Posted on 11/28/2006 11:10:16 AM PST by freemarket_kenshepherd
American laborers are “going to extremes” working in jobs “where 60 hours a week can be considered part-time, and overtime is an understatement.”
That’s how ABC anchor Charles Gibson teased a story in the opening credits of the November 27 “World News.” Yet for all the hype, fewer than one percent of Americans hold these type of “extreme” jobs, and most are well-compensated.
The “so-called extreme jobs,” Gibson told viewers, involve “high-pressure work that often comes with a very high salary and a very heavy personal toll.” Yet it’s only about “2 million Americans” that “fall into this fast-growing category,” Gibson conceded as he introduced a report by Betsy Stark.
In a nation of roughly 300 million people, that’s only 0.67 percent of the country’s population, although Stark’s report made “extreme” work sound like a pandemic.
What’s more, Gibson got his 2 million number by rounding up from the 1.7 million Americans in “extreme” jobs as determined by the New York-based Center for Work-Life Policy (CWLP). Stark featured CWLP senior fellow Catherine Orenstein in her story but did not mention the organization’s name or its ideological leanings.
A review of CWLP’s Web site shows the group often focuses on traditional liberal workplace concerns such as the number of women and minorities in executive leadership in American business. Liberal activist and Princeton religion professor Cornel West serves as CWLP vice president. In 2001, West resigned his post at Harvard University after then-president Larry Summers criticized West for focusing on political activities at the expense of his academic obligations.
Stark chose a Florida lawyer as a textbook case of the “extreme” worker. The correspondent profiled 35-year old David Shontz, a “man who rarely vacations,” who is “a trial lawyer hoping to make partner at his firm..."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessandmedia.org ...
An associate lawyer working hard to make partner? Are they serious? Of course the guy works a long week - it's part of the job.
I'm self employed and I easily work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, sometimes more. And I do it because I'm driven like a possessed banshee lunatic.
Well, I guess this doesn't apply to me since my salary isn't all that high :-)
1) Fat Cat Rich guys pulling down enormous salaries. Nobody deserves to make so much! Take 'em down! Tax 'em! Tax 'em!
2) Stressed out workers putting in long hours at demanding jobs. These poor guys are abused! They deserve our sympathy!
Will the media ever figure out that it's the same people in both groups?
And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little Boy Blue and the Man In the Moon
When you comin' home, Dad?
I don't know when
But we'll get together then
You know we'll have a good time then
--Harry Chapin
Or, you can spend every dime you make and have to work 70 hours a week until you drop dead. It's called "choice."
Every single one of them, when on their deathbed, will say "I wish I had put in more time at the office".
Oh wait I meant they'll say that other thing.
Copy that. I took Thanksgiving off--first day off in a month.
You don't get rich working 40 hours a week.
how about the person with their own small business.
The illiterati of the MSM assume if you have your own business it is 9-5 m-f. They don't see the 24/7 mentality.
Oh yes you do. A man that goes home and spends time with his family is richer than anyone.
Nobody's put a gun to their heads and forced 'em to do it, have they?!
Roger that. But say - where's that high salary?
Maybe it's just me but I don't understand where Gibson is going with this piece. I had a code and testing contract with the understanding that I would work at least 60 hours a week for several months. I did it cause I wanted to. No one held a gun to my head.
I wish more young men WERE working 70 hours a week.....keeps them off the streets, keeps them more focused.....keeps them from getting in trouble....men are made for work.
These are the entreprenuers whose dynamism drives the American economy, and who are derided as the lazy undeserving rich by the Left.
When I used to run my own GC business, any week that I worked less than 75hrs was a short week.
There have always been people who worked hard to get ahead. At one point in my life, a 70 hour week would have seemed like a vacation! And I was just working for the money!
Oh wait I meant they'll say that other thing.
When I was working, I used to work 60-70 hrs/week, retired at 58, and now only work for charity and political causes. I never regretted the hours and didn't short change my family. I didn't watch much tv and only slept 5 hours {on average} per night. It didn't hurt me a bit, it's called choice.
I'm thinking of the long stretches of extreme work time I put in during my time in the Army. Did we complain? Well, yes, soldiers always complain. Did we think it was unfair or wrong? Hell no, it's the mission.
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