Workers feel strain of 24-hour economy

By Maureen Milford
(Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

Maureen Hilliard is married with children. Yet, in many ways she feels like she has been a single mother for 16 years.

Hilliard's husband, Connie, is a car salesman whose schedule involves working nights and weekends.

"I've gone to every open house for our girls alone. Tonight is open house for my daughter ... and I'll be there by myself," Hilliard, 50, said recently. "That's just the way it is."

In today's 24-hour economy, the Hilliards' experience is far from unusual. Thanks in part to advances in technology and the emergence of the global economy, 40 percent of the American workforce now works mostly nonstandard hours — evenings, overnight, variable or rotating shifts, or weekends, according to Harriet B. Presser, author of "Working in a 24/7 Economy: Challenges for American Families."

This growth in round-the-clock work has made more Americans balance the demands of their jobs against their social lives and families' needs. These were problems once restricted primarily to fields such as healthcare, law enforcement, utilities, firefighting and transportation.

"It's hard for more people today," said James Dillingham, of Shiftwork Solutions LLC in San Rafael, Calif., which works with organizations and employees to help resolve shift-work issues. "It's tough to coach Little League or go to church activities. This creates stress and frustration. People feel deprived. They feel resentful."

Rotating shifts can be the most challenging — 78 percent of people with that arrangement report that it is not their preference, according to a study by the Families and Work Institute.

"I couldn't function right at all," said Ken Taylor, 44, who worked regularly earlier this year from 11 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. at a supermarket in Bear, Del. "There have been times I didn't even see my kids because I'm sleeping when they leave."

Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, said 63 percent of couples in 2002 reported not having enough time with their spouses, up from 50 percent in 1992.

"It's harder on the marriage than on the children," Galinsky said. "People are not skimping on their children to the extent they can. The children come first."

Often working women, particularly single mothers, suffer the most from shift work because the household activities and childcare duties still tend to fall to them, experts said. Forty percent of women now work at least some evenings, nights or weekends on a regular basis, according to a 2004 AFL-CIO study.

"Shift work is definitely a concern among working women regardless of whether they're in a union or not," said Rachna Choudhry, a specialist with the AFL-CIO's program for working women. "What we're hearing from women is, they want more control over their time and ways to balance work and family."

Tara Bogia, 32, of Newark, Del., a mother of four who works four 10-hour days at a bank, said the only disagreements she has with her husband involve chores and childcare duties.

"He calls me (at work) and asks, 'What's for dinner?' I say, 'I don't know. I'm not home,' " Bogia said.

Nontraditional hours can be a strain on unmarried workers too. It can cut into their social lives and make it difficult to have a love interest.

"All I have is my kitty cat, and sometimes I forget to feed it. It has to eat just the hard food — I usually give it hard and soft food," said Kofi Ansah, 33, a pharmacist in Bear, Del., who has a variable work schedule including evening shifts and some weekends. "It's hard. At night I go home and take my shoes off and soak my feet."