BUSINESS PULSE: A SPECIAL REPORT : WORKPLACE : 40-Hour Week Is Part Time to Those on the Fast Track : Workday: 47% of poll respondents report that they regularly put in long days at work.
Kevin Benham, a self-employed Westminster electrician, starts his workday at 6 a.m. and sometimes doesn’t quit until 9 p.m. He hasn’t had a vacation in four years.
Since he is a single parent, his mother takes care of his 4-year-old daughter most of the day. Often, Benham sees the child only a few minutes before she is put to bed.
For his efforts, he is handsomely compensated. Benham earns about $100,000 a year.
His story is not unique. A workaholic work ethic appears to be deeply ingrained in Orange County employees.
The Times Orange County Poll on workplace issues found that 47% of the workers surveyed work on average more than 40 hours a week. A quarter of them said they typically work more than 50 hours each week
“This shows a very real picture of what Orange County employees are all about,” said Mark Baldassare, whose firm conducted the poll of 600 workers. “They are a group of men and women who opt for the fast track, and many put in incredibly long hours at work.”
The reality of work in Orange County sometimes contrasts sharply with the image of the county that many outsiders have as a laid-back resort area where sunglass-clad folks laze at the beach and enjoy the palm trees, sunshine and ocean breezes.
“Through a window it looks great,” Jone Pearce, an associate professor at the UC Irvine Graduate School of Management, said of the county’s inviting scenery that few have time to explore.
Hugh Saddington, managing partner of Hugh M. Saddington & Co., an Irvine accounting firm, said business associates in New York and Japan are frequently surprised to learn what long days the firm’s accountants work.
Workplace experts said longer workdays are a nationwide trend. They said there is greater competition in the work force with the entry of the large baby boom population, coupled with increased participation by women.
Also, they pointed out that workers are being urged to boost their productivity to respond to business competition overseas. And staff trimming by American companies to become leaner is forcing those employees who keep their jobs to increase their responsibilities.
Because of foreign competition, “we may now have to go through a period of long, hard hours that was characteristic at the turn of the century,” said Dennis Aigner, dean of the UCI’s management graduate school.
In Orange County, the dedication to work may be magnified by a large number of self-employed entrepreneurs who are struggling to get new businesses launched, the high proportion of residents in such professions as law and accounting that traditionally have demanded long hours, and by the presence of very competitive industries such as electronics and biotechnology.
“In Orange County, you have a lot of management and professional people who by nature are more competitive,” said Robert Lewis, a clinical psychologist and owner of the Job Stress Clinic, a private clinic with offices in Santa Ana and Long Beach.
“It is a very competitive society, and when you get a lot of yuppie-type people wanting to scramble to the top, there is a feeling if you slow down you will get lost in the race,” he said.
Among management and professional people surveyed in the Times Poll, 57% said they worked longer than 40 hours a week, contrasted with 29% of clerical and sales employees and 33% of blue-collar workers.
Also, 58% of all workers who were polled--including 64% of the men and 52% of the women--said they would prefer a “fast track” with less flexible hours but more opportunity for promotion than a “slow track” with more flexible hours but less opportunity for promotion.
The allure of the fast track, however, declines with age. While 74% of workers in their early careers prefer the quick climb, that falls to 49% for those in the advanced stages of their careers.
Hard-driving workers seem to be everywhere. At the fore are entrepreneurs and company officers with a stake in the action.
Mark Troisi, 21, of Irvine used to work about 55 hours a week as a shipping clerk just to make ends meet. Now he is starting a business of his own--selling air and water filters to homeowners--on $20,000 from an inheritance. He is working harder than ever.
To make a success of the venture, Troisi said, he expects to work 12 to 15 hours a day. He enjoys working, he said, and building his own future gives him special motivation.
“Whereas before my pay was set regardless of how hard I worked,” he said, “now the more I put into it, the more I get out of it.”
Charlotte Hampton, 43, president of a small packaging sales and distribution company in Newport Beach, said she relishes the variety of her responsibilities, some of which would be delegated to others in a large corporation.
But she also keeps a hectic work schedule, much of it spent traveling; she must leave her 5-year-old daughter behind. On a recent weekend, she and the firm’s chairman pitched in to move office furniture. An important incentive for her hard work, she said, is that she has an opportunity to earn an ownership stake in the company.
Some experts worry about the impact of constant overtime on the workers and those close to them.
Aigner said that many workers have no choice but to work overtime to advance. “But I’m not optimistic about how that bodes for the quality of family life,” he said. Aigner said there will increasingly be pressure for firms to provide day-care facilities at the work site so parents can see more of their children during the day.
The need to balance family and work is important to many workers. For instance, James Parkes, a 34-year-old custom home builder who lives in Anaheim Hills, said he starts work at 7 a.m. but is home by early evening so he can spend time with his pregnant wife and four children.
“I could work more hours,” he said, “but it is not worth it to me.”
Similarly, Fullerton resident Ron Wilson, 27, works about 50 hours a week as assistant manager of an Albertson’s discount retail outlet in South Gate. He earns about $18.50 an hour and appreciates the overtime pay that allows him to make about $40,000 a year, he said.
“You generally become a workaholic to make that kind of money, and once you are there, the job requires it,” he said.
But Wilson said he is not striving to climb the next rung in the grocery store hierarchy, to store director, although he says that would give him an opportunity to increase his annual salary to about $60,000. The reasons: longer hours, no overtime pay or guaranteed bonuses, and better job security in his present position.
“There is more stress” for store directors, “and they get fired more rapidly,” he said, noting that they typically work 60-hour weeks. “That is why I stay where I am.”
The workaholic ways of Orange County employees prompt them to dream about slowing down and taking an early retirement.
The Times Poll found that 55% of the respondents said they would like to retire at age 55 or younger. But the older the worker gets, the more he or she tends to push off that retirement date. While 62% of workers in their early careers and 69% in mid-careers would prefer early retirement, only 26% of those in their advanced careers said they would.
For many, the prospect of early retirement is just a fantasy, say those most familiar with the Orange County business scene. Either workers won’t be able to afford that luxury, or they will continue to yearn for the fast-paced life and ego satisfaction they get from their work.
“I think early retirement is a fantasy,” said Dr. Robert Lewis, director of the Job Stress Clinic in Santa Ana and Long Beach. “Once you get conditioned to a long work schedule, it is hard to give it up. It is hard to sit and smell the roses.”
Many workers, however, said they are running hard now so they can slow down to a walk in a few more years. Some hope to take money earned in Orange County and escape to a place where the pace of life is slower, the traffic lighter and the cost of housing lower.
Benham, for instance, is fed up with the county’s freeway traffic, drug problems and crime. He scowls when he recalls how his “brand new truck” was stolen right in front of his house.
Having obtained a general contractor’s license, Benham says, he intends to give up his all-consuming work as an electrician in Orange County and build log cabins in Shasta County in Northern California, where he recently bought four acres.
His plan is to build cabins eight months of the year and take cruises and spend time with his daughter the rest of the time.
“I’ve lived in Orange County all my life, and I’m tired of it,” Benham said.
WORKING HARD IN ORANGE COUNTY WORKING OVERTIME “How many hours do you work at your job in an average week?” 20 or less hours: 7% 21-39 hours: 18% 40 hours: 28% 41-49 hours: 22% 50 or more hours: 25%
Hrs. Mgmt- Cler- Blue Per Week Prof Sales Coll 20 hrs. or less 7% 7% 7% 21-39 hrs. 13% 28% 22% 40 hrs. 23% 34% 40% 41-49 hrs. 25% 13% 20% 50 hrs. or more 32% 16% 13%
FAST-TRACK VS. SLOW TRACK “If a two-career path option were available at your workplace, which would you choose--a “fast track” with less flexible hours but more opportunity for promotion--or a “slow track” with more flexible hours but less opportunity for promotion?” Slow Track: 34% Fast Track: 58% Don’t Know: 8%
Fast Slow Don’t Group Track Track Know Men 64% 28% 8% Women 52% 40% 8% Early Career 74% 23% 3% Mid-Career 59% 35% 6% Adv. Career 49% 39% 12%
LIFE AFTER WORK “Ideally, at what age would your like to retire?” 55 or Younger: 55% 56-64: 17% 65: 11% 66-69: 6% 70 or Older: 11%
Adv. Age Early Middle Career 55 or Younger 62% 69% 26% 56-64 19% 11% 26% 65 13% 8% 16% 66-69 -- 4% 12% 70 or Older 6% 8% 20%
Source: Orange County Poll
