One hour out of three is enough

[darkemeralds]

On my second day back to work, I've left the office at midday to let the washing machine repair guy into my house. (A broken washer is not what you want after a three week trip.) It was a pleasantly cool and cloudy ride home, and I really don't want to go back.

An extra-long staff meeting this morning had as its main topic "How can we be more efficient?"

One way might be to have shorter staff meetings, but that's just glib. What troubled me was the mention of "our ten hour workdays." It's not an official job requirement, just an insidious and constantly reiterated norm, that each of us will offer 25% extra time to our employer, gratis. It's the stressor I was so eager to take a vacation from.

So, "How can we be more efficient?" feels like code for "How can we get you guys to push that rock up the hill faster and more often for free?"

Yes, times are hard. Yes, this is the American way. Yes, I'm damned lucky to have a job at all, let alone a good one. But I'm on the verge of taking a big step down just to get out from under the Gaze of Disapproval.

I can't help it: offering up precious personal waking hours on the altar of the enterprise business system feels toxic to me--and all the more so because I managed to get away from it for three whole weeks.

Comments

[tehomet]

I imagine it feels toxic to you because it is toxic. Unfortunately.

It does seem to me that there's a culture of 'presenteeism' for want of a better word in some American offices. Would you be fired if you just work the hours that you're getting paid for, the hours of your contract? Are you in an union?

[darkemeralds]

Heh. In London last week, one of my British friends inquired (very politely, of course) about the terms of my employment contract. I stared at him and said, "Contract?" and he stared back in shock.

I'm "management," which is to say, unrepresented by a union and ineligible to be paid overtime. There is a job description, but no contract. No one bargains for me (though I'm happy to say that I enjoy many of the benefits won for other workers here by their unions).

In recent years, the organization I work for replaced compensatory time with a ramshackle formula by which I was able to leave the office today to attend to my washing machine repair without writing down the hours. Edge over four hours' absence, however, and I have to use sick leave or vacation time. In other words, I'm either an hourly worker or a salaried staff member, whichever is handier for the organization in a given situation.

So yeah, it's a bit toxic, and I appreciate your validation of that. Sometimes it's hard to see when you're in the midst of it, and hard to smell when it's all you've been smelling for years.

[(Anonymous)]

1.No contract??!?!!! O_o

2. Hang on, you're saying that you do 20% overtime for free, but you have to 'pay' for any absence over 4 hours? That's...immoral! When I was employed we had a formal TOIL (time off in lieu) system with the option to convert to cash and, despite there being a shitty, money-grabbing, back-stabbing for personal gain culture, there was plenty of trust over time sheets and TOIL.
Mr L works more hours than he's paid for (though they do have TOIL), and there's no formal flexitime arrangement, but the informal and reasonable flexibility at his office increases loyalty and commitment. And there are benefits like, for eg, increased opening hours at the office because Mr L is an early riser and gets to work before 8am, while others prefer to start later and finish after Mr L is safely back home.

3. Are there not plenty of studies to show that working too many hours and having a rigid system is counter-productive. In other words the answer to the question 'how can we be more efficient' is 'work fewer hours and be more flexible'.

[lamentables]

Gah! That was me. Suddenly I'm logged out of ALL the things.

[darkemeralds]

It's odd: when you put it so baldly, I kind of cower back and say, "No! It's not that bad..." but then I realize that I do that with everything in the work world (and probably many other areas of life as well): make excuses for it and fail to see it in its stark outlines.

When I try to imagine proposing "work fewer hours and be more flexible" to my boss as a means of increasing efficiency, I just...imagination fails. Fewer hours and greater flexibility means admitting how grossly understaffed we are, and to do that, we'd have to confront our acceptance of the "lazy public servant" meme wherein there is always spare capacity.

Hm. Maybe I should propose it...

[writerscramp]

It is indeed immoral. It's also SOP in the American office, both public and private sector. It's pretty much SOP in most American workplaces, period. Especially for salaried workers. Hourly workers get a shitty deal, as well, but in different ways. (Ex. Most hourly workers are scheduled for 30 hours/week so they don't qualify as full-time, and thus don't qualify for benefits, vacation time, sick time, etc. Some will refuse bathroom breaks and lunch hours and require employees to work straight through for 8 to 16 hours (16 hours is the most you can legally work in a 24 hour period). Less reputable employers will have employees clock out at their appointed time, but then continue to work. These are often the same employers who will lock their employees in to ensure they can't leave the building during their work shift to take a break. Or, you know, escape a fire.)

Basically, American workplaces suck as a general rule because our culture has a totally fucked up sense of priorities. Also, we've beaten our unions into practical non-existence, demonized them to near-pariah status, and bad-mouthed every positive gain they've fought for on behalf of the American worker. All while cheerfully swallowing the self-serving lies propagated by corporations to turn the American worker into a serf.

Welcome to our hell.

[darkemeralds]

Well, compared to what you describe, I've got it made!

Which, of course, is part of the problem.

[writerscramp]

Right? Like, how fucked up is it that comparing work situations becomes a sport in the Oppression Olympics, and that we're all feeling bad because other workers have it so much worse? Instead of linking arms together in solidarity and demanding better for everyone, bottom to top. (But not the topmost, because those assholes are already enjoying the fruits of our labor quite enough, thankyouverymuch.) The most evil thing that Corporate America ever did was to convince us that we need them more than they need us.

(Srsly. The fear that the proles will Rise Up is just about the only thing that makes the wealthiest 0.1%* break into a cold sweat. From a recent Alternet.org article: "...people are so desperate to hold onto what they have that they are too busy looking down to look up: 'As psychologists will tell you, fear of loss is more powerful than the prospect of gain. The struggling middle classes look down more anxiously than they look up, particularly in recession and sluggish recovery.' ")



*The top 20% control 84% of the wealth in the country. The top 0.1% control the highest percentage of that 84%. The top 400 income earners in the country control the highest percentage of that highest percentage.

[darkemeralds]

I have long known that there are real advantages to being a bit poorer, having a more basic job and fewer resources than I've eventually grown to have: you have less to lose, and therefore more freedom. Not as much to look anxiously down at when making decisions for radical change in your life.

If I had any doubts that the US is rapidly becoming a sort of massive banana republic, leaving it and participating for three weeks in the lives of Britons put those doubts to rest. We are third-world-ready around here. Sadly, we still have enough influence and power to be infecting Europe with our strip-mining economic policies. The conservatives in power in the UK are just slavering at the prospect of dismantling the NHS.