James H. wrote:
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. =================================== 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 work and leisure 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 it is covered by union contracts with standby, call back and overtime provisions. Management is none too subtle about communicating that it 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 tne stresses they experience - are generally family-related rather than work-related. Paid overtime was understood 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 the fact that they carry their work home with them is may what may well underlie their perceptions that they are increasingly being weighed down by it. It's my impression that higher levels of stress have coincided with the technological developments allowing for greater interference with so-called leisure time,
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