What ever happened to the workweek?
TC Abbott, BComm., CGA, Certified Association Executive
It is as clear to me as though it were yesterday. A young person (me) right out of university, talking with a colleague over coffee, having been in my first job only a month or two. What was the weighty issue we were discussing? Galloping inflation? The wage/price freeze? Trudeau's [implementation of the] War Measures Act? The Nixon Tapes?
No, it was none of these things. What we were asking ourselves was: would our public sector union negotiate a 4-day workweek for us this year, or next? After all, all of the social scientists of the day were predicting a shortened workweek and more leisure time. Our time at work, they said, would be down to 4 days in short order and, during our career, would relentlessly decline in length, year after year, until it stabilized at about 22 hours per week. What these professional social scientists were gravely concerned about, and trying to solve, was how they would keep us busy when we had all of the extra leisure time. Excuse me. But what happened?
The Association Management Consultants Inc.'s 1998 Report on Salary and Benefits paid to BC Association Executives reports that the average number of hours of overtime worked by chief staff officers is 10 [per week]. So instead of working 32, 28 or 22 hours per week, we are working anywhere from 42 to 70 and averaging 50.
However, it's important to remember that it is not just you and your staff in the association office who are working longer and harder. So are your members; so are those on your volunteer board and committees. When you are fortunate to have them give some of their limited time to work with you at the association, make sure you treat their time donation wisely.
Experience has taught me that there are 4 things you should do, above all else, to make volunteers feel their contribution is important and appreciated:
1. train them well;
2. give them meaningful work to do;
3. don't waste their time; and
4. give them the recognition they rightly deserve.
If you and your staff do all these things, while neither you nor your members will move to the predicted 22-hour workweek, at least you will help ensure that your volunteers enjoy the hours they contribute to your association – precious hours they have taken away from their families, friends and "leisure" time.
This article first appeared in Changing Winds, a newsletter for non-profit and public sector managers published by Association Management Consultants Inc., and is reprinted with permission.
