How a 47-Hour Work Week Turns into 7 Years of Free Labor

Do even the smallest amount of research and you'll find article after article describing how Americans work the longest hours of any nation on earth. ILO says Americans work 137 more hours per year than the Japanese. Aren't they the stereotypical tireless workers!?! And that is the closest difference given in the article- the discrepancy is even larger for the laid-back British and the easy-going French. They are both smoking their cigars with their feet kicked up in a nice little cabin in the mountains while we Americans toil away, wiping the ever-dripping sweat from our brows.

Who exactly of Americans works the longest? This article points out that it is those who don't punch a time clock- where the time is harder to measure. The after-hours calls, emails, reports, travel, last-minute requests at the end of the day that aren't really tracked in the typical "40-hour week" of the salaried worker slowly add up unmeasured. The sly stealthy thief you didn't even know was stealing from you! How rude! If you punch a time clock, you see exactly how many hours you are putting in. On paper. With hard numbers that stick in your brain. Then you can do a mental calculation of the cost of your free time vs the benefit of paid overtime. You'll reach a point where it just isn't worth it. Luckily, I'm here to knock some sense into you salaried workers out there. Let me tell you a story about how 10 extra minutes a day can turn into a whole YEAR of unpaid work! (You're willingly allowing yourself to be ripped off with a 0% return on your time investment by the way- and we know how I feel about that from previous articles. Let's learn a thing or two from Warren Buffett here on investment principles people.)

The small things really do add up to big things- the small things that are almost unnoticeable unless you pay close attention. 10 minutes a day extra at the office seems like nothing right?? Okay, let's say you work 10 extra

minutes a day for 5 days a week for your whole career. If you work 50 weeks per year for a 40-year career....you are working an extra 40 hour WEEK per year. This means you are really only getting one of your two "paid" vacation weeks because you've worked for the second. At the end of your career, you've worked a whopping 1,667 hours for free. This, my friend, is the equivalent of almost a FULL YEAR of work (42 weeks to be precise). Stolen from you! Poof! Just like that! That YEAR could've been spent hiking the Torres Del Paine, laughing with friends, hugging your family, reading a hundred books, relaxing, sleeping. What are we doing?!? Here's the real shocker. Prepare your mind for an explosion:

According to this Gallup study , the average American work week is not 40 hours + 50 minutes (10 min/day). No, that's too easy. Rather, it is 47 hours, with 40% of people working 50 or more hours weekly. Let's take that 7 hours/week and use that in our handy career length calculator. At the end of a 40-year career as a salaried worker, you will have worked 14,000 hours for FREE! Ain't nobody work for FREE!!! At least not me and I hope not you after reading this post. How long is 14,000 hours anyways? This is 350 work weeks and seven full work years.

SEVEN FULL WORK YEARS.

Mic. Drop. Let that sink in. Wondrous what a little easy math can do.

Now, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the argument I know I'll see in the comments- That the overtime for salaried workers, or any workers, will come back in raises, bonuses, and promotions. Okay, I see your point. I really do. My only question is this- Is that extra, non-guaranteed money really worth 7 years of your life? One of my favorite blogs, Mr. Money Mustache, says the money certainly is not worth it. If you're working 50++ hours per week, is that extra carrot of fame or fortune worth 10 or 15 years of your life? Holy smokes people, we only live until 80 or so. Work to live, not the other way around. Let's learn a thing or two from those Brits and kick up our feet every now and then, emphasis on the now, with a cold drink in our hand.*

*Drink responsibly.

© 2017 by The Process Maven