University of Michigan 412 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1399 April 23, 1998 (32) Contact: Diane Swanbrow Phone: (734) 647-4416 E-mail: [email protected] Internet: www.umich.edu/~newsinfo/
Ditch the eight-hour day for the four-hour work module, says U-M author of "Successful Aging."
ANN ARBOR---Even though people of all ages are working fewer hours and retiring earlier than their parents and grandparents did, many of them feel overloaded. "Especially in two-job families with young children, life can seem like one long sprint, without time for real exercise or real leisure," says University of Michigan psychologist Robert L. Kahn.
By middle age, the predictable result is a collection of stress-related, chronic ailments that are often and mistakenly viewed as the inevitable accompaniments of aging.
According to Kahn, the course of most of these ailments can be reversed by making a few key life-style changes. And many could be prevented in the first place by trading in the traditional eight-hour workday for a new model of working life---the four-hour work module.
Kahn, an 80-year-old emeritus professor of psychology and public health at the
U-M, is the co-author of "Successful Aging," just published by Pantheon Books with Mount Sinai School of Medicine's John W. Rowe. Based on 10 years of research and analysis by an interdisciplinary team of scientists, and funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the book debunks a number of myths about aging and describes the genetic, behavioral and social factors that enhance effective functioning in later life.
Among the key findings:
--The longer we live, the less important genes become in determining our vitality and well-being. The lifestyle choices we make become an increasingly dominant influence.
--Regular exercise is the single most important factor in sustaining late-life health, but diet, strong emotional ties, and mental challenges are also important.
--It's impossible to get too much emotional support from family, friends and neighbors. But excessive hands-on help with daily tasks can lead to "learned helplessness," decreased function, and increased dependence.
--Older Americans are much more productive than they're widely believed to be, and most remain so until late in life.
"The U.S. Bureau of the Census and many other groups still define productive activity as paid work," Kahn says. "But some time ago, national surveys conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research began defining productive activity in a broader way, as the creation of economic value, rather than the receipt of pay." Under this new definition, for example, taking care of your grandchildren while your daughter works outside the home, fixing your own car, or growing and canning your own vegetables, are all counted as productive activity.
Data from several national U-M surveys using this new definition show that the vast majority of Americans over the age of 55 remain productive, Kahn points out. About three out of 10 older people work for pay, and about the same proportion engage in productive activities, including volunteer work, for which they receive no money.
To maximize the productivity of older workers, and increase the satisfaction and productivity of younger workers, as well, Kahn and Rowe advocate exchanging the eight-hour day for the four-hour work module. Those who want to work eight hours a day (or more) would still be able to do so, while others would have the flexibility of working fewer hours. "Increased individual choice about hours of work would take many forms and satisfy all age groups," they write. "For large numbers of older employees, phased retirement would replace the present unsatisfactory choice between full-time work and full-time retirement."
At the moment, Kahn notes, only a lucky few older Americans have this option. "That we need better allocation of paid employment, education, and other activities throughout the life course is clear. The policies and procedures best suited to achieve those goals are not equally clear."
Experimental trials of the four-hour work module, and other promising proposals for reorganizing work life are needed, Kahn and Rowe maintain, similar to the clinical trials used in medicine or marketing trials employed in business. "The United States itself, established more than 200 years ago with an unprecedented democratic structure, has been called a social experiment," they note. "To solve the complex policy problems of our own time, and our aging society, we need to become an experimenting society."
# # # # # #
RSS