Why We Overwork : Competition, a New Economy and Even Labor-Saving Devices Are Leaving Less Time for Leisure

It was 6 a.m. Sunday. As he stumbled out of bed, Ed Klein was puzzled by the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. Glancing down the hallway, Klein solved the mystery. He focused on his wife, Bonnie, still in her bathrobe, huddled over the computer, surrounded by accounting spread sheets.

Bonnie Klein no longer has time for aerobics, jogging or tennis. On weeknights, she isn’t home early enough to cook dinner. She has given up reading novels and women’s magazines. Instead, her bedtime fare is likely to be Modern Healthcare or the Healthcare Executive.

Assistant hospital administrator at Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills, Klein, 42, is one of a growing number of mostly white-collar workers for whom “hours on the job” long ago outdistanced time allotted for eating, sleeping and recreation put together.

Klein, for one, arrives at the office before 8 a.m., doesn’t go out for lunch and rarely leaves before 6:30 or 7 p.m. At least one week per month, she is at her home computer at 5:30 a.m., completing material for a 9 a.m. meeting. On weekends, she frequently makes the 80-minute round-trip drive from home in Malibu to her office to drop off or pick up work.

By working early in the morning, Klein says, she maximizes evening and weekend time with her husaband and two daughters. But she never resents the number of hours required to do her work. “I love what I do. And when I’m engrossed in a project, it’s hard for me to stop just because the day is over.” And Klein doesn’t feel guilty. “Most of my social structure revolves around friendships at work and with parents of my kids’ friends. And, frankly, everyone else is working the same number of hours.”

Growing Workloads

Historically, building a business or getting the promotion always required hard work. But for several decades after World War II, American companies had few rivals in the marketplace--and most office workers expected no more than an 8-hour day, including lunch. Today, greater numbers of professionals are vying for the top of the hill (workers with post-graduate degrees have more than doubled in the last 10 years), and the amount of time they devote to professional labors has been piquing the interest of sociologists and human behaviorists for some time. Prodded by growing workloads, ambition, or both, they have a seemingly inexhaustible capacity for staying at the office, sometimes at the expense of a meaningful personal life, being an adequate parent and physical health.

Some social scientists are critical of this trend. In their book, “The Addictive Organization,” psychotherapists Anne Wilson Schaef and organizational consultant Diane Fassel argue that today’s workaholoics are addicts. “Workaholism is the most socially accepted of all addictions. But it is a progressive disease, just like alcoholism and drug addiction,” they claim.

UCLA management professor Eric Flamholtz, who is also a corporate consultant, began noticing the change at the end of 1982. Since then, he said, managers have increasingly commented about longer hours.

“I travel all over the country, and most people I see feel they could work seven days a week, 24 hours a day and not get done,” he said.

“Working longer hours is a solid trend. There’s no question about it,” comments pollster Louis Harris, who has been tracking social change for more than 40 years.

A recent Harris poll found the workweek increased to 46.8 hours in 1987, up from 40.6 hours in 1973. During the same period, Harris noted, leisure time shrank to 16.2 hours weekly, down from 26.2 hours. In another survey, Harris determined that professional people work 52.2 hours weekly, with small business people putting in 57.3 hours per week.

Marketing expert Faith Popcorn concurs. “We’re seeing people start work earlier and work later in order to keep up. They don’t want to look like workaholics, but they need the extra hours, so they get up at 5 a.m.,” she said.

Among the reasons for the new workaholism, experts commonly cite increased competition, technological advances (efficiency-increasing equipment that makes it possible to do more work) and budget cuts (which have left fewer workers to share the load).

Some point to our drift from a manufacturing to a service economy. In service businesses, such as law, accounting, management consulting or executive search, “The way you differentiate yourself from the competition is by giving clients tremendous service, going way beyond an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. orientation,” observes Caroline W. Nahas, managing vice president of Korn/Ferry International in Century City.

“There is a relentless drive to win the case, get the project done on time and under budget, or find the exceptional candidate,” she adds.

In Bonnie Klein’s case, the change started about five years ago, with industry-wide pressure to cut hospital costs and compete for patients. Since then, said Jim Gauss, a vice president with Witt Associates, a Chicago-based health-care executive search firm, the workweek of successful executives has increased 10 to 15 hours. “There are a lot of people working 60 to 70 hours a week,” he said.

For Klein, the day-to-day chores of administering the hospital didn’t lessen. “But at the same time, we had all the added layers. We had to help middle managers become more productive and innovative. We had more reams of (government) regulatory requirements and paper work. And we had to keep abreast of our industry to find ways to do things better,” she said.

New regulations also required more frequent meetings with physicians who, because of patients, could only meet very early in the morning or late in the day. “The number of these required encounters has really encroached upon my workday,” Klein said.

In another case, a utility company personnel manager watched the slow deployment of co-workers to other departments--the result of management efforts to “downsize” and streamline. His unit lost professionals, technicians and secretarial help, causing his weekly hours to climb from 42 in 1983 to the current average of 56.

In the public sector, many employees are feeling the effects of empty coffers. In Los Angeles County, hundreds of vacancies in the Department of Children’s Services have placed a heavy burden on social workers.

No End in Sight

During a six-month period, case worker Brenda Hanssen, whose official hours are 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., was putting in three or four hours every evening and working through the weekends.

When she realized there was no end in sight, Hanssen forced herself to eliminate weekend work and cut back to three nights per week. “I feel terribly guilty that children and families aren’t getting the services they need. . . ,” she said.

And once upon a time in America, the person working the long hours had someone at home handle the details of day-to-day living. But with the ever-advancing numbers of two-career families, more and more chores are relegated to evenings and weekends. “It is no wonder that people feel they don’t have any leisure time,” said pollster Harris.

All of the above leads Harris to conclude that today’s professionals comprise one of two exploited classes in America. “At one end of the spectrum, we have single heads of households, (many of whom) have so few skills, they have to work 60 hours a week and hold two jobs. At the other end, you have professional executives who work 60 to 65 hours a week as a norm. Most of the latter group are salaried people who don’t get overtime,” he said.

Consider, for example, the once leisurely halls of academe. Pauline Boss, a social psychologist at the University of Minnesota, notes that slashed budgets have meant increased teaching loads and research duties. “We now have to spend time hustling to bring in our own research money, and we have to write our own grants. It is very hard to find time to do the research and attend all of the department meetings. We don’t even have time to read anymore,” she said.

Boss, who supports a daughter in medical school, pays the bills by also seeing six families a week in a private practice. “If you are a professor and you have a child in college, it’s a given that you moonlight,” she said.

Sometimes, the longer hours come gradually, catching workers unaware. Stuart Kessler, partner in the New York accounting firm Goldstein Golub Kessler, says he normally arrives at his office at 8 a.m. and leaves at 6:30 p.m., as he has for 18 years. Upon further reflection, Kessler realizes activities formerly included in his workweek--such as reading accounting literature, keeping track of expense accounts and time sheets and entertaining clients--are now left for weekends.

No Time to Train

Kessler, a runner, comments: “Come to think of it, I don’t have time to train for marathons anymore. And when I go to the opera, or to a ballgame, I always have my reading with me.”

He attributes the change to the increasing complexity of his profession. The new U.S. tax law--dubbed by some as “The Accountants’ Full Employment Act”--is more time-consuming. In addition, he points out, “The body of knowledge we deal with in tax, accounting and computers has expanded at an incredible rate.”

And he points out that technology makes it possible to be busier, faster. “Ten years ago, if our client in Los Angeles wanted an opinion on an agreement, they would mail it to us on Monday, we would receive it on Thursday, and give the client a response the following Monday. Today, the client can transmit the document to us in minutes, and they want an answer instantly,” he said.

Jeremy Rifkin, in his book “Time Wars,” published by Henry Holt & Co., argues that the rhythms of computers are replacing those of natural life. Our culture is becoming enslaved, he thinks, by the constant pressure to become even more efficient.

Computers have made an impact on the legal profession, sometimes, it would appear, with mixed results. “In some ways, labor-saving devices haven’t made practice (of law) easier, but harder,” observes Stuart Tobisman, a partner with the Los Angeles firm O’Melveny & Myers.

More Wear and Tear

In the so-called good old days, Tobisman would close his door, turn off the phone and painstakingly write a brief or agreement, mindful that if he made errors, he might cause a secretary to spend an entire day retyping.

Today, Tobisman thinks the computer terminal at his desk has created more wear and tear. Knowing he and his secretary can edit documents in seconds, he is more likely to write in fits and spurts, while juggling phone calls and trying to track four other matters, he said.

Computers have saved time in that attorneys can instantly retrieve sample documents, decreasing the amount of time required to write briefs. But lawyers are working longer hours.

Jim Wheary, a partner in Price Waterhouse’s law firm services group, conducts an annual survey of 600 of the nation’s law firms. In the last five years, chargeable hours increased an average of about 12% per lawyer, he said, with partners logging 33 billable hours and associates, 35 hours.

He cautions, however, that billable hours don’t tell the whole story. “These hours don’t reflect every time-consuming task such as marketing, continuing legal education, recruiting, bar association activities, writing articles or giving speeches,” Wheary said.

Faith Popcorn thinks the current workaholic generation is burning out. Looking toward 1990, she believes, there will be a “cashing out,” with professionals trading off dollars for a more relaxed, fulfilling life.

“Corporations aren’t honoring workers’ needs for child care and raising families. So people are working faster to buy freedom. They are hoarding money. It’s actually an immigrant philosophy, toward an escape mode,” she said.

This so-called “cashing out” is a precursor to the next societal trend, which Popcorn refers to as “giving back.” In the 1990s, she predicts, the workaholics will be looking for a deeper sense of accomplishment, a way to “give back” to children and society.

Dr. Leon J. Warshaw, executive director of the nonprofit New York Business Group on Health, views today’s frenetic work place with concern.

Warshaw, a retired cardiologist and self-described “old workaholic,” advises 300 employers on health-care matters. What does he tell his clients? “I tell them that someone always pays the price. Even if the worker loves the job and loves the long hours, the spouse is paying the price and the children are paying the price,” he said.