Harrowing, Heartbreaking Tales of Overworked Americans

[demmiblue]

Source: Mother Jones


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(Martha: Hotel housekeeper) The day begins at 6:30 or ten to 7. We start folding towels, get our carts ready, and then we have a 15-minute break to eat breakfast. At 8 we punch in and finally start getting paid. They give us 30 minutes for each vacant room, 10 if it's still occupied. When I first started 10 years ago, we'd clean 14 to 15 rooms in a day. Now we clean 40—to save money, they told us. It's always run, run, run! I don't eat lunch anymore. If I don't finish in time, they'll cut my hours the following week. Sometimes I'll clock out and then go back upstairs for a half-hour to finish.

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(Susan: Fourth-grade teacher) I can't imagine any of my colleagues who haven't purchased things like foods and snacks over the years. When I was a kid we all bought that stuff. Now as teachers you're providing most of that stuff—the cups, the plates, all that stuff. You have 33 kids, but you only have 30 books, but your school doesn't have a copier, so you're off to Kinko's at night after work. Teachers are the kings and queens of multitasking.

<snip>

(Heather: Adjunct college professor) A generation ago I would have been a tenured professor. Instead, as the education "industry" is shifting and changing, courses are being taught by hourly contract workers like myself. My "part time" job takes all of my time to do. I don't remember having so many side responsibilities when I started seven years ago. Now I am expected to complete all kinds of tasks outside of the classroom: Keeping up with mountains of student emails, grading student assignments, and filling out administrative paperwork. More than that, though, class sizes are double or triple what they once were. The maximum class caps have become minimums as the school "overbooks" the classes on the assumption that some will drop the class. Whether they do or not, I get stuck with classes of 35 or more students—which would be fine if I had a teaching assistant, but I do all grading myself.

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(Steven: Air-traffic controller) My regular routine is two night shifts, a midday shift from, say, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., a day shift the next day from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and then spin around that next night and come in and work the midnight shift from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. So how do you fit in coaching somebody's softball team or the PTA when you work that kind of shift work? You try to squeeze it in like anybody else would do, and you do the best you can. Something suffers along the way. Sometimes it's your home life or your relationship with your wife, and sometimes it's the job at hand. I thought that by now I'd have the opportunity to have maybe a week off during Christmas or have Saturdays to spend with my three-year-old. That hasn't happened.

I can't tell you about all the suicides and the accidental deaths where I work. One year we lost more than a tenth of our controllers due to burnout. One guy was 38. He went home after a really long day, poured himself a drink, sat down in his armchair, and died.

Read more: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/stories-overworked-americans?page=2

[Blue Owl]

1. The invisible hand of Clarence Thomas at work

Something's gotta give to pay for all the corporate tax breaks and perks. They'll start with the little guys.

[demmiblue]

2. Kick... the air-traffic controller's hours are insane. * Expletive* Reagan. n/t