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About 1 in 3 Americans make at least one New Years resolution, according to Pew Research. While most of these vows focus on weight loss, fitness, and other health-related goals, many fall into a distinct category: work. Work-related New Years resolutions tend to focus on someones current job and career, whether to find a new job or, if the timing and conditions are right, whether to embark on a new career path. Were an organizational psychologist and a philosopher who have teamed up to study why people workand what they give up for it. We believe that there is good reason to consider concerns that apply to many if not most professionals: how much work to do and when to get it done, as well as how to make sure your work doesnt harm your physical and mental healthwhile attaining some semblance of work-life balance. Country music icon Dolly Parton wrote and sang the theme song in the movie 9 to 5, and had a starring role as well. How we got here Most Americans consider the 40-hour workweek, which calls for employees being on the job from nine to five, to be a standard schedule. This ubiquitous notion is the basis of a hit Dolly Parton song and 1980 comedy film, 9 to 5, in which the country music star had a starring role. Microsoft Outlook calendars by default shade those hours with a different color than the rest of the day. This schedule didnt always reign supreme. Prior to the Great Depression, which lasted from 1929-1941, 6-day workweeks were the norm. In most industries, U.S. workers got Sundays off so they could go to church. Eventually, it became customary for employees to get half of Saturday off too. Legislation that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law as part of his sweeping New Deal reforms helped establish the 40-hour workweek as we know it today. Labor unions had long advocated for this abridged schedule, and their activism helped crystallize it across diverse occupations. Despite many changes in technology as well as when and how work gets done, these hours have had a surprising amount of staying power. Americans work longer hours In general, workers in richer countries tend to work fewer hours. However, in the U.S. today, people work more on average than in most other wealthy countries. For many Americans, this is not so much a choice as it is part of an entrenched working culture. There are many factors that can interfere with thriving at work, including boredom, an abusive boss, or an absence of meaning and purpose. In any of those cases, its worth asking whether the time spent at work is worth it. Only 1 in 3 employed Americans say that they are thriving. Whats more, employee engagement is at a 10-year low. For both engaged and disengaged employees, burnout increased as the number of work hours rose. People who were working more than 45 hours per week were at greatest risk for burnout, according to Gallup. However, the average number of hours Americans spend working has declined from 44 hours and 6 minutes in 2019 to just under 43 hours per week in 2024. The reduction is sharper for younger employees. We think this could be a sign that younger Americans are pushing back after years of being pressured to embrace a hustle culture in which people brag about working 80 and even 100 hours per week. Critiques of hustle culture are becoming more common. Fight against a pervasive notion Anne-Marie Slaughter, a lawyer and political scientist who wears many hats, coined the term time macho more than a decade ago to convey the notion that someone who puts in longer hours at the office automatically will outperform their colleagues. Another term, face time, describes the time that we are seen by others doing our work. In some workplaces, the quantity of an employees face time is treated as a measure of whether they are dependableor uncommitted. It can be easy to jump to the conclusion that putting in more hours at the office automatically boosts an employees performance. However, researchers have found that productivity decreases with the number of hours worked due to fatigue. Even those with the uxury to choose how much time they devote to work sometimes presume that they need to clock as many hours as possible to demonstrate their commitment to their jobs. To be sure, for a significant amount of the workforce, there is no choice about how much to work because that time is dictated, whether by employers, the needs of the job or the growing necessity to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. 4-day workweek experiments One way to shave hours off the workweek is to get more days off. A multinational working group has examined experiments with a four-day workweek: an arrangement in which people work 80% of the time32 hours over four dayswhile getting paid the same as when they worked a standard 40-hour week. Following an initial pilot in the U.S. and Ireland in 2022, the working group has expanded to six continents. The researchers consistently found that employers and employees alike thrive in this setup and that their work didnt suffer. Most of those employees, who ranged from government workers to technology professionals, got Friday off. Shifting to having a three-day weekend meant that employees had more time to take care of themselves and their families. Productivity and performance metrics remained high. Waiting for technology to take a load off Many employment experts wonder whether advances in artificial intelligence will reduce the number of hours that Americans work. Might AI relieve us all of the tasks we dread doing, leaving us only with the work we want to doand which, presumably, would be worth spending time on? That does sound great to both of us. But theres no guarantee that this will be the case. We think the likeliest scenario is one in which the advantages of AI are unevenly distributed among people who work for a living. Economist John Maynard Keynes predicted almost a century ago that technological unemployment would lead to 15-hour workweeks by 2030. As that year approaches, its become clear that he got that wrong. Researchers have found that for every working hour that technology saves us, it increases our work intensity. That means work becomes more stressful and expectations regarding productivity rise. Deciding when and how much time to work Many adults spend so much time working that they have few waking hours left for fitness, relationships, new hobbies, or anything else. If you have a choice in the matter of when and how much you work, should you choose differently? Even questioning whether you should stick to the 40-hour workweek is a luxury, but its well worth considering changing your work routines as a new year gets underway if thats a possibility for you. To get buy-in from employers, consider demonstrating how you will still deliver your core work within your desired time frame. And, if you are fortunate enough to be able to choose to work less or work differently, perhaps you can pass it on: You probably have the power and privilege to influence the working hours of others you employ or supervise. Jennifer Tosti-Kharas is a professor of management at Babson College. Christopher Wong Michaelson is a professor of ethics and business law at the University of St. Thomas. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
Ive read a lot of business memoirs. One I keep coming back to is Grinding It Out by Ray Krocthe man who built McDonalds into the global giant it is today. Kroc was 52 before he even heard of the McDonald brothers who originally started the company. That fact alone says a lot about how he thought: Success comes eventually, but only to those who keep showing up. Which brings me to McDonalds third-quarter earnings call Wednesday. McDonalds reported solid results: global comparable sales up 3.6 percent, U.S. sales up 2.4 percent, revenue of $7.08 billion. The company is outperforming most competitors, but in a brutal environment: Fast-food traffic is down 2.3 percent industry-wide this year, worse than the 1.6 percent drop across all restaurants, according to market-research firm Black Box Intelligence. McDonalds Extra Value Meals now account for about 30 percent of U.S. transactions, the company reported. And, McDonalds spent $40 million this quarter on marketing and expects to provide $90 million in total support to franchisees this year to discount those meals. Thats real money coming out of margins. Wall Street has noticed. But McDonalds CEO Chris Kempczinski said McDonalds will measure its success first by gaining share of lower-income consumer traffic, and second by improving value and affordability experience scores. Traffic first. Profits later. And why is that? Well, Ive written before about how McDonalds is the undisputed champion of nostalgia marketing. It brought back the Hamburglar. It made Grimaces birthday go viral. It launched Adult Happy Meals. It returned the Snack Wrap after fans petitioned for years. Every one of those campaigns was about unlocking core memories in customers. Its a strategy thats paid off, but you cant unlock core memories if they were never created in the first place. A 7-year-old who comes to McDonalds with her family today because they can afford the Extra Value Meal wont be profitable for decades. But 20 years from now, when shes shopping for her own kids and feeling nostalgic? Thats when the investment pays off. Brutal truth: The U.S. economy has split in two. Lower-income consumers are feeling pressure from rising rents, food bills, and childcare, Kempczinski explained. Add uncertainty around SNAP food assistance, and these customers will keep pulling back unless they feel their incomes begin to grow. Meanwhile, higher-income consumers are visiting quick-service restaurants much more often. So while McDonalds is gaining relative share with both groups, the lower-income segmentthe future nostalgia customersis disappearing from the industry. This is where Ray Krocs philosophy matters once more. Because grinding it out sometimes means having the resources to keep going when others cant. And McDonalds truly has advantages that most competitors dont. First, international markets are carrying their weight, and then some. Comparable sales rose 4.3 percent in International Operated Markets (led by Germany and Australia) and 4.7 percent in International Developmental Licensed Markets (led by Japan). Both outperformed the U.S. That geographic diversification gives McDonalds room to breathe while competitors suffocate. Heck, CFO Ian Borden said it directly: Our unique positioning is that weve got the financial strength to make these types of investments, when maybe others are gonna have to be a bit more defensive. Compare that to others in the industry: Chipotle just reported slowing sales. Yum Brands is exploring a sale of Pizza Hut. Investors took Dennys private after several quarters of declining sales. In his remarks during the McDonalds earnings call on Wednesday, Kempczinski brought it full circle back to Kroc: Thats a powerful 13-word sentiment, calling back to a nearly 50-year-old book. Sacrifice margin today to keep families coming through the doors. Bet that keeping kids visiting noweven at discounted priceswill pay off in 2045 when they bring their own kids back. Bet that you can outlast competitors who dont have the same international strength or financial reserves to weather years of pressure. Bet that, eventually, our bifurcated economy heals, anxiety eases, and families feel less squeezed. Theres something almost poetic about a company built on nostalgia thinking at least in part in decades rather than quarters. Thats how nostalgia actually worksits long-term. We look back at the past through rose-colored glasses and remember it better than it really was. Maybe someday, we hope, todays kids will look back fondly. Even if today doesnt always look so rose-colored while were living it. Bill Murphy Jr. This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
Wall Street was largely unchanged early Wednesday as markets hovered near record levels on a holiday-shortened trading day.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1% as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern. The S&P 500 index was up less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1%.Markets will close at 1 p.m. ET for Christmas Eve and are closed for Christmas. Markets will reopen for a full day of trading on Friday, however volumes are expected to be light this week with the holiday and most investors having closed out their positions for the year.Much of the focus remains on the state of the U.S. economy and where the Federal Reserve will move interest rates. Investors are betting the Fed will hold steady on interest rates at its January meeting.Recent reports show high inflation and shaky confidence among consumersworried about high prices. The labor market has been slowing and retail sales have weakened.The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week and remain at historically healthy levels despite some signs that the labor market is weakening.U.S. applications for jobless claims for the week ending Dec. 20 fell by 10,000 to 214,000 from the previous week’s 224,000, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. That’s below the 232,000 new applications forecast of analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet.Dynavax Technologies soared 38% after Sanofi said it was acquiring the California-based vaccine maker in a deal worth $2.2 billion. The French drugmaker will add Dynavax’s hepatitis B vaccines to its portfolio, as well as a shingles vaccine that is still in development. Sanofi shares were unchanged in the premarket.European markets were moving slightly between slight gains and losses. Asian markets were also quiet, with Hong Kong moving up 0.2% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.1%.Both gold and silver futures were higher, with silver prices rising more than 1%. U.S. crude oil rose 0.4% to %58.61 a barrel. Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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