America is Overworked

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I have long believed that one way to avoid employee problems (and therefore employee claims) is to give serious attention to the fact that Americans simply work too hard. Study after study and article after article has pointed to the overstressed and overworked condition of American workers. Here is the latest story I've come across. This one, from the Mercury News notes yet another study by the non-profit Families and Work Institute. The study points out the irony that the very factors giving companies a competitive edge and healthy bottom line -- technology, multitasking and globalization -- may be undermining their workers' physical and emotional well-being. As the boundaries between office hours and off hours continue to blur, one in three American employees report being chronically overworked, according to the survey. Slightly more workers forfeit some of their paid vacation time -- and two in five work while on vacation -- in part because they can't escape their demanding jobs.

Here is where the data becomes something employers should pay attention to: 39 percent of intensely overworked employees say they are angry at their employers for expecting so much of them, vs. only 1 percent of employees who have low levels of overwork. And 34 percent of extremely overworked employees often resent their co-workers who don't work as hard, compared with 12 percent of employees at low levels of overwork. And angry employees are plaintiffs in the making.

So if you are an employee -- take your vacation. If you are an employer -- let them. And then...take one yourself.

Wal-Mart vs. Class Actions

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Corporate America could find it a whole lot easier to fight off employment class actions if Wal-Mart Stores Inc. prevails in a sex discrimination case to be heard soon by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Indeed, a Wal-Mart victory could tilt the playing field for virtually all of these kinds of suits, which have plagued Boeing, Coca-Cola, and dozens of other large employers over the years. Wal-Mart's ambitious legal strategy strikes at the heart of what it means to file a class action. The company maintains that its constitutional rights would be violated if the court allows a suit to go forward involving up to 1.5 million of the retailing giant's current and former female employees. Because such a case would deprive the company of its rights to defend itself against each woman's claim, it argues, the courts should allow suits only on a store-by-store basis. If the Ninth Circuit agrees and strikes down the multistate action certified by a lower court, it would likely kill the largest employment class action in U.S. history. More broadly, it would open wide the door for all large companies to make similar arguments. A victory for Wal-Mart might mean that plaintiffs can't bring nationwide class actions anymore and that they might have to do them locally or regionally. Here is a link to the story.