Working long hours - who pays?

Housework fascinates me - not the doing of it, but the way people share and negotiate the tasks that keep us clean, fed and cared for and how that interacts with our work commitments, wider relationships and quality of life. Traditionally women have done the bulk of this domestic work, even when they are in paid employment which means many have to do the 'second-shift' of housework when they get home or they will take on part-time jobs in order to give priority to their children's needs. Surveys show that more men want to spend time with their children and would welcome the opportunity to work part-time or to work more flexibly as I blogged about last week, although the reality is that those requests can be seen as a lack of commitment to work leading to a loss of status and career opportunities.

There's no doubt that the demands of work on both men and women have a big impact on family life and social relationships, particularly the culture of working long hours that seems as endemic in the church and in Christian organisations as in business. That doesn't just apply to couples; people who are single can have as much expectation or pressure to work long hours.  Helen Jarvis from Newcastle University has identified eight 'drivers' for working long hours:

• tight deadlines due to working in competitive or under-resourced fields
• demand-led services - a few workers have to put in long hours to meet a seasonal demand
• portfolio worker survival - people on insecure or short-term contracts put in long hours to show their commitment or to update their skills
• enthusiasm for the work and a 'can-do' culture
• presenteeism where people feel they have to be seen at their desk or in the workplace to show their commitment
• moral obligation due to loyalty to colleagues or to the cause you're working for
• financial incentives - working overtime or more hours when self-employed means you have more to spend
• 'macho' goal-oriented motives - the lunch is for wimps mentality

I'm self-employed and I know how easy it is for work to expand to fill every available moment. So join me in a moment of reflection - do the hours you put in at work have a detrimental effect on your relationships with friends and family? Which of these drivers is behind the long hours that you work and do you need to resist them? Are you making enough space for rest and restoration?

Comments

[james hawes]

I would add another driver and that is performance based self-esteem. many people work hard because it makes them feel good, it gives them a sense of achievement and purpose and emotional comfort. This driver can also make work addictive.

[Ali Campbell]

The reality in youth and children's work, is that most of those I have engaged with have flxibility in their jobs - but many feel the need to try and keep up with the Vicar. Contracts exist, but no hours of work, an expectation from some church leaders that Sunday working for example is "your gift to the Church", not negotiated, just told it doesn't count because volunteers give their time on Sunday . . . the pressure to "be the answer" for young people, for men with children there seems to persist the idea that certain roles (changing nappies, getting children dressed and fed) are not theirs, even if their partners also work . . . . most salaried youth and childrens workers have flexibility, we often need to be led and managed into good habits - unfortunately, not always modelled by those we might work for.