Live Free or Die Hard – Choice of an ‘Extreme Job’
all the stops and matching
Competitive pressure and the
dangerous allure of “extreme jobs”
are becoming a global trend, affecting
organisations, home, family and life,
writes M R Chandramowly in a two
part series.
PART I
A
former police of-
ficer John Mc-
Clane finds a po-
sition with
Homeland Secu-
rity chasing dangerous com-
puter hackers. He discovers
that a group of hackers have
struck at the vulnerable
United States computer in-
BalckBerrys. One of the
frastructure and are system-
atically shutting it down, be-
ginning with the traffic light
system.
As they move on to crash
banking networks and the
stock market, the indices
plummet and America’s
economy becomes crippled.
As usual, McClane gets
caught up in the middle of
the excitement and pulls out
soon as the person wakes up
wits with the terrorists, and
stops them before the entire
nation collapses to its knees
on the anniversary day of its
independence.”
That is an “extreme job”
in a movie. The “extreme
job” of McClane doesn’t re-
main a fictitious movie sto-
ry, if we open up to the work-
life imbalance stories of the
highly paid employees who
are holding on to ‘Extreme
Jobs’.
What do you see in a bed-
room of an ‘extreme’ job-
holder? A focus group con-
versation was sprinkled
with half-joking reference of
Four in Bed, these days. One-
self, one’s partner, and two
jority of them (56 per cent)
biggest mystery about the
mankind is “They sacrifice
their health in earning more
money and spend all that
money to regain their lost
health.” And in that process
they neither retain their
money nor regain health.
Successful professionals
are working harder than
ever. The higher you go on
the corporate ladder; your
earnings shall also become
higher. Also your responsi-
bilities. One has to work six
to seven days in a week in
multiple locations, some
times travelling most of the
time.
How would a typical
workday be? It all starts as
with a cheapest labour cost
in the bed after a late night
sleep, post evening dinner
party. Bed coffee is sipped
along with the headlines of
business and economic
news.
Breakfast is eaten think-
ing about the impact of what
has been read. Both affect-
ing business as well as per-
sonal life. What is the shape
and scope of high-impact
jobs of these days?
Research findings
“Centre for Work-Life
Policy”, a New York based
nonprofit organisation has
done a qualitative research
to get at the attitudes and
motivations that lie behind
the extreme work model
(The dangerous allure of
the 70-Hour work – HBR –
Dec 2006).
In their research in
2004 they discovered that
one challenge facing
women was a trend to-
wards more extreme work
in corporate managerial
positions. Extending
their research, they in-
terviewed top 6 per cent
of earning managers as
well as 14 focus groups of
1564 employees in the US,
Canada, Europe, Middle
East and Europe.
What is Extreme?
The surveys under
the research define
specific jobs, which
were considered ex-
treme. Survey re-
spondents were
those who work for
more than 60 hours a
week, who are high
earners and hold posi-
tions of these characteris-
tics: The jobs which are
unpredictable flow of
work, fast paced work un-
der tight deadlines, avail-
ability to clients 24/7, Re-
sponsibility of profit and
loss, large amount of trav-
el, large number of direct
reports, responsibility of
mentoring and recruiting
and physical presence at
workplaces, ten hours a
day.
The research data re-
veals that 62 per cent of
high earning individuals
work more than 50 hours a
week, 35 per cent work
more than 60 hours a
week, and 10 per cent
work more than 80 hours a
week.
Vacating vacations
A 60-hour week trans-
lates into leaving the
house at 7 am and getting
home at 9 pm five days a
week. The hours are even
more punishing and ma-
ogy. When you are in a meet-
work 70 hours and 9 per cent
work 100 hours or more. 55
per cent claim they have had
to cancel vacation plans
‘regularly’ – and no one is
forcing them to do it! One of
the survey participants did
not remember the last time
he had a vacation. The sur-
vey reveals that the employ-
ees in this extreme work
model are not burned out
and bitter professionals but
love their jobs
Why they do it?
Holders of extreme jobs
indicate what motivates
them to work long, stressful
hours. They answered the
survey question, “What are
the main reasons you love
your job?” in multiple re-
sponses:
nStimulating/challenging
work gives me an adrenaline
rush (90 per cent Men – 82
per cent Women)
nHigh-Quality colleagues
(52 per cent - 43 per cent)
nHigh compensation (43 per
cent - 28 per cent)
nReceive recognition for
work (37 per cent - 42 per
cent)
nPower/Status (23 per cent -
30 per cent).
Competitive pressure
Competition has become
more intense, both at the lev-
el of the individual profes-
sional and at the level of the
corporation. The merger
mania, flattened hierar-
chies, promotion pyrexia
put people against one an-
other. The threat of losing
jobs in the West is moving
up with the increase of the
young Turks from India and
China who are found
smarter and hardworking
advantage. Companies in US
squeeze as many hours of
work as possible consider-
ing the fact that “nonex-
empt” professionals do not
earn overtime pay in the US.
Effecting life
Extreme jobs may be
deeply alluring, but they are
not certainly cost free. 77
per cent of the women and
66 per cent of the men sur-
veyed said they couldn’t
properly maintain their
homes.
One executive disclosed
that the furnishing he has in
his flat at South Kensington
for years is a mattress and a
sleeping bag. Health is also
an issue. Majority do not get
enough sleep and don’t do
enough exercise. Significant
numbers overeat, consume
more alcohol or rely on med-
ications to relieve insomnia.
A global trend
“In Japan, the workplace
is still heavily dominated by
males and long hours are the
norm. In India, work-life bal-
ance is seen as a luxury is-
sue for a growing middle
class of professional work-
ers and economic develop-
ment is perceived as more
urgent than social well-be-
ing and people issues.
In the US, there has been
a “hands off ” government
policy toward this issue,
leaving it completely up to
the private sector to han-
dle.” - (Work-life imbalance
– a global problem getting
worse – Tony DiRomualdo)
BlackBerry Thumb
Extreme work is also the
result of devises from mod-
ern communication technol-
ing, you might wait for one
hour to respond to e-mail.
This is not acceptable now
with the advent of BlackBer-
rys and cell phones.
59 per cent of the respon-
dents said that the technolo-
gy has lengthened their
working day and encroached
on family time. “BlackBerry
thumb” is a new ailment
now and Hyatt hotel spas
now offer a “BlackBerry
hand massage”.
Extreme Jobs affects the
well-being of children re-
sulting in children watching
too much television, act out
of discipline due to lack of
attention, eat too much of
junk food, have too little
adult supervision and un-
derachievement in schools.
Big goals
In a workshop on “Execu-
tion” I asked the partici-
pants “What are their three
big life goals?” On funneling
individual answers, we got
three major aspects, Bigger
Job, Fatter Salary and More
Happiness. On analyzing,
we found that bigger jobs are
somewhat related to fatter
salary.But, majority dis-
agreed with the aspect of fat-
ter salary resulting more
happiness. What’s the reali-
ty? People are working hard-
er creating wealth. Do they
have time to enjoy their
fruits of labour? No, says the
survey. Indians spend more
hours in office compared to
their counterparts in the
world.
Number of hours execu-
tives spend in offices annu-
ally: Mumbai - 2205, New
Delhi - 2121, Shanghai - 1969,
Tokyo - 1954, New York - 1869
and London - 1782. A study of
79 Indian Firms reveals the
results of work stress. 71
per cent of executives use
foul language.
21 per cent resort to phys-
ical action. 8 per cent suffer
nervous break down. Most of
them suffer the impact of
stress on their personal life,
affecting on their children
because of parenting diffi-
culties. There is an alarming
growth of alcohol consump-
tion. Along with the rise of
creating wealth, what is ris-
ing along? Instability, obesi-
ty, cardiovascular problems
and diabetics. There are 41
million diabetics in India
with majority of type II that
has resulted from “Life
style”. The expected cases of
cardiovascular diseases are
64 million in 2015 compared
to the existing 38 million
(2005). What’s going wrong?
What’s the root cause? Let us
understand the roots in its
mini and mega spectrum.
Perpetual principle
World is a system of ho-
listic continuous processes.
So is Life, man or manage-
ment. Holistic means, the in-
terrelatedness. It’s like a
thread holding number of
beads passing through the
center of each one of them.
No bead can be separated in
the chain. It is the inter-
twined nature of time. To-
day’s stem has the roots of
yesterday and fruits of to-
morrow. They are insepara-
ble in their state of living.
This principle is cosmic and
universal .
Part II of this article will
feature in the next edition of
DH Avenues.
The author is former corporate
vice president - HR and
currently HRD and Leadership
Competency Building
Consultant. E-mail:
cmowly@hotmail.com