The Next L.A. / Reinventing Our Future : The Workplace : “Our jobs are eating us alive, but there are glimmerings of hope on the horizon.”
Near the end of a century that began with bruising battles over the 40-hour workweek, this is the daily grind of a representative resident of Greater Los Angeles:
Up at 4:30. Shower and dress. Grab coffee and a roll for the drive. In the car by 5:15. Sit in traffic that was bad before the earthquake -- and now is worse. 6 a.m.: Books on tape. 6:30: Mark and Brian. 7: Try side streets. At work by 7:30. Work all morning. Lunch at desk. Work through afternoon. Call kids at 4 p.m. to check on school day. Gather up work at 6 to take home. Home by 7:30. Check homework. Bathe kids. Microwave dinner at 9. At 9:45, fall asleep on couch talking to spouse.
Up at 4:30 . . . .
Southern Californians’ work lives are out of control.
For all the meaning and satisfaction we take from our jobs, they are eating us alive. In pursuit of a higher standard of living--or simply to keep a roof over our heads in one of the world’s costliest cities--we work overtime, take second jobs, start businesses on the side. More than likely, our spouses are working, too. One in five of us takes work home. Of those who do, three out of five aren’t paid for the extra effort.
Our work, meanwhile, grows more and more demanding. Rare is the workplace where fewer people are not being asked to do more. Deadlines are tighter. Tempers are shorter. Expectations are higher, as the drumbeat of global and local competition pounds away. The picture is the same for manufacturing workers and service workers, in companies big and small.
We have responded. Americans--and certainly Californians--have registered stunning gains in productivity over the last 20 years. Yet after factoring out inflation, our take-home pay has steadily declined.
We make sacrifices. Less time for our spouses. Less time for our organizations and leisure pursuits. Less time, surely, for ourselves; ministers and psychologists tally the psychic toll. And less time for our children. Is anyone really happy with the amount of time his or her children spend in someone else’s care? The amount of time they go uncared for? Making time to be a good parent is hard work again.
And now the freeways have fallen down.
“There must be a coming to terms with the fact that life isn’t as simple as it used to be,” says Linda Poverny, a social worker who heads the staff and faculty counseling center at USC, “yet we expect workers to continue to function at the same level or better than before.”
Is there another way? There are glimmerings.
Consider VeriFone, based up north in Redwood City, with a big operation in Costa Mesa. This is the firm that makes the little terminals used by stores and restaurants to authorize credit card purchases. The merchant swipes your card; VeriFone’s equipment and information network lets her know if you’re over your credit limit.
VeriFone operates in cyberspace. Its commodity is a collection of electronic blips. And its employees are out navigating the electronic superhighway, instead of commuting to offices on gridlocked concrete. All 1,500 workers have a laptop or personal computer. They communicate by electronic mail, hooked up over the Internet. They shuffle assignments across oceans or continents to meet deadlines. They return phone messages.
Suffice it to say that when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit, VeriFone people were able to get their work done from home.
VeriFone takes the notion of the “virtual corporation” to an extreme: The chief information officer works out of his home in New Mexico; the chief executive flies 400,000 miles in a year.
But in smaller ways, other companies--and many workers, sometimes innovating against the resistance of their hidebound organizations--are finding the flexibility to meet the needs of both the firm and the employee.
Example: Young physicians flock to Kaiser because the HMO gives them something a private practice cannot: a clearly defined work schedule, with clearly defined time off.
Example: The Towers Perrin consulting firm, teamed with Pepsico Inc., is promoting a service called “Xtra Hours.” The program brings hair stylists, dry cleaners and convenience stores to the workplace; think of it as a “corporate concierge” or post-industrial catering truck. “It enables people to take care of a lot of their chores and a lot of their social life through work,” says consultant Barbara Adolf. “We give them back their Saturdays.”
Parallel concepts? Not exactly. But all are responses to a desperate need for workers to reclaim control of their working lives.
Control is the workplace issue for Los Angeles in 1994. Know the people in your company--or in City Hall, for that matter--who really get things done, whether they have the big titles or not, and you have your hand on a lever that controls things. Give up a little control, and the people you are used to controlling will do remarkable things. Know that you can change things. “We don’t need a great revolution to do it,” says Betty A. Walker, a professor at USC’s School of Education. “We need a lot of people willing to say, ‘It’s not over yet.’ And then go push on it.”
