A WORKAHOLIC ECONOMY.

For the first century or so of the industrial revolution,
increased productivity led to decreases in working hours. Employees who
had been putting in 12-hour days, six days a week, found their time on
the job shrinking to 10 hours daily, then finally, to eight hours, five
days a week. Only a generation ago social planners worried about what
people would do with all this new-found free time. In the US, at least,
it seems they need not have bothered.
Although the output per hour of work has more than doubled
since 1945, leisure seems reserved largely for the unemployed. Those who
work full-time spend as much time on the job as they did at the end of
World War II. In fact, working hours have increased noticeably since
1970 - perhaps because real wages have stagnated since that year.
Bookstores now are full of manuals describing how to manage time and
cope with stress. There are several reasons for lost leisure. Since
1979, companies have responded to improvements in the business climate
by having employees work overtime rather than by hiring extra personnel,
says economist Juliet B. Schott of Harvard University. Indeed, the
current economic recovery has gained a certain amount of notoriety for
its "jobless" nature. Some firms are even downsizing as their profits
grow.
Yet a lot of factors push employers to hire fewer workers for
more hours and, at the same time, compel workers to spend more time on
the job. Most of those incentives involve what is called the "structure
of compensation": quirks in the way salaries and benefits are organised
that make it more profitable to ask 40 employees to labour an extra hour
each than to hire one more worker to do the same 40-hour job.
Professional and managerial employees supply the most obvious lesson
along these lines.
Once people are on salary, their cost to a firm is the same
whether they spend 35 hours a week in the office or 70. Diminishing
returns may eventually set in as overworked employees lose efficiency or
leave for more arable pastures. But in the short run, the employer's
incentive is clear. Even hourly employees receive benefits - such as
pension contributions and medical insurance - that are not tied to the
number of hours they work. Therefore, it is more profitable for
employers to work their existing employees harder.
For all that employees complain about long hours, they, too, have
reasons not to trade money for leisure.
On the other hand, companies that employ more workers for less
time also gain from the resulting redundancy. The extra people can cover
the contingencies that you know are going to happen, such as when crises
take people away from the workplace. Positive experiences with reduced
hours have begun to change the more-is-better culture at some companies:
larger firms, in particular, appear to be more willing to experiment
with flexible working arrangements....
It may take even more than changes in the financial and
cultural structures of employment for workers successfully to trade
increased productivity and money for leisure time, sociologists contend.
They say the U.S. market for goods has become skewed by the assumption
of full-time, two-career households. Automobile makers no longer
manufacture cheap models, and developers do not build the tiny bungalows
that served the first post--war generation of home buyers. Not even the
humblest household object is made without a microprocessor. The
situation is a curious inversion of the "appropriate technology" vision
that designers have had for developing countries: U.S. goods are
appropriate only for high incomes and long hours.
Paul Wallich
Note:
* workaholic - работоголик; человек, помешанный на работе
Vocabulary.
increase - возрастать
decrease - уменьшать
put* in - вкладывать
shrink* - сжиматься
generation - поколение
new-found - вновь найденный
bother - беспокоить, тревожить
output - производительность
leisure - досуг, свободное время
reserve - сохранять(ся)
unemployed - безработный
noticeably - заметно
wages - зарплата
stagnate - оставаться той же самой
manual - учеюник
manage - управлять, распоряжаться
cope with - справляться
respond - реагировать, отвечать
improvement - усовершенствование
overtime - сверхурочно
rather than - а не
extra - дополнительный
current - данный, текущий
recovery - выздоровление
gain - достичь, добиться
notoriety - известность, дурная слава
nature - природа, суть
entirely - полностью, целиком
downsizing - уменьшаться в размерах
profits - доходы
equal - равный
push - подталкивать, заставлять
employer - работодатель
compel - вынуждать, принуждать
incentives - побудительная
quirk - увертка, выкрутасы
obvious - видимый, очевидный
оnce - когда
diminish - уменьшать
eventually - в конечном итоге
efficiency - эффективность
arable - пахотный
pasture - пастбище
insurance - страхование
therefore - следовательно
profitable - выгодно
complain - жаловаться
trade - использовать в своих интересах
redundancy - избыток
contingency - случайность, непредвиденное обстоят-во
in particular - в частности
be* willing - желать
flexible - гибкий
contend - утверждать
skew - искажать
assumption - предположение
household - хозяйство; семья
tiny - крошечный
humble - скромный, простой, бедный
curious - любопытный
inversion - переход
appropriate - подходящий
vision - видение, восприятие
income - доход

Comprehension Check.
Answer the following questions.
1. What usually leads to decreasing of working hours?
2. Why have working hours increased since 1970?
3. What are the reasons for the lost leisure?
4. What factors push employers to make workers spend more time on the
job?
5. Can people with long working hours work efficienty?
6. What are U.S. goods appropriate for?

Topics to Discuss.
1. Job and leisure.
2. Experiences with reduced hours.