“Longer Hours” Writes Paul Luke from The Province

If fifty-five to sixty hours per week at work is becoming the norm as Mr. Luke suggests in his article “Longer hours, more stress:  The New Reality in the Canadian Workplace”, it’s time to really examine how this has come about.  There has been no time in history where we’ve had such tremendous access to new affordable technological tools to aid in productivity and efficiency – yet the work week grows.  I ask whose fault is it? Is it a fault?  Perhaps you prefer 60 hours over 40 and absenteeism from your cruise vacation, kid’s concert, second language development, ski trip to Panorama, child school tutoring, reading club commitment, pursuit in volunteerism, guitar class, Seahawks run for the Super Bowl (so excited this year),  is totally okay when making lifestyle compromises for the boss you love so much. 

I suggest if these are the hours you are working it’s because you are operating inefficiently at work or you have not learned to go home for dinner because of a sense of paranoia about what the boss will think.  I was lucky enough to learn in my mid twenties that no matter how much you give, they will ask for more and that “loyalty” in the work place is never reciprocated in a recession when suddenly the pink slips start to circulate.  All’s you can do is all you can do and this means offering helpful suggestions to management on how to work more effectively.  When advice from the production goes unheeded, there are consequences.  Should those consequences be your daughter on stage at recital without daddy in the audience? 

Your employer expects you to respond to a text at 7pm because you did it once before.  Now they know they can get away with disturbing your private time.  Your boss came to learn that you jump when that phone beep goes off at whatever time of the day.  Now in fact you even jump when walking through a cross walk.  It’s hard to blame the employer when folks have so readily compromised their personal autonomy.  Not you though, right?