Great Labor Day reading: Fortune Magazine reported that the UN published a survey that found only 18% of American’s are clocking in over 48 hours per week. This suggests to me a couple of things:
- Being productive and getting more done in less time was not counted nor is valued
- No one surveyed entrepreneurs or small business owners
- Someone thinks running a family is a leisure activity
In addition to waving caution because we don’t appear to be working enough, the article also pointed out that we have, on average, 117 hours of ‘leisure’ time per week. Note that that includes sleep (because sleep is optional?). So if we take out the weekend (assuming we actually don’t work over the weekend), we’re left with 13.8 hours a day for sleep and non-work activities. Assuming you’re lucky enough to get the recommended 8 hours of sleep per night, you have 5.8 hours per day when you’re not working or not sleeping. I have to assume that running kids to soccer practice, preparing dinner, or commuting to work is also included in that paltry 5.8 hours. When did those tasks become leisurely? Any women entrepreneurs want to weigh in on that?
I believe the bottom line points to Americans taking a more integrated approach to work and life. We value productivity and believe we can be valuable at work and have a life (some call this work/life balance, though I before to see it as creating a sustainable life). We may not be punching the time clock as often as other countries, but it would also be interested to look at what type of work those other countries such as Peru and South Korea are doing.
ADDENDUM: From the same report, a different take on it. The Buffalo News reports the findings from the UN report as “Americans are more productive than any other country.” Unfortunately I can not locate the report on the web (nor did either article link to it!) so I can not draw my own conclusions, but such is the challenge with the press…it is all in the spin!
September 3rd, 2007 at 6:00 pm
Julie thanks for the comment on my blog…I happen to agree that entrepreneurs (like you I am one) work pretty hard and we measure work based on results. Customer focused results or we starve. But in plenty of large companies lots of time is spent in meetings, email etc. Long hours, yes, but not necessarily hard or productive work. And then when you look at the time spent in our economy on Fantasy Football, Facebook etc …there is work and then there is busy time. If the Chinese can build bridges and towns in months, and we still take years…I would suggest we are lazy by that definition…
September 3rd, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Interesting perspective, Vinnie. I agree that our use of technology can be a distraction, but it also helps us to be more productive. Maybe we just need a better measure of working hard other than merely putting time in! This is one of the challenges many managers have in managing in a balanced workplace. You have to judge based on results, not face time.
And as for the bridges, it would be interesting to see how good those bridges the Chinese build in months are and how long they last.
September 3rd, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I know Chinese products are going through bad press right now, but if you look at what Chinese engineers have accomplished in the last decade - the train to Tibet, the dam at Three Gorges, the 300 million mobile customer network (AT&T is only 60 m), it is pretty impressive. I am not a China bigot. I celebrate innovation through out the world. When I see Estonia’s wired cities, Korea’s huge success with WiMax etc I want the US to also be there. I am a proud American but when I see the US 25th in world in connectivity, not even in top 25 in life expectancy, with a poor aviation industry…I know things are not right. And as an entrepreneur my reaction is let’s fix it. May be naive but to me that means let’s work harder - and smarter…