Working 24/7/365 (and 366)
January 13, 2014
In a
recent article (All Work and No Play, November 29, 2013), I wrote about how a recent study has proved the ample
anecdotal evidence that
scientists worldwide work far longer than the putative
forty hour work week. In this study, a
research team from the
Dalian University of Technology (Dalian, China) analyzed the
download logs of
scientific papers from a major
scientific publisher.[1,2]
They found that many of us work far into the
night, and on
weekends. It was found that
Chinese scientists work more on weekends, while
US scientists were more likely to work overnight. Although there were these and other regional differences in scientist work habits, scientists as a rule are too often working
overtime, and there was considerable work being done in the early hours after
midnight.[2]
"Staycations" are still common today.
Replace the book with a scientific journal, or a tablet computer, and this is how most scientists spend their "free" time.
(A 1943 illustration by Charles Henry Alston (1907-1977) for the US Office of War Information, Office for Emergency Management, via Wikimedia Commons.)
This present trend of after-hours work is enabled by the
Internet and our persistent connectivity via
mobile computing devices, but it existed before the Internet. My colleagues and I would regularly bring our "routing list" journals home, since we never seemed to have the time to scan them during usual working hours.
As a further nuisance of working for a
multi-national corporation, we would often join
teleconferences from home to conform to the work schedules of our colleagues in different
time zones. I would often prepare presentations and other documents at home, using the "
sneakernet" of
Zip disks and
USB memory sticks between my home and office to transfer files.
Peter Fleming of the
Cass Business School,
City University (London, UK) has just published a
review article in the journal,
Human Relations, about how organizations have evolved to extract more off-hours work from their
employees.[3-4] In the suit-and-tie workstyle of the past, it was quite clear when a person wasn't at work. There was a formal atmosphere in the workplace, which was shed when workers left the workplace.
Not only has "
casual Friday" extended to the other days of the work week, but the idea of
flexible working hours has muddied the work/home distinction.[4] Fleming writes that
bureaucracy has been replaced by a "biocracy" in which there is actually more control over an employee's life, and employee's lives are increasingly exploited. A project
deadline is the controlling factor, and the hours needed to achieve that goal are taken from whatever portion of the day that the employee has free.[4]
Today's
employers are now monitoring, regulating, and attempting to
monetize everything that their employees do, and the employees are not quite aware of the extent of such controls. When work and life are so blended,
sleep and
leisure activities can become "a waste of time."[4] Says Fleming,
"Our jobs are no longer defined as something we do among other things, but what we are... Ominously, we are now permanently poised for work."[4]
As bad as this sounds, things might become even more insidious. As reported by the
BBC, many people are taking
prescription drugs to increase their concentration and memory, and there's a worry that there might come a time when popping such pills might become a condition for employment.[5] Such "smart drugs," which have become popular among
university students, include the
narcolepsy drug,
modafinil, also prescibed for "
shift work sleep disorder," the anti-
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs
Ritalin and
Adderall; and
beta blockers.[5]
The problem is that such normalized
off-label use might make such drugs the workplace
coffee of tomorrow.[5]
Some people will drink anything labeled coffee, but I'm very particular about what I drink.
For many decades, I would grind Bokar coffee beans, mix this with an equal part of ground espresso coffee, and brew in a vacuum coffee maker.
(Via Wikimedia Commons.)
References:
- Xianwen Wang, Shenmeng Xu, Lian Peng, Zhi Wang, Chuanli Wang, Chunbo Zhang and Xianbing Wang, "Exploring scientists' working timetable: Do scientists often work overtime?" arXiv Preprint Server, August 13, 2012.
- Xianwen Wang, Lian Peng, Chunbo Zhang, Shenmeng Xu, Zhi Wang, Chuanli Wang and Xianbing Wang, "Exploring Scientists' Working Timetable: A Global Survey," arXiv Preprint Server, October 22, 2013.
- Peter Fleming, "Review Article: When ‘life itself’ goes to work: Reviewing shifts in organizational life through the lens of biopower," Human Relations, Published online before print, December 10, 2013, DOI: 10.1177/0018726713508142.
- Life and work -- 1 and the same?, SAGE Publications Press Release, December 9, 2013.
- Nic Fleming, "Would you take smart drugs to perform better at work?" BBC, December 12, 2013.
Permanent Link to this article
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