The American Workplace

I had mentioned in an earlier post a major study on the American workplace. The findings come from research done by investigators at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, Harvard Medical School and UCLA. The raw material came from the American Working Conditions Survey.

I'll quote some material from the article, "American Workplace Is Physically and Emotionally Taxing; Most Workers Receive Support from Boss and Friends at Work," published on the RAND Corp. website.

About the level of work and the time to do it in: "More than one-in-four American workers say they have too little time to do their job, with the complaint being most common among white-collar workers. In addition, workers say the intensity of work frequently spills over into their personal lives, with about one-half of people reporting that they perform some work in their free time in order to meet workplace demands."

And about the negative working conditions of American workers: "...more than half of Americans report exposure to unpleasant and potentially hazardous working conditions. Nearly one in five workers --a "disturbingly high" fraction--say they face a hostile or threatening social environment at work. Younger and prime-aged women are the workers most likely to experience unwanted sexual attention, while younger men are more likely to experience verbal abuse."

Hopefully the findings will lead to some practical results.

***

Pizza Hut Flubs Up

The last post I talked about dysfunctional workplaces. As luck would have it, I just read about a Pizza Hut in Florida that cared more about the green stuff than about their employees' lives. It is in The Washington Post, dated September 11th. The writer is Maura Judkis, and it is titled, "A Pizza Hut told Irma-fleeing employees they could be punished for skipping shifts."

The manager of the Pizza Hut said that employees could not evacuate more than 24 hours before the storm and must return within 72 hours. One Twitter writer (not the President) said my sentiments the best, "Pizza Hut wants it minimum wage employees to risk their lives for corporate profits."

Yet, the official statement from Pizza Hut said this is not their policy and the manager was not following company guidelines.

Yet, some companies put so much pressure on their workers to produce, these companies lay the groundwork for this type of behavior.

***

Workplaces & Families--Both are Systems

Right now I'm leaving one job and going to another. What it has brought to mind--okay, maybe I'm not the first--is that there are some crazy workplaces out there.

I've always been fascinated with this subject. And I'm surprised more people don't talk about it; they seem highly disenchanted with their job environments, but rarely wonder why that is. I've always wondered why that is, why some work settings are highly toxic (in an interpersonal sense) and why some seem almost healing.

I'll write about that in a few upcoming posts. By the way, a major study was recently released looking at many aspects of people's work. Just what I saw of it, though, didn't have many surprises. Yet, I will look closer and see if there are any surprising findings.

***