The Working Week

[Fishwelding]

Years ago, I worked for a big chain retailer in the United States (who shall remain nameless). Their floor staff (labor) was generally low-paid, although they had benefits, and with enough years there, you could live off of it.

The interesting part was store management. Having an interest in both bureaucracy (I know, a weird hobby, but I also build plastic toys), and leadership study, I watched this process very closely over the span of about a year. There were four managers for this "big-box" store, and their total pay-and-benefits package was based in part on the store's productivity. The store made money, but to do that they had to put in obscene amounts of overtime. They had to limit how much they shared this overtime with their labor force, because of how it was accounted. As a result, these poor schlubs worked 80-hour weeks regularly.

This breaks down the traditional view that labor labors and management exploits. These managers were clearly exploited by their corporate employer, as much or more than the non-management staff. I'm not suggesting this was an intentional strategy of higher-ups at corporate headquarters; quite the contrary. Corporate leadership probably believed, erroneously, that putting so much responsibility for the store's fiscal success directly into the livelihood of the managers made for more aggressive, bold store management.

It didn't. The result was that the store managers' effectiveness was limited. For one, many decisions, such as store layout, product display, inventory, and pricing were entirely out of their hands, decided by corporate leadership 1000 miles away. Local management didn't choose their location, or have any say over tailoring their marketing to the local market. Moreover, severely overworked, store managers were frequently tired and punch-drunk, which meant their judgment, patience, and tact was eroded when dealing with customers or even us employees. Their attentiveness to detail was often so-so, and initiative was weak. The result was that they were risk-averse, waited to deal with problems when they were absolutely urgent and much more expensive, and tended to blindly follow corporate defaults and mandates that I'm quite certain cost the store money and clientele.

[Steve N]

I'm currently stuck on an insane schedule of Tue/Wed/Thu 0400-1230, followed by Sat/Sun 2300-0700. I have to bounce between first and third shift every few days. It's destroying my health, and I have to burn precious vacation days if I want to do anything on a weekend, but after being "downsized" from my last (dream) job, and having just turned 48, my options are a bit limited. This business of "just get another job or start your own business" is a load of crap. Jobs are extremely hard to come by these days (especially if you're over 30) and very few people have what it takes to be a successful entrepenuer (not to mention, the vast majority of start-ups crash and burn very quickly, leaving the would-be entrepenuers in financial ruin.)

The infuriating thing is, we're desparately shorthanded at work..so much so that the evening crew has to work through lunch. But our corporate overlords refuse to authorize new hires. As long as they can keep making hefty profits while "making do" with a few overworked, desparate, burned out workers, there's no incentived to improve things. Of course, we all know that there's a line of eager young folks waiting for our jobs, so complaining or threatening to quit is pointless.

Tell me Corproate America ain't just loving this recession.

<rant mode off>

SN

[11bee]

Tell me Corproate America ain't just loving this recession.

<rant mode off>

SN

Funny you say that - about 30 seconds after the economy crashed hard back in 08, my company sent out an email stating that all raises where off. Never mind the fact that they were still making very good profits. Seemed like just an excuse to sc__w the workers and maximize profits. The take we had was that if you didn't like it, good luck finding a job anywhere else.

[biscuit]

I'm employed as a permanent part time employee by a major airline here in Australia, i work 7days on 2 days off then 7days on and 5days off which i think is pretty good....... i've worked elsewhere in the industry and have worked longer and less socialable hours but then again when i was in the navy i got about 4 hours sleep a night for weeks on end

mick

[Cap'n Wannabe]

I work for myself. On the plus side, excellent pay and conditions, on the minus side, only when the work's there.

[MattC]

My working week varies between 45 and 70 hours a week, but our main issue is our emergency standby, which could involve a shift over 24 hours.

As someone else said, the recession is playing right into the employers hands, we are in the process of being "encouraged" to work a 6 day week, with 2 standby shifts also within that week. Any complaint is met with the usual "well, go and try and find a job somewhere else and see how you get on" response.

In addition, we are expected to be "available" for incident response at all times, so the working week can be a tad onerous.

But, I do think in comparison to former times, we have it fairly good, we get private healthcare for ourselves and our family, a company pension which the company pays into, 26 days annual leave and an above inflation annual payrise. I think whats missing now, and dare I say it, among the "new generation" of people entering the workplace, is a "work ethic", people seem to want all the benefits, with none of the effort.

[Wolfgun33]

With my main job (fire department based EMS), I work 48 hours a week. My schedule is 24 on, 24 off, 24 on, then 5 days off. We have what they call a "debit day" ever 30 some odd days. Don't ask me to explain that cause it has something to do with how many days a year we work or something like that. So we get 48 hrs a week but nothing over that. We get paid vacation and sick time but I can't remember how much a year but i've used one sick day in 6 years so I have plenty there.

Most of us in EMS have to work a second job cause we really don't get paid as much as people think. My second job is doing EMS for events. I work Houston Texans and Rockets games, concerts and Rodeo. My hours there vary widely as I can work as little or as much as I want, I just pick the shifts I want to work. I've worked as much as 36 hrs in a week. That on top of the main job. But this second job is a lotta fun. I've worked a lot of concerts that I may have never gotten a chance to see. Plus pro football, basketball and now soccor.

It can be a lot of hours and a very stressful job. Sometimes we get no sleep in a shift as well. But ya know what, I love what I do. And I think that makes all the difference. You can make good money but if you don't enjoy what you do it's meaningless.

[nerdling]

Well at least you all have work lol. Quite a few people are currently out of work. Lately my work as been trying to find work. But hopefully I will be going back to work next month for the Forest Service in the Archaeology program again. Best job I have ever had. In a three month period last summer I hiked 700 miles. Normal work week was 40 hours broken up into four, ten hour days. They also offered an additional 20 hours of overtime each week. Believe me I tried to take full advantage of that. Was very nice working that much in a job that to me didn't even feel like I was working.

[ross blackford]

:D, That sounds like a great job nerdling and I hope things pan out for you there again. I'm not sure I could hike for ten hours a day though. :lol: The archeology bit would be interesting though. Let us all know how it goes.

,

Ross.

[streetstream]

Just to put things in perspective a fortnight is 10 days whereas a work week here is 7.

Isn't a fortnight 14 days?

Anyway, i am an assistant at a company that outfits high voltage distribution rooms. I mostly draw the plans for the rooms and make sure the documents are in order. I work 44 hours a week (overtime is included in the contract, so no extra pay or recuperation for that) and get 20 days off a year + national holidays.

I used to work at a factory making wipersystems for cars as a assistent foreman, but the job wasn't challenging enough anymore, plus it was very unhealthy (melting rubber can't be good for you).