Are we getting ripped off or what?

Americans work more, seem to accomplish less

Newly released research indicates most US workers say they feel rushed on the job, but they are getting less accomplished than a decade ago. Workers completed two-thirds of their work in an average day last year, down from about three-quarters in a 1994 study, according to research conducted for Day-Timers, a maker of organizational products. The biggest culprit is the technology that was supposed to make work quicker and easier, experts say. "Technology has sped everything up and, by speeding everything up, it's slowed everything down, paradoxically," said John Challenger, ceo of out placement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "We never concentrate on one task anymore. You take a little chip out of it, and then you're on to the next thing," Challenger said on Wednesday. "It's harder to feel like you're accomplishing something." Unlike a decade ago, US workers are bombarded with e-mail, computer messages, cell phone calls, voice mails and the like, research showed. The average time spent on a computer at work was almost 16 hours a week last year, compared with 9.5 hours a decade ago, according to the Day-Timer research released this week. Workers typically get 46 e-mails a day, nearly half of which are unsolicited, it said. Sixty percent of workers say they always or frequently feel rushed, but those who feel extremely or very productive dropped to 51% from 83% in 1994, the research showed. Companies that are flexible with workers' time and give workers the most control over their tasks tend to fare better against the sea of rising expectations, experts said. The latest study was conducted among a random sample of about 1,000 people who work at least part time. The earlier study surveyed some 1,300 workers.
(Reuters 060223)

Well, that study is sort of stating the obvious. Everyone is well aware that the technology advances of the past 15 years that were supposed to usher in a new age of leisure and freedom from the drudgery of soul-crushing work have only made things worse. We're all forced to live and go along with this ADD world we're presented with today, thanks to email, IM, cellphones and PDAs, whether you like it or not or whether you think it necessarily moves society further in the right direction. And to top it all off, adjusted for inflation, we're making less money for our efforts these days than we did 20 years ago. What the hell is going on? Who's taking the difference and pocketing it? I think we all know the answer to that. Sociopathic greedy old white men, that's who.