of the work environment on the beings inhabiting
it.
Two efforts there have appeared over the past ten days. One, though officially in the November Atlantic,
was released already: Judith Shulevitz’s
“Why You Never See Your Friends Anymore.”
Using the Soviets’ rather unsuccessful effort to shrink and reapportion
the week to get more work out of its inhabitants – she could have instead used
Central Florida’s unsuccessful 1990s attempt at year-round schools – the author
compared today’s situation where, for people comprising “a good third of the
American labor force,” there are no traditional weekends, between
“unpredictable workweeks” assigned on only several days’ notice and requirements
to be on the job for any of the 7 days. Not
even a factory-like setting where people can choose to work extra hours for
time-and-a-half and thereby help their prosperity, this overtime is more than
ever likely to be mandatory, and hours vary wildly depending on unforeseen and immediate
needs of the business. Then we have the
shocking and depressing trend of vast hours as routine for good jobs, shown by
a citation that in a survey 92% of “managers and professionals” were going
50-plus weekly with one-third exceeding 65.
That isn’t all, as “that doesn’t include the twenty to twenty-five hours
per week most of them reported monitoring their work while not actually
working.” (Haven’t they heard of
Parkinson’s Law?) If this is true, the section
of my book Choosing a Lasting Career which assessed positions on their compatibility
with outside projects and activities would need serious revision, with many
more deserving downgrades. The title of
Shulevitz’s piece came from social activities being precluded by such long and
ever-changing schedules preventing time coordination, enough advance notice,
and just plain enough free hours. That’s
not a good thing for social animals.
The other was on an old question, Alex Williams’s October 17th
New York Times “Why Don’t Rich People Just Stop Working?”. During most of the past 100 years this has not
been worth asking, as only a far-left author would fail to understand both the
differences within those called “rich” and the gigantic inventory and variety of
goods and services costing differing if very large amounts of money. The Williams, keeping with the ideological
tradition such as by quoting Senator Bernie Sanders inanely saying
“billionaires should not exist,” shows us that competition with others at the
top is still alive and well. People at
the very summit, such as $23-billion-owning Tesla-CEO Elon Musk, have long
approached his once 120-hour workweek, and Williams’s rendition of maritime
competition between the likes of computer magnates Larry Ellison and Paul Allen
reminded me of old stories about the Astors and Vanderbilts. Wealth’s effect on contentment is as much a diminishing
factor as before, with a “recent Harvard survey” showing that those worth $8
million were only slightly happier with those with one-eighth that. And neither are worries about economic
collapses anything new. Yes, once we
update the trappings from private railroad cars to sports arenas, it’s all the
same.
What can we say about this material? The problem of scheduling is not easy, as we
want products to be available more conveniently than we once settled for. Yet there is a gap between matching German
workers walking out of their retail stores for the weekend by 5:00pm Friday and
requiring ordinary, low-paid people to be there at any hour of the day or
night. As it is clearly not a subject
for regulation, businesses must make the choices. More can follow Costco’s lead by, while
hardly sticking to 40-hour retail weeks, limiting business hours enough for
workers to have planned days and time off.
Scheduling can often be done further in advance. As many did during last year’s Black Friday,
companies can publicize that they are limiting their hours to benefit their
employees, possibly getting more sales as a result, and make incentives for
overtime great enough that it can be optional.
On the issue of “rich” people putting in huge amounts of time, there is
no problem – let them. Entrepreneurs
will entrepren, and ever more wealth for them does not hurt the rest of
us. In the meantime, let us focus on
more work opportunities – we can always use them.