What timing! My incredibly beautiful and intelligent sister Rachel gave me an article to read when we stopped in DC on Saturday (That's a lie. She gave me 3 articles actually and had specific reading homework for just about all of us in the family, which reminds me, Beth, I was supposed to leave you with an article about elephant abuse. Eeek!) and I cannot imagine a more perfect time for me to read the article. Just when I was starting to feel a bit apprehensive about not knowing when I might start working again, this article on the Speed Up (explanation coming below) makes me actually want to delay going back to work even longer!
The article was published in Mother Jones last year, but I found a link to share here. (Make sure to read the 6 heart-wrenching personal stories (surgeons, teachers, etc.) and all of the graphs linked to in a black outlined box on the right side.) It discusses a trend in employment practices in the U.S. whereby "more is done with less." Responsibilities grow, while pay stagnates, and keep growing to the point that there is no such thing as a work-life balance anymore. Employers promote individuals to new positions, but do not backfill their old position, so now the same person is doing two 60 hour a week jobs. I cannot say anything any better than the article already does, so I just recommend reading it, but I can definitely echo the sentiments. Speaking from my experience in my old department this "speedup" was definitely the case and it's almost uncanny how many parallels I can draw.
I'm also not sure what to do other than speak up about it because it sure doesn't make me excited to go back to working if this is what "working" is going to be like. As the authors say, "admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery."
No comments:
Post a Comment