Bernie Sanders Says Employees Are Overworked, Underpaid And Burned Out

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders railed against the culture of work in America Monday, decrying the lack of a 40-hour workweek and demanding an end to employee burnout. Burnout among workers causes up to half of workplace turnover each year, according to a study published last week by research organization Workplace Trends. The study cited pressing issues like unfair compensation, unreasonable workload and too much overtime.

Employee productivity increased by 21.6 percent from 2000 to 2014, but compensation only increased by 1.8 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Increased burnout among employees has lead to a lack of effectiveness and ultimately, higher turnover at companies.

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“We cannot be a successful nation if people are exhausted,” Sanders said on Facebook Monday in response to the survey. “We cannot have strong families if the members of those families have no quality time to spend together.”

Sanders said he’d be reintroducing legislation to require employers to provide at least 10 days of paid vacation to workers across the country.

The 40-hour workweek has become something of a myth, as the average full-time salaried worker now spends 47 hours per week working, according to Gallup. An increase in reliance on smartphones and other technologies has increased the amount of time workers are plugged into work, even when they’re technically "off the clock."

“Millions of Americans today are overworked, underpaid and under enormous stress. Over 100 years ago workers in this country took to the streets demanding a 40-hour-workweek,” said Sanders. “And here we are, 100 years later, living in the most technologically advanced economy in human history, and we still don’t have a 40-hour workweek!”

Burnout is not just an American issue. In 2016, the French government introduced “right to disconnect” legislation. The law, which went into effect in January, mandated that companies with more than 50 employees only allow email communication within certain hours in order to prevent employee burnout.

“Employees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work,” Socialist party politician Benoit Hamon told BBC News in 2016. “They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash – like a dog. The texts, the messages, the emails – they colonize the life of an individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down.”