Time Out: Watch These Videos

December 6, 2010 Dan Burger

Yikes! Our working lives are killing us. I know you’ve probably felt that way for longer than you want to admit–maybe since your first job. But it’s one thing to feel that way without statistics to back it up and another thing to have the statistics to back up your thinking. Did you know that more heart attacks happen on Monday? A coincidence that we go back to work on Mondays? I don’t think so. But going back to work on Monday isn’t really the case for a lot of workers. They’ve been working throughout the weekend anyway.

Last month, the people at Kronos, the workforce management software company with the sizable installed base running on the IBM i platform, released the second in a series of videos that tell the story of how our work week has evolved through labor regulations, technological innovations, and shifting workplace norms. I highly recommend you divert your attention to this entertaining depiction of our labor intensive lives for the five minutes it takes to startle yourself with statistics that describe what our work week has become.

Let me give you a little preview.

40 percent of workers say they bring work home to complete at night or work overtime, at least once a week
15 percent of people admit that they are addicted to email–some confessed to checking their email at the beach, weddings, and even at funerals. (It’s OK if you are reading IT Jungle.)
26 percent of Americans state that they never take vacations
We work about two months more than we did 40 years ago–for the same money, by the way.

There’s much more where that came from (I purposely left out some stats that you will want to use during your next job review), and a mesmerizing musical score with a pace that helps you feel out of breath while you learn how much time you spend working.

Not all the statistics are designed to make you want to quit your job and reclaim your life. In fact, that’s not really the point of the presentation. The point is that the workforce is evolving and how companies manage their workers will need to evolve as well. Just as technologies change, workplace policies and employer/employee expectations change.

The How Will Your Week Work? video can be seen here.

The first video in this Kronos series is worth your time as well. It’s titled How Will You Manage? and it can be seen here.

This one is not as likely to induce your Monday morning heart attack by tying statistics to your imbalanced load of work/life stressors, but it will give you some global workplace perspective. For instance:

There are 3.1 billion workers in the world. China is home to 807 million; India has 524 million; the United States claims 131 million; Mexico, 45 million; the United Kingdom, 31 million; and Australia, 11 million.
Of the 131 million workers in the U.S. workforce, 60 percent have a job that requires a college degree, 26 percent speak a second language, 24 percent are under 30, and 18 percent are over 55.
40 percent of U.S. workers have jobs that could be done from home and 32 million are working for multinational companies.
Five out of eight people are looking for a new job.
From now until 2016, 93 percent of the labor force growth will come from workers age 55 and older. Yet, by 2030, more than 70 million baby boomers will have retired, leaving up to 35 million jobs unfilled.

I’m happy to say I belong to the not-so-exclusive club of employees who work remotely; 28 percent of the workforce is also in that club according to the 2009 statistics. But by 2016 that number is expected to jump to 43 percent. I believe that. I also believe yet another statistic from the Kronos videos that working remotely improves productivity on average by 15 percent. In my case, however, it’s more like 30 percent. Maybe slightly less on days when someone points me to YouTube video links.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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