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]

I should quantify I am retired now...

[TripleThreat]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

Thanks for assuming I was talking about "clerical " work

I have been the Corporate Credit Manager all my life the last 25 years for Billion dollar companies. I have managed teams of 10-40 associates. Besides managing/coaching team members i had my own tasks which, while most were part of automated processes still needed review. Throw in meetings and you have an easy 9-10 hour day.

That doesn't mean I didn't have days that I could complete tasks in a traditional 8 hour day...

If your company only gives you enough to keep you busy half of the day then your Manager is wasting company resources.

Or maybe..... Some people are just better at their job than others... Just like in all aspects of daily life.


As you proved in your statement, you're old, typical oldie tbh living in a digital world. Our director, also old, doesn't live like you or have your opinion (thank god)... We get all his work done for him, he looks like a bad ass and is on his way to being a VP.. Dude spents most his day golfing lmao..

[lewdog]

Like most, the standard 2.5-3% raise yearly is what my company does for hourly or salaried employees. Salaried employees get 6 more PTO days per year than hourly employees and I think that's fair as I always work 40+ hours per week on salary.

Luckily there are a few of us that get monthly incentive bonuses and can really focus on the main issues of our job and make some decent extra monthly cashflow. Last year my incentive earned me 5% extra on my yearly base salary but if I was able to max it monthly it would be over 9% of my base.

I'm a big believer in incentivizing certain employees to allow them to boost their pay over the basic yearly raise. If their performance is boosting the bottom line, let them have a small slice of those gains. I re-worked a few employees incentive plans and I think they appreciate that chance to fairly earn more.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by TripleThreat

Or maybe..... Some people are just better at their job than others... Just like in all aspects of daily life.


As you proved in your statement, you're old, typical oldie tbh living in a digital world. Our director, also old, doesn't live like you or have your opinion (thank god)... We get all his work done for him, he looks like a bad ass and is on his way to being a VP.. Dude spents most his day golfing lmao..

.,.I have heard your argument before and each of them were trying to justify how they spent their day.

I may be old but I was working with and driving the companies i was working for into automated processes for at least 25 years if not longer.

Your manager sounds like a few of the VP's at my last company who all couldn't figure out why they were victims of reorganization and had to look elsewhere.

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Like most, the standard 2.5-3% raise yearly is what my company does for hourly or salaried employees. Salaried employees get 6 more PTO days per year than hourly employees and I think that's fair as I always work 40+ hours per week on salary.

Luckily there are a few of us that get monthly incentive bonuses and can really focus on the main issues of our job and make some decent extra monthly cashflow. Last year my incentive earned me 5% extra on my yearly base salary but if I was able to max it monthly it would be over 9% of my base.

I'm a big believer in incentivizing certain employees to allow them to boost their pay over the basic yearly raise. If their performance is boosting the bottom line, let them have a small slice of those gains. I re-worked a few employees incentive plans and I think they appreciate that chance to fairly earn more.

I completely concur with incentives to drive the pay potential of associates....they do it in Sales why not in all aspects of the company.

The CEO and EVP's don't have to be the only ones getting the benefits of success of the company.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by TripleThreat

Or maybe..... Some people are just better at their job than others... Just like in all aspects of daily life.


As you proved in your statement, you're old, typical oldie tbh living in a digital world. Our director, also old, doesn't live like you or have your opinion (thank god)... We get all his work done for him, he looks like a bad ass and is on his way to being a VP.. Dude spents most his day golfing lmao..

Did you ever start double dipping?

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Like most, the standard 2.5-3% raise yearly is what my company does for hourly or salaried employees. Salaried employees get 6 more PTO days per year than hourly employees and I think that's fair as I always work 40+ hours per week on salary.

Luckily there are a few of us that get monthly incentive bonuses and can really focus on the main issues of our job and make some decent extra monthly cashflow. Last year my incentive earned me 5% extra on my yearly base salary but if I was able to max it monthly it would be over 9% of my base.

I'm a big believer in incentivizing certain employees to allow them to boost their pay over the basic yearly raise. If their performance is boosting the bottom line, let them have a small slice of those gains. I re-worked a few employees incentive plans and I think they appreciate that chance to fairly earn more.

The best part of my last year was setting up the best associates on my team to not only add to their earnings but to set them up for professional growth potential. So far 3 of them have taken advantage and I gave a 4th a personal reference for a job promotion she was offered with an outside company.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Like most, the standard 2.5-3% raise yearly is what my company does for hourly or salaried employees. Salaried employees get 6 more PTO days per year than hourly employees and I think that's fair as I always work 40+ hours per week on salary.

Luckily there are a few of us that get monthly incentive bonuses and can really focus on the main issues of our job and make some decent extra monthly cashflow. Last year my incentive earned me 5% extra on my yearly base salary but if I was able to max it monthly it would be over 9% of my base.

I'm a big believer in incentivizing certain employees to allow them to boost their pay over the basic yearly raise. If their performance is boosting the bottom line, let them have a small slice of those gains. I re-worked a few employees incentive plans and I think they appreciate that chance to fairly earn more.

My company does something similar... earlier in my career, the company I worked for handed out a pretty big range for annual raises and if you were a top performer (and put in a ton of hours), you'd most likely get compensated for it. Later on, another company I worked for had a very standard 3% and it maybe maxed out at like 4.5% if you were a top performer. I currently get the standard ~3%, but they also have a mid year process for top performers and any title changes, which can get you close to 10% combined for the year.

It's not a written goal/metric that you work towards or even guaranteed, but far better for top performers than just the basic 3% annually.

[Titty Meat]

My boss just texted me tonight that she's quitting this week because the work life balance sucks. She's not the only one leaving which concerns me the ship might be sinking

[TripleThreat]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Did you ever start double dipping?

My guy! I've tried, but I can't find anything that is lenient enough yet. I'm also up for a big promo so I haven't been looking as much as I was a while ago since my workload has increased..

Another off topic that I don't like about my company is adjusters/coordinators in my department all get the same pay raise despite what work you've contributed to the department or what areas you've absorbed via your work load, so to me, I'm really upset about the amount of things sent my way due to my high volume of work output, but I'm told I'm in line for a big promotion... I'm just hoping its not a carrot on a stick situation.

[TripleThreat]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

.,.I have heard your argument before and each of them were trying to justify how they spent their day.

I may be old but I was working with and driving the companies i was working for into automated processes for at least 25 years if not longer.

Your manager sounds like a few of the VP's at my last company who all couldn't figure out why they were victims of reorganization and had to look elsewhere.

Yeah I feel like you're just looking for a fight. It seems you think that there's only one way to achieve productivity. I'm not saying your way is wrong, you just sound like a stickler for the rules and I hate working for that sort of management.

Additionally, yeah no... Our CEO fired the VP of a huge portion of our company as well as a director under him that our director reported to, and like I said, our director golfs every damn day....

Our data analytics show compared to other "companies" our output of work far exceeds our competitors in the field of work we produce... You don't fix what isn't broken. (Also from what I heard, when that VP and other stubborn director were fired, our director got a big pay raise, but not in title.....)

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by TripleThreat

Yeah I feel like you're just looking for a fight. It seems you think that there's only one way to achieve productivity. I'm not saying your way is wrong, you just sound like a stickler for the rules and I hate working for that sort of management.

Additionally, yeah no... Our CEO fired the VP of a huge portion of our company as well as a director under him that our director reported to, and like I said, our director golfs every damn day....

Our data analytics show compared to other "companies" our output of work far exceeds our competitors in the field of work we produce... You don't fix what isn't broken. (Also from what I heard, when that VP and other stubborn director were fired, our director got a big pay raise, but not in title.....)

Fight nah.....wide difference of opinions, oh hell yes.

You do you....I've already done me successfully according to what my company asked of me. Yes I was a stickler for rules because it kept the company from having to deal with employee complaints about being treated unevenly....one of the biggest issues the HR team had to deal with.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

Fight nah.....wide difference of opinions, oh hell yes.

You do you....I've already done me successfully according to what my company asked of me. Yes I was a stickler for rules because it kept the company from having to deal with employee complaints about being treated unevenly....one of the biggest issues the HR team had to deal with.

most of my career I worked contract with companies. Take on projects. No HR, training, orientation at all. No idea on the current design of the company. I had to architect and drive the solution all by myself. I either produced or they fired me.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

We were in the Lees Summit school district for most of my kids school years. That's a really good school district or at least it was in the 90's-2000's.

I coached youth little league baseball, football and basketball. We would have kids that were home schooled on our teams. Almost all of them had trouble socializing with the other kids. That was decades ago so it could have changed.

Things have changed. Home school kids aren't necessarily better socialized than they ever were. Public school kids, however are every bit as naive and antisocial as home school kids these days. We ran a large youth group about halfway split between home and public school. The kids weren't all that different. They had the same problems, the same quirks, and the same unnatural dependence on internet stimulation.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Like most, the standard 2.5-3% raise yearly is what my company does for hourly or salaried employees. Salaried employees get 6 more PTO days per year than hourly employees and I think that's fair as I always work 40+ hours per week on salary.

Luckily there are a few of us that get monthly incentive bonuses and can really focus on the main issues of our job and make some decent extra monthly cashflow. Last year my incentive earned me 5% extra on my yearly base salary but if I was able to max it monthly it would be over 9% of my base.

I'm a big believer in incentivizing certain employees to allow them to boost their pay over the basic yearly raise. If their performance is boosting the bottom line, let them have a small slice of those gains. I re-worked a few employees incentive plans and I think they appreciate that chance to fairly earn more.

We get bonuses based on things like quarterly revenue and the like. It's pretty nice.