> It seems to me that Marv, Gar, Chuck, Carrol and the Bitch are all
> illustrating the point by their subjective reaction (disbelief) to the
> objective statistics.
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Actually, I haven't commented on this thread, although I've tried to keep
track of the discussion.
Has the distinction between formal and informal work time been noted?
The line between the two has been blurred, if not obliterated, in the service economy, especially among technical and professional workers, and especially since the internet has effectively broken down the separation between the workplace and the home (and the car and the cottage).
Consequently, the increased stress people subjectively experience may have an objective basis - to wit, that effectively they bring their work home with them, whether they actually perform it, worry about it, or have the vague sense of always being on call via cellphone or email from bosses and colleagues.
The statistics don't capture this extra work time because, with rare exceptions, this new burgeoning stratum of the workforce doesn't claim it - even where they are covered by union contracts with standby, call back and overtime provisions. Management is none too subtle about communicating that is "unprofessional" for college-educated workers to claim overtime - a notion which many embrace both for status reasons, and because they view the "flextime" they are often afforded during their regular hours to attend to personal and family matters as a tradeoff.
The factory workplace is much more regimented, of course. Overtime is well defined and limited in time and space. The workers may arrive at home exhausted after a 10 hour day, but the demands on their time - and stresses they experience - are generally family-related rather than work-related. Paid overtime was understand by managers and workers as an integral part of the culture of the workplace, and the amount of overtime worked was paid for and reflected in the official statistics.
I'm not at all suggesting that modern workers face harsher conditions than previous generations of factory workers - their working conditions and compensation is far superior - but their work is more ubiquitous than it was for previous generations, it is always with them, and this may underlie their perceptions of being heavily stressed. It's my impression that their higher levels of stress have coincided with the technological developments allowing greater interference with their so-called liesure time,