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8:27 AM Wednesday August 22, 2007
On July 23rd Fortune ran a story detailing how stressed out executives are turning to meditation to help them cope with "hellish hours and info overload." Massage centers around the country are newly packed with the C-suite crowd.
But it's not just the C-suite. Driven by globalization and always-on communication technology, increasing numbers of high echelon workers are giving huge amounts of their hearts and minds to the job. A recent study shows that 45% of managerial workers in large corporations now have "extreme jobs" -- they work an average 73 hours a week and deal with additional performance pressures that range from 24/7 client demands to grueling travel schedules (see "Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek"). Workloads are not only heavy -- they're unrelenting. Vacation has become stigmatized -- in many corporations contenders for the big bucks or the corner office don't feel they can take time off. The survey data show that almost half of all extreme workers take fewer than ten days vacation a year. Nearly 60% don't take what they are entitled to.
Despite these stresses and strains, jobs at the cutting edge of today's knowledge economy are powerfully alluring. In the words of one BP executive: "I love my job. Riding this wave of expansion in Asia -- being part of the reason a country takes off -- is enormously exciting." A Deutsche Bank executive I interviewed is even more graphic. "My work gives me this adrenalin rush. Like a drug, it's irresistible and addictive." The data show that fully 76% of extreme workers love their jobs. Very few feel exploited or put upon by a big boss. Rather, a majority (67%) see the pressures of their jobs as "self-inflicted."
Freely chosen or not, these pressures exert a heavy toll -- wreaking havoc in intimate lives and undermining health and well-being.
Close to 50% of extreme workers are so depleted and drained when they get home at night that they're speechless -- incapable of conversation. This can be rough on partners and spouses.
The impact on health is serious. The research details links between extreme jobs and chronic insomnia, weight gain, infertility, and heart problems. The connection between vacation (or lack thereof) and heart attacks is particularly eye-catching. Researchers at SUNY Oswego and the University of Pittsburgh have found that among male employees, taking an annual vacation cuts the risk of a fatal heart attack by 32%. Among female employees this figure rises to 50%. Taking time out isn't just a piece of self-indulgence. It's a life saver.
Corporations, worried about "burnout" and high turnover rates, are getting into the business of taming extreme jobs. The new programs range from nap breaks (Nike), to creating half a day a week that's "communication free" (Intel), to an internal consulting pool that offers valued employees a reduced hour schedule for a period of two years (Amex.) The logic behind these new initiatives is twofold. Providing respite from hellish hours reduces "flight risk" among key talent, while reducing information overload promotes creativity and innovation.
Are you an extreme worker? Is your company doing enough to address burnout?
HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Creativity Under the Gun (HBR Article)
Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek (HBR Article)
Toxic Emotions at Work and What You Can Do About Them (Paperback)
Keeping Your Most Valuable Women in Your Workforce (Conference)
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Sylvia Ann Hewlett is an economist and the founding president of the Center for Work-Life Policy where she directs the "Hidden Brain Drain"—a task force of 50 global companies committed to fully realizing female and multicultural talent. She also heads up the Gender & Policy Program at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. She is a member of the World Economic Forum Council on the Gender Gap.
She is the author of eight critically acclaimed nonfiction books including When the Bough Breaks, Creating a Life, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps, and six Harvard Business Review articles. Her articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Financial Times, and International Herald Tribune. Her new book, Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business Is Down (Harvard Business Press), will be published in October 2009.
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Comments
With ever increasing competition and dwindling margins on products on one hand and higher aspirations of corporate and executives on the other, stress would be a natural phenomenon.Our moods depend on whether we like or dislike what we do. Both attempts are important, a) to provide job content that one likes to do and b) spiritual counseling that shall ensure internal shift by virtue of which liking what one does shall be independent of external factors. Corporates have to permit and blend discipline with some chaos in their norms, introduce flexi timings with operate-from-home options, give paid holidays, make provisions for a five minutes deep breathing every few hours in office, organize humor sessions, have play rooms, provide health benefits etc etc. It sure is the time when companies need to re-look into psycho-social dimension and who knows one may get to see job advertisements in future stating "low stress" as an additional perk in compensation.
- Posted by Ajay Kumar Handa
August 29, 2007 4:24 AM
Job/work is a big issue and we need to spend a great deal of time on this without coming to a quick conclusion. The problem is each of us understands, values work differently. For some work is life, for others it's just a means to an end. Also extreme workers shouldn't view life from their angle alone and try to impose their views on others implicitly in a subtle way. Maybe for them the demands of their family are not overwhelming, but the case may be different with others who aren't extreme workers -- the wife or husband or the child may really need their attention or they may even like to spend time with nature.
I would say it's wrong to bury oneself in work, forgetting other aspects of life. A manager must be able to ponder over the stars of the night sky, and feel its mystery. I don't know what prevents us from being open to rich life around us.
- Posted by Ramesh
August 30, 2007 6:49 AM
This posting is very scary for me, being a student on the edge of entering the corporate world. Working in an 'extreme job' sounds intimidating and I don't feel that I would share the same views that the Deutsche Bank Executive found in the 'drug' and adrenaline rush' of his work. However, it is reassuring that the so many people in these jobs do enjoy their work and feel that they have created value in their work.
This post reminds me of the book by Marshall Goldsmith called What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There (http://www.MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com/html/books/WhatGotYouHere.htm) because it discusses in a few chapters about the 21 bad habits that leaders often exhibit. The habit that I feel this posting discusses is that of Goal Obsession which is ‘the subset of wanting to win too much’. The scenario of the ‘extreme jobs’ here describe someone who is very goal obsessed and who has prioritized his/her job over family and other aspects of life. I feel that while these habits may be beneficial at the moment for these employees, they will also be one of the key reasons why they are held back in the future because they have become too goal-obsessed.
- Posted by Elizabeth Heilman
November 3, 2008 12:01 AM