Okay I have been struggling with how to title this post for days. And what is worse I am going to try and categorize different types of 60 hour work weeks. Why? Generally with the great quit of 2021 going on, the multi year need for better wages, the lack of caring by corporate America maybe it is time to determine when a 60 hour work week may actually be a benefit. Or maybe not.
So let’s attempt this madness.
The first category or description is one the corporations want me to rant about and that is workers taking advantage. And honestly I hate this one pretty strongly. There is nothing more annoying than to watch people do nothing from 9-5, well maybe act like they are working, yet because they either get overtime or some bonus for working extra, all of a sudden they have to stay till 7 or 8 at night and they are only doing the work they should have done from 9-5 in the first place. I have seen this happen. These type of people act uppity about it, let everyone know how tired they are, how much they did etc, but they get their bonus or OT, but the rest of us still have to work just as hard or actually do more because they are behind and playing catch up by working late. So only the select few that take advantage get anything out of this and I know you have seen it too, yet for some reason they get promoted for “working” so much. And then they screw up even more people’s lives all the while acting like they do so much.
Another non productive 60 hour week is when something goes wrong and everyone has to stay to resolve the matter. Sometimes these aren’t too bad, something catastrophic happens and you have to work extra for a few weeks to get caught up and get past the event. Sure no one wants to work this extra time and yes it is non productive in the short and long run, but once resolved if everyone goes back to their normal routine, people accept what has happened. The issue becomes when something goes wrong, you have to work extra to stay afloat or caught up and the problem doesn’t get resolved so over time work piles up on top of work, the light at the end of the tunnel becomes fainter each passing week. And this is because management will not spend the money to resolve the issue, fix the problem, hire extra people or even temporaries, or do not hold accountable the vendor whose product blew up and doesn’t work in your environment anymore. And because it costs money to replace if they do not hold the vendor accountable, the workers are left drowning in the morass of an inefficient operation. And the longer this goes on, the hours increase, the company or entity loses money, people are held accountable for more than they should be considering they have no help from the management that now has ridiculous expectations that the people at the bottom of the totem pole are going to work so much it saves the company. Yep, complete incompetence from the higher ups should not be a reason to work 60 hours a week. And as you know or can calculate, things go south fast, people leave, new people do not stay, and 80 hour weeks become the norm for the remaining people trying to hold on till they get their retirement or something.
Another non productive 60 work week comes when management in general without any reason is just incompetent. They keep changing policies or trying new endeavors hoping that will make the company more productive and profitable, but nothing works. Why? Generally because they do not have a clue. It starts at the top, and if they do not know what they are doing they are unable to hire others who do by sheer lack of knowing who or what type of potential candidate they need to hire. This trickles down until the company is seriously ineffective or gets bought out because they at least have a decent product or service idea.
And all of the above does not have to be a for-profit corporation. They can be non-profits, government entities, small businesses and these usually collapse first, religious organizations, or other organizations that have a hierarchical structure. Generally management and the management structure determines whether or not their workers are truly productive.
So when is a 60 hour work week effective? And it can be when both the employer and employee can benefit both in the short and long term. This generally means opportunity for growth, more money and freedom while working the 60 hour week to create so others can be efficient working a 40 hour week. If a person working 60 hour weeks to get ahead has expectations that others have to also work 60 hours it will not work. If the company allows for people who want to strive to get ahead and still respect the rest of the work force for coming in and doing their job well in 40 hours then the company benefits from a secure workforce and the people that want to contribute more for their and the organization’s benefit. Yes, this is a bit of a tight rope to walk, but successful organizations find the way to create this balance. And successful not just in more sales, but people wanting to work their and when a company has people that want to work for them then even the 40 hour workers give more during their work week. Also the company gets the pick of the litter so to speak. If they have a continuous large potential candidate pool then they continually replace workers when needed with others who want to come in and work 60 hours so they can help the company and them selves benefit. This allows the company to hire more efficient and creative people which in the long run grows their organization and maintains high quality output. It isn’t always about the most sales in a week or quarter, it is about what is going to happen in the years ahead to continue to grow sales.
Another somewhat efficient 60 hour week is when the 40 hour a week worker is given an opportunity to pick and choose times when they can work extra for OT or other bonuses on a short term basis. There are always times when a person wants some extra money for a vacation or something for the house etc and if companies can offer for workers to get some volunteer OT from time to time the 60 hours they put in do benefit the company to some degree. If they demand it without the worker seeing the benefit for them or see what management is building then those 60 hour weeks become unproductive as labor and efficiency decline on a hour over hour basis.
So the myth of the American enterprise that all must work extra to get ahead is just a myth. Just using some very generalized examples you can see that in most cases and you can probably define even more, the long term use of the 60 hour week creates a decline in productivity as workers burn out and there is extra cost in turnover from people disillusioned with what management is doing. Or the 60 hours is just going down the drain because they are falling further behind because of other problems in the company.
So if you think you are a great leader because everyone in your organization is working like madmen you might want to step back and determine exactly why they are working so much and what exactly are you receiving or obtaining from all their efforts. In short, you may not be too happy with the answer and don’t kid yourself either.
Or the simple question is: do all or the vast majority of workers feel respected and appreciated?
No comments:
Post a Comment