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Americans work ninie weeks more than europeans { August 2 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Time's not on your side? This conference might be for you
Take Back Your Time in Seattle this week
Tuesday, August 2, 2005
By ATHIMA CHANSANCHAI
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Ah, the great American work ethic -- the foundation of corporate empires, technological advances and six-figure salaries. It's also the source of 16-hour workdays, desperate housewives (and career moms) and parentless dinners.
Time is not on your side -- yet.
For individuals and families struggling to balance work and home obligations, organizers of a national conference in Seattle this week think you've got to give a little time to reclaim those precious hours, preferably swapping tips and fine-tuning concrete, long-range policy initiatives with them.
"We've judged success in society on just economic numbers," said John de Graaf, a Seattle-based independent television producer and national coordinator for Take Back Your Time, a 3-year-old movement with 10,000 people on its national mailing list. "The problem with that is, so many of the things that are important in life aren't measurable in dollars. The things that give people satisfaction and happiness don't cost a lot of money, but do cost time."
They know this idea isn't for everyone. Happiness being relative, there are probably people who thrive on being productive every waking minute of every day. In Seattle, de Graaf said, there's a real mix of a more laid-back culture and workaholism.
"We're not anti-work," said Gretchen Burger, program director for Take Back Your Time. "We're about balance."
Doug Marsano, 32, and his fiancée, Nichole Francis, 33, are juggling work (his at the University of Washington's College of Education and hers teaching at City University in Bellevue), renovating their 1926 Craftsman home in Ballard and planning their November nuptials.
They met for lunch yesterday to sketch a blueprint of the next month's busy schedule.
"Part of it's embracing it instead of seeing it as a stressor," Marsano said.
Of his multitasking other half, Marsano said, "When she's not teaching, she's refinishing the kitchen and answering e-mails out of the sky from me about where we are on the wedding."
Francis said the key to tackling myriad chores is to pick away at a project rather than get paralyzed by the big picture.
"I think for me, when I feel overwhelmed, whatever the situation is, I list out everything I need to be done," Francis said. "If I'm just thinking about it in my head, it becomes so overwhelming, but just getting one thing done -- it doesn't have to be finishing something -- makes me feel better. Then it's not all out of control."
It also helps her to set aside time once a week to relax and for the couple to take breaks from their hectic schedule.
"Really, I can't do it all," Francis said. "On any given day, something may get compromised."
For those who also are in search of a little more breathing room in their day, the group will bring more than 100 nationally recognized speakers and activists to its hometown for a few days this week to engage the public in discussions on why it's important to slow down and how it's possible to do it despite the pressures that seem to come from all sides.
"Certainly a lot of people relate on a very personal level of feeling out of control, too many things to do. People with families can identify with that," Burger said. "I hear from a lot of people their guilt about taking time off, about people not taking their full vacation."
The group is not the first to make the comparison, but Western European practices and policies figure prominently as an example of what U.S. employers can do to enhance their employees' quality of life. Americans, on average, work about nine weeks -- 350 hours -- more per year than their counterparts across the Atlantic. And when live-to-work Yanks do take vacation, it tends to be for only two weeks a year -- at least three weeks less than work-to-live Europeans.
One encouraging sign for the Pacific Northwest: De Graaf said Seattle is one of the highest-rated places where people take the vacation time due them, compared with those in the Northeast who give up leisure hours every year.
Take Back Your Time supports a public-policy agenda that mirrors those found in other countries, such as guaranteed paid childbirth leave, one week paid sick leave, three weeks of vacation and capping overtime.
"This whole issue of time pressure is growing worse and worse in our society," de Graaf said. "It is the No. 1 problem pollsters are finding with women. The situation is not going to get better unless we address it as a society."
In a nutshell, Take Back Your Time is about taking a step back to analyze where the hours in the day go and to whom.
"It's time to care for family, for community involvement and civic engagement; time to enjoy the outdoors but also be a steward for the environment; and time for rest and relaxation, leisure and religious reflection," Burger said.
IF YOU GO
Take Back Your Time North American conference, Thursday to Saturday at Seattle University. Open to the public. Registration is $140. Day rates also available. 7:30 p.m. keynotes open to the public free (or a suggested $10 donation).
Thursday keynote speaker: Bill Doherty, co-founder of Putting Family First and professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota.
Friday keynote speakers: Ann Crittenden, a former New York Times reporter and author of "The Price of Motherhood," and founder of Mothers Ought To Have Equal Rights; and Jon Messenger, senior researcher with the International Labor Organization in Geneva.
For more information and a full conference schedule: www.timeday.org or call Gretchen Burger, 206-293-3772.
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