The ascent of hours on the job

At parties in the US, he says, the first question is, "What do you do?" In the Netherlands, the opening question is, "Where have you been on vacation?" or "Where are you going on vacation?"

Noting that the American emphasis on work contributes to overwork, Goyjer says, "That's all they think about, it's all they hear, all they're taught. It's their whole environment."

Just ask Whaley. "It's almost trendy to sit around and talk about how overwhelmed you are," she says. "If you don't have a job where you're completely overwhelmed or you're under all kinds of time constraints, it's almost like what you do isn't taken as seriously."

The amount of vacation time Americans receive also plays a role, Goyjer observes. For Europeans, four weeks off is standard.

Even Americans who receive generous vacation time often don't use it all. Thirty-seven percent of those responding to the Families and Work Institute study take fewer than seven days. Only 14 percent take vacations of two weeks or more.

Whaley seldom uses more than two or three days of vacation at a time. "It is just not worth the consequences," she says. Before a vacation, she must work longer hours to get everything done, and then do the same to catch up when she returns.

Yet feeling stretched thin is not simply a matter of how many hours people work. Working conditions play a part as well. Multitasking, often a demand in short-staffed firms, can contribute to feeling overworked, the study finds. So can being interrupted frequently during work time as well as working evenings, weekends, and even on vacation.

Employees' own priorities also affect their feelings of overload. Those who are "work-centric" are more likely to be overworked than those who give equal priority to their lives on and off the job, the study says. In one surprising finding, employees with greater family responsibilities were no more likely to feel overworked than those without these responsibilities. The exception involved workers providing elder care.

Despite the pressure Whaley feels, she gives her employer high marks for flexibility. "They're very good to employees," she says. "If I need to leave at lunch or do personal things, I can do that."

For Whaley and her friends, humor provides one escape valve. "We joke, 'My next job is going to be putting labels on envelopes, or being the greeter at WalMart,'" she says. "But I wonder how fulfilled we would be if we went to those jobs."

Goyjer is convinced that at least a partial solution to overwork will come as Americans redefine success. "When people in this country look at success, the first thing they think of is success in business. That's not success in the true aspect of life, defined by your family, hobbies, and other interests."

The American workplace is at a pivotal point, says Richard Mason, a professor of business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In recent years, he says, companies have won productivity gains at the expense of workers' health and happiness. As the author of a study, "Virtuous Organizations: The Value of Happiness in the Work Place," he finds that "supporting the humanity of employees returns much more than the widespread focus of incremental productivity gains."

As evidence, Ms. Gioia points to companies on the Fortune 100 list and the Working Mother list of the best companies to work for. "Their stock performance over the years has been something like 15 percent better than the aggregate of the companies on the New York Stock Exchange," she says. "The lesson is, 'Take care of your people and your profits will be better in the long run.' "

Exhorting employers to "wake up," Gioia adds, "They have to get it that if they don't take care of their employees, they're going to leave, because they have choices. Rapidly we're moving back to a time when employees are in the driver's seat. They won't have to work as many hours, and they won't have to burn themselves out."

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