Americans are working less
 

I have my own theories on this, such as the stay at home working during covid and the stimulus money being the worst thing that has happened in a very long time.


Why Americans Are Working Less

Gallup finds that average hours worked have dropped progressively since 2019 when U.S. employees reported working an average of 44.1 hours. In 2024, they work 42.9 hours per week.

The decline in hours worked is more pronounced among younger (those younger than 35) than older workers (those aged 35 and older). Between 2019 and 2024, older employees have seen an average reduction of just under one hour per person per week, while younger employees have reduced their hours by nearly two hours.

Over a year, that’s the equivalent of older employees taking an extra week off of work and younger employees taking two weeks. These trends apply to full-time employees working at least 30 hours per week.

Possible Reasons for the Drop in Average Hours Worked per Week
Several new findings may explain this shift:

Overall employee wellbeing has been on the decline.
Employees now have less trust in institutions in general and feel more detached from their employers.
After a decade of steady improvement, employee engagement has reverted to its 2014 level.
Advances in technology may be making work more efficient. Gallup finds that nearly half (45%) of employees say AI has helped them improve their productivity. However, a workforce that is becoming more technically efficient and less engaged may lack the motivation needed for long-term growth.
Employees -- especially younger ones -- now place a higher priority on their overall wellbeing. In fact, work-life balance and better overall wellbeing now rank among the most important considerations when choosing a new job.
Additionally, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows declines in overall hours worked per person, particularly in industries that traditionally employ more young workers such as retail, leisure and hospitality.

The Connection Between Hours Worked and Employee Burnout
Burnout may be a major reason why employees are working fewer hours. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified “burnout” as a work-related syndrome resulting from chronic stress.

Previous Gallup research has found that an unmanageable workload is one of the contributing factors to burnout. This may help explain why employees report higher burnout (very often or always) as the number of hours they work rises above 45 hours per week.

more here

https://www.gallup.com/workplace/658...78644b3aaad4a0

See ya in DC.

Skyy Moore does the work of 10 Americans and still sucks

Yeah, I thought about that after already posting it. :doh!: Thought it was a pretty interesting subject though.

Work smarter, not harder.

29 years full time at 37.5 hours a week is plenty for me lol , I got asked to do OT yesterday told them to shove it.

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A lot of it is also the gig economy especially with younger generations. They're less inclined to work the same job, same company for 40 years. They may pick up random gigs like setting up an Etsy shop or an Uber shift.

On the one hand there isn't as much loyalty. On the other hand we may see a surge in entrepreneurship. Actually not terrible qualities considering how much AI and automation is going to disrupt the future of work

I wonder what salary increases look like, too, since Covid.... I'd guess maybe just now recovering in the past year or so, combined with work from home making it easier to get off work.

On one hand, my current salary is definitely tied to working assloads of hours in my 20s and 30s (and I always found it funny how the people who worked the least tended to complain the most about how much they got paid)... OTOH, if your company doesn't basically guarantee they're doing everything they can to make working assloads of hours pay off, then **** 'em.

hmm what happened. between 2019 and 2024....

That was always my experience. The more effort and dedication you put in, the better you got paid in the long run.

Good.

This says we're still working more than 40 hours per week, so we still need to chill.

I'm doing my part!!

(of not working)

I have had a job since I was 15. No I idea what's it's like not to work. In 8 years I will be 60. That's all they are getting out of me full time. My job stocking coffee pallets at Sams awaits.

They obviously didn't categorize posting on CP as work hours for some of yall

I went to 3 days a week two years ago. I've been doing my job for 30 years though. I'm retiring end of next month!

I’ve been on vacation since Thursday and going back on the first, so I’m doing my best to help.

I feel like i live at work.

Shit sucks, i dont blame them.

Sounds like a good thing tbh.

There's a pretty consistent view among younger generations that hard work (in terms of hours) doesn't necessarily lead to higher pay. That probably depends on the type of job, but I can't say I disagree with them. With real wages stagnant for ~50 years and seemingly everyone laying people off in the past few years, it's tough to feel particularly committed to your employer.

I feel like there are two worlds right now. I am working way more for the same job because budgets have been tight for years and hiring is somewhat frozen.

But I feel like there is also a world where there isn't as much work to go around so it's nice to have employees work less hours and be happy versus working grueling hours. I feel like the future of work probably means more people but working less hours. Eventually we will have more jobs than people. So instead of picking up extra OT hours, the more ambitious will just find a side hustle

Its kind of a weird thing where both things are true at the same time.

We're all freaking whores selling our bodies to employers or a business to make money! I became an OT whore for the final 15 years of my career to maximize my earnings.

I am now a pimp sending my whores (my money) out into the world to earn for me while I live a life of luxury. :D

The trust between employee and employer is as low as it has ever been from what I’ve seen.

People worked hard before because there was an incentive. Pensions, retirement benefits by a certain age and stability.

Millenials have seen boomers get screwed time and time again. I’ve seen people that were 1 year from being eligible for retirement health benefits for life and the company lays them off. A ton of companies don’t offer pensions anymore.

I left my last job in part because they stopped offering retirement benefits. It was age+years of service=75 to become eligible and they stopped offering it for anyone after 2023.

Companies are outsourcing jobs and laying off people in droves and want underpaid, controlled workers with shitty jobs and bad health insurance.

I’m glad this generation is starting to stand up to that. It’s bullshit

I think quarantine and the stimulus gave people time to reevaluate their priorities. Working ourselves to the bone to maybe someday retire with security just didn't seem as appealing. Plus with wage stagnation and employees being increasing disposable, it seemed more difficult to even achieve that.

Also, recent appreciation for mental health and self care has people less likely to sacrifice their well being and happiness for a company that probably doesn't really give a shit about them.

I know that's not every company or boss, and I hope the good ones are flourishing in an environment where more employees are demanding to be treated like people.

My last day in the corporate world is this Friday (28th).

I have been working 50+ hours/week for 13 years. Haven't had a real vacation in that time either.

Going to be my own boss and set some boundaries, for once.

I do not want to live to work.

Working hard is still rewarding, it just unfortunately takes hopping from job to job to realize that cash in. Not in all cases, but the need to do that is growing.

Definitely true. I work 20 hours a week. Feels good.

Congrats. Thats right work to live baby!

Work harder, slaves! More, more!

The worst thing I ever did was load my work email onto my cell phone...

Thinking about this a little more, I also wonder if there's an impact from fewer people having kids (or at least that's my situation). When you don't have a family to provide for, you can get by with a little less.

Tends to be the case too often in corporate America. A "just okay" employee gets a 3% raise. A "super star" gets a 4.25% raise. Meanwhile same company is hiring more "just okay" people at the current market value, which is more than their current "super star" employee is making after their raise. Then next year if the star player is still around they'll get another 4.25% of a smaller amount, while the new "just okay" person who makes more than them will get a 3% raise of a larger amount and still make more. It's maddening.

I wonder if some of that is job hopping, too... you don't necessarily have to bust your ass for one company when you can often work a year or two and get your next promotion and/or raise from the next company. And the major differences there is how much easier it is to find jobs, plus you now have recruiters reaching out via LinkedIn as opposed to sending out resume after resume.

It also seems like a lot of people think of raises/promotions as some black box... I see all lot of questions posted on reddit that lead me to internally scream, have you simply asked your manager?! It's just a foreign concept to me to not have those conversations and then assume you won't get raises... or assume it won't happen so you don't put in the effort, then say "yup, I knew it!" (and that may sound dumb, but I've seen people do it, like they're giving themselves an excuse not to work harder).

I don't know how married people with kids who work 50 hours a week have any me time at all. How do they have time for ANY hobby? It is mind boggling to me.

The amount of time I spend on my hobbies is astronomical. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Basically this.

The concept of loyalty to a single company for your entire career seems archaic and naive. I like being busy and working, but I'm VERY wary of why I'm doing it and who I'm doing it for.

I feel this, too. Unless you love your job to death, how does anyone live a fulfilling life working that much at a job they hate? Providing for your family is one thing, but if thats the only thing, you're effectively throwing yourself into a human meat grinder. In fact, this generation probably saw their parents doing exactly that and the consequences of it, and vowed NEVER to live their life like that.

I've seen a lot of impact to middle management. I know people think of robots when it comes to automation. But I've also seen a ton of management move to AI. For example using AI instead of a bunch of researchers. Means not only less entry level researchers but also less need for someone to manage them. Or having a lot of management analysis handled by dashboards.

Workplace productivity is being automated at lightning fast speed and I think the job markets are still massively adapting

Kids become the main hobby, for sure. As mine were growing up I coached their sports and was a boy scout leader. Personally that was good for me, and definitely the most meaningful era of my life. I still had other hobbies, just spent less time on them. Now that my kids are grown I have more time for other things, and I'm enjoying this part as well.

You are going to feel less connected to your job and company if you work remotely. It's just true. Some of my best memories are working with friends at a fortune 500 company right out of college. Great times and I worked hard for the company, as you should, because I agreed to the pay. Most employees prefer more pay in today's job hopping world than a defined benefit retirement/pension plan. This allows them to contribute to a 401k and that money is theirs. If a person saves appropriately, they would be able to purchase lifetime income at retirement that most likely would be similar to what a pension plan would be, but would have more flexibility to make those decisions. If pension plans were offered, the employer would have to pay less in salary, and this is not appealing to the current workforce. This isn't the big bad employer attacking workers. This is the employer's reaction to the current hiring marketplace.

Is that a Sasquatch Pig in your av?

I think it's easy to get sucked in, even if you don't love your job or get large raises... if you take a lot of pride in your work, you may view it as a personal failure if you aren't able to complete all of your work (even if the workload is too much for one person)... or if people rely on you to get shit done so they can do their job, you don't want to let coworkers down or to be the bottleneck, which also points towards not wanting to be a target for layoffs and thinking working lots of hours means job security.

A lot of people work far out of scope of their normal responsibilities, too, especially if you've been promoted and people still ask you questions or have issues you can fix that were related to your previous position... so then if you'd a people pleaser, it never really crosses your mind to ignore those emails and requests, even if it makes you disgruntled.

Almost all of that comes down to open communication with leadership and a lot of people suck at that, too.

Yeah, I was guilty of all that at a job site. Not because I wanted to stay employed but the way I'm wired when I was working. Tons of time would be devoted to fixing something because I could but my other duties for which I was hired still need to be done too,

"In fact, work-life balance and better overall wellbeing now rank among the most important considerations when choosing a new job."

I wonder if the people saying that have mortgages or children. For me, it's still wage and benefits package. Of course, I'm considered an older worker now.

Regarding technology, something I do love is that I now have the opportunity to work from home when my kid is sick or the roads are bad.

It also helps to have an awesome boss who allows me to occasionally alter my schedule (come in early, work through lunch, etc) whenever my kid or I have some sporting thing early in the evening that I need to leave a little early to make.

As a former pension actuary, the move from pension to 401k was primarily driven by desire to de-risk on the employer side. Plain and simple. Yes, portability is an advantage for employees, but let's not get it confused. The current hiring marketplace is a symptom of the disincentivizing of staying long-term, not the other way around.

Lol I relate to this, too.

Probably the most fun I had at a job was fast food. I just happened to be working with other really cool people I could talk to and joke around with. We'd close and then hang out in the parking lot for 30 minutes just talking about random shit.

It was tough, stressful work and I knew the pay was bad, but I busted my ass for the other people around me because they did the same for me and I didn't want to let them down. I took pride in it and definitely went the extra mile despite how looked down upon the job is.

I dont hate work, but I probably have different goals and values in life compared to a lot of you guys, and those things just don't align with busting my ass for Corpo when I know for a fact they will stab in the back at a moments notice despite my best efforts.

People job hop more and feel less connected to their jobs for many reasons.

1. As previous mentioned. Pay is stagnant if you don't move positions. Employers like to start people low and give them 3-5% raises every year. Which does not keep up with the market. So if you don't move positions every 2 years you are losing potential income.

2. Employer loyalty. Younger generation has learned that lay offs are always around the corner. It is all about the profit margin or stock price. You're employer will lay you off the minute it looks good for their bottom line. Why do you need to feel some sort of obligation or loyalty to your employer when they will show you none.

3. New age thinking. My dad will work until he dies. He will never have enough for retirement. This guy has put in 60-80 hours a week his entire life. Started working when he was 15. I don't want to live to work. The pay off just isn't there and they keep moving back the retirement age. Saying social security will collapse before I even get there.

My first thought when I saw this article is good. People really should only be putting in 40 hours a week. Work hard in life but damn our time here is short. You need to have a life outside of work and enjoy it.

Depends on the size of the company I think. I've been at the same company for 25 years but I've changed jobs 8 times, most of them moving up.

I work 50 hours a week most generally

I'll always struggle to stay within scope because I want to help and don't like pushing off work or ignoring people... yet as I'm sure you're well aware of in IT, those small requests are endless and even one "simple" thing can end up taking 5 times longer than expected.... and when you have 6 or 8 hours of meetings in a day, even 15 minutes is a good chunk of your free time.

I think that's a two way street though.... yeah, they can fire you tomorrow or may not deliver on raises/promotions, but you can also quit today or maybe your productivity drops post-raise/promotion for whatever reason.

Hiring and training are expensive and I've been annoyed before when I spend significant time training up someone just for them to job hop in a year or two (especially if it takes 18 months to get up to speed).

Of course, the flip side is similar to how a new customer gets more benefits for signing up than existing customers get for sticking around.... if you don't treat your existing employees well, they have every incentive to job hop.

I don't know if I would make a definite statement on that as I think it comes down to company culture more than remote or on site. I feel more connected with my current role now, where I am remote 99.9% of the time than I did vs the last on site role I held.

The team I was on for the on site role was treated like a bastard stepchild so didn't really care beyond the check and free ticket perk.

In this role there's more integration among the teams, across the board and they fly me in once a year for a brief on site visit. The other 362 days I am half way across the country.

The job in between was fully remote and everyone kept to themselves. It was terrible and I was glad to leave.

>select all
>delete

Problem solved

You find a way to make it work. For me, it's just less time for my degenerate behavior (poker and drinking)

I think the American system has historically rewarded hard work and hustle, and there's always been work to do. The European system has been in place for so long that there are fewer opportunities to hustle and be entrepreneurial. I wonder if perhaps that's a natural evolution of society when you no longer have expansion into the unsettled west or the wilds of Britain or wherever.

Of course, the key to the American system is being rewarded for more work. You clear land or you get a paper route or you drive Uber in the evenings or you write one more report to get a new client, and you're better off in the long run. I wonder if holding a job in a large corporation offers that opportunity. It probably does for some people and doesn't for others.

In my case, I had plenty of opportunity in this company. Being "corporate" has expanded my pay by 300% over the years. At the same time, I never had the uncertainty or instability that job hopping creates. I probably could have made even more money if I were more ambitious but I guess pursuit of wealth has never really driven me that much.

A lot of retail now has strict policies to keep their employees below 40 hours. There's other company policies that limits many employees to under 32? hours. This limit is set based on state definitions of a full time employees.

Most states that I know of are either 28 hours or 32. It's so they don't have to pay full-time benefits, namely health insurance. Another side "benefit" of the ACA. People are working two or even three jobs and are still forced to buy expensive government insurance.

Probably depends on the company culture a bit. The job I had from 2021-2024 was fully remote (with occasional days in the office, but not much), and I felt very connected there. But we did a lot to foster that - multiple standup meetings a week, recurring 1:1s with team members to connect, a time every other week to collaborate and brainstorm on big-picture challenges. I'm still close friends with a few from my team.

And then we got a new Chief Product Officer who laid off my entire team despite our former CEO calling us one of the most impactful teams in the organization. So again, it's a little tough to feel motivated to work hard when a random shift in executive leadership can result in you getting booted out of nowhere.

That was actually in place all the way back when I was in high school. If I got close to 40 hours at the dishwasher/cook/busboy job I had, they'd sub me out. The employees said this was so we wouldn't get any paid vacation, but I suspect maybe there were some other benefits as well. Maybe overtime pay? The boss would never even let us get close to ensure that we didn't accidentally sneak over the hour limit.

In my first job after college, I was at a huge company, and at some point the overseers bumped us up to 50 or 60 hours for about six months to try to meet some important deadline. I got time-and-a-half pay, and if I had smoked cigars I would have been lighting them with hundred-dollar bills. I felt rich whenever I'd see those paychecks.

I'd think simply experience, too... when I got into my current industry, being in the office didn't really connect me to the job, but I was basically an IT vendor and going out to vendor sites is what made it stick.

Working remotely now and even switching jobs doesn't change anything in terms of job connection.

I'd imagine that's similar for a lot of experienced people, too... you'll be connected more to the work regardless of where you work from.

I'd also guess it could be an issue for people who are newer to the work force, never personally meeting the people you work with or work for, etc.

This is well said.

I am pretty lucky to have a pension. Been in a new role in the past year and work life balance is what I make of it but it is a 24\7 operation so it can be tough to disconnect at times.

Pay is just "ok" but freedom and benefits are really good. Someone would have to back up the brinks truck to pull me away from this. I still think a public safety adjacent tech company might be an option but I have so many things going for me in my current spot and could retire here pretty happy.

There is a lot of fulfillment associated with a job well done in my field so times where you have to put in the extra hours it is usually tied to do something worth it and extra money is nice.

At the beginning of the year I was reorganized to a 2 person team with my teammate being from Japan originally. Its been eye opening to see how loyal, committed and eager she is for the company, to the point they try and take advantage

It was recently suggested that she run her daily project while traveling back to Japan to see her aging mom and I was compelled to step in and say that's not happening and we'll find an alt solution

I'm trying to show her the American way of work hard, take pride in what you do, but don't trust these people nor take their shit

Hearing this reminds me of a speaker who was at a team building seminar sponsored by the company I worked for....

He put the above quote on the board and asked how many people believed in that saying. Almost everyone raised their hands....

He said....in today's work environment too many of the people who say that are not your best workers because most of them are really looking for a way to achieve more without putting in any real effort.

He said the real way to state this is...."how can I work smarter but still put in the effort that is necessary to achieve my goals and the company goals".

Employers no longer offering pensions. Employers doing everything they can to not pay employees health insurance. Stagnant wages for decades, despite record profits and CEO pay skyrocketing. The largest corporations like Walmart have the most employees receiving welfare benefits. While bullying themselves into a monopoly status, regardless of laws against it. Now there are no more small town department stores at all.

We allowed corporations to acquire too much power in the name of capitalism. They've done nothing but throw their workers into the grinder. And we're supposed to be shocked that employees don't prioritize their work above the rest of their shitty life?

I stopped doing that the day my company stopped paying for a portion of my cell phone bill...

Or you just budget better and don't go crazy spending on things that don't give long term enjoyment.

My joy came from spending time with my kids when I got home from work...even when I worked OT.

I made my kids a priority.....because it also provided the greatest joy in my life.

It's that simple......I don't get why people see kids as a burden.

Yeah, my parents worked and I know it’s what they had to do but my mom worked second shift at factories for a good portion of my childhood. 12 hour days from 12:00-12:00 six days per week. She missed a lot of time with us and I would never want that cycle repeated in my life with my children. I’ll avoid that lifestyle at any cost.

God bless those bosses who don’t trip about shit like that.

Americans are working less
 

In a lot of places working harder or longer doesn’t produce an intrinsic gratification or impact as so much of that hard work, especially in office settings, seems like pointless busy work that only satisfies keeping your managers from bothering you.

People work harder when they feel personally satisfied, connected, or valued. Being a tiny little cog pressing buttons on a computer just doesn’t do that so things like work life balance become more motivating as they seek satisfaction from how they use their time.

The company I worked for before I retired last year didn't offer retirement health benefits, but I wasn't there looking for that. I planned to handle my own needs because I knew I was the person I could trust most.

Interestingly enough, there were some benefits I was able to take up on my own that were key to me....(legal insurance, hospitalization benefits, etc ) that were reasonable in cost and that I budgeted for.

My employer hired me when I was 60 years old.....I finished my career 8 years later with the same company, so not everyone gets canned 1 year short of retirement or FRA.

I'm a Boomer and in no way do I feel that I was screwed by my company. But, I have told my Millenial daughter that how I lived my life and planned my retirement would be different that she should and that her career would see a different path than mine.

I am retired and live comfortable...nothing wild or extreme, just a nice casual life that I planned for.

Disappearing pension opportunities started long ago.....too many people see this as a recent trend but it isn't.

Employers see health insurance costs skyrocket and some of that is due to fraudulent claims, but the real reason is the greed of the insurance companies.

Funny how people forget the days of when the local mills/companies pretty much owned the towns they were located in. They had the mill houses for rent and the company store where you went to buy all your goods. Right now we are just reliving this era's version of that.

Baristas get pensions now?

On my recent big trip, about half the people on one of my ships were doing a six-month "world cruise", which cost about $200,000 for a couple. That's a chunk of change. Most or all were retired, since that's the only way to get six months off to travel.

I was listening to how people became affluent enough to afford such a trip, and two reasons were far and away the most common. People either worked for government or (in the past) a large company that offered defined-benefit pensions, or they owned and sold a business. Those were far and away the most common reasons. The pension people were not C-suite types who made big money, but my impression is that they felt secure with the pensions and didn't feel a need to manage risk to a retirement portfolio.

The other reason that I heard to some degree was people who merely had a high-wage job, mostly doctors. I met a couple of people who had legacy family money, and one couple who invested early and hard into crypto and made a bunch of money, but those were exceptions to the rule.

The loss of defined-benefit pensions is a major factor in people feeling less secure about retirement, in my opinion. I'm not sure there was ever a time where a majority of workers got them, but they're rare now. You pretty much have to work in government to get them.

I think it made many of them lazy and getting the free money to a bunch of workers around here took them out of the labor market.

It was like flipping a switch, several are now drug addicts dependent on welfare.

The rest of your post reads like people are owed something and don't have to earn it.

Companies don't need to give a shit about them, they are paying them a wage for a job they need done. It's not personal.

A few months ago I was chatting with a young (late 20s) woman and we were talking about careers. She mentioned that her boyfriend "doesn't want a job", and it frustrated her. She said that he only wanted to play video games all day and then make money doing DoorDash deliveries and stuff part-time. She could see that he wasn't going to thrive long-term doing that. (She had a career going.).

I kind of worry about young men in our society. Something is happening that's sapping the drive of a lot of them. I've noticed it in some of the younger men that I know, and it's a really bad mindset.

I sympathized with the woman, and I thought that she should probably find a guy with some long-term potential. I think people need to be more ruthless and businesslike when choosing a mate.

I made time, while working exactly 50 years and raising two daughters with my wife.

Once you have kids, your love will help you overcome your selfishness.

While helping raise them and providing, I restored several vehicles, played darts, bowled, played a lot of pool, had several boats, camped etc. They were a part of much of it and it taught them some valuable lessons.

The satisfaction I now enjoy from their success in life far outweighs any enjoyment I ever had from things I had done.

But I get it, the newer generations are getting away from this, thus our society has some issues.

Exactly, and it just keeps growing as there are grandkids and great grandkids.