#Overworked #OfficeLife #WorkEthic #Exploitation #ModernWorkplace
Are you feeling overworked in the office?
With the advancement of technology, our work has become more efficient than ever before. We have computers, emails, Excel, Word, PDFs, Adobe, and countless other tools at our disposal. Tasks that used to take hours can now be completed in minutes.
However, despite being able to do 10 times more work than our counterparts in the 1980s, many of us are still stuck working 40+ hours a week. It’s frustrating to feel like we are being taken advantage of, working harder and longer for the same pay.
Why do we still have to work so many hours?
Back in the day, before all these technological advancements, people had to physically go through archives, compile reports, fax documents, and spend a lot of time on repetitive tasks. Now, we can automate many of these processes and work more efficiently.
Yet, instead of reaping the benefits of our increased productivity, we are expected to work the same hours as our predecessors. It’s a valid question to ask why we are not seeing a reduction in our work hours or a significant increase in our pay.
Feeling exploited in the modern workplace
It’s easy to feel frustrated and exploited when you are doing so much more work but not seeing any tangible benefits. The feeling of being undervalued and overworked can take a toll on your mental and physical health.
Many of us are at a breaking point, wondering if there is a better way to handle the imbalance between our output and compensation. It’s essential to address these feelings and find solutions that work for us.
Practical solutions to combat overwork and exploitation
- 1. Negotiate for flexible hours or remote work options: If you are consistently putting in extra hours at the office, it’s worth discussing with your employer the possibility of flexible work arrangements. This could help you create a better work-life balance.
- 2. Set boundaries and prioritize tasks: It’s crucial to prioritize your tasks and set boundaries to avoid burnout. Learn to say no to additional work if it’s beyond your capacity.
- 3. Advocate for fair compensation: If you feel that you are not being adequately compensated for the work you are doing, consider discussing this with your employer or seeking advice from a labor union or legal counsel.
- 4. Seek professional help: If feelings of overwork and exploitation are affecting your mental health, don’t hesitate to seek support from a therapist or counselor. Your well-being is paramount.
Remember, you deserve to be compensated fairly for the work you do. Don’t be afraid to speak up and advocate for yourself in the workplace. Together, we can strive for a more balanced and equitable work environment.
cuz we worked smart, not hard.
Our society has decided it prefers to use the gains in productivity (computers, email, automation) to produce more goods rather than work less hours.
While I agree that office work has become a lot more efficient. A lot of other work hasn’t really.
As an electrician in an industrial factory I probably get less done than people 40 years ago.
Companies have both of these costs.
You can do the job with all that technology. So can 100 other people. That’s why the pay is low. The skills required to complete those tasks you shared are common. The company doesn’t see value in those processes.
Says your “data”based on nothing
Efficiency isn’t supposed to reduce your work load. It is to increase the amount you can do.
The workplace isn’t worker friendly 🤣
So the wealth can trickle down.
You know the answer
Because change wasn’t enforced. If they could, companies would chain you to your desk. Work till you expire and then replace you. Any change, that benefits the worker, was fought for and pushed through by force.
You need to slave more because owner of company wants more private jets .
Precisely because you’re doing 10x more work. It means you’re competing with 10x more people for the same “reward” for productivity. This is a result of too many people working too much, inflation of labor devaluing it.
Because productivity gains are trickling up. If you look at the share of national income going to labour since 1979, it has declined.
This is a result of a sustained political campaign.
Simply put, you don’t have the power or leverage. Both individually, or as a group, to pressure those with power, or take power in order to redress this balance.
It will take a serious, concerted, organised and very long term project to change this.
Or a war.
Not entirely related but it made me reflect on how baffling it is that people as a collective are doping themselves up in accelerants like coffee throughout the work day, when we’re chained to a desk with no real need for the boost.
Work isn’t the problem, these ridiculous hours are. It’s as you say, you can put out 10x the productivity so why the 40 hours?
That’s not 10x the work, that’s 10x the productivity.
You’re still working 40 hours so that the surplus can go to the company owner. The workers’ compensation to boss’s compensation used to be x11 in the 60s or 70s, now it’s x300+. This is a part of that.
Read Marx! You’re describing a fundamental feature of capitalism. Advancements in technology reduce the role of labor in generating value and ultimately profit, but because of the need for profits to continuously grow, workers are just expected to produce more in their time spent working rather than working less to produce the same amount. This phenomenon will only get worse as AI advances.
I get that at work management never lets up on trying to squeeze another last drop of productivity from every worker and it will never let up. But keep in mind that a person in the eighties was from your standpoint, doing more work than someone in the 50’s. Productivity technology makes this possible but no employer is going to compromise with your line of thinking. It’s capitalism and it wants nothing from you but more and more productivity. Workers have always been exploited and I don’t see it changing anytime soon.
Because capitalism is clearly the greatest…..
You are also paid significantly more then people in the 80s.
Finally someone said this, thank you
Amazing how many people consider this a serious post. “I should be working less because I have email instead of snail mail.”
10x the work done.
Do you get paid by the hour or by the product output or a flat salary?
If you get paid by the hour, you’d be making less money because I don’t think that the CEOs would let workers work less hours (while producing the same) and still make the same money.
If you work by output or a flat salary I don’t see why you can’t negotiate your own hours.
Used to be 35 hours a week.
Have you seen the costs involved with being a rich guy lately? Imagine staying in the Barcelona harbor on your $30 million yacht, feeling like a peasant while the real oligarchs casually discuss whether to buy another island or travel to space.
Because capitalism. That’s how it works.
> why the hell do I still have to work 40hours+ a week?
Because you, and millions like you, aren’t in a union.
And if you work on a computer, or in a paperless office, you shouldn’t even be coming into the new invention called an office at all. But either at home or a place of your choosing.
I will point out the ceo of Frontier complained his workers aren’t doing enough. He then blamed it all on working from home, even though i didn’t know baggage handlers could do that. Never thought that maybe during covid to cut costs, he likely added a lot more tasks to the job to make it harder.
CEO’s never think of that.
Mans reach exceed his grasp
They always strive for bigger thing.
Hence achieving big thing will just make them strive for bigger thing
Greed.
You higher pay goes to Adobe, Word, Teams, etc. instead of you.
That’s why billionaires are the only ones becoming richer while everyone else suffers.
Modern day exploitation
It’s very simple. And once you’re in the know, it makes sense.
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You’re a slave
something something marx, something something the rate of profit
It’s time to start having a very serious conversation about 3 day weekends. Life feels more like a prison.
Because there weren’t billionaires in the 80s
You are generating more data, not necessarily working harder. A lot went into generating reports that would take minutes today.
I worked in a position where my job was to review training reports and schedules, and it involved getting paper copies through inter office mail, reviewing them, consolidating them, writing or calling back for corrections, drafting a final version, typing (not on a computer), getting the boss’ approval or rewriting, making copies, distributing them, sending it through inter office mail to the next higher level…and, if by some chance it was late or they needed the report early, you may have to drive it up there.
So…just as much work, if not more, but of a different type.
I’m at work 40 hours a week. Realistically I probably actually work about 5. Just gotta act your wage cuz.
Because you haven’t organized with your peers to overthrow the system that exploits you yet
Those stock prices aren’t going to keep going up on their own you know.
Because fuck you, that’s why.