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

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by 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.

Sounds like a real efficient way to spend taxpayer money.

[htismaqe]

I've been working 100% from home since 2009. Yeah, there are days when I jack around and do yard work or play video games. But I work in a results/deadline based industry so they don't really care how much I work, just how much I get done.

[ghak99]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Sounds like a real efficient way to spend taxpayer money.

Concerns about it were sent up the chain to representatives, but it doesn't appear any change has been implemented yet.

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by 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.

I occasionally see people asking about that on the remotework subreddit. “How do I homeschool/should I homeschool while working remotely?”

I mean, the answer to those questions is you can not:should not, but that’s the answer to the question of homeschooling, period, so … they usually don’t take that suggestion well.

[Chitownchiefsfan]

Originally Posted by BWillie

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.

Oh. I've dicked off at work a time or two.

[htismaqe]

I personally wouldn't recommend trying to homeschool and telework at the same time, not without help. My girls were homeschooled and as I said, I've been 100% home since 2009. They mostly schooled themselves, my wife didn't "teach" by any means, but she was always available to answer questions and stuff like that.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by |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.

When I was working for the military, I would spend 35-45 minutes getting to work through heavy traffic. Another 10-15 minutes to get through the base security gate. Another 5 minutes to get back to my workplace. Park and walk into the building, usually 10-15 minute walk. Get into the building, I have another 5-10 minutes of security to get back to our area. Thats 2-3 hours out of my day. Then I'm working 12 hours a day.

When I left the military I swore to only work remotely from now on. Never worked on site again.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

I personally wouldn't recommend trying to homeschool and telework at the same time, not without help. My girls were homeschooled and as I said, I've been 100% home since 2009. They mostly schooled themselves, my wife didn't "teach" by any means, but she was always available to answer questions and stuff like that.

How do you feel about the quality and breadth of their education? Was there a home-school curriculum that you obtained and followed?

One question I've always had about home schooling is that it seems like it can narrow of the funnel of sources getting to a kid, both in terms of topics and philosophy. If the parent is interested in science and hates literature, the kid is probably going to get more science. (And that's not a challenge of you and your wife, but rather a general comment that I think would be true of a lot of people.)

I realize that a lot of parents have traditionally home-schooled because they want to narrow the sources in terms of philosophy (e.g., religion, social views). One can debate the merits of that, so I won't go into it. But in the Covid era, I would suspect that we got a lot more home-schooling for other reasons.

[007]

Doesn't matter what you do. You can't keep up with the inflation. Everything about this economy sucks right now. Making more money than ever before and still barely making ends meet.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

How do you feel about the quality and breadth of their education? Was there a home-school curriculum that you obtained and followed?

One question I've always had about home schooling is that it seems like it can narrow of the funnel of sources getting to a kid, both in terms of topics and philosophy. If the parent is interested in science and hates literature, the kid is probably going to get more science. (And that's not a challenge of you and your wife, but rather a general comment that I think would be true of a lot of people.)

I realize that a lot of parents have traditionally home-schooled because they want to narrow the sources in terms of philosophy (e.g., religion, social views). One can debate the merits of that, so I won't go into it. But in the Covid era, I would suspect that we got a lot more home-schooling for other reasons.

I apologize in advance for the wall of text but there's a lot to unpack.

We didn't home school for religious or similar reasons. We home schooled because our local school district is shit. My kids aren't into sports. They're into art, music, and stuff like that. They were both good academically too.

I won't go into exhaustive detail but some of the things we had to deal with:

1. Curriculum issues. We've talked about this in the DC subforum and elsewhere but my wife and I became increasingly aware that things like Common Core were teaching kids inefficiently and in some cases, just plain wrong. There was a growing emphasis on "showing your work" - giving kids credit for the attempt, even if the answer was wrong, as long as they used the correct methodology. There was also the constant testing. Funding depends on standardized test scores so they spent more time practicing testing than actually teaching.
2. ridiculous lack of logistics when it came to bussing rural kids. Near the end, my kids were on the bus for one hour and five minutes, twice a day. It's actually against the law in Iowa to be on a bus that long.
3. defunding art, music, and other things we wanted. My oldest was just finishing elementary school when they got rid of her TAG program. Every year the number of para's (basically babysitters for disruptive kids, because they can't be segregated anymore) goes up and the programs for high achieving kids get cut.
4. Other fiscal decisions like spending $3M on a new building that doesn't house students even though it's only 20 years old. Or spending $750K to "fix" the 150-year old school near the country club only to close it completely 3 years later because it's beyond repair.
5. Bullying - my kids weren't subjected to it much but we never really gave it much chance. It was almost like mobs were running the school and the admin acted like they were powerless. When a local kid got stabbed across the street from the school, that was kind of the last straw.

We brought a lot of these grievances to the school board as a community because there were dozens of us homeschooling at the time. The school district treated us with contempt and scorn. They never once tried to address the issues or cooperate with us. From the start, we were adversaries. They talked to us like we were heretics from the 10th century, like anyone that dared to question was a witch.

Anyway, we used an online curriculum, some of the classes were the same as what they would get in school but some were above and beyond. The only subject my kids bitched about was history/social studies but I love history so they took it.

I'm not sure what else to say, I could talk about this for hours and hours, there's so much to it. The bottom line is my kids are social, well-adjusted, and even mildly successful (my oldest is the director of our art center and she's only 24). Instead of sitting in a classroom all day, they went on field trips to places school would never take them. They did crazy projects for weeks on end, activities school couldn't accommodate due to rigid schedules and testing quotas. And most of all, they had the freedom to not only truly learn but to excel and not be held back.

[htismaqe]

One more thing:

I'm not going to sit here and say home schooling is a panacea or that the concerns people have aren't valid. They are.

Like working from home, home schooling can be a two-way street. It can be incredibly freeing and rewarding or it can be an excuse to **** around all day and not learn. It's entirely dependent on the individual student and parents. It's definitely not for everybody and if the parents I normally would see at a board meeting were any indication, the public school was needed if for nothing else so many kids don't get completely forgotten.

[HemiEd]

Wow, that is very impressive and your kids are so fortunate.

My wife was on top of things back in the late 70s when I wasn't. Our eldest went to an open alternative elementary school that was very different than a normal public neighborhood school.

They were actually teaching them computer stuff in the last 70s early 80s that had me totally aghast at the time. She loved school.

That daughter ended up getting her PHd and has been published.

[ThaVirus]

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.

Yep, this is a thing too. Used to have a daily battle with a dude who sat near me on whether or not we could open the blinds.

I wanted them open. Otherwise we’re sitting in this dank, dark office going crazy to top 40 pop hits all day every day. He wanted them closed because the sun made a glare on his screen. ****ing pussy..

Ya know another thing that’s better at home? Sitting on your own shitter! Can’t put a price on that.

[displacedinMN]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

I apologize in advance for the wall of text but there's a lot to unpack.

We didn't home school for religious or similar reasons. We home schooled because our local school district is shit. My kids aren't into sports. They're into art, music, and stuff like that. They were both good academically too.

I won't go into exhaustive detail but some of the things we had to deal with:

1. Curriculum issues. We've talked about this in the DC subforum and elsewhere but my wife and I became increasingly aware that things like Common Core were teaching kids inefficiently and in some cases, just plain wrong. There was a growing emphasis on "showing your work" - giving kids credit for the attempt, even if the answer was wrong, as long as they used the correct methodology. There was also the constant testing. Funding depends on standardized test scores so they spent more time practicing testing than actually teaching.
2. ridiculous lack of logistics when it came to bussing rural kids. Near the end, my kids were on the bus for one hour and five minutes, twice a day. It's actually against the law in Iowa to be on a bus that long.
3. defunding art, music, and other things we wanted. My oldest was just finishing elementary school when they got rid of her TAG program. Every year the number of para's (basically babysitters for disruptive kids, because they can't be segregated anymore) goes up and the programs for high achieving kids get cut.
4. Other fiscal decisions like spending $3M on a new building that doesn't house students even though it's only 20 years old. Or spending $750K to "fix" the 150-year old school near the country club only to close it completely 3 years later because it's beyond repair.
5. Bullying - my kids weren't subjected to it much but we never really gave it much chance. It was almost like mobs were running the school and the admin acted like they were powerless. When a local kid got stabbed across the street from the school, that was kind of the last straw.

We brought a lot of these grievances to the school board as a community because there were dozens of us homeschooling at the time. The school district treated us with contempt and scorn. They never once tried to address the issues or cooperate with us. From the start, we were adversaries. They talked to us like we were heretics from the 10th century, like anyone that dared to question was a witch.

Anyway, we used an online curriculum, some of the classes were the same as what they would get in school but some were above and beyond. The only subject my kids bitched about was history/social studies but I love history so they took it.

I'm not sure what else to say, I could talk about this for hours and hours, there's so much to it. The bottom line is my kids are social, well-adjusted, and even mildly successful (my oldest is the director of our art center and she's only 24). Instead of sitting in a classroom all day, they went on field trips to places school would never take them. They did crazy projects for weeks on end, activities school couldn't accommodate due to rigid schedules and testing quotas. And most of all, they had the freedom to not only truly learn but to excel and not be held back.

I did not know schools in Iowa were going in that direction. Minnesota--sure. But that is why I cannot understand what the F is being taught in admin school these days. I was going to do a distance learning program from NWMO but I needed to take a few Earth Science classes in the hopes of moving to HS next year.

alas-I digress.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

I apologize in advance for the wall of text but there's a lot to unpack.

We didn't home school for religious or similar reasons. We home schooled because our local school district is shit. My kids aren't into sports. They're into art, music, and stuff like that. They were both good academically too.

I won't go into exhaustive detail but some of the things we had to deal with:

1. Curriculum issues. We've talked about this in the DC subforum and elsewhere but my wife and I became increasingly aware that things like Common Core were teaching kids inefficiently and in some cases, just plain wrong. There was a growing emphasis on "showing your work" - giving kids credit for the attempt, even if the answer was wrong, as long as they used the correct methodology. There was also the constant testing. Funding depends on standardized test scores so they spent more time practicing testing than actually teaching.
2. ridiculous lack of logistics when it came to bussing rural kids. Near the end, my kids were on the bus for one hour and five minutes, twice a day. It's actually against the law in Iowa to be on a bus that long.
3. defunding art, music, and other things we wanted. My oldest was just finishing elementary school when they got rid of her TAG program. Every year the number of para's (basically babysitters for disruptive kids, because they can't be segregated anymore) goes up and the programs for high achieving kids get cut.
4. Other fiscal decisions like spending $3M on a new building that doesn't house students even though it's only 20 years old. Or spending $750K to "fix" the 150-year old school near the country club only to close it completely 3 years later because it's beyond repair.
5. Bullying - my kids weren't subjected to it much but we never really gave it much chance. It was almost like mobs were running the school and the admin acted like they were powerless. When a local kid got stabbed across the street from the school, that was kind of the last straw.

We brought a lot of these grievances to the school board as a community because there were dozens of us homeschooling at the time. The school district treated us with contempt and scorn. They never once tried to address the issues or cooperate with us. From the start, we were adversaries. They talked to us like we were heretics from the 10th century, like anyone that dared to question was a witch.

Anyway, we used an online curriculum, some of the classes were the same as what they would get in school but some were above and beyond. The only subject my kids bitched about was history/social studies but I love history so they took it.

I'm not sure what else to say, I could talk about this for hours and hours, there's so much to it. The bottom line is my kids are social, well-adjusted, and even mildly successful (my oldest is the director of our art center and she's only 24). Instead of sitting in a classroom all day, they went on field trips to places school would never take them. They did crazy projects for weeks on end, activities school couldn't accommodate due to rigid schedules and testing quotas. And most of all, they had the freedom to not only truly learn but to excel and not be held back.

Originally Posted by htismaqe

One more thing:

I'm not going to sit here and say home schooling is a panacea or that the concerns people have aren't valid. They are.

Like working from home, home schooling can be a two-way street. It can be incredibly freeing and rewarding or it can be an excuse to **** around all day and not learn. It's entirely dependent on the individual student and parents. It's definitely not for everybody and if the parents I normally would see at a board meeting were any indication, the public school was needed if for nothing else so many kids don't get completely forgotten.

Cool. Thanks for the explanation.

The origin of my question is that I've wondered if a lot of home-school kids get narrow educations, intentionally or inadvertently. I figure that very few parents have broad enough educations and interests to teach everything a student should learn. But getting an online curriculum where that stuff is already thought out and packaged could solve that problem. I can empathize with your other concerns.

In my youth, I don't think home schooling was really a thing. Or at least it wasn't in my part of the world. I think maybe we had one kid who got pulled out of the system because his parents were mad about some sports stuff, but I'm not even sure about that. The closest we had was some religious fundamentalist school that had about six students. I didn't even know it existed until I graduated and those kids were listed among the graduates.