Misleading sign at Tesco more accurately describes the working hours of Americans.
I have a friend who, for lack of a better description, I'll say works in middle management. He gets a couple of weeks vacation a year. He never takes it. He also works long hours every day, spends many weekends either at the office or working from home. I know this because he often posts comments on my blog in the wee hours for him, broad daylight for me. When I ask what he's doing up at that time, he replies he's working. Got a project due, a big deadline for da man. (No, he doesn't really talk like that.)
He is not at all unusual. There are lots of Americans just like him. Some are self-employed, some work for da proverbial man. Some are women battering away at a glass ceiling, some are men wearing khakis and loafers. Some work eight to five and then work at another job. Some have children and families they never see, some are childless and spouseless.
Meet the modern American worker.
Men and women in the American work force work harder, and take less time off, than their counterparts in Europe. Employees get four weeks paid vacation by law in EU countries, often much more. By contrast, a typical American worker must be employed by a company for more than a year to be eligible for two weeks vacation, often only one, and this is not mandated by law.
And American vacations are getting shorter, not longer:
In 2001 79 percent of US employees had access to 16.6 days of paid vacation, according to a report by the Families and Work Institute. Their study, "Overwork in America – When the Way We Work Becomes Too Much," showed the average had dropped to 14.6 days in 2004. Some 37 percent took less than a 7-day vacation, including weekend days, 12 percent took 1-3 days, and 25 percent took 4-6 days.
Compare that to the Swedes, who took 44 days off work in 2004.
Don't get me wrong: I admire the American willingness to work. I love the convenience of 24-hour shops and plumbers available on weekends. I frown enviously at my British neighbors who drive to work late, spend much of August in Spain, and the week between Christmas and New Year at home rather than at their place of business. (I've previously pointed out the difficulty of eating at a British-owned restaurant during this time.) It's frustrating that many stores are closed here on Sunday, not to protect religious sensibilities but to protect workers from having to work too hard.
But I also pity Americans who never take vacations, who fear losing their jobs if they take the vacation time in their contract, and who can't imagine being away from their email for as long as a weekend.
There must be some compromise, a new American attitude toward vacation and leisure time that mirrors the European model, yet keeps intact the American sense of industry. A three-week vacation instead of two or four? More work-at-home options? Mandatory, rather than optional, vacation times, which would level the playing field for employees afraid to take the vacation they're owed.
Maybe the American tourist industry should get behind the idea, in hopes Americans will once again vacation amongst the purple mountains' majesty, or alongside the shining seas. No one else seems to care. In the current climate, American employers have no real incentive to increase benefits, and American workers, trained to fear unions, are too afraid to rise up. These days, Norma Rae is too busy answering her Blackberry.
PSOTD is gathering opinions today on "What Labor Day Means." Check it out. And Happy Labor Day, to my American friends who may be working today after all.
