Americans are working less

[HemiEd]

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

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by notorious

You are far from old, Mos.

Tell all my friends and the kids in my neighborhood....or tell my bones that after my cardiac rehab....LOL

[duncan_idaho]

For most office jobs, there is little reason they need to be in-office.

I have worked remotely for most of the past 15 years (save for a horrific 4-year period where I was in-office). I am much more productive at home than on the random days when I go into the office.

My company, like many, is widely distributed across the United States. So when I'm having meetings, it is very, very rarely with people all in the same geographic location as me. And if one person is remote, everyone might as well be remote.

For people that say you can't coach or mentor or collaborate or build a team effectively online, I call b.s. on that. You have to do it DIFFERENTLY and it takes a different type of effort and approach, but good managers/leaders can do all of those things as well remotely as they can in person - again, for most office jobs.

There are obviously professions and careers that require being in-person. But most office gigs are not them.

Regarding working fewer hours, so many people work in corporate America now, I think that trend lines up with more people accepting the reality of how companies work these days. Especially if you work for a huge corporation... killing yourself for the company just doesn't pass a cost-benefit analysis.

Personal example:
In the early 10s, I was working for a huge company (top 10 Fortune company, and the division I worked for would have been in the Fortune 100 if it was its own entity). I worked from home, and worked a LOT. Like 55-60 hours a week a lot. I was the star performer on my team, received the top available review rating 5 years in a row... and my efforts were rewarded with "top of raise band" raises of 2.5-3%, and one year, a Christmas Bonus of... an Origami Christmas Ornament made from company cardstock.

I have shifted over time... some of those production hours now go to my family. Some more of them go into volunteering on the board of a local professional association I belong to.

I don't think that's uncommon or unhealthy.

[Mr_Tomahawk]

Last day in my corporate role.

Another observation I would add regard to remote, hybrid, covid, work environments....

Before Covid, our company would have in-person meetings....this is obvious.

Since covid and the return to work....when we have meetings, 90% of them are from our desk over a zoom/teams call....even though everyone is in the office.

I dont know how I feel about that. It works....but I prefer to be in-person, if you are in the office.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

For most office jobs, there is little reason they need to be in-office.

I have worked remotely for most of the past 15 years (save for a horrific 4-year period where I was in-office). I am much more productive at home than on the random days when I go into the office.

My company, like many, is widely distributed across the United States. So when I'm having meetings, it is very, very rarely with people all in the same geographic location as me. And if one person is remote, everyone might as well be remote.

For people that say you can't coach or mentor or collaborate or build a team effectively online, I call b.s. on that. You have to do it DIFFERENTLY and it takes a different type of effort and approach, but good managers/leaders can do all of those things as well remotely as they can in person - again, for most office jobs.

Personal example:
In the early 10s, I was working for a huge company (top 10 Fortune company, and the division I worked for would have been in the Fortune 100 if it was its own entity). I worked from home, and worked a LOT. Like 55-60 hours a week a lot. I was the star performer on my team, received the top available review rating 5 years in a row... and my efforts were rewarded with "top of raise band" raises of 2.5-3%, and one year, a Christmas Bonus of... an Origami Christmas Ornament made from company cardstock.

I have shifted over time... some of those production hours now go to my family. Some more of them go into volunteering on the board of a local professional association I belong to.

I don't think that's uncommon or unhealthy.

The nature of my work was mostly contract work and less than 2 years in length but was always remote. I would get 50%-75% more pay than a full time employee. We got health insurance from my wife's employer so we went for the money with my job.

I'd put in a lot of intense hours when I was working but would sometimes take 6 months off or so to recover from the workload on the past job. Worked for us and our goals.

[displacedinMN]

I posted that Minn is expecting state workers to be in the office 50% of the time Starting June 1. They are freaking out. Want to strike and protest etc.

Lord, I have no sympathy for them.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Personal example:
In the early 10s, I was working for a huge company (top 10 Fortune company, and the division I worked for would have been in the Fortune 100 if it was its own entity). I worked from home, and worked a LOT. Like 55-60 hours a week a lot. I was the star performer on my team, received the top available review rating 5 years in a row... and my efforts were rewarded with "top of raise band" raises of 2.5-3%, and one year, a Christmas Bonus of... an Origami Christmas Ornament made from company cardstock.

I have shifted over time... some of those production hours now go to my family. Some more of them go into volunteering on the board of a local professional association I belong to.

I don't think that's uncommon or unhealthy.

I had similar bullshit at a job and only lasted a couple years. Traveled all the time and made bank on per diem, but they started nickel and diming it and taking away other perks of travel. Worked ~50-60 hours/week.... we were contracted out for of course far more than we made which is here nor there, but then they'd do these company presentations bragging about how they were raising their rates by like $100/hr, while we got 2-3% raises per year (and in my second year, my manager had to do me a favor by changing my title because those were the only people getting raises that year).

Completely tone deaf company, all about their stock price while flaunting that fact to their employees and continuously giving them less and less incentive to work hard.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

For most office jobs, there is little reason they need to be in-office.

I have worked remotely for most of the past 15 years (save for a horrific 4-year period where I was in-office). I am much more productive at home than on the random days when I go into the office.

My company, like many, is widely distributed across the United States. So when I'm having meetings, it is very, very rarely with people all in the same geographic location as me. And if one person is remote, everyone might as well be remote.

For people that say you can't coach or mentor or collaborate or build a team effectively online, I call b.s. on that. You have to do it DIFFERENTLY and it takes a different type of effort and approach, but good managers/leaders can do all of those things as well remotely as they can in person - again, for most office jobs.

There are obviously professions and careers that require being in-person. But most office gigs are not them.

Regarding working fewer hours, so many people work in corporate America now, I think that trend lines up with more people accepting the reality of how companies work these days. Especially if you work for a huge corporation... killing yourself for the company just doesn't pass a cost-benefit analysis.

Personal example:
In the early 10s, I was working for a huge company (top 10 Fortune company, and the division I worked for would have been in the Fortune 100 if it was its own entity). I worked from home, and worked a LOT. Like 55-60 hours a week a lot. I was the star performer on my team, received the top available review rating 5 years in a row... and my efforts were rewarded with "top of raise band" raises of 2.5-3%, and one year, a Christmas Bonus of... an Origami Christmas Ornament made from company cardstock.

I have shifted over time... some of those production hours now go to my family. Some more of them go into volunteering on the board of a local professional association I belong to.

I don't think that's uncommon or unhealthy.

For me, I’m very unproductive when working from home what little I did of it during the pandemic lockdown. I think if I ever got a job that was specifically advertised as a work from home position, I wouldn’t do well. If the job gave me the option, I’d take the office

[loochy]

Originally Posted by RealSNR

For me, I’m very unproductive when working from home what little I did of it during the pandemic lockdown. I think if I ever got a job that was specifically advertised as a work from home position, I wouldn’t do well. If the job gave me the option, I’d take the office

I'm complete opposite. First of all, the driving and getting ready robs two hours from my day. Then the office is uncomfortable and people come up to me and bug me and talk to me which makes things even more inefficient.

[Bearcat]

My biggest in-office time sucks that don't happen remotely...
- Morning chatter
- Post-meeting chatter (Teams calls are about the same when it comes to pre-meeting chatter)
- People stopping by my office for work reasons, then tangenting to other chatter
- Walking around the office for in person questions
- Going out for lunch sometimes
- People going into meetings without their laptop, making it more difficult to get quick answers to things
- Walking to/from meetings and waiting for a previous meeting to end (of course still happens to a small extent with Teams, but people are far more likely to say they have to drop from Teams than get up and leave a physical meeting)
- And not being able to physically get up and leave a meeting

I can fill in some of that time with CP and still feel far more productive.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by loochy

I'm complete opposite. First of all, the driving and getting ready robs two hours from my day. Then the office is uncomfortable and people come up to me and bug me and talk to me which makes things even more inefficient.

Yep.

I get about the same amount of work done working from home as I did working in the office. I just can get other stuff done during downtime plus I got two hours back that I spent driving to and from the office.

[Chitownchiefsfan]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Yep.

I get about the same amount of work done working from home as I did working in the office. I just can get other stuff done during downtime plus I got two hours back that I spent driving to and from the office.

This is why i hate the portrayal of WFH in the media as people just wanting to be lazy. Most people actually get more work done from home.

[DaFace]

I'm somewhere in the middle. I definitely value eliminating the commute (which was 45-60 minutes one-way for me back in the day), and when I REALLY need to focus, I can crank through things far faster from home than I could with the distractions of an office.

On the other hand, there are a lot of times when I feel pretty isolated. I'll end up banging my head against a wall on a problem because I don't want to bug people where, in an office, I might just ask the people around me if they have any ideas.

I think in my perfect world, I'd work somewhere that has a 2-day-a-week hybrid policy. Everyone goes in a couple of days for collaborative stuff, and everyone stays home the other days to crank shit out.

[BWillie]

I am a believer that all jobs should be hourly unless you like own the company or something. You may have a salary but you get paid by the hour once you go over 40. Employers can easily **** you over otherwise. Also people feel like they have to work OT in some instances to get ahead or just meet the status quo and they end up killing their self working 60 hrs a week before they know it only making money on the 40.

I am generally not very pro worker even and I have this view. Most unions I am against. I am against any minimum wage but employers can act oblivious and pour you more work than you can handle, then expect it on straight salary jobs and there isn't anything the worker can do about it.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by Chitownchiefsfan

This is why i hate the portrayal of WFH in the media as people just wanting to be lazy. Most people actually get more work done from home.

When I worked...I definitely got more done in the office. I would dick off so hard at home. Now I probably worked harder at home but just so I could dick off if that makes sense. So maybe it ended up being a wash. I think it depends on the field but WFH definitely increased my quality of life.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by loochy

I'm complete opposite. First of all, the driving and getting ready robs two hours from my day. Then the office is uncomfortable and people come up to me and bug me and talk to me which makes things even more inefficient.

Agreed. Working in office, I’m already pissed off because I had to wake up two hours early and fight traffic on the way in.

Then, when 5:00 hits I’m running out the door to try to get home before the sun goes down; whereas, working from home, I’m far more likely to deal with a last-minute problem that pops up at 4:50.