Quick Study: The Future of Work
Say goodbye to the classic 40-hour workweek. The sputtering economy, the decline of manufacturing, and the ubiquitous BlackBerry are remaking 9 to 5 into something with unpredictable hours and fuzzier borders.
By Mattathias Schwartz
Here's a look at the forces that will shape your time on the job through the recession and beyond.
Flash Points
Shorter weeks … for some
National statistics show a shrinking workweek, dropping from 38.5 hours in the mid 1960s to around 34 hours today. Thanks to the recession, the average is dipping some more, as employers trim hours to reduce costs and adjust to falling demand. But while hours are being cut at most auto plants, they're rising at many office parks. "In recessions, there will be fewer people working, but the workers who remain have to work longer hours to retain their jobs," says Juliet Schor, author of The Overworked American.
What vacation?
Americans not only spend more time on the job than their peers in nearly every other developed country, they take a lot less time off: 15 days, on average, although one in four workers gets no vacation. The French, by comparison, get 31 days off; the Portuguese, a whopping 35. But having vacation on the books and actually getting to the beach can be two different things. The median U.S. worker took just one week off last year. Why all the nay-cations? "There's a lot of fear," says Steve Zaffron, CEO of the Vanto Group, a global consulting firm. "Workers who still have a job are worried about when the other shoe is going to drop."
E-mailing overtime
The hours lost to evening and weekend texting/e-mailing/BlackBerrying don't show up in workweek statistics or necessarily earn anyone more pay. Half of the workforce checks business e-mail on weekends, 46 percent on sick days, and 34 percent while on vacation. "When you have all of these devices that allow you to deliver something immediately, people begin to demand it," says John de Graaf, the head of Take Back Your Time, a nonprofit devoted to ending "overwork" and "time famine." Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, is part of the "crackberry" backlash. He reads his work e-mail once a week and advises others to check theirs just twice daily.
Work by the Numbers
Why we should all move to Germany … and stop calling in sick: revelations from the hard data on work and leisure 34.6 hours average workweek in U.S.A.
26.0 average workweek in Germany
43.6 average workweek in south Korea
850,000 dollars - Amount that unscheduled sick and personal days cost a typical large U.S. company annually
4 in 10 - Number of employees who do not typically take a lunch break (55 percent take a half hour or less)
8.5 percent - Official U.S. unemployment rate for March 2009
15.6 - Actual rate if you count unemployed temp workers, part-timers who want more work, and job seekers who have given up
56% of Americans who fail to take all their vacation days
28% of U.S. workers are on the job at 7 a.m.
15% of U.S. workers are on the job at 7 p.m.
The Back-and-Forth
"Businesses that use contractors tend to be more profitable because they can use contractors on an ad hoc basis [and] don't need to pay for downtime."
--Michael Alter, president, SurePayroll
"If a company lays you off, you can collect unemployment. But if you're a freelancer and you lose all your clients, good luck. That's not healthy for workers and their families—and it's not healthy for our economy."
--Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City
"We're a workaholic society. The world is much more competitive now than it used to be. These days, you have to run faster and harder just to stay in the same place."
--Hank Cox, spokesman, National Association of Manufacturers
"Since we have eight hours to fill, we fill eight hours. If we had 15, we would fill 15. If we have an emergency and need to suddenly leave work in two hours … we miraculously complete assignments in two hours."
--Timothy Ferriss, author, The 4-Hour Workweek
Forward Thinking
Get "flexible"
Providing a rare economic bright spot, the firm SurePayroll reports a slight increase in hiring among small businesses in 2009. The catch? They're paying lower salaries and hiring contractors, who, not incidentally, pay their own payroll taxes, don't draw benefits, and can be fired in a nano-second. Similarly, FedEx now classifies about 13,000 drivers as independent contractors and pays them per delivery, yielding 30 percent less in labor costs than UPS's unionized workforce. Some see our workforce splitting, as Japan's did after its decade-long recession, into two tiers: coddled salarymen and hustling freelancers.
The four-day week
After laying off 5.1 million workers since December 2007, companies such as Winnebago and Gannett are experimenting with furloughs, trimming hours to save more jobs. They join states like Utah and Washington, which have switched some or all of their workers to four-day weeks. "Furloughs are cheaper for businesses that are optimistic about the future," says Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. "It's expensive to fire an employee if you will need to rehire and train a replacement in a year."
Time: the new money
Dean Baker, cofounder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, has a bold idea: He wants the feds to issue tax credits to companies that would then shorten workers' hours without cutting their pay. In essence, the government would be creating room for future hires, thus lowering unemployment and increasing the spending power of the newly employed. Take Back Your Time's de Graaf says we should adopt policies like those established in Europe that allow employees to voluntarily cut back their hours (for less pay) while retaining most of their benefits.
The Time Line
| The Stone Age | A short life of great leisure, once you found your food. |
| 1100-1300 | Serfdom peaks in Europe, with millions of agricultural workers spending most of their waking hours serving the lord who owned their land. |
| Industrial Revolution | British workers plead for ten-hour days and protection for children. |
| 1911 | A fire kills 146 workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, where immigrant teen girls toiled 14 hours a day. |
| 1919 | Writer Upton Sinclair coins the term white-collar, to describe workers whom he called "the petty underlings of the business world." This segment of the workforce triples between 1900 and 1950. |
| 1926 | Henry Ford adopts the five-day, eight-hour-a-day workweek. |
| 1930 | Kellogg cuts workweek to 30 hours without any loss in productivity. |
| 1938 | President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the first minimum wage and the 44-hour workweek. |
| 1965 | A Senate subcommittee predicts automation will lead to a 21st-century workweek of just 14 hours. |
| 1982 | Unemployment jumps to 10.8 percent, a level not seen since the Great Depression. |
| 2000 | France adopts 35-hour workweek. |
| 2009 | President Barack Obama praises "the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job." |
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译文:
工作的前景【读者文摘】——venessa版
简介：工作的前景
让我们告别传统的每周40小时工作制吧。糟糕的经济状况、制造业的衰退，以及无所不在的“黑莓手机”正在进行一种变革，将“朝九晚五”的工作制转变成界限模糊、工作时间不固定的工作制。
玛他提亚.施瓦兹
这篇文章阐述了在经济衰退以及未来几年的时间内决定我们工作时间的一些外在原因。
闪光点
每周更短的工作时间...只是针对部分人而已
全国性统计显示，人们每周的工作时间正在减少，从60年代中期的每周38.5小时减少到现在的每周34小时。由于经济衰退，平均每周的工作时间在某种程度上降低了很多。很多老板都缩短了工人们的工作时间以减少开支，从而适应市场的较少需求量。但是，随着自动化车间的工作时间减少，许多办公区的工作时间却反而有所增加。“在经济衰退期间，参加工作的人数越来越少了，但是，那些努力保住自己工作的人的工作时间就相应延长了。”《过度工作的美国人》一书的作者Juliet Schor说道。
假期？
比起其他发达国家，美国人不仅花了更多的时间来工作，而且休假时间也少得可怜：虽然美国人每年平均有15天的假期时间，但是还有四分之一的美国工人是没有休假的。相比之下，法国人每年有31天的休假时间；葡萄牙人每年有35天的休假时间。然而，沉浸在书里的假期和真正去海边度假时两件截然不同的事情。去年，美国中部的工人们只有一周的工作时间。为什么假期都变成非假期了呢？“因为大家心里都有一种恐惧，那些保住工作的人担心着哪天会被告知失去了工作。”一家全球咨寻事务所的首席执行官Steve Zaffron分析说道。
加班发邮件
利用下班以后或者周末的时间发短信、上网收发邮件、使用黑莓手机收发邮件并不在每周工作时间的范畴之内，同时在这些时间内工作室没有任何报酬的。有一半的的员工在周末收发邮件，有46%的员工是在病假期间，也有34%的员工是在休假时间。“当人们拥有了所有这些可以即时收发邮件的设备时，这些做法就变得是必须的了。”John de Graaf说道，他是"Take Your Time Back"的负责人，这是一个非赢利性的组织，致力于让人们告别“工作过度”和“时间饥荒”。《每周工作四小时》一书的作者Timothy Ferriss是“黑莓成瘾症”的强烈反对者。他每周只检查一篇自己的工作邮箱，同时还建议其他工作人每周检查自己邮箱两遍就可以了。 
来自于Comstock.com网站
关于工作的一系列数据
为什么我们都应该移民去德国...而且不用打电话请病假：下面揭露了一些关于工作和休闲之间联系的硬性数据。
34.6个小时——美国平均每周的工作时间
26.0个小时——德国平均每周的工作时间
43.6个小时——韩国平均每周的工作时间
850,000美元——平均每年一个美国大型公司因为员工不定期的事假和病假而损失的总金额。
4/10——每天没有正常午饭时间的员工数（55%的员工的午餐时间不超过半小时）
8.5%——2009年三月美国官方公布的失业率。
15.6%——实际失业率，包括未被雇佣的临时工，需要做更多工作的兼职员工，和那些已经失业正在找工作的人。
56%——没有得到全额假期的美国员工比例。
28%——每天早上7点之前上班的美国员工比例。
15%——每天晚上7点以后下班的美国员工比例。
前前后后
“那些有承包商的企业更容易获得利润，因为他们能够在一些比较特殊的情况下依靠承包商的力量，而且不用在停工期间另外付费。” ——SurePayroll的主席Michael Alter
“如果你被公司解雇了，你可以把所有的失业人员召集到一起。但是，如果你是一个自由职业者，并且失去所有的客户，那么我只能祝你好运了。这对于员工和他们的家庭都是不利的，同时对我们的经济也是不利的。”
——纽约市市长Michael Bloomberg
“我们正处于一个工作狂的社会，这个世界比以往任何时候都具有竞争性。在这种时候，你必须在同一个地方更加努力和高效的工作。”
——美国制造协会发言人Hank Cox
“因为我们必须工作8个小时，我们就消耗8个小时，如果我们必须工作15个小时，那么我们也会消耗15个小时，如果有紧急情况要求我们两个小时内完成，那么我们会奇迹般地在两个小时内完成。”
——《每周工作4小时》的作者Timothy Ferriss
深度思考
变得“灵活”
SurePayroll公司在全球经济不景气的情况下提供了一份积极的调查结果，据它们的调查显示，2009年小公司的雇佣率有所上升。这是一个陷阱吗？他们可支付的薪水很少，还雇佣了承包商，而且并非偶然的是，这些公司的员工必须自己支付工资税，而且得不到救济金，还有可能在下一秒被炒鱿鱼。与此相似的是，FedEx公司将13,000名司机划分为自主的承包商，按照单笔配货给他们付工资，这就在劳动力成本方面比UPS的集体形式的雇佣节省了30%。正如日本在过去长达十年之久经济衰退中的做法，一些公司将劳动力分开来，将员工分成两个阶层：娇惯的薪水族和费用工作的自由职业者。
每周四天工作制
自从2007年12月以来，510万名工人被解雇，像Winnebago和Gannett这样的公司正在用“暂时解雇”做实验，修改工作时间来保留更多的职位。他们加入了犹他州和华盛顿，将全部或者一部分员工的工作时间缩短为每周四天。“对于那些前景可观的企业，‘暂时解雇’的方法可以节省不少资金。”一位经济政策研究所的经济学家Heidi Shierholz说道，“如果你需要重新雇佣一名员工，并在一年之内将他培训上岗，那么辞退一名雇员的代价还是很高的。”
时间：就是新的金钱
经济和政策研究中心的创立者之一Dean Baker提出了一个大胆的想法：他希望在不减少员工工资的基础上，联邦能够抵免公司的税收，这样的话，工人们就可以进一步缩短工作时间了。从本质上来说，政府为将来的雇员制造了更多的工作机会，这样就能够降低失业率，并增加新员工的购买力。“Take Back Your Time”组织的负责人de Graaf说，我们应该采取欧洲国家正在使用的一些政策，在确保大多数员工利益的前提下，允许雇员们自发地减少他们的工作时间（拿到更少的工资）。
时间轴线
| 石器时代 | 短暂的生命，悠闲的时光，只要找到食物就可以。 |
| 1100-1300 | 欧洲农奴制发展到了顶峰时期，数以万计的农业劳动者为了拥有他们自己的土地而花费了大部分时间。 |
| 工业革命时代 | 英国人请求每天工作十小时，请求保护儿童。 |
| 1911 | 纽约Triangle女式衬衫工厂的一场大火烧死了146名工人，在那里十几岁的移民女工每天要工作14个小时。 |
| 1919 | 作家厄普顿辛克莱杜撰了“白领”这个词汇，用来描述那些被称为“商业世界的低微的下属”的一群人。在1900和1950期间，这种劳动力的数目翻了三倍。 |
| 1926 | 亨利.福特采用了每周五天，每天八小时的工作模式。 |
| 1930 | 在没有降低生产力的情况下，凯洛格将时间工作时间减少为每周30个小时。 |
| 1938 | 美国总统富兰克林·罗斯福制定了最低工资制度和每周44小时的工作制。 |
| 1965 | 美国参议院小组委员会预测，自动化生产可以将21世纪每周工作时间缩短为14个小时。 |
| 1982 | 自从经济大萧条来，失业率猛增至10.8%，达到最高。 |
| 2000 | 法国采取每周35小时的工作制。 |
| 2009 | 巴拉克·奥巴马总统赞赏了工人的无私精神，他们宁愿减少自己的工作时间也不愿意见到同伴们失去工作。 |
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