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

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

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.

:insert Spiderman pointing at Spiderman meme here:

[|Zach|]

I think there is value to being in office. An ideal setup for me would be in the office 1 or 2 days a week.

Don't have that luxury though. Have a lot of freedom for when I come and go and I can still do a lot from home but there are too much this is happening in real time you need to be there shit.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by 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.

I think that flexibility is the key. Could benefit both sides at times. Switching full time to one or the other points out the negatives in each.

Humans need social interaction. No human wants constant negative social interactions or constant isolation. People's needs change and so do business needs.

[mr. tegu]

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.

I don’t know about that. I’d say whatever portion of the population is good at self motivating and time management can get more done at home. The other portion get less done at home. Whether that’s most or not, who knows, but my guess it’s probably a pretty even split. Some get about the same done. Some get more done and some get less done.

[duncan_idaho]

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

It is not for everyone. I get that.

I think there are some key things to do to make it work better for you. I have a whole list of those (Highlights: Separate work space; maintain a routine; don't work from your bed or couch; don't forget to get up and move around; don't forget to eat).

The fact I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere and spent a lot of time doing things by myself (and also spent all of high school basically teaching myself everything) probably makes it an easier adjustment for me.

[htismaqe]

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.

And don't think companies aren't aware of that either. They know they can squeeze more hours out of you if you don't have to drive to and from and office.

[KCUnited]

I'm fully remote but went into the office recently because my boss was in town for a leadership meeting and I wanted to say hi. There's a couple people within the analytics space who go in, but I don't which days. Anyway, while there I overheard someone on the phone walking through the same data connection issue I was having. The result of that happenstance was a collaborative solution that may never have happened or at least taken me longer to solve

So I get it when its applicable and if I knew this persons schedule I may go in but I don't and that's what makes this hybrid thing really dumb

It should go back to pre-Covid when it was a conversation between leader and employee on what works best for everyone instead of a broad brush stroke approach of X number of days for everyone

[mr. tegu]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

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.

This made me think about just the environment, not even the fact it’s at home or in the office. Everyone at home has a nice space, probably a window, maybe some music, their pets, etc. But in the office it’s usually so grey and sterile, maybe a cubicle, no window and just generally less pleasing to our senses.

Funny thing about the word “cubicle” it actually comes from Rome/latin where the word “cubiculum” which basically meant small sleeping quarters. Old English changed it to cubicle but it still meant small sleeping chamber. Eventually though it became the horror we know it as today.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by 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.

See, we use Slack and I find instant messaging far more convenient than somebody coming to my cube and wanting to talk in the middle of work. As you can imagine, I'm the only member of my team in Iowa so I've always been "long distance" from my coworkers. We do all of our collaboration online and it works great.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

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.

Yep.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Rausch

I think that flexibility is the key. Could benefit both sides at times. Switching full time to one or the other points out the negatives in each.

Humans need social interaction. No human wants constant negative social interactions or constant isolation. People's needs change and so do business needs.

I don't need or want to socialize with coworkers. Been there, done that. I'm not 30 anymore. I interact with my family, I work with my coworkers.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

This made me think about just the environment, not even the fact it’s at home or in the office. Everyone at home has a nice space, probably a window, maybe some music, their pets, etc. But in the office it’s usually so grey and sterile, maybe a cubicle, no window and just generally less pleasing to our senses.

Funny thing about the word “cubicle” it actually comes from Rome/latin where the word “cubiculum” which basically meant small sleeping quarters. Old English changed it to cubicle but it still meant small sleeping chamber. Eventually though it became the horror we know it as today.

A lot of places cite collaboration as the reason people need to be in the office but at the same time, they're adopting open floor plans. It was IMPOSSIBLE in the main office to take a conference call because there was no sound breaks. Everybody talking was just like a massive noise storm and you couldn't hear your calls.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by 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.

You have to inject the top .1% of intellect into your day.

[HemiEd]

Very interesting discussion about the + and - of working from home. Just one more thing that has changed dramatically since I retired. Apparently for the good for many of you.

To be honest, I would have been way to tempted to sneak out and work on one of my cars or another home project probably. Also, my commute was about 10 minutes by bicycle since we bought a home near work. Previous jobs the longest was 20 minutes by car.

My last 18 years I had multiple department heads reporting to me as the work day progressed and some of it required my physical presence on the production floor, sales dept., shipping or purchasing. I have no idea how I could have duplicated that remotely.

However, both of my daughters have been successful working from home on a significant scale, mostly starting about the time of the pandemic. They have had no problems with distractions and I have witnessed it personally while visiting them.

[ghak99]

State paid employees. Covid caused them to go remote. Post Covid they went to 1 office day a week.

... multiple workers are now home schooling their kids.