Trouble in Cubicle Nation

By Joe Robinson, AlterNet. Posted January 30, 2006.

It was a great year for labor -- if you worked at a call center in India, made your living as a CEO or sold real estate to big-box stores. But deep in Cubicle Nation, the average American worker remained on a fast track to the Industrial Revolution, with soaring workweeks, declining wages, and health, pension and vacation benefits vanishing faster than you can say job security.

Add to the siege outsourcing, cutbacks, the dismantling of ergonomics rules and forced overtime -- all while business is racking up historic profits, the most in 75 years -- and even a nearsighted dingo could see that the trends are unsustainable for families, personal health, company medical plans or an informed and involved citizenry. And completely unnecessary.

As all the productivity research shows, we can get the job done without finishing ourselves off. So let's fire some of the worst habits that got us here and ring in resolutions for a sane workplace in 2006:

Restore the 40-hour workweek. Almost 40 percent of us are working more than 50 hours a week, not exactly what the Fair Labor Standards Act intended when it set the 40-hour workweek in 1938. Chronic 11- and 12-hour days result in lousy productivity, expensive mistakes, burnout, triple the risk of heart attack and quadruple the risk of diabetes -- and leave families without a quorum for dinner. Two-thirds of people who work more than 40 hours a week report being highly stressed. Job stress costs American business more than $300 billion a year.

Establish rules for e-tools. The e-invasion is burying us alive. Human resources departments and individuals need to set tough-love boundaries that would determine message urgency, limit reflexive responses and establish no-send zones (i.e., no forwarding of multiforwarded emails and absolutely no work email at home or on vacation).

Give face time the pink slip. In the knowledge/digital age, it doesn't matter where your body is; what counts is inside your head. More telecommuting and flex schedules could save millions of dollars in office costs and hours reclaimed from gridlock, while providing workers much-needed flexibility, especially for time-crunched mothers.

Legalize vacations. Almost a third of American women and a quarter of men don't get vacation leave anymore because, unlike 96 other countries, the U.S. has no paid-leave law. Those who still get a vacation seldom get to take the whole thing. The average American vacation unit in the travel business is now a long weekend. It's barbaric. And myopic. Studies show that vacations improve performance on the job, not to mention cut the risk of heart disease and cure burnout. More than three-quarters of Americans say they would like to have another week off, which they'd get with the three-week minimum paid-leave law I've proposed.

Provide guaranteed sick leave. No one should have to lose a job because they get ill. But across this land, hardworking people are getting fired simply because their company offers no sick days and they got sick. It's time to join 139 other countries with a minimum sick-leave law and protect those who can't protect themselves. The Healthy Families Act by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-Conn., would provide seven days of guaranteed sick leave.

Joe Robinson is the author of "Work to Live: The Guide to Getting a Life."

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »